EN:

The Embodiment Lab, rooted in critical human geography, is grounded in embodiment, belonging, mentorship, care, and temporal dynamics to challenge norms in the neoliberal university. We argue that the Lab serves as a counter-practice within the academy by prioritizing our individual and collective well-being over productivity metrics. Weekly practices cultivate radical vulnerability, creating a foundation for a caring environment. Delving into multifaceted spatial dimensions our experiences suggest that the Lab becomes a living example of a feminist ethic of care. Belonging emerges as an antidote to the exclusions ingrained in academic spaces. The Lab empowers its scholars to challenge uneven power dynamics, fostering inclusion where diverse voices are heard. The Lab's emphasis on collective action and intentional processes of growth contrasts with a conventional fast, metric-driven tempo. In this paper, we offer a model to center care in lab spaces by reflecting on our own experiences in a space that values scholars as whole individuals rather than vessels of productivity. We illustrate the reflexive character of the Lab, acknowledging its adaptability and dynamism over time. Rejecting the neoliberal norms that too often dictate research spaces, the Lab exemplifies the messy and ongoing process of creating care-full academic spaces.

EN:

This paper explores how mapping projects sourced directly from institutional and colonial archival collections can provide interesting avenues of research for Indigenous communities confronted with historical erasure. New counter-archival practices are emerging using cartography to defy government institutions using their own materials. To illustrate this point, I begin by tracing the initial emergence of counter-archives and counter-maps as separate fields and their current joint mobilization. This leads me to argue that colonial archives deserve to be considered for counter mapping practices. Then, I interview researchers, Ana Pulido Rull, Margaret Pearce, Tristan Ahtone and Robert Lee, who have repurposed state-sponsored colonial archives as primary source materials in their counter-mapping projects. Our conversations reveal that colonial land grant maps, registries and land patent records are highly versatile. When recombined creatively, they can offer valuable insights for understanding and reclaiming lands that were taken through settler colonial policies. Spatial analysis can help piece together fragmented narratives by interconnecting individual records and situating them within the territory they claim to represent. This is promising, but leveraging archival materials for meaningful impact requires methodological care. Documenting the mapping process is crucial for understanding how fragmented data is reused to generate specific analyses. Failing to do so risks perpetuating the same power dynamics and harmful narratives present in the original records.

EN:

Since colonialists first entered the southwestern United States, they’ve needed a river to secure their futures. Empires are built on rivers and the United States, during westward expansion, is no different. The Colorado River is a product of colonial imaginary, to take the various waters flowing from mountains and through canyons into the Gulf of California and treat it as one thing that can be made predictable and controllable. This paper argues that the Colorado River is a story of ‘colonial becoming,’ the making of a ‘resource’ for purposes of diversion, irrigation, and ultimately dispossession. The paper works first to show how settler-colonialists defined ‘the river,’ then linked it to projects of empire informed by a colonial ontology that saw the desert as bereft of life and needing improvement. I show how these developments led to the ultimate enclosure of the river in the Colorado Compact of 1922, which ignored tribal interests while defining the river for the states. I conclude with a consideration of climate science and the role of physical geographers in reifying colonial divisions in their work and argue that the river is ultimately a product of colonial becoming.

EN:

Despite being a unique aspect of ageing in capitalist societies, retirement has been neglected within critical research. As a disruption in people’s relation to the capitalist political economy, retirement can be framed through a productivist lens of loss or ruin. Yet, in this article, I explore the practices of commoning that emerge amongst retired urban gardeners which defy and resist this capitalist logic. I argue that retired gardeners practice forms of de-alienation, which are the processes and practices of rehabilitation and repair following decades of alienation that have become imprinted on people’s bodies, minds, and social lives—and much more—throughout the lifecourse. Through the inter-relationship between social, spatial, and creative de-alienation, retired urban gardeners generate and sustain more-than-capitalist subjectivities and experiment with alternative value practices. In doing so, the article introduces the concept of lifecourse commoning, which considers the way that practices of commoning might emerge, recede, or change shape as people’s relation to capitalism changes through the lifecourse.

EN:

This article investigates queer enchantment as a valuable pathway into greater intimacy with entangled human and more-than-human worlds of vibrancy so threatened at this time. The landscape of contemporary research on enchantment, though rich and vast, is missing a queer theorisation, and a weaving with queer lived-experience. Some contemporary research perpetuates harmful colonial binary modes of thought along cis-heteropatriarchal lines, which serve to exclude and reproduce hierarchical and oppressive organisations of worlds. Framed within adrienne maree brown’s 2019 call to pleasure activism - which asks that we include and centre the pleasure of those most marginalised by systems of harm - this research investigates enchantment as a possible life-affirming pathway of (re)connection and enhanced responsibility.

