Geographical Imagination Research Articles

Conceptualizing and investigating post-truth politics: the geographic imagination and knowledge of the Flat Earth Movement

Conceptualizing and investigating post-truth politics: the geographic imagination and knowledge of the Flat Earth Movement

The production of ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ on BBC Radio 4: A popular geopolitical analysis

AbstractThe production of radio, a medium with the power to shape listeners' geographical imaginations, has received little attention in geography, particularly in comparison to visual media such as photography, television and film. This paper redresses this imbalance by examining the production of From Our Own Correspondent (FOOC), one of BBC Radio 4's longest‐running programmes which has broadcast dispatches from journalists around the world since 1955. It explores the representational power of FOOC to script the world for listeners by constructing geographical imaginaries of distant people and places; interrogates who ‘Our’ correspondents are and the structures which underpin whose voices are heard; and reveals the concealed practices, spatialities and temporalities which shape the programme's production and geopolitical scripts it broadcasts. In doing so, the paper makes a significant and timely contribution to popular geopolitics, a subfield of political geography which has traditionally focused on deconstructing geopolitical discourses and imaginaries in ‘texts’, at the expense of investigating where, how and why media are ‘made’. It draws on original interviews conducted with FOOC's presenter, two producers and four correspondents, and reflects on what the programme's production reveals about how FOOC understands, conceptualises and portrays the world. By exploring FOOC, the paper offers important insights into the hidden geographies of production which govern BBC radio journalism as a sonic medium of popular geopolitics.

Образ сибирского города в германском травелоге XIX века (по страницам «Путешествия в Западную Сибирь» Отто Финша)

The article considers the image of the Siberian city of the 19 century as an event phenomenon that is formed in the narrative space of travelogue. From the many descriptions of Siberian cities that take place in the travelogue “Journey to Western Siberia”, the description of the city of Barnaul is selected, presented in chapter X “From the Altai village to Tomsk”. In the list of the main events of the trip to Western Siberia, the object of the imaginary geography “Barnaul” is considered. In Finsch’s travelogue, the object of imaginary geography appears in the reader’s mental discourse in the form of a plot, the linear development of which is based on the alternation of stories, qualities of city residents, city attractions. The analysis makes it possible to identify a model that is convenient for the European contemplator-the formula of his narrative immersion in the depicted Western Siberian landscape, which allows the reader to imagine himself as a participant in the event and experience the need to become a participant in the event and “place himself” in the narrative and thus realize opportunities that are not in demand in life To identify the features of the formation of conceptual level knowledge in the German travelogue of the 19 century, it is useful to turn to the ideas of literary geography, which considers the narrative as a form of mapping, organizing vital data into recognizable patterns that help both the viewer and the reader or writer to understand the system of connections, of which he becomes a part in the narrative of life. The synthesis of narrative analysis techniques, structural analysis, ideas of literary and imaginative geography, cognitive-structural approach to event analysis allows the authors to determine the specifics of the European travelogue of the 19 century.

African Impressions: How African Worldviews Shaped the British Geographical Imagination across the Early Enlightenment by Rebekah Mitsein (review)

African Impressions: How African Worldviews Shaped the British Geographical Imagination across the Early Enlightenment by Rebekah Mitsein (review)

A post geographical vision of emergent micro cultural rural material world

<abstract> <p>This paper analyzes the emergence of micro-cultural material worlds in marginal rural areas of Spain from the viewpoint of postmodern rural cultural geography. The methodology is qualitative and geo-ethnographic, based on the study of three cases that suggest a renewed relevance of place as cultural capital in the production and consumption pattern of new or renovated rural materialities. The main conclusions suggest that two sides characterized the renovated houses: externally linked with traditional spirit and style of the area and internal with an individual and cosmopolitan design These represent a new dialectic similarity/difference.</p> </abstract>

Компетентнісне навчання дисципліни "Фізична географія материків та океанів"

