SPACES OF DIZZINESS AND DREAD: NAVIGATING ACROPHOBIA

As part of emerging disciplinary interests in well‐being and emotions, geographers have recently begun to pay attention to common but often neglected psychological conditions that have the potential to impact considerably upon individuals and their daily lives. Specifically extending the scope of geographical inquiry on phobias, this paper considers acrophobia (known as being scared of heights). Through interviews with ten sufferers, the spatial character and intensity of the condition is articulated. The findings tell us that underpinning acrophobia is mathematical height: the vertical elevation from the lowest possible resting point of the body to the point at which the symptoms of acrophobia occur. This point is however ‐ even for each individual ‐ highly variable, context dependant and, in terms of explanatory potential, does not convey personal experiences. Instead, the idea of ‘encounter spaces’ provides far greater elaboration. Created by sufferers ‘dysfunctional’ spatial perceptions, these are the occupied spaces of mixed emotional and physical responses (such as fear and rapid breathing) and reactionary practices that are tactical yet somewhat involuntary in nature (such as gripping tighter or getting lower). Depending on the particular circumstances, sufferers might choose to, feel forced to, or might inadvertently enter encounter spaces. Their impacts also extend beyond immediate effects to sufferers’ longer term lives and well‐being. This might be negatively impacted, for example, through cumulative encounters, worrying about potential encounters or missing out on life events. At this level, reactionary practices ‐ again which are tactical yet somewhat involuntary ‐ are often employed in order to avoid height. Ultimately, the overall impact of acrophobia on an individual depends on a number of factors including the severity of their condition, the attitudes of the people they associate with, their job, lifestyle and the environments which they have to, or would like to, frequent. Consequently, while some sufferers cope with ease, others constantly navigate the altitude of their lives.     

A love story: for ‘Buddy System’ research in the academy

This article makes a case for a ‘buddy system’ approach to research and scholarship, or a kind of ‘caring with’ our colleagues, as feminist praxis and as an intentional, politicized response to the neoliberalization of the academy. Through autoethnographic writing on our travels together into farmed animal auction yards, we explain the buddy system as a mode of caring, solidarity, and love that differs from collaborative research, focused as it is on caring for and about our colleagues and their research even (or especially) when we have no direct stakes in the research being conducted. We contribute to three feminist conversations with this approach: feminist care ethics in geography; emotional geographies; and critical perspectives on the neoliberalization of the academy. We advocate the buddy system as an extension of feminist care ethics, enriching how feminists think about ‘doing’ research. We draw on feminist geographies of emotion and our own emotions (grief especially) experienced while witnessing processes of nonhuman animal commodification to politicize the act of researching and to develop a more caring way of inhabiting the academy. This is particularly important, we argue, in the context of deepening neoliberal logics that turn the academy into a place where care and love become radical acts of resistance and transformation.     

The emergence of an ethic of care in rural Kenyan schools? Perspectives of teachers and orphaned and vulnerable pupils

In the context of HIV, there is considerable debate about the role of schools and teachers as potential sources of care and support for vulnerable children. This qualitative research examines ‘care’ as experienced and practiced by pupils and teachers in rural Western Kenya. In primary and secondary schools, interviews were conducted with 18 teachers and 57 orphaned and vulnerable pupils, alongside Photovoice. Drawing on thematic analysis and an ‘ethic of care’ theoretical perspective, we unpack the informal caring practices of teachers within resource-constrained settings. The research provides glimpses of schools as spaces of care, participation and support for orphaned and vulnerable pupils. Recognising and providing institutional support for the development of an ethic of care in schools may help to tackle the considerable educational barriers facing girls and boys who are orphaned and vulnerable and move ‘care’ closer towards the centre of educational policy and practice in the global South.