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Decolonizing Geography
An Introduction
Sarah A. Radcliffe
polity
Copyright Page
Copyright © Sarah A. Radcliffe 2022
The right of Sarah A. Radcliffe to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4159-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4160-7(pb)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021945136
by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NL
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Dedication
For a World Where Many Worlds Fit
Author’s Note
For clarity, key terms appear in bold when first introduced. These terms are explained in the Glossary section. Emboldened references in brackets refer to sections, chapters, figures or textboxes in this book.
Preface
As with any piece of academic writing, this book reflects its author and where she stands in the context of social, institutional and geopolitical relations. As such, Decolonizing Geography: An Introduction is deeply situated and is not about decolonizing everywhere. It emerges principally out of Anglophone postcolonial and decolonial geography and Anglophone geographers’ critical engagements with numerous Other geographies and knowledges around the world. As such, the book speaks back to the global predominance of Anglophone geography in former colonial and settler colonial countries where racialization, the westernizing university and settler colonialism operate and are challenged. Brazilian, Mexican, French and Hungarian geographies, to name a few, have different stories to tell. I encourage all readers to think about this book in tandem with the local and regional decolonizing discussions where they live and work.
My position in these geopolitical and intersectional configurations is as a white, cis-gender woman with an Anglo name in an overwhelmingly white British department of geography. My training and experience are in human geography; the department includes human and physical geographers, the vast majority white, especially among faculty. Geographers of colour have argued rightly that geography’s urgent task of decolonizing must not rest solely on racialized minorities. I concur wholeheartedly, and as a white ally stress the importance of white geographers’ informing themselves about decolonizing and anti-racism. The construction of a decolonial pluri-geo-graphy – or a world of many worlds – depends on all of us. Plural decolonizing geographies crucially require white geographers to take responsibility for and actively work to overturn racialized exclusions and assumptions. The knowledge geopolitics behind this book additionally reflect my decades of ethnographic work with Latin American scholars, activists and communities, especially in Andean rural districts and with Indigenous groups, leaders and organizations. It is their critiques, experiences of racism and exclusion, and hopeful agendas for change that enliven this book. In terms of its focus, however, the book is written to be accessible and relevant for physical as much as human geographers. The chapters include physical and human geography examples, discussions, and pointers to further reading. The book was also influenced by events during the Covid-19 pandemic which provided daily reminders of coloniality’s persistence and of decolonizing ripostes such as the Black Lives Matter movement.
The book aims to broaden understanding of why decolonizing matters among instructors and students in geography and cognate disciplines. Chapters