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to reflect the features of competency-oriented teaching of the discipline "Physical Geography of Continents and Oceans", in particular, the characteristics of general (key) and special (subject) geographic competencies that are formed in students during their educational and cognitive activities. Research methodology. The research is based on the analysis of information sources in the field of geography teaching methodology. During its implementation, methods of study (analysis) of documentation (educational and professional programs, work programs of educational components, etc.) were used. Didactic-geographical observation, didactic-geographical questionnaire, didactic-geographical testing and didactic-geographical conversation were also involved. The results. Content (empirical and theoretical knowledge), operational (skills, skills, methods of educational and cognitive activity and experience of their application to solve problems of a theoretical and practical nature) and outlook (geographic picture of the world, emotional and value attitude towards the environment and human activity in it) were analyzed, acquired creative activity) components of competence training of the discipline "Physical Geography of Continents and Oceans". The characteristics of empirical (geographical facts, nomenclature and ideas) and theoretical (geographical hypotheses and theories, concepts, cause-and-effect relationships and regularities) geographical knowledge are given. The stages of formation of geographical ideas, concepts (including the level of formation of geographical concepts), cause-and-effect relationships and regularities are indicated. Intellectual (cognitive), educational, examples of abilities and skills are described, including geographic educational modeling and stages of formation of geographic skills. Other competences are outlined, in particular, the geographical vision of the world, the emotional and value attitude towards the environment and human activity in it, the experience of creative activity in the study of geographical objects, processes and phenomena, and the levels of formation of such experience. The scientific novelty consists in revealing the components of competence training in the discipline "Physical Geography of Continents and Oceans". Currently, it meets the modern requirements for geographical education and provides for the definition of its goals, content, principles, organization of the educational process and assessment of educational results. Practical significance. The obtained results can be used in the planning and organization of the educational process in the disciplines of regional physical geography. The main goal of training is to prepare a specialist capable of solving problems of various levels of complexity based on the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities, including experience of their application, value attitudes, geographical and positional perception of the environment.

Contact and Prospect: Imaginative Geography in the Travel Writings of Richard E. Kim in the Late 1980s

Contact and Prospect: Imaginative Geography in the Travel Writings of Richard E. Kim in the Late 1980s

The Production of Empty Space and Deserts in the South-Central Andean Highlands

Imaginaries serve as the foundational framework shaping representations and influencing societal perspectives, subsequently guiding specific practices. Within the realm of geographical imaginaries, this article adopted a geohistorical perspective, using periodicals, secondary sources, and contemporary digital media to shed light on the geography of the highlands of northern Chile. Our objective was to emphasize the representations that have discouraged the occupation of these mountainous regions. Our findings revealed the emergence of a geographic imaginary that attributes desert-like qualities to the entire northern region of Chile, extending beyond the “unpopulated area of Atacama”. This misleading characterization fails to distinguish desert areas from the topographic variations existing between the Andes and the Pacific coast. These representations, which have translated into depopulation practices, have stigmatized the highland areas as synonymous with desolation and inhospitality, seemingly unsuitable for daily life, social production, and reproduction potential. Consequently, both spaces and individuals have been objectified for development, perpetuating the capitalist system as the dominant mode of production.

La despensa nacional: Quinoa and the Spatial Contradictions of Peru’s Gastronomic Revolution

AbstractThis article explores the spatial politics of Peru’s gastronomic revolution and corresponding efforts to territorialize Peruvian agricultural products by tracing the spatial dynamics of quinoa’s trajectory from highland dietary staple to coveted national food. Efforts to codify Peru’s national cuisine have involved mapping ingredients and dishes onto specific regions while dramatically reshaping agricultural production geographies and culinary topographies. Because of quinoa’s success as a high-value export crop, the Peruvian altiplano is no longer perceived as a landscape useful exclusively for livestock pasture and mining. Instead, it is imagined as agriculturally productive: the country’s quinoa heartland. At the same time, quinoa’s trajectory illuminates spatial contradictions in the gastronomic boom’s purported objectives and its tangible effects. The revalorization of quinoa led to a geographical expansion of its production outside the high Andes, undermining the spatially bound concepts of authenticity promoted by gastronomic leaders in Peru. Broadly, efforts to commercialize marginalized food products and their corresponding regions can at once reconfigure territorial discourses in important ways, reinforce long-standing geographical inequalities, and generate contestations of the geographic imaginaries of food and nation.

