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areajournal.bsky.social
Area
@areajournal.bsky.social
1.5K followers 240 following 200 posts
Area publishes concise papers and commentaries that shape key debates within and beyond the discipline of geography. Area is especially welcoming of work by early career researchers & awards an annual ECR prize.
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areajournal.bsky.social
Area @areajournal.bsky.social · 26d
New Special Section in Area:

'Digging into Data' adds to our 'Thinking with Methods' collection, with 6 papers reflecting on the messy process of qualitative empirical analysis.

Edited by @citiesandstuff.bsky.social & Lauren Wagner - available here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
A black tile publicising the new 'Digging into Data: Learning together from analysis experiences' Special Section in Area. There is a quote from Lauren Wagner & Alan Latham's (2025) introduction in the centre. It reads: "We need to open up the process of doing analysis so that it does not feel like a process of simply following an established procedure, turning the handle, and magically getting a good finished research paper or dissertation". A second black tile publicising the 'Digging into Data: Learning together from analysis experiences' Special Section in Area. Listed contributors include: Lauren Wagner, Alan Latham, Jennie Middleton, Marta Bivand Erdal, Andrew Barnfield, Geoff Bates, Amanda Rogers, Jennie Doyle & Katja Garson.
Reposted by Area
peterrmartin.bsky.social
Great to see this article with the fantastic Katie Parker (@rgsibg.bsky.social) now out in @areajournal.bsky.social!

Here we reflect on the 'Mapping Indigeneity' Map Room conversation and think about different ways of working with colonial map collections 🗺️
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This article summarises and reflects on the ‘Mapping Indigeneity’ Map Room Conversation that formed part of the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2024. Firstly, the maps from the RGS-IBG collec...
doi.org
November 24, 2025 at 9:26 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Creating home territories during housing relocation: Affects and activity rhythms' by Siyao Gao & Elaine Lynne-Ee Ho

This paper explores how older adults in Singapore remake a sense of 'home' after relocation, developing the concept of 'home territory'.

doi.org/10.1111/area...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Siyao Gao & Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho (2025) entitled: 'Creating Home Territories During Housing Relocation: Affects and Activity Rhythms' with a black banner at the top. This paper expands understandings of home by developing the concept of home territory to comprehend the experiences of older adults who experienced housing relocation and how they reconstituted a sense of home. The study draws on the experiences of 41 older adults who underwent the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) in Singapore. Our conceptualisation of home territory argues that homemaking can extend across multiple locations, other than the old and new home. Home territory emphasises how a person establishes home through processes of territorialisation, reterritorialisation and deterritorialisation. We argue that older adults' experiences of home territorialisation are constituted through sensory experiences, social connections and the placement of material objects within and outside of their immediate domestic space. Connecting with familiar faces and recreating activity rhythms in the new neighbourhood are referred to as home reterritorialisation processes. Travelling beyond the neighbourhood to engage in everyday activities that help them recapture feelings of nostalgia and familiarity constitutes home deterritorialisation. This broader conceptualisation of home territories reflects the fluidity and expansion of geographical boundaries associated with home space, experienced through affects and rhythmic activities.
November 21, 2025 at 12:36 PM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Conference-based method: Interviewing elites at intergovernmental conferences' by @saddy94.bsky.social & Katie Peters

This paper reflects on the logistical elements of undertaking geographical research at intergovernmental conferences.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Liam Saddington & Katie Peters (2025) entitled: 'Conference-Based Method: Interviewing Elites at Intergovernmental Conferences' with a black banner at the top. Conferences have increasingly featured within geographical research as sites of knowledge production, performance and contestation. However, this article explores how intergovernmental conferences can be productive sites for geographical research fieldwork with elites on topics such as climate geopolitics and disaster risk reduction (DRR), particularly through interviews. Reflecting on research conducted at over two decades of intergovernmental conferences in all regions of the globe, this article argues that conferences allow access to participants who may otherwise be difficult to secure interviews with. Although intergovernmental conferences may not be perfect spaces for research, they should be considered more often by geographers as valuable opportunities for conducting interviews. This research need not be limited to the focus of the conference itself, but can also provide opportunities to engage with actors working on a wide range of governance issues. This article reflects on the logistical elements of undertaking such research, the ethical considerations and the temporal opportunities and challenges afforded by a conference-based method. It concludes by reflecting on how a conference-based method can be integrated into other geographical approaches to qualitative research.
November 19, 2025 at 10:03 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Contested memories in stone: The memorial landscape of Waterloo battlefield' by Bowen Chai

This paper examines the Waterloo battlefield as a spatially contested memorial landscape shaped by competing (trans)national narratives.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This article examines the Waterloo battlefield as a spatially contested memorial landscape shaped by competing national and transnational narratives. Through GIS mapping and inscription analysis, it ...
doi.org
November 17, 2025 at 9:42 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Being land, becoming research: Relational and Country-led accountability in research outputs and milestones' by Liz Murphy-May with Yandaarra et al.

