Catalan Geography in Times of Crisis

Abstract

This contribution provides a critical review of the geographical literature produced about Catalonia since 2010. Although other references are mentioned in the text, the focus is to review two multi-authored books published in 2021. On the one hand, La nova Geografia de la Catalunya postcovid ('The New Geography of post-covid Catalonia'). On the other, a history of the Societat Catalana de Geografia ('Catalan Society of Geography'), an institution founded in 1935 that serves as a meeting point for Catalan geographers. By so doing, the current Catalan geography (as a territory) and the evolution and state of Geography (as a discipline) in Catalonia are critically examined.The contents are structured around four crises considered significant for understanding the current tasks of Catalan Geography: (1) the crisis that was initiated in 2008, initially impacting the property market and the financial sector, but which later would have far-reaching socioeconomic effects for the whole of Catalonia; (2) the Covid-19 crisis, which broke out in March 2020 and which is profoundly reconfiguring the lives of people everywhere, including in Catalonia; (3) the geopolitical crisis in Spain and Catalonia, whose origin can be traced to 2010; and, finally, (4) the global environmental crisis, which, if we adhere to one of the recent theories about the Anthropocene, began with the industrial revolution but whose effects did not acquire a combined human signature until the last decades of the 20 th century or even the beginning of the current one.To sum up, current Catalan geographical research is responding in real time to the multifaceted manifestations of these four crises. However, this ability to conduct geographical analyses of Catalonia that has developed in the course of the last decade should not be separated from the highly idiosyncratic sustained tradition enjoyed by Geography as a consolidated science in Catalonia. Likewise, many Catalan geographers have lately been involved in the discipline's applied and future-oriented dimension, including policy-making.