구술 증언에 재현된 대전 ‘골령골’과 한국전쟁 지도의 필요성

This study attempts to examine the reality of the Korean War Appearing in the Daejeon region based on the oral experiences of the generation that experienced the Korean War. In particular, by paying attention to 'Golryeonggol-valley' in the Daejeon region, through the meaning and imaginative geographies contained in a specific place that is narrated and reproduced through memory, this study explores the necessity and possibilities of Korean War topographic maps.
 Common elements of war experience stories that appear in oral narratives are as follows: 1) While you were studying, eating, or working at school, you suddenly heard that there was a war and that you had to evacuate, and you had to evacuate. 2) The North Korean People's Army that came first was not bad, and actually did well for the civilians. 3) Later, the North Korean People's Army ordered people to cook in private homes and plundered all household items and food, including all kinds of food and livestock. 4) That the North Korean People's Army brutally massacred soldiers' families, police families, village heads, district heads, etc. 5) Like farmhand laborers, people who suffered sadness in the neighborhood, walked around wearing red armbands, tyrannized the people in the neighborhood by telling them who in the neighborhood were family members of soldiers or police officers, or who served as village heads or district heads. 6) In Daejeon, they heard that the military and police killed many civilians. In particular, the well massacre of Daejeon Prison and the civilian massacre of Golryeonggol-valley (Sannae) related to the Bodo League are mentioned most heavily.
 The Korean War is not the same in all regions. Not describing the war situation uniformly can be said to be an effective approach in that it does not 'only' attribute the war to a single event. That is the reason the works of 'recording' the stories of people who directly experienced the Korean War through oral records, and reproducing and talking about the 'truth' of it through literary imagination are more necessary.

Imagined geographies of learning: student perceptions of what can be learned where

ABSTRACT This paper explores the ways in which Danish student teachers imagine different countries to be appropriate for different kinds of learning in the context of international student mobility. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper shows how geographical imaginaries are constructed and maintained by educational institutions and social networks. Furthermore, it shows that students ascribe different potentials for professional or personal development to different places. The paper finds that internationalisation practices risk reproducing stigmatised and hierarchical notions of the potential of places and the ‘right’ kinds of knowledge.

Analysis of the Imaginative Geographies of Climate Smart Mining and their re‐imagination by the Khuthala environmental care group (KECG) in Mpumalanga province, South Africa

AbstractThe World Bank has been inserting capital in various developing states at the onset of the decolonization period. The nature of this involvement within the context of extractives in these spaces remains understudied through the postcolonial lens. This study fills this void by examining the World Bank's Climate Smart Mining and counter‐responses by the Khuthala Environmental Care Group. Utilizing Said's Imaginative Geographies and discourse analysis, this study shows that the World Bank's CSM documents reproduce the development rhetoric of the 1950s and these values are not shared by local communities. This research suggests that the World Bank needs to substantively alter its agenda for meaningful social and ecological reform.

Building a Proposed Educational Program Based on the Characteristics of the Place and Measuring its Effectiveness in Developing the Skills of Sense and Geographical Imagination among Middle Third Grade Students in the City of Makkah

The study aimed to build an educational program based on the characteristics of the place, and measure its effectiveness in developing the skills of sense and geographical imagination, in addition to measuring the reliability between the amount of growth of the two variables. To achieve this, a random sample of (34) students was selected from one of the middle schools in Makkah City. The study followed a semi-experimental approach-one-group design. The study data were collected using two tools observation card for geosensory skills, and a situational test for geo-imagining skills, and the data was analyzed by statistical methods using a program (SPSS). The results of the study revealed significant differences in the level of significance(α≤0.01) Between the average scores of the study group in the tribal and dimensional applications of the two variables approved in the observation card for the skills of geographical sense, and the test of attitudes for the skills of geographical imagination in favor of the dimensional application. Black's adjusted gain ratio for the two approved variables reached (1.24 and 1.25), respectively. The results also showed a linear predictive relationship (Simple regression) of the beta value reached (.748) at the semantic level(α≤0.01) of respectively. Based on the results of the study, a set of relevant recommendations. Keywords: educational program construction, location characteristics, geospatial skills, geospatial imagination skills, middle third grade students

