Geography’s trajectories in Philippine higher education

Abstract

The information, practices and views in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

We just gotta do meta! Notes on disciplinary anxieties in Geography in India

“…This vertical division makes it impossible for the discipline to carry out coherent research in a single location without resolving itself into two distinct bodies of knowledge -physical and human. This particular issue of conservativeness in Indian geography is flagged by many (Schwartzberg, 1983;Singh, 2009), and this tension also persists in the curriculum of university geography in several other countries of global south like Sri Lanka or the Philippines (Hennayake, 2022;Saguin et al, 2022), and even in Australia and China (Head & Rutherfurd, 2022;Qian & Zhang, 2022), as evident from the other themed issues in this collection. It is also true that the questions regarding the nature of discipline and disciplinary boundaries are more frequently faced by the geographers than any other discipline (Singh, 2009); and seeing the emerging nature of geography it is necessary to continuously rethink the concepts and definitions used in geographical matters (Raju, 2004).…”

“…There are sections on social vulnerability in the curriculum, but they are often not clear and lacks linkages with issues like chronic poverty and inequality or life cycle trajectories which are essential components of social and economic, and especially shock-induced vulnerabilities like the pandemic. These curriculums need to be integrated with core geographical scholarship on place-specificities, counter-mapping and multiscalar linkage with the global processes to make them more spatially relevant, as it already happening in some countries of global south (Saguin et al, 2022).…”

Destabilising geographies in Colombia: Trajectories and perspectives

“…Last but not least, the destabilising geographies in Colombia are connected with contemporary and critical Geography in the World (McFarlane, 2022), allowing networks with similar demands, for example, with what Daya (2022) raises about the need in South Africa to revitalise critical geography in search of a more just praxis, which at the same times resonates with the demands of Reyes Novaes and Araújo Lamego (2022) for critical analysis of the effects of political contexts on geographical research processes in Brazil. As we see, diverse geographies claim to create new relationships, allowing dialogue not only South-South, as Saguin et al (2022) proposes from the Philippines, but also hemispheric and global dialogue around critical, decolonial and emerging geographies, that is, rethinking and reconfiguring Geographies in the World.…”

Rebuilding Geography for the 21st century through disciplinary reunification and social engagement

“…Third, despite the continuous restructuring of Anglophone Geography departments, we must also pay attention to the uneven and varied development of Geography in different social contexts. In a recent themed intervention in the Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , geographers based in Australia, China, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Philippines reported the state of Geography in these countries (see Head and Rutherfurd, 2021; Hennayake, 2021; Qian and Zhang, 2021; Saguin et al, 2021). Specifically, in Australia, Geography has been affected by precarious and recurrent departmental restructuring; in China, geographers yet share varied focuses from Anglophone academia, in terms of theoretical and methodological paradigms as for practical application and/or critical and reflexive knowledge production and transmission; in the Philippines, the development of Geography turned to be constrained in the country’s higher education system; in Sri Lanka, however, Geography’s sub-disciplinary fragmentation and the significance of Anglophone Geography are outstanding, flagging a ‘decolonial praxis’ to refocus on the country’s own geography – as well as on Africa’s too.…”