People, Place, and Social Difference (PPSD) is a first-year subject at Western Sydney University enrolling up to 1,200 students annually from across the social sciences. Most students are first in their family to attend university, and many are of refugee or migrant background. The subject introduces geographical learning through an examination of the interrelations between society, economy, culture, and place with an emphasis on diversity and social justice. Since 2020, the subject has undergone a curriculum transformation grounded in postcolonial critique and an acknowledgement of geography’s entanglements with colonial knowledge production and practice. Through a decolonising and Indigenising approach, the curriculum embeds Indigenous perspectives, intersectional analysis and structured self-reflexivity. Using PPSD as a case study, this paper critically interrogates how teaching, fieldwork, and curriculum design can reproduce or disrupt colonial logics. It demonstrates how critical and decolonial pedagogies can equip multidisciplinary cohorts to engage with contemporary societal complexity and uncertainty. It outlines practical strategies for embedding Indigenous and postcolonial approaches in curriculum and fieldwork and highlights the trans-formative potential of such learning. In doing so, the paper offers practice-based insights into how geography education can respond meaningfully to global challenges and foster ethically engaged, future-oriented university graduates.

In this paper we address the question of truthfulness in education. How can a concern for truthfulness be preserved (or restored) in an age of post-truth discourse which enables the politics of denial? While acknowledging that such issues raise matters far beyond the scope of geography educators alone to ‘fix’ in any meaningful way, we argue that teachers can and must respond to the fundamental challenge these matters provide for what even counts as educational today. The paper analyses the challenge conceptually before reporting on a collaborative research initiative developed with teachers in a mid-western state of the U.S. This project focused on racial literacy as an element of truth telling in geography and social studies teaching. It explored with serving teachers the practical enactment of “future 3” (F3) curriculum scenarios. The work, which took place over the period of eighteen months, is presented as a case study of teachers’ knowledge work which engages directly with the proposition that developing racial literacy is an essential component of F3 curriculum making.

This editorial reflects on the work and direction of the European Journal of Geography during 2025. The year unfolded amid geo-political tension, accelerating climate change, and deepening socio-spatial inequalities, conditions which once again highlighted why geographical thinking matters. Over the year, the journal published 43 articles across 569 pages, with strong contributions in urban geography, spatial analysis, environmental change, mobility, and geography education. A dedicated Special Issue on Spatial Humanities broadened interdisciplinary exchange and supported methodological openness across the discipline. The editorial also reviews patterns in submissions, authorship, peer review, and thematic focus, pointing to a growing and increasingly international scholarly community. Taken together, the articles published in 2025 speak to pressing questions of spatial justice, technological change, and social transformation, while reinforcing the journal’s role as a space for critical, engaged, and policy-relevant geographical research under conditions of uncertainty.

Cultural geographers and memory studies scholars increasingly recognize that local places function as crucial nodes in transnational networks of meaning and identity. This paper develops the concept of “memory-place networks” to analyze the circulation, transformation, and contestation of memory in urban spaces. Such networks form through the layering of historical meanings and their reactivation across time, linking local practices to broader transnational narratives. I examine Belleville, a historically working-class neighborhood in northeast Paris long associated with revolutionary traditions and cultural diversity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how Belleville sediments past struggles, translates them into contemporary forms, and circulates them through cultural practices and urban spaces. By linking transnational memory studies with cultural geography, the paper advances an interdisciplinary framework for understanding how memory is both anchored in place and mobilized across scales. It argues that memory-place networks not only preserve geographies but also actively shape urban change, cultural identities, and the politics of belonging in a globalized city.

Energy transition through decarbonization has become a cornerstone policy for a sustainable energy future. Enhancing regional resilience is a critical goal for the recovery of local systems from shocks and socio-economic disruptions caused by decarbonization policy. Investigating the consequences of energy transition in regions undergoing decarbonization with emphasis on regional resilience reveals a novel research area. The present study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 535 studies from Scopus published from 2010 to 2024, utilizing VOSviewer and R Studio’s Biblioshiny software for visualization. The data demonstrate publication trends, geographic distribution, collaborations networks, and keyword clusters. A significant geographic inequality emerges. High-income economies dominate the discourse, while low-income countries contribute marginally. Furthermore, the co-occurrence analysis identifies six keyword clusters. Moreover, the thematic evolution depicts the field’s transformation from an embryonic to a mature stage, strengthening core concepts of energy transition, decarbonization, and sustainability, while emerging specialized themes of renewable energy, just transition, and biomass. Finally, the analysis reveals a substantial gap: regional resilience remains underrepresented compared with decarbonization and energy transition, and constitutes a critical challenge for upcoming researchers.

Europe is currently undergoing dynamic change. European countries, regions, and populations face numerous economic, social, political, and environmental challenges. Reflection within the educational process plays a key role in understanding and responding to these developments. Teaching regional geography offers a suitable framework for such reflection. The regional geography of Europe holds strong potential for fostering understanding of diverse, complex, and often difficult is-sues. The aim of this study is to identify critical spots and common misconceptions in students’ understanding of problems and challenges in Europe. The study addresses the following research question. What critical spots and misconceptions appear in students’ understanding of European issues? The paper presents results from research focused on the most frequent misconceptions related to selected problematic topics in European geography. The research sample consisted of 304 students from selected secondary schools in Slovakia. Data were collected using a testing method applied after completion of a thematic unit on the regional geography of Europe. Statistical analysis conducted in RStudio confirmed the persistence of several misconceptions. These concerned perceptions of Russia, democracy, nuclear energy, and population ageing. For example, 89.1% of respondents did not perceive Russia as a country with a relatively high share of Muslims. In addition, 71.7% believed Switzerland has the highest level of democracy in Europe, without considering that Nordic countries often rank higher. Misconceptions also appeared in relation to nuclear energy, with 67.6% viewing nuclear power as highly environmentally unfriendly, and population ageing, where 57.9% believed ageing occurs more slowly in Southern Europe than in Northern Europe.

