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Geographers out of place: institutions, (inter)disciplinarity and identity
Author(s) -
Wainwright Emma,
Barker John,
Ansell Nicola,
Buckingham Susan,
Hemming Peter,
Smith Fiona
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/area.12126
Subject(s) - geographer , discipline , identity (music) , sociology , subject (documents) , scale (ratio) , social science , gender studies , economic geography , aesthetics , geography , philosophy , cartography , library science , computer science
Ten years ago, the decision was taken to close B runel U niversity's D epartment of G eography and E arth S ciences and its undergraduate programmes. Since this time, most of the human geographers have remained at B runel, but now work from beyond the boundaries of conventional academic G eography. In this paper we argue that this situation, which is not uncommon for geographers in the UK and elsewhere, has significant implications for both individuals and the discipline more broadly. Through our everyday experiences of interdisciplinary working, this paper reflects on what it means to be a geographer working outside of ‘ G eography’. The paper examines the implications of this at three different yet related scales: the immediately personal scale in terms of identity and individual academic performance, the institutional scale and its organisation that can lead to the presence/absence of academic subject areas, and then finally the disciplinary scale with its attendant spaces of knowledge generation, dissemination and protectionism. Our arguments are framed by neoliberal‐led higher education changes and conceptualisations of institutions, (inter)disciplinarity and identity, and point to broader significances for the shape of the discipline.