Geographies of care: spaces,practices, experiences

Questions of care appear to be catching the imagination of researchers across several areas of human geography at present (see Parr 2003).We can note, for instance, the growing body of work that explores the significance of care in particular settings. Milligan (2000) has written of the home-space in this regard, while Twigg's (2000) work on bathing and intimate care is similarly attentive to domestic spatiality. The complex material and psycho-social dimensions of care in the home emerge clearly in these accounts; we see that despite benevolent intentions, the quality and consistency of such care is variable and its delivery often emotionally demanding (see Allan and Crow 1989). Other research has focused on mental health care environments (Kearns and Joseph 2000; Parr 2000; Philo 1997; Pinfold 2000), hospices (Brown 2003; Brown and Colton 2001), hospitals (Allen 2001) and alternative medicine centres (Wiles and Rosenberg 2001; Williams 2000). Within these studies we see how relations and practices of care—things such as listening, feeding, changing clothes and administering medication—are implicated in the production of particular social spaces. The care-taking tasks which bring people together in these settings involve both physical and emotional labour, and often depend disproportionately upon the commitment of women (Daly and Lewis 1998; Finch and Groves 1983; Ungerson 1990).     

The Political Ecology of Palk Bay Fisheries: Geographies of Capital,Fisher Conflict,Ethnicity and Nation‐State

Indian trawl fishers in the Palk Bay regularly engage in cross‐border fishing to the detriment of Sri Lankan artisanal fishers whose nets are irreparably damaged. Increasing tension between Indian trawl fishers from the state of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan artisanal fishers from the Northern Province has resulted in the Sri Lankan government patrolling the international maritime boundary line (IMBL) more stringently and increased arrests of Indian trawl fishers. This paper argues that the present “fisheries crisis” in the Palk Bay must be understood from a political ecology perspective that takes cognizance of the circuitous nature of capital accumulation and how fisher conflict, ethnicity and the politics of the nation‐state have shaped the spatial practices of accumulation. In a changing global context where semi‐industrial vessels are increasingly crossing boundaries, it argues for more context specific studies of processes of capital accumulation.     

Geographies of Urban Politics: Pathways,Intersections, Interventions

This paper deals with urban political geographies and, most particularly, with political economy perspectives on urban politics. It offers an account that narrates what I see as influential pathways and intersections, theoretical debates, and methodological developments that have shaped contemporary urban political geographies in this vein since the 1970s, including: the ‘new urban politics’, intersections with postmodernism, and postcolonialism; urban neoliberalism and the contingency of urban politics; and, most recently, poststructural political economy and the notion of assemblage. This leads me to trace the implications of the shift in understanding from urban political geography to geographies of urban politics, and the growing emphasis on practice, contingency, relationality, and assemblage that accompany this shift. I conclude with reflections on new directions, new productive questions and tensions, and on the knowledge politics of how we do and might do contemporary urban political geographies.     

Imperial Geographies of Home: British Domesticity in India, 1886–1925

This paper considers the translation of domestic discourses over imperial space as middle-class British women established homes in India from 1886 to 1925. Unlike studies of imperial domesticity that delineate separate spheres of home and empire, I consider the exercise of imperial power on a domestic scale, by examining advice given in household guides on managing servants and raising British children in India. Rather than view the household merely as confining, I also explore the advice given to British women regarding travel outside their homes in India. The domestic roles of British women reproduced imperial power relations on a household scale, and the political significance of imperial domesticity extended beyond the boundaries of the home.     

Ordinary Emergency: Drones,Police, and Geographies of Legal Terror

This paper brings into conversation two ostensibly disparate geographies of state violence: the routine police surveillance and killing of members of the “dangerous classes” in the United States, an issue that is in no way new but nevertheless has gained increased attention over the last year with the Black Lives Matter movement; and the targeted drone strikes against “terrorist suspects” in the “war on terror”. By laying side by side the “war drone” and domestic police power, it becomes readily apparent that despite ostensible differences—foreign vs. domestic, war vs. peace, exceptional vs. normal, military vs. police, legal vs. extralegal—the unmanning of state violence gains much of its political and legal force from the language and categories that have long animated the routine policing of domestic territory. The paper calls for taking the violence of police power more seriously than many drone commentators have.     

Stories in Space: The Geographies of Children's Literature

This paper argues for the uses of children's literature in the study of children's geographies. It focuses in particular on the nature of representations of urban space in children's literature, a genre more usually connected with the pastoral and explores the narrative strategies and approaches of children's literature which does venture into the city. I propose five modes in which the city is written for children and ask, from the position of literary criticism which distrusts children's stories' ability to speak for children, how far these modes can be said to coincide with children's lived experience of the city.     

Geographies of Policing: Domestic Violence,Mandatory Arrest,and Police Liability

For most of United States history, the police did not intervene in domestic violence. To redress for this history, police departments began implementing mandatory arrest policies in the 1980s. These policies require police to arrest in cases of domestic violence when injuries are present, regardless of victim consent. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research conducted in central Pennsylvania, including participant observation in a domestic violence unit of a police department and interviews with police officers, this paper examines how mandatory arrest policies extend the spatial reach of the state into private space and intimate relationships. Specifically, I argue that the policing of domestic violence positions police officers as neoliberal subjects responsible for mediating abusive relationships on behalf of the state. This paper contributes to geographic research on policing in the private sphere, while also offering a detailed accounting of the mechanics of police practice.