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Cited by 386Historical Geography and Geographical ThoughtSpatial and Cultural StudiesGeography and Education Methods

Black matters are spatial matters: Black geographies for the twenty‐first century

Open access
Hawthorne, Camilla·2019·Geography Compass
DOI 10.1111/gec3.12468
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Abstract

Katherine McKittrick famously wrote in Demonic Grounds that “black lives are necessarily geographic, but also struggle with discourses that erase and despatialize their sense of place” (McKittrick, 2006, p. xiii). From analyses of diaspora to the plantation, from studies of urban segregation to anticolonial circuits of resistance, Black thought has long been concerned with questions of space, place, and power. Yet these interventions, which span centuries and continents, have not always been recognized as “properly” geographical and have thus been systematically excluded from the formal canon of disciplinary geography. Within the last five years, however, Black Geographies as a field of inquiry has gained increasing institutional recognition—thanks to the tireless labor of Black scholars to carve out spaces for their work within the discipline. This article reflects on the state of the field of Black Geographies, with an emphasis on the radically interdisciplinary interventions this body of scholarship has made into the mainstream of disciplinary geography. I review some of the most prominent thematic areas within Black Geographies, including space-making and the Black geographic imagination; racial capitalism; cities, policing, and carceral geographies; and racism and plantation futures. I conclude with a consideration of avenues for future research, including the need for more studies that provincialize North America and connect with Latinx and Native/Indigenous geographies.

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Authors
Hawthorne, C.
Affiliations
University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
Corresponding author
Hawthorne, Camilla
ORCID
Hawthorne, Camilla
Venue
Geography Compass
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2019-07-25
Volume
13
Issue
11
ISSN
1749-8198 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1111/gec3.12468
OpenAlex
W2964902509
Cited by
386
References
93
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 64 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 1
FWCI
119.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Geography Compass (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Historical Geography and Geographical Thought
  • Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Spatial and Cultural Studies
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Geography and Education Methods
Keywords
Black geographies, space-making, racial capitalism, carceral geography, policing, racism, diaspora, urban segregation, disciplinary canon, provincialization, Indigenous geographies, Katherine McKittrick

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