Through a decolonial, collaborative, participatory research methodology, this paper centres the stories of twelve queer-identifying participants in the UK and Ireland, seeking to ground theoretical exploration in lived empirical worlds. Centring a range of voices, the paper seeks to address exclusionary definitions of enchantment and co-create formulations that amplify the most meaningful potentials of an enchantment queered – its fundamental multitudes of difference, its affinity for questioning and complexity, its practicing humility and fluidity in the unknown, and its disruption of destructive norms – in service of cultivating new ways of living together in times of multiple intersecting crises.

FR:

Cet article explore l’enchantement queer comme une voie vers une plus grande intimité avec des mondes humains et plus qu’humains enchevêtrés, si menacés à cette époque. Le paysage de la recherche contemporaine sur l’enchantement, bien que riche et vaste, manque d’une théorisation queer et d’un tissage d’expériences vécues queer. Alors que l’activisme pour le plaisir nécessite de se concentrer sur le plaisir des plus marginalisés dans nos sociétés, certaines recherches contemporaines perpétuent des modes de pensée binaires coloniaux néfastes selon des lignes cis-hétéropatriarcales, qui servent à exclure et à reproduire des organisations hiérarchiques des mondes. Grâce à une méthodologie de participation à la recherche décoloniale, le processus collaboratif au coeur de cet article centre les histoires de douze participants s'identifiant queer au Royaume-Uni et en Irlande, cherchant à ancrer l'exploration théorique dans des mondes empiriques réels. Cet article cherche à aborder les définitions d'exclusion et à co-créer des formulations qui amplifient le potentiel le plus significatif de l'enchantement queer : dans ses multitudes fondamentales de différences, sa pratique de l'humilité et de la fluidité dans l'inconnu et la perturbation des normes destructrices, au service de la culture de nouvelles façons de vivre ensemble en période de multiples crises qui se croisent.

ES:

Este artículo explora el encanto queer como un camino valioso hacia una mayor intimidad con mundos de vitalidad humanos y más que humanos enredados, tan amenazados en este momento. Al panorama de la investigación contemporánea sobre el encantamiento, aunque rico y vasto, le falta una teorización queer y un tejido con una experiencia vivida queer. Si bien el activismo por el placer necesita centrarse en el placer de los más marginados de nuestras sociedades, algunas investigaciones contemporáneas perpetúan modos de pensamiento binarios coloniales dañinos a lo largo de líneas cis-heteropatriarcales, que sirven para excluir y reproducir organizaciones jerárquicas de mundos. A través de una metodología de participación en la investigación decolonial, este proceso colaborativo centra las historias de doce participantes que se identifican como queer en el Reino Unido e Irlanda, buscando fundamentar la exploración teórica en mundos empíricos reales. Centrándose en una variedad de voces, este artículo busca abordar definiciones excluyentes y co-crear formulaciones que amplifiquen el potencial más significativo del encanto queer: en sus multitudes fundamentales de diferencias, su práctica de la humildad y la fluidez en lo desconocido y la ruptura de normas destructivas, al servicio de cultivar nuevas formas de vivir juntos en tiempos de múltiples crisis que se cruzan.

IT:

Questo articolo esplora l’incanto queer come un percorso prezioso verso una maggiore intimità con i mondi umani e più che umani di vitalità così minacciati in questo momento. Il panorama della ricerca contemporanea sull’incanto, sebbene ricco e vasto, manca di una teorizzazione queer e di un intreccio con l’esperienza vissuta queer. Mentre l’attivismo del piacere richiede di concentrarsi sul piacere di coloro che sono più emarginati nelle nostre società, alcune ricerche contemporanee perpetuano modalità di pensiero binarie coloniali dannose lungo linee cis-eteropatriarcali, che servono a escludere e riprodurre organizzazioni gerarchiche dei mondi. Attraverso una metodologia di partecipazione alla ricerca decoloniale, questo processo collaborativo centra le storie di dodici partecipanti che si identificano come queer nel Regno Unito e in Irlanda, cercando di radicare l'esplorazione teorica in mondi empirici realmente vissuti. Centratura di una serie di voci, questo articolo cerca di affrontare definizioni esclusive e co-creare formulazioni che amplificano il potenziale più significativo dell'incanto queer: nella sua fondamentale moltitudine di differenze, nella sua pratica di umiltà e fluidità nell'ignoto e nella rottura di norme distruttive, al servizio della coltivazione di nuovi modi di vivere insieme in tempi di molteplici crisi che si intersecano.

EN:

Despite a flurry of critical scholarship and bad press on reputable media outlets, nature-based ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis do not appear to be losing credibility within climate mitigation agendas. In fact, carbon markets are still growing, with carbon forestry as one of their most substantial drivers. While a disconnect between academia and policy comes as no surprise, a close look at almost two decades of academic and grey literature reveals several flaws and helps to explain why critical takes on carbon offsetting may have failed to make a dent in the carbon trading paradigm. Informed by insights from geography, political ecology, and critical development studies, this paper aims to tackle these challenges by interrogating the existing literature and proposing a research agenda for more insightful knowledge production and dissemination.