Space as an ‘Imaginative Geography’ in Paul Bowles’ Let It Come Down

Abstract: Within the framework of orientalist discourse, this paper examines the politics of spatial construction of Morocco in Paul Bowles’ Let It Come Down. It uncovers how such construction, as a marker of difference, is designed to exoticize and primitivize the Moroccan ‘Other’. Bowles’ travel account is worthy of study by virtue of circulating orientalist stereotypes about Morocco. This paper adopts the postcolonial theory. After the analysis of the opted account, it was found that Bowles contributed to the construction of the Moroccan landscape as an ‘imaginative geography’. Morocco is represented as a ‘strange’, ‘mysterious’, and ‘esoteric’ space; it’s representationally constructed in the mode Edward Said referred to as ‘Orientalism’. The imaginative geography of Morocco as ‘exotic,’ ‘dangerous,’ and ‘dirty’ are only tools used by the writer to legitimize the colonial occupation. Bowles’ Let It Come Down remains an order of discourse which aims to ‘orientalize’ Morocco.

Radio geopolitics: Imaginative geographies of Europe's migration ‘crisis’ on BBC Radio 4

Geographers have examined the history, materiality, and geopolitics of radio but there has been relatively little interest in contemporary radio broadcasting and its capacity to shape geographical imaginations. This is surprising given the ubiquity and popularity of radio, and its enduring role in communicating global news and current affairs to mass audiences. This article reflects on the power of media to represent people and places, and regulate imagined communities of identity and belonging by exploring how BBC Radio 4 constructs imaginative geographies of forced migration to, and refugee settlement in, Europe between January 2014 and March 2019. It joins recent efforts in geography to engage in methodologies of listening through a thematic analysis of 172 radio broadcasts that reveals two contrasting imaginative geographies of migration: first, a geopolitical imaginary of ‘crisis’, exemplified in news broadcasts, that reports from a top-down, state-centric perspective and is articulated by ‘expert’ voices, principally politicians; and second, a place-based, immersive, multi-sensory imaginary, exemplified in ‘feature’ programmes, that explores personal stories and experiences ‘on the ground’, and is articulated by multiple voices, most notably refugees. Radio 4 emerges as a diverse and contradictory space of journalistic storytelling which invites multiple ways of listening to, understanding, and imagining people on the move. By focusing on Radio 4 and the audible story of Europe's migration ‘crisis’, the article demonstrates how imaginative geographies are constructed through sounds and the spoken word, and evidences radio's imaginative, discursive, and sonic power.

Cedric Robinson's Black Marxism and the uses of historical geography

Cedric Robinson's Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition is one of the key sources of the idea of ‘racial capitalism’ and offers an important account of the lineage of Black radical thought. It is argued here that central to Robinson's development of these ideas is the setting out of the different historical geographies of capitalism and Black people's resistance to oppression. This argument is pursued through a detailed reading of the historical geographical imagination central to Black Marxism that shows how Robinson deploys different historical geographies, and to what effect. The case is made that Robinson uses historical geographical analysis to effect shifts in ways of seeing race, capitalism and politics which work to decentre capitalism as the focus of analysis and, correspondingly, direct attention to the continuities and connections within Black political cultures of opposition to oppression. The conclusion draws out the implications of this for historical and geographical work on racial capitalism and resistance.

