CONCEPTS FOR CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
#003
#003
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Open Access and Print Book
Editors: Ben Anderson (Durham) and Vickie Zhang (Bristol)
What are the concepts that compose and animate cultural geography today? And what can and should concepts do?
Open Access and Print Book
Editors: Ben Anderson (Durham) and Vickie Zhang (Bristol)
What are the concepts that compose and animate cultural geography today? And what can and should concepts do?
Cultural geography is full of concepts. We think with concepts, and concepts force or invite us to think again. We invent concepts and animate them. Concepts do a lot for us, with and to us - they represent, disrupt, disturb, reorientate, open up, limit, andprefigure. Some linger in the background across decades of cultural geography work (e.g. landscape, representation); others surface abruptly (e.g. spacetimeunconscious, event); others enter geography from elsewhere (e.g. opacity, desire, conjuncture). Some are dominant, others emergent or residual. They change as they are brought into relation with other concepts, empirical scenes, research participants, and much more. Concepts are invented and end. They hold our attention. They are gifts and curses.
Concepts for Cultural Geography will gather together the wonderfully diverse array of concepts that cultural geographers work and think with today. The book will feature short entries on an open list of concepts offered by participants. As well as provide a map of the concepts that make up cultural geography today, the project also aims to perform different modes of presenting and thinking with concepts. We invite contributions in any genre between 1 and 1,000 words (or visual equivalent) — dense exegesis, empirical scene, fictional story, poem, visual representation, montage, and any and all other forms. The concept you write on can be directly present or obliquely indicated, or some mix. Whatever form you work in, however you make a concept present for your reader, we want to get a sense of why you think the concept matters, what difference it makes.
Concepts for Cultural Geography will gather together the wonderfully diverse array of concepts that cultural geographers work and think with today. The book will feature short entries on an open list of concepts offered by participants. As well as provide a map of the concepts that make up cultural geography today, the project also aims to perform different modes of presenting and thinking with concepts. We invite contributions in any genre between 1 and 1,000 words (or visual equivalent) — dense exegesis, empirical scene, fictional story, poem, visual representation, montage, and any and all other forms. The concept you write on can be directly present or obliquely indicated, or some mix. Whatever form you work in, however you make a concept present for your reader, we want to get a sense of why you think the concept matters, what difference it makes.
If you'd like to contribute, full entries are due by 1st May 15 June 2026 submitted through the following submission form:
Any individual contributor can author a maximum of 3 entries, and we are happy to have multiple entries on the same concept. We are open to anything you consider to be a concept - from settled and well recognized concepts to new, strange concepts you've only recently invented.
Our hope is that the final list of concepts will be generated by the community, becoming an open access resource for future generations of cultural geographers.
Any individual contributor can author a maximum of 3 entries, and we are happy to have multiple entries on the same concept. We are open to anything you consider to be a concept - from settled and well recognized concepts to new, strange concepts you've only recently invented.
Our hope is that the final list of concepts will be generated by the community, becoming an open access resource for future generations of cultural geographers.
- Read last year's collective publication, The promise of cultural geography.
7 MAY 2026 UPDATE:
Thank you to all those who have submitted an entry! We're really pleased to have received 90 really exciting pieces so far, and will be in touch shortly with those who have submitted, including potentially with some feedback for revisions. Many have also asked for some more time - in light of this, we'll be keeping submissions open until June 15th (but after which we won't be able to accommodate any more extensions). So if you are still interested in submitting, please do. - Ben and Vickie