This paper reflects on research milestones and Gumbaynggirr Ngambaa ways of being in current-day Australia.

doi.org/10.1111/area...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Liz Murphy-May, with Yandaarra including, Aunty Shaa Smith, Uncle Bud Marshall, Lara Daley, Sarah Wright & Paul Hodge (2025) entitled: 'Being land, becoming research: Relational and Country-led accountability in research outputs and milestones' with a black banner at the top.
November 13, 2025 at 9:32 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New Special Section in Area:

'Gentle Geographies' edited by @mattmattfinn.bsky.social & @drjeffers.bsky.social

This collection features five papers and an editorial introduction which reflect on ideas of 'gentleness' in research and practice.

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
November 11, 2025 at 10:02 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Activism for socialist industrial heritage in Romania: The Carbochim project controversy' by Oana-Ramona Ilovan et al.

This paper explores the role of urban activism in post-socialist Romania in the struggle to preserve industrial heritage in Cluj-Napoca.

doi.org/10.1111/area...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This study aims to better understand activism in the Romanian post-socialist society during a struggle to preserve the socialist industrial heritage of Carbochim, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. From an urb...
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Navigating tensions and contradictions: The everyday negotiation of militant research' by Sergio Ruiz Cayuela

This paper explores the everyday challenges of negotiating different positionalities when conducting militant research as an academic.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper explores the tensions and contradictions generated when conducting militant research from within academia. More specifically, it focuses on how they play out and shape militant research on...
doi.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
9/ Finally Juliette Desportes reflects on interviews with academics, heritage professionals, and community historians in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
While historical geographers and historians increasingly recognise the benefits of and need for participatory research, the rigid structures regimenting academic practice have acted as barriers to su...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
8/ There are then 2 shorter articles with specific reflections on short-term participatory projects. 1st @hannahworthen.bsky.social and Claire Weatherall on a participatory workshop titled ‘Watery Archives’: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper is based on our experience of running a workshop at the Hull History Centre in the Summer of 2023 and reflects on the value of participatory approaches and co-production to open up access ...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
7/ In the last of the full-length articles in the section @aledsingleton.bsky.social , @ed-brookes.bsky.social and I explore the potential for participatory theatre to engage local communities in the long-term impact of mid-century urban re-design rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper considers the potential for collaborations between geographers and theatre makers that focus on urban renewal histories. The article reflects critically on the methodological, ethical and ...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
6/ Next up: Briony McDonagh, Kate Smith and Sukhmandeep Dhillon consider the impact of co-created performance and history as a way of engaging audiences and participants with climate challenges: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper presents our experiences of the participatory, co-creative collaboration with the National Youth Theatre, culminating in a site-specific performance at COP26. In exploring the performance'...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
5/ Lucy Thompson takes us somewhere totally different, exploring the possibilities of understanding the movement of dance within the archive. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Many congrats to Lucy, as this paper was highly commended in the annual Area ECR article prize.
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper considers the potential of participatory methods to address the methodological difficulties surrounding the historical geographies of dance, and moving bodies, within archival research. Ex...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
4/ Then Sarah Linn, Jina Lee, Mariam Zorba, Cailin Nun and Jennifer Cromwell examine the entangled mobilities of ancient objects and contemporary migrants through participatory map-making methods. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This paper examines how creative counter-maps can be a valuable participatory historical geography tool in their capacity to render visible multiple pasts, presents, and futures, and offer new possib....
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
3/ In the 1st article, I reflect on @vch-home.bsky.social as participatory historical geography, arguing that the VCH's current emphasis on participatory methods shows how long-standing research projects can adopt these developing ways of working rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
This article critically reflects on the Victoria County History's (VCH) relationship with participatory historical geography approaches. Telling a story of change, it argues that it is not only possi....
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
2/ First up @ed-brookes.bsky.social and I have written an introduction outlining what participatory historical geography is/could be and why it's important. Read more here: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library
Over the past two decades, historical geographers have increasingly embraced participatory methods to challenge dominant narratives and engage communities in the production of historical knowledge. T...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Area
ruthslatter.bsky.social
1/ All of the papers in the special section of #Area I have co-edited with @ed-brookes.bsky.social are now available online. All focused on #participatory #historicalgeography they are full of practical reflections on innovative pieces of historical research. Follow this thread to find out more!
October 6, 2025 at 8:50 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Toward a feminist geo-legal reading: US country-of-origin information in asylum adjudication' by Malene H. Jacobsen et al.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Malene H. Jacobsen, Austin Crane & Elise Dosch (2025) entitled: 'Toward a feminist geo-legal reading: US country-of-origin information in asylum adjudication' with a black banner at the top. In this article, we offer what we call ‘a feminist geo-legal reading’ of documents used in spaces and practices of law. Legal cases and decisions are often based on different legal and non-legal documents, including laws, explanatory memorandums, testimonies, medical reports, and so forth. In contemporary asylum adjudication, country-of-origin information reports (COIs) have become a crucial source of authoritative evidence as asylum officers and immigration judges use these reports in their determination of a person's need for and right to protection. However, there is no straight line from COIs' substance to the prevailing authority that they command within asylum adjudication. Thus, we bring together insights from feminist legal geographies and critical refugee studies to develop a critical method of reading and analysis of documents, like COIs. Specifically, we provide a feminist geo-legal reading of a 2022 COI on El Salvador produced by the US Department of State. Our reading interrogates COIs' substance, what they are made of and what they obfuscate. We argue this method of reading can enable legal geographers to question the claimed neutrality, objectivity and impartiality of documents used in law and juridical decisions through highlighting the legal and political geographies that these documents are part of and (re)produce. In this way, a feminist geo-legal reading functions as a mode of critique and enables scholars to make space for other knowledges. Thus, this article contributes to the growing body of work on methods and methodologies used by socio-legal scholars and legal geographers.
November 4, 2025 at 9:30 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
This blog post on participatory historical geography is by one of our recent authors, Aled Singleton - his full paper is available to read here⬇️
doi.org/10.1111/area...
November 3, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Area
areajournal.bsky.social
New Special Section in Area:

