To whom does geography owe a future? Lessons from urban studies

Abstract

The stresses of the neoliberal academy relating to the precaritisation of labour and metricisation of research can often make it difficult in the present to envision a future of geographical thought and praxis which is capable of addressing the past and present epistemic injustices which human geography has inherited. Within the field of urban studies, the discourse of ‘urban futures’ has often been used to promise a more just and efficient future. This commentary takes the often-evoked notion of an urban future and considers how recent research in urban studies has sought to deconstruct the notion of the ‘urban’ in order to illustrate the complex and antagonistic present underlying such futures. Here urban studies has an analogous lesson for human geography more generally. Disaggregating the identity of ‘geographer’ from academic status and training can open up new practices for the co-production of knowledge beyond professional boundaries, which themselves can also aid in the creation of more just urban futures.