The Geopolitics of Travel Blogging

Henry, Jacob

doi:10.1080/14650045.2019.1664473

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Rather, with directed content analysis, the researcher can “begin coding immediately with the predetermined codes” (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005: 1282). In effect, the researcher—after a review of the literature—can “go searching” to fill specific gaps in existing theory like volunteers’ spatial imaginaries, geopolitical reasoning (Henry, 2019), and concept of self as an educator (Author, 2020). For a well-trodden research subject like international volunteering, directed content analysis “makes explicit the reality that researchers are unlikely to be working from the naive perspective that is often viewed as the hallmark of naturalistic designs” (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005: 1283).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The spatial imaginaries of international volunteer teachers: Contrapuntal and disconnected geographies

Henry

2021

Education, Citizenship and Social

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Scholars argue that international volunteering must not be framed as altruism or charity; rather, it should invoke themes from decolonial justice theorizing. Volunteers who have benefited from colonial-imperial structural advantages should understand their labor as a kind of reparation for ongoing structural dispossession. I argue that spatial imaginaries are central to this project. Volunteers can better situate themselves with decolonial intentionality if they adopt what Edward Said called contrapuntal theories of geography. The volunteer orientation phase is the best time to instill this spatial imaginary. This study analyzes how volunteers theorize “home” and “away” as they become teachers in Namibia. Drawing from a “netnographic” discourse analysis of their public blogs, I find that volunteers are likely to subscribe to a geographical imaginary of atomized and disconnected spaces, lacking the conceptual tools needed to grapple with decolonial justice and to implement dues-paying volunteering in their classrooms.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The spatial imaginaries of international volunteer teachers: Contrapuntal and disconnected geographies

Henry

2021

Education, Citizenship and Social

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“…Through democratisation, they have created new possibilities for otherwise marginalised communities to reproduce their own geopolitical narratives and affects. Notwithstanding the disruptive potential of these technologies, their implications for geopolitics have, with a few exceptions (Henry, 2019; Woods, 2019c; Woon, 2011), gone unnoticed.…”

Section: (Geo)politics In/and Popular Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are increasingly embedded within the fabric of daily life, and increasingly, therefore, shape the ways in which we understand and engage with people, content, and place. This is an irreversible trend that foregrounds the need to reimagine how popular geopolitics are produced, distributed, and consumed in the contemporary world (Henry, 2019; Woods, 2019c). Yet, while digital technologies have made the production and circulation of content more accessible than ever, discourses of popular geopolitics have not kept pace with the trend; in many respects, they lag noticeably behind.…”

Section: (Geo)politics In/and Popular Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…They enable the formation of digital assemblages of content that mediate between the spatio‐temporal logics of the digital and real worlds, and provide new opportunities for the realisation of agency and affect (Müller, 2008, 2015). While this means that there are now potentially unlimited ways in which the digital reproduction of space can inform the everyday practices and applications of geopolitics, the fact remains that “there is surprisingly little research into the popular geopolitics of internet‐based mediums” (Henry, 2019, p. 6). Notwithstanding such paucity, Ó Tuathail recognised the geopolitical potential of new technologies over two decades ago, when he asserted that:

Territory and territoriality are not discrete ontologies but social constructions entwined with technological capabilities … Human society produces, reworks and, creatively and otherwise, destroys territory and territoriality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Clashing cyphers, contagious content: The digital geopolitics of grime

Woods

2020

Trans Inst British Geog

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This paper seeks to expand popular geopolitics in line with the digital worlds in which many of us now live. By interpreting geopolitics as a method of cultural (re)production, it becomes a creative tool that can be used to shape and elevate the affective appeal of content. Digital technologies are centrally implicated in the production of such content. By decoupling space and time from their physical anchors in the real world, digital technologies imbue them with a creative latency that can be deployed in both agentic and affective ways. Specifically, decoupling creates spatio-temporal openings that offer new opportunities for content to be territorialised, and for artists and audiences to be engaged. Digital geopolitics thus considers the ways in which the decoupling of space and time can foreground new types of digitally mediated geopolitical praxis. Through an analysis of music videos exchanged between two grime artists involved in a "clash," I show how digital technologies enable them to mediate between the different spatio-temporal logics of the digital and real worlds. Doing so reifies the affective power of space, and the expansive role of popular geopolitics in the digital age.

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