This article examines the motivations and destination choices of urban residents relocating to rural areas in Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula, a “late-discovered” region that has recently attracted a growing number of lifestyle migrants. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork—including in-depth interviews and participant observation in seven villages—the study analyzes how migration decisions emerge through the interaction of urban disillusionment and rural attraction. Employing Lee’s (1966) push-pull framework within the broader literature on lifestyle migration, it demonstrates that these relocations are not isolated acts of individual preference but socially embedded and morally charged projects of self-realization. The peninsula’s appeal stems from its perceived authenticity as an "undiscovered" destination, largely untouched by the over-commercialization. This “quest for authenticity,” however, operates through culturally specific moral geographies: mi-grants are not simply searching for rural authenticity but specifically seeking progressive rural spaces that can accommodate their secular, liberal lifestyles—what they describe as "open-minded" and "democratic" environments distinct from "conservative Anatolia." Their rejection of over-commercialized destinations while simultaneously avoiding "conservative" rural areas reveals a narrow corridor of acceptable rurality defined by both authenticity and cultural comfort. By highlighting how lifestyle migration in Turkey operates through an additional cultural-compatibility filter, this study extends existing debates on lifestyle migration and demonstrates that the notion of a “better life” is deeply contingent upon cultural and political contexts. Furthermore, the study carries early warning signs that the migrants' presence may trigger rural gentrification processes similar to those observed in other amenity-rich regions across Turkey.

In the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of geography studies utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) applications and algorithms. Despite this increase, what is known about related studies is limited. The study aims to re-veal the current state, trends, themes, and collaborations of the studies carried out in the interaction of AI and geography in the last decade and to highlight the prospects of AI within geography. Accordingly, the study is based on the bibliometric data of geography studies that have AI applications and algorithms. In the analysis of the data, basic analyses were first conducted covering titles, abstracts, keywords, and so on. Topic modelling was performed using the BERTopic to identify the research themes. Additionally, natural language processing (NLP) tasks were utilized to enhance the efficiency of the analysis. Between 2015 and 2024, productivity in the interaction of geography and AI has shown a significant increase, with 124 different countries contributing to this productivity. This reflects a growing global interest in the field. With in-creasing interest and productivity, it has been concluded that the methodologies, data, and focal topics have evolved and diversified, while the number of collaborations has also increased. The role of AI in geography is expected to become even more prominent in the future, thanks to its advanced data processing capacity, real-time analysis capabilities, and complex spatial modelling skills. However, soon, some specific approaches and issues (ethical and technical) regarding the interaction between geography and artificial intelligence are noteworthy.

Stereotypical spatial constructions are a socially powerful instrument of generalizing and simplifying complex socio-spatial realities while often carrying negative connotations. These constructions contribute to the stigmatization of marginalized neighborhoods. Against this background, this qualitative study uses the example of the socio-spatially disadvantaged district of Duisburg-Marxloh in western Germany to examine how spatial constructions from public discourse influence the local population. The study focuses on subjective perspectives and experiences of young girls with migrant background living in the district. Three semi-structured group interviews were conducted with a total of seven participants. Given the exploratory, in-depth design of the study and the small sample size, the findings should be interpreted with caution and are context-specific. Content analysis results show that external spatial constructions of Marxloh shape not only society's view of the district, but also the self-image of its residents, to the extent that stigmatizing narratives are internalized and reproduced. These findings highlight the urgent need to empower young people in marginalized areas, enabling them to challenge dominant narratives and express their own place-based perspectives.

In today´s world, education systems must adapt to stay connected with the real world. Three key elements meet these demands: the interaction between disciplines and their varying levels of complexity, the competency-based approach of the Spanish education system, and the use of web-based GIS tools for teaching and learning with a transdisciplinary approach. In this context, Spain offers a promising context to explore the integration of these elements, given its educational reforms and digital strategy. However, there are no studies in secondary schools in Spain integrating these elements. The objective of this research is to demonstrate that web GIS serves as a valuable resource for engagement in the real world, representing information on maps for teaching and learning within a transdisciplinary competency-based framework. The methodology applied follows the action-research model mainly based on classroom observations and students’ satisfaction surveys. Several stages have been considered: a) planning: identifying a relevant problem or topic to improve learning outcomes; b) action: class intervention by collecting necessary information, categorizing information, analysing the problem, formulating hypotheses and creating a layer for a collaborative map; c) results and interventions assessments. Following this methodology, three interventions are presented. The sample is a convenience sample with 187 students aged 15 to 18 (ISCED 3: 4th-year Compulsory Secondary Education -K-10, ages 15–16- and ISCED 4: 2nd-year Baccalaureate -K-12, ages 17–18-), from a Spanish educational institution. It can be stated that the collaborative use of web-based GIS in secondary education enhances engagement, representation of information, and increases interaction. All these actions improve sustainability, digital, learning to learn and citizenship competencies and promote transdisciplinarity.