Fleming Lecture "Geographies of transport in the new climatic regime"
In this presentation I will reflect on the conduct of Transport Geography research in the current era in which the earth system, the ‘geo’, has become an active participant in public life. Building on the work of thinkers such as Bruno Latour, I will argue for an expansion of substantive concerns, theory, and methodology for geographical research about transport configurations. As an important part of this expanded agenda, geographers should contribute to a shift in the logics that help to organize and shape (transformations in) transport configurations, from a preoccupation with acceleration and efficient, reliable and normal movement to ongoing and just adaptation of such configurations to a variety of pressures and more sudden events. The concept of place-based infrastructuring will be introduced, which needs to be accompanied by specific methodological orientations and practices revolving around concreteness, singularities, provincialization and description. In this way it becomes easier to study the necessarily context-dependent geo-social politics of transport. Some of those politics will be illustrated using empirical examples from various ongoing research projects in which I am involved.
Date: 4 April 2019, 17:00
Venue: Washington 4, Marriott, Exhibition Level, Washington
Speaker: Tim Schwanen (Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford)
Part of: American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting
Booking required?: Required
Audience: Attendees of the AAG Conference
Editor: Kirsty Ray