'Digging into Data' adds to our 'Thinking with Methods' collection, with 6 papers reflecting on the messy process of qualitative empirical analysis.

Edited by @citiesandstuff.bsky.social & Lauren Wagner - available here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
A black tile publicising the new 'Digging into Data: Learning together from analysis experiences' Special Section in Area. There is a quote from Lauren Wagner & Alan Latham's (2025) introduction in the centre. It reads: "We need to open up the process of doing analysis so that it does not feel like a process of simply following an established procedure, turning the handle, and magically getting a good finished research paper or dissertation". A second black tile publicising the 'Digging into Data: Learning together from analysis experiences' Special Section in Area. Listed contributors include: Lauren Wagner, Alan Latham, Jennie Middleton, Marta Bivand Erdal, Andrew Barnfield, Geoff Bates, Amanda Rogers, Jennie Doyle & Katja Garson.
October 30, 2025 at 5:13 PM
areajournal.bsky.social
New Special Section in Area:

'Digging into Data' adds to our 'Thinking with Methods' collection, with 6 papers reflecting on the messy process of qualitative empirical analysis.

Edited by @citiesandstuff.bsky.social & Lauren Wagner - available here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...
A black tile publicising the new 'Digging into Data: Learning together from analysis experiences' Special Section in Area. There is a quote from Lauren Wagner & Alan Latham's (2025) introduction in the centre. It reads: "We need to open up the process of doing analysis so that it does not feel like a process of simply following an established procedure, turning the handle, and magically getting a good finished research paper or dissertation". A second black tile publicising the 'Digging into Data: Learning together from analysis experiences' Special Section in Area. Listed contributors include: Lauren Wagner, Alan Latham, Jennie Middleton, Marta Bivand Erdal, Andrew Barnfield, Geoff Bates, Amanda Rogers, Jennie Doyle & Katja Garson.
October 30, 2025 at 5:13 PM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Local authorities' capacity to advance climate action in the food and farming sectors' by Aimee Morse et al.

