Do it yourself geographies: Prefiguring the future, justice, and radical actions
[séminaire en anglais, mais les questions et les réponses peuvent être en français si besoin]

Across North America, parts of Oceania and Europe, and certainly in the UK, geography like other disciplines is under attack in established universities. Government countbacks, harsh immigration policies affecting students, and a disdain for scholarly activity not connected to enterprise and jobs by politicians seems to be on the rise.
In debates held at 2 meetings this month in Europe, the future of scholarly activity was debated, and this talk begins by summarising some findings, and then moves on to recount my own actions over the years to keep geographical projects going, largely outside the ‘normal’ activities of university teaching and funded research.
There are implications here for what we consider to be the work of a rounded or radical academic in a university system in crisis in an uncertain world. We can gain insight in how things could evolve now that disciplines and universities are under threat, from diverse sources, including David Graeber, theories of social practice, community development in the global commons, Do it Yourself, the right to the city, repair cultures, and many other ideas. My practical examples of what can be done are scholar-led, no budget journal editing (I have edited the Journal of Political Ecology since 2003) and practical and scholarly contributions to community bike workshops (ateliers vélo communautaires), a movement that is prominent in France. In both cases, volunteerism is focused and practical, pitched against the mainstream ‘system’, and includes scholarly work but conducted outside the university. Transitioning publishing and urban transportation towards social justice and the circular economy began as angry passions in my case, but may actually be some form of ‘radical geography’.

Pr Simon Batterbury est géographe et spécialiste de la gestion des ressources naturelles et des politiques environnementales en Afrique (Burkina, Niger) et dans la zone Asie-Pacifique (Nouvelle-Calédonie-Kanaky, Timor-Leste). Né en Angleterre, docteur de la Clark University (Etats-Unis, 1997) avec une thèse sur le développement rural au Burkina Faso, il est aujourd’hui Professeur à l’University of Melbourne. De 2017 à 2019, il a occupé la chaire en political ecology à l’Université de Lancaster. Simon est auteur de 130 articles et plusieurs ouvrages, notamment de sept ouvrages collectives, dont le dernier était « Geography of New Caledonia-Kanaky – Environments, Politics and Cultures » avec M Kowasch, paru en 2024 en accès libre chez Springer.
Page personnelle : Simon PJ Batterbury (http://www.simonbatterbury.net)
Simon est aussi l’éditeur en chef du Journal of Political Ecology depuis 2003 (https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/)