Sarah A. Radcliffe - Decolonizing Geography

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Sarah A. Radcliffe

polity

Copyright © Sarah A. Radcliffe 2022

The right of Sarah A. Radcliffe to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2022 by Polity Press

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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4159-1

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4160-7(pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021945136

by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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For a World Where Many Worlds Fit

For clarity, key terms appear in bold when first introduced. These terms are explained in the Glossary section. Emboldened references in brackets refer to sections, chapters, figures or textboxes in this book.

As with any piece of academic writing, this book reflects its author and where she stands in the context of social, institutional and geopolitical relations. As such, Decolonizing Geography: An Introduction is deeply situated and is not about decolonizing everywhere. It emerges principally out of Anglophone postcolonial and decolonial geography and Anglophone geographers’ critical engagements with numerous Other geographies and knowledges around the world. As such, the book speaks back to the global predominance of Anglophone geography in former colonial and settler colonial countries where racialization, the westernizing university and settler colonialism operate and are challenged. Brazilian, Mexican, French and Hungarian geographies, to name a few, have different stories to tell. I encourage all readers to think about this book in tandem with the local and regional decolonizing discussions where they live and work.

My position in these geopolitical and intersectional configurations is as a white, cis-gender woman with an Anglo name in an overwhelmingly white British department of geography. My training and experience are in human geography; the department includes human and physical geographers, the vast majority white, especially among faculty. Geographers of colour have argued rightly that geography’s urgent task of decolonizing must not rest solely on racialized minorities. I concur wholeheartedly, and as a white ally stress the importance of white geographers’ informing themselves about decolonizing and anti-racism. The construction of a decolonial pluri-geo-graphy – or a world of many worlds – depends on all of us. Plural decolonizing geographies crucially require white geographers to take responsibility for and actively work to overturn racialized exclusions and assumptions. The knowledge geopolitics behind this book additionally reflect my decades of ethnographic work with Latin American scholars, activists and communities, especially in Andean rural districts and with Indigenous groups, leaders and organizations. It is their critiques, experiences of racism and exclusion, and hopeful agendas for change that enliven this book. In terms of its focus, however, the book is written to be accessible and relevant for physical as much as human geographers. The chapters include physical and human geography examples, discussions, and pointers to further reading. The book was also influenced by events during the Covid-19 pandemic which provided daily reminders of coloniality’s persistence and of decolonizing ripostes such as the Black Lives Matter movement.

The book aims to broaden understanding of why decolonizing matters among instructors and students in geography and cognate disciplines. Chapters 1through 4provide a general introduction addressed particularly to geographers who, like me, are located in westernizing, white-dominated and/or wealthier countries. Chapter 5deals with issues of teaching and learning, while Chapter 6covers research of various kinds, including short student projects. To make the decolonizing framework and approach more accessible, a Glossary at the end of the book provides definitions of terms used in the book. North American, European and Australasian geographies appear throughout, although their tertiary education systems and terminologies vary. I have tried to avoid too many British-isms! Across these regions, geographers differ in whether and how they self-identify in racial-ethnic and territorial terms; I provide this information where available but cannot do so consistently. This book addresses exciting and rapidly moving debates which shift as activism and scholarship consider important dimensions related to colonialism. This context emphasizes the urgency for geography and geographers to change their approaches, materially and on short time scales. So, while reading this book, I encourage readers to put it into conversation with blogs, non-academic writings, activism and news stories that speak to decolonizing issues where you stand. Finally, in an introductory textbook it was inappropriate to address structural issues connected to neoliberal colonial academia that systematically influence hiring decisions, promotions, funding streams for research and the colonial biases of journals and peer review. These are crucial issues rightly critiqued in other forums.