Resisting climate change vulnerability: feminist and decolonial insights

In climate politics, understanding and contesting the meaning of vulnerability has proved extremely difficult. On the one hand, it is an increasingly formalised term that means something very specific scientifically and methodologically within the climate change institutions. On the other hand, vulnerability is part of a colonial discursive framework of risk. In this article, I show how contestations into the scientific project have not sufficiently worked to address the colonial geographic imaginaries that underlie the discursive framework of vulnerability. I suggest that bringing together the work of critical adaptation studies (CAS) with critical feminist and decolonial scholarship, such as the counternarratives of the Pacific,offers a way to resist the victimising politics of disposability and also rethink vulnerability as a concept of resistance, relationality and reflexivity.

Reclaiming other geographical traditions: The hidden roots of Italian radical geography

AbstractThe article recalls the history of Geografia Democratica, a collective of scholars that during the second half of the 1970s sought to dismantle the old deterministic approach and promote a critical and radical turn in Italian academic geography. The aim is to contribute to the ongoing debate about ‘other geographical traditions’ beyond the Anglo‐American hegemony, to highlight the pluriversal roots of contemporary critical geographies and the influence that the transnational circulation of knowledge had in their unfolding, in light of recent quests for a more global geographical imagination. To do so, the article first engages with Geografia Democratica as a ‘rupture experience’ in the mainstream of Italian geography, and then discusses how it intersected or not similar turns that occurred elsewhere, focusing on the mostly implicit dialogue between Italian and Anglo‐American critical/radical geographies of the time. By following the controversial story of the collective during and after its short existence, we question its legacy for today's geographical scholarship, and reflect more generally upon the significance of reviving other critical and radical traditions. To highlight the plurality of our disciplinary past, we suggest, is crucial not only to fill the ‘asymmetric ignorance’ between various traditions, but also to nurture and reposition the present ‘worlding’ practices of non‐Anglophone critical geographers.

“Hui Laojia”: Children's visit experiences and geographical imagination

This study explores children's domestic visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel experiences and their development of place meaning about their ancestral home or home village, “Laojia.” Using constructivist grounded theory, data were gathered through 19 drawings and photo-elicitation interviews with children aged 6–12. Findings revealed that “Laojia” was the central meaning of children's domestic VFR travel, built on their visit experiences and geographical imagination. Results indicated how place meaning arose from and interwove with geographical imagination in constructing “Laojia.” Children's domestic VFR travel in China represents a unique countryside journey, “Hui Laojia.” It is crucial to understand this culturally specific and geographically situated practice which integrates the ordinary and the novel. This study makes contributions to research on VFR and geographical imagination. Its findings help tourism managers and destination marketing organizations address the needs of children and families, informing government policies related to rural revitalization. Future directions are discussed.

Contrasting memories and imaginaries of Lonquimay volcano, Chile

Lonquimay is ranked as the 12th most dangerous volcano in Chile. Several settlements are located within 20 km with a diverse mix of residents and livelihoods. Conservation areas and a growing tourist economy sit alongside Indigenous groups and farming. These residents have varied ways of knowing volcanoes and volcanic landscapes; this knowledge is generated through lived experience, memories, and collectively held imaginaries.This paper presents data collected from semi-structured interviews with community members living near Lonquimay volcano, primarily from two settlements: Malalcahuello and Lonquimay. The data was collected in two periods: shortly before and immediately after Lonquimay volcano's technical alert level was raised to yellow in March 2022. This was the first time its status had been raised to yellow since monitoring began in 2010.The results demonstrate a diversity of beliefs about and knowledges of Lonquimay, particularly between the two settlements, but also shared imaginaries and relationships with the volcano that are integrated within other elements of daily life and livelihoods. This complex set of perspectives and memory of the previous eruption (the erupción del cono Navidad starting December 25th, 1988) will likely have an effect on responses to future volcanic activity, including expectations of hazards that may shape reactions to early warnings, and the likelihood of evacuation. Thus, this case-study shows the importance of investigating geographical imaginaries and their constituent memories and knowledges. Such imaginaries influence the ways people know risk and understanding these has the potential to aid effective disaster risk reduction in the future.