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On the knotty question of ‘Recontextualising’ geography
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education Pub Date : 2019-09-25 , DOI: 10.1080/10382046.2019.1657687
David Lambert 1
Affiliation  

In April 2019 an impressive number of geography educationists from over 50 countries turned up in London for a two-day IGU-CGE symposium on the theme ‘recontextualising geography’. This title represented a logical next step from the same London symposium just four years earlier examining ‘the power of geographical thinking’ and from which resulted an edited book (Brooks, Butt, & Fargher, 2017). Having exerted considerable energy and scholarship on the nature of ‘powerful’ geographical knowledge and its essential contribution to the school curriculum, it seemed natural that the intellectual gaze of international geography educationists should shift more specifically on the relationship between geography as it is manifest as a school subject and the academic discipline in university departments which (presumably) nourishes it. There are of course many books on power and geography: we can think of Richard Peet’s ‘Geography of Power’ (2007); Harm de Blij’s ‘The Power of Place’ (2009) and even Tim Marshall’s ‘Prisoners of Geography’ (2016). They are all very different but united in their curiosity about why geography matters – the significance of place, space and environment on society. Indeed political geography and the distribution of power is an enduring theme in geographical studies, from Mackinder’s geopolitics which helped establish geography as a serious academic discipline, to James Faigrieve’s classic ‘Geography and World Power’ (1915) which was profoundly influential on geography as a school subject, and Peter Taylor’s influential ‘Political Geography’ (1985) now, with Colin Flint, in its seventh edition (2018) and known to generations of undergraduates, at least in the English speaking world. However, Brooks et al. (2017) is a very different entity. It has been produced under the auspices of the IGU Commission for Education, the product of educationists who are not in this instance concerned with power of geography per se. I should explain, for we need to untangle ‘power’ and ‘geography’. It would be harsh indeed to suggest that the authors in this volume were not concerned to capture in some way the power of the geographical component of the school curriculum. For one thing, it is appealing and helpful to promote the subject in this manner, especially in jurisdictions where school geography is marginal, taken for granted or in the shadow of STEM subjects. What I am alluding to is not the geography per se, but the different meanings attached to the idea of power. And it is useful to be able to refer to recent work from Muller and Young (2019) in this respect who, a decade or so since the introduction of ‘powerful knowledge’ (PK), revisit the idea with the help of Lukes (2005). In political geography, power is a concept derived from sociology and related economic theory. It is this concept that Young and others developed in the 1970s to describe the alienating impact of the school curriculum to underprivileged children – the elite and those with the power to control the school curriculum organised it in their own interests, to deliver the ‘knowledge of the powerful’ (KOTP), usually through ‘traditional subjects’ like geography. Thus, power is taken to be something that is acquired and possessed by some and which

中文翻译:

关于“重新语境化”地理学的棘手问题

2019 年 4 月,来自 50 多个国家的大量地理教育家出现在伦敦,参加为期两天的 IGU-CGE 研讨会,主题是“重新背景化地理”。这个标题代表了四年前同一个伦敦研讨会的合乎逻辑的下一步,该研讨会研究了“地理思维的力量”,并由此产生了一本编辑过的书(布鲁克斯、巴特和法格,2017 年)。在对“强大”地理知识的性质及其对学校课程的重要贡献方面投入了大量精力和学术研究之后,国际地理教育家的学术目光应该更具体地转向地理之间的关系,因为它表现为一种学校学科和大学部门的学科(大概)滋养它。当然有很多关于权力和地理的书籍:我们可以想到理查德·皮特的《权力地理》(2007 年);Harm de Blij 的《地方的力量》(2009 年)甚至蒂姆·马歇尔的《地理囚徒》(2016 年)。他们都非常不同,但都对地理为何重要——地方、空间和环境对社会的重要性的好奇心团结在一起。事实上,政治地理学和权力分配是地理学研究中一个经久不衰的主题,从帮助将地理学确立为一门严肃学科的麦金德的地缘政治学,到詹姆斯·费格里夫的经典著作《地理学与世界权力》(1915学校科目,以及彼得泰勒有影响力的“政治地理学”(1985 年),现在与科林弗林特合作,在第七版(2018 年)中为几代本科生所熟知,至少在英语世界。然而,布鲁克斯等人。(2017) 是一个非常不同的实体。它是在 IGU 教育委员会的主持下制作的,是在这种情况下不关心地理力量本身的教育家的产物。我应该解释一下,因为我们需要解开“权力”和“地理”。如果认为本书的作者并不关心以某种方式捕捉学校课程的地理组成部分的力量,那确实是很严厉的。一方面,以这种方式推广该学科是有吸引力和有帮助的,尤其是在学校地理边缘、理所当然或处于 STEM 学科阴影下的司法管辖区。我所指的不是地理本身,而是权力概念的不同含义。在这方面参考 Muller 和 Young(2019 年)最近的工作很有用,他们在引入“强大知识”(PK)十年左右后,在 Lukes(2005 年)的帮助下重新审视了这个想法)。在政治地理学中,权力是一个源自社会学和相关经济理论的概念。Young 和其他人在 1970 年代发展了这个概念来描述学校课程对贫困儿童的异化影响——精英和有权控制学校课程的人为了自己的利益而组织它,以传递“知识”。强大的”(KOTP),通常通过地理等“传统科目”。因此,权力被认为是某些人获得和拥有的东西,并且 自从引入“强大知识”(PK)大约十年后,在 Lukes(2005)的帮助下重新审视这个想法。在政治地理学中,权力是一个源自社会学和相关经济理论的概念。Young 和其他人在 1970 年代发展了这个概念来描述学校课程对贫困儿童的异化影响——精英和有权控制学校课程的人为了自己的利益而组织它,以传递“知识”。强大的”(KOTP),通常通过地理等“传统科目”。因此,权力被认为是某些人获得和拥有的东西,并且 自从引入“强大知识”(PK)大约十年后,在 Lukes(2005)的帮助下重新审视这个想法。在政治地理学中,权力是一个源自社会学和相关经济理论的概念。Young 和其他人在 1970 年代发展了这个概念来描述学校课程对贫困儿童的异化影响——精英和有权控制学校课程的人为了自己的利益而组织它,以传递“知识”。强大的”(KOTP),通常通过地理等“传统科目”。因此,权力被认为是某些人获得和拥有的东西,并且 Young 和其他人在 1970 年代发展了这个概念来描述学校课程对贫困儿童的异化影响——精英和有权控制学校课程的人为了自己的利益而组织它,以传递“知识”。强大的”(KOTP),通常通过地理等“传统科目”。因此,权力被认为是某些人获得和拥有的东西,并且 Young 和其他人在 1970 年代发展了这个概念来描述学校课程对贫困儿童的异化影响——精英和有权控制学校课程的人为了自己的利益而组织它,以传递“知识”。强大的”(KOTP),通常通过地理等“传统科目”。因此,权力被认为是某些人获得和拥有的东西,并且
更新日期:2019-09-25
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