This paper argues that local authorities are well-placed to support the transformation of food production & consumption in the face of climate change.

doi.org/10.1111/area...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Aimee Morse, Daniel Keech, Philippa Simmonds, Fahimeh Malekinezhad, Janet Dwyer & Benjamin Dent (2025) entitled: 'Local authorities' capacity to advance climate action in the food and farming sectors' with a black banner at the top of the page. The mitigation measures needed in the face of climate change require transformation in the production and consumption of food. This paper examines local authorities' role in driving practical transformation in the food and farming sectors at the local level, reflecting on the complexity of these sectors and the implications for the effective sub-national delivery of climate goals. A policy review identified food and farming-related actions occurring in a two-tier local authority in England. Local authority staff were invited to one of four workshops to reflect on ongoing activity and to identify actions that have implementation potential and those that are beyond the remit and/or resource of local authorities. The workshops demonstrated participants' ambition to support mitigation measures that foster resilient food systems and deliver co-benefits to local residents. We argue that, despite their constrained capacity, local authorities are well-placed to develop innovative climate solutions relevant to local need. This capacity to deliver climate action should continue to be supported, including through national recognition of the innovative delivery approaches examined in this research.
October 30, 2025 at 10:01 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area!

'Making geography move: The Royal Geographical Society and the exchange of periodical knowledge, 1830–1900' by Benjamin Newman

This paper examines how the RGS's Library and Map Committee controlled the circulation of the Society's journal in the 19th century.

doi.org/10.1111/area...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Benjamin Newman (2025) entitled: 'Making geography move: The Royal Geographical Society and the exchange of periodical knowledge, 1830–1900' with a black banner at the top. This paper explores the decisions of the Royal Geographical Society's (RGS) Library and Map Committee in conditioning and constraining the circulation of Britain's first geographical periodical publication. Principally drawing on the committee's minutes in the last half of the nineteenth century, the paper unpicks the unwritten rules that shaped the flow of geographical knowledge to other institutions. As well as documenting the extent and reach of the RGS's periodical, the minutes also reveal the places to which the journal did not travel and the reasons for limiting the movement of geographical ideas and information. Uncovering the journal's travels in this way makes several important contributions to the history of geography and the geographies of knowledge. First, it contributes to new understandings of the RGS and its actors in conditioning the circulation and accumulation of nineteenth-century geographical knowledge. Second, it draws attention to the specificity of the periodical as a printed medium and illustrates its value in understanding the circulation of geography. Third, it makes clear the intricate processes that facilitate or disrupt the flow of geographical knowledge that should demand attention in the context of our modern-day scholarly practice.
October 21, 2025 at 11:58 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'The quarantine window: Atmospheres and anguish at the COVID-19 borderlands' by Mohan Li, Lisheng Weng & Peter Adey.

This paper is part of an ongoing Special Section on 'Atmospheric Borders'.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Mohan Li, Lisheng Weng & Peter Adey (2025) entitled 'The quarantine window: Atmospheres and anguish at the COVID-19 borderlands' with a black banner at the top. In this paper we want to consider border atmospheres—what we understand as the material-affective and emotional expressions of feeling in the dispersed borderlands of COVID quarantine spaces—through the quarantine hotel window. While the quarantine hotel is a seemingly more benign extension or expansion of the medico-political border through COVID-19 security controls and constraints, the quarantine hotel window became a symbol of the extension of the sealed borderzone into the wider archipelago of bordering legalities, spaces and infrastructures. Moreover, it became part of the lived experiences of those whose journeys during COVID were stalled and suspended by those practices. In this paper, we draw on the experiences of Chinese travellers returning to China who were interviewed in a research project on flying through COVID atmospheres in collaboration between scholars in China and the UK. We build on understandings of atmospheres to see how windows—as thresholds, surfaces and boundaries for atmospheres—may attenuate atmospheric movements, shaping their make-up and their qualities. Atmosphere draws attention to the expressivity of life behind, reflected in, and mediated by the window in a mixture of partitioning and condensing, separating and gathering effects.
October 20, 2025 at 10:00 AM
areajournal.bsky.social
New in Area:

'Youth-led theatre for climate resilience and action at COP26' by Kate Smith et al.

This paper is part of the 'Participatory Historical Geographies' Special Section.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Kate Smith, Briony McDonagh & Sukhmandeep Dhillon (2025) entitled: 'Youth-led theatre for climate resilience and action at COP26' with a black banner at the top.
October 17, 2025 at 1:49 PM