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This article constitutes a response to Matthew Gandy’s article ‘Books under threat: Open access publishing and the neo-liberal academy in the form of a conjunctural analysis’. It discusses the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) open-access proposal for book publications in the context of broader and chilling attacks on academic freedom driven in large part by the current government and supported by UKRI. It argues that there is a lot at stake, not just our ability as academics to publish in university and activist presses, but also our ability to express our solidarity with Palestine, to defend the rights of transgender people, to withdraw our labour and engage in other political actions and forms of expression in the face of oppression.

This paper focuses on women's agency through their responses to a rewilding initiative. To do this, we draw on ethnographic research conducted in a rewilding landscape in the Côa Valley in Portugal. Our initial encounters in the rewilding field were all with male workers. This led us to actively seek out women's experiences, who were mainly located on the margins of rewilding. We believe these experiences cast rewilding—and its effects on rural communities—in a new light. We discuss three women's differing relationships with a rewilding initiative: Beatriz who sold land to rewilding and purchased other productive land for her son; Diana and Matilda who are running businesses alongside raising young families and envisioning futures. Their experiences highlight not only how they have developed alternative means to ensure the reproduction of the family, but also how rewilding is more than nature. We conclude that listening to voices less heard enables a better understanding of how rewilding affects people's lives and their differential access to resources.

Sometimes there are moments within fieldwork that are unplanned and that point to the potential of new research practices. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at summer music festivals in the UK, this paper considers two moments when fieldnotes were shared with participants, both during and after the festival. I explore the potential of these moments for expanding our understandings of the field but also highlight some of the issues with this way of incorporating people into our studies. Overall, I suggest that sharing fieldnotes can encourage a greater level of understanding of those we research, and promotes a higher level of involvement between research participants and research process.

African doctoral students studying abroad and returning to their home countries for fieldwork face multiple and complex challenges. This paper reflexively addresses the question of positionality from the experiences of conducting research on urban governance and the spatial politics of street traders in Harare, Zimbabwe. The paper discusses dilemmas associated with navigating insider and outsider identities, showcasing how these categories continually shift while conducting research on street traders within a distinct socio-cultural and political context. Moreover, the author's background as a former street trader, now pursuing a PhD at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, adds a layer of complexity to the situation, offering valuable insights into how these ‘multiple’ positionalities can either facilitate or hinder data collection. The paper underscores the nuanced experiences of the researcher in the field, shedding light on the potential challenges, pitfalls and opportunities inherent in grappling with one's positionality. By foregrounding these complexities, the paper contributes to our understanding of the positionalities of researchers in the social sciences and adds to the growing body of literature on methodologies for conducting urban studies, particularly with vulnerable populations.

Matthew Gandy's Commentary in Area (2023) criticised the decision of the national funder UKRI to mandate that all books resulting from the research that it funds must be published open access (OA) from 2024. This raises many issues of importance to geographers. We argue that scholars in the discipline need to fight for affordable and ethically produced OA books, not ‘legacy’ modes of publishing. In particular, books produced by scholar-led OA presses will not harm the reputation of departments or individual scholars, and they also have the potential to reduce significant financial barriers to accessing books across the globe. A more powerful critique must be to challenge the continued ‘enclosure’ of books, and the denial of OA by academic publishers and university presses.

This paper reflects on the practice of counting physical activity in a large urban park as a social research method. Using a page of tabulated numbers from inside my notebook as a launching off point, it discusses how this quantitative method aided my qualitative inquiry. It discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of the method as well as offering a reflection on how geographers and urban scholars might use counting as a regular part of their research practice. By opening up my notebook I reflect on how I went about assembling evidence as a researcher in my investigation of a busy urban space, and how it helped me to understand the social life of a well-used park in situ as I developed an argument about conceptualising parks as social infrastructures.

This paper reflects on the practice of counting physical activity in a large urban park as a social research method. Using a page of tabulated numbers from inside my notebook as a launching off point, it discusses how this quantitative method aided my qualitative inquiry. It discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of the method as well as offering a reflection on how geographers and urban scholars might use counting as a regular part of their research practice. By opening up my notebook I reflect on how I went about assembling evidence as a researcher in my investigation of a busy urban space, and how it helped me to understand the social life of a well-used park in situ as I developed an argument about conceptualising parks as social infrastructures.

Richard Skelton's 2009 recording, Landings, is recognised as being intimately connected with landscape and the experience of place. This paper explores the use of therapeutic practice within the creation of the recording of Landings. Building on the work of cultural geographers who have emphasised the cultural and symbolic significance of landscape, as well as incorporating the work of geographers who have studied sound and music, the paper develops a non-representational analysis, emphasising the interplay of human experiences and therapeutic practice. The paper explores how Skelton's music transcends a simple representation of the moorland landscape. It shows how the music, created through Skelton's therapeutic practice, channels the essence of the landscape. Skelton acknowledges the healing nature of this creative process. It offers catharsis and solace while, at the same time, connecting to living systems and exhibiting an ecological principle. By exploring the music created by Skelton's therapeutic practice and its profound alignment with nature, Landings offers valuable insights for geographers and beyond.

Richard Skelton's 2009 recording, Landings, is recognised as being intimately connected with landscape and the experience of place. This paper explores the use of therapeutic practice within the creation of the recording of Landings. Building on the work of cultural geographers who have emphasised the cultural and symbolic significance of landscape, as well as incorporating the work of geographers who have studied sound and music, the paper develops a non-representational analysis, emphasising the interplay of human experiences and therapeutic practice. The paper explores how Skelton's music transcends a simple representation of the moorland landscape. It shows how the music, created through Skelton's therapeutic practice, channels the essence of the landscape. Skelton acknowledges the healing nature of this creative process. It offers catharsis and solace while, at the same time, connecting to living systems and exhibiting an ecological principle. By exploring the music created by Skelton's therapeutic practice and its profound alignment with nature, Landings offers valuable insights for geographers and beyond.

This short paper explores the practice of putting Polaroid photographs into field notebooks. It draws on the ethnographic research and collaborative photography associated with my PhD on the everyday lives of young Black people in West London. I begin by describing how and why I put Polaroids into my A6 sized field notebooks in an attempt to think harder about how these lives might be represented. Then, looking to encourage other geographers to consider using Polaroids in this way, I discuss how traditional approaches to field notetaking can be replaced by something more collaborative. Doing so, I contend, can help you to engage productively with those involved in your studies as you take and talk about photos together.