Area (@areajournal) — Bluesky Profile

5 days ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Emma Wainwright, Ellen McHugh & Mamoon Bhuyan (2026) entitled: 'Feeding Hungry Students: Geographies of On-Campus Free Food Provision Across England' with a black banner at the top.

In 2023, one in four UK universities was reported to be operating a food bank for their students amidst a ‘cost-of-learning crisis’. With nearly half of students facing financial difficulty, student food poverty has become a vital issue in contemporary higher education, with food banks marking an important addition to on-campus student support. This paper adds to the growing extant literature on food banks by empirically and conceptually examining the geographies of on-campus free food provision across English universities. We define free food provision for university students as food that is free at the point of collection and consumption and is based on presumed and/or evidenced student need. The paper draws on qualitative and quantitative data from a survey administered to all English universities to map provision across institutions and explore on-campus geographies of free food. It makes two important contributions to existing research. First and empirically, it moves the discussion of food poverty and educational institutions beyond a focus on schools and families with children. Second, and conceptually, it extends understandings of food poverty alleviation beyond food banks to consider a broader set of mechanisms through which support is given to those in need, with universities vitally positioned to tackle food poverty given their role in anchoring students in place. The paper concludes by questioning the longer-term commitment and sustainability of free food provision across universities in England at a time of financial uncertainty.

New in Area:

'Feeding hungry students: Geographies of on-campus free food provision across England' by @emmawainwright.bsky.social et al.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

5 3 0 1

5 days ago

2023 - one in four UK universities was reported to be operating a food bank for their students.

Paper exploring the geographies of food poverty in UK HE out now in Area ⬇️ @rgs.org #OpenAccess

6 3 1 0

5 days ago

New in Area:

'Feeding hungry students: Geographies of on-campus free food provision across England' by @emmawainwright.bsky.social et al.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

5 3 0 1

6 days ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Sander van Lanen, Jaap G. Nieuwenhuis, Mitchell D. van Dijk (2026) entitled: 'Limits to Participation: Neighbourhood-Based Volunteer Initiatives and Contradictions of the Dutch Participation Society' with a black banner at the top.

The Dutch participation society, like similar programmes elsewhere, aims to shift care responsibilities to households and communities, with the state only acting as a carer or last resort. In this paper, we investigate whether volunteer neighbourhood-based initiatives are capable of delivering various forms of care: general assistance, mobility services and sustainability efforts. Interviews with 54 individuals active in nine initiatives in the north of the Netherlands inquired about the motivations of volunteers to become and remain active, and what influenced potential decisions to stop. The results show that important incentives to start volunteering are social networks, a sense of duty and self-interest and a desire for experience and fulfilment. Volunteers appreciated the sense of fulfilment from social networks and providing support, and the informal nature of volunteer work. Volunteers responded negatively to tendencies of formalisation, the absence of challenges or personal friction with other participants. We argue that there is a central contradiction for care and support delivered by neighbourhood-based initiatives: the levels of formalisation necessary to provide structured high-quality care and support run the risk of alienating volunteers. Either initiatives remain informal to maintain volunteer satisfaction but are unlikely to deliver structured care to people in need, or they professionalise at the risk of dissatisfied volunteers.

New in Area:

'Limits to participations: Neighbourhood-based volunteer initiatives and contradictions of the Dutch participation society' by @sanvanlan.bsky.social et al.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

3 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

Just published with @sanvanlan.bsky.social & Mitchell van Dijk: Limits to Participation: Neighbourhood-Based Volunteer Initiatives and Contradictions of the Dutch Participation Society.

@rug-gmw.bsky.social @rgs.org

1 2 0 0

1 week ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Caitlin Jones, Eliza Breder & Tyler McCreary (2026) entitled: 'Alligator Alcatraz and the Production of Environmental Carcerality in the Everglades' with a black banner at the top.

In June 2025, the state of Florida opened 'Alligator Alcatraz', a federal immigration detention centre, in the Florida Everglades, weaponising animals and landscapes to construct racialised geographies of fear and rationalise multispecies environmental injustice. In this paper, we examine the symbolic and material conditions of Alligator Alcatraz, pulling apart how what appears to be a novel use of landscape and species for immigration enforcement, is in fact, a deeply historical logic that draws on long-standing settler colonial tropes of emptiness, danger and disposability. We illustrate how both the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), and the Everglades itself, are conscripted into carceral geographies that reflect both ecological degradation and racialised state violence. The alligator becomes conscripted as a federal immigration officer, touted by federal and state officials as a mascot of environmental carcerality. Meanwhile, the Everglades is deployed as an empty, deterrent landscape, reviving a settler imaginary that has long justified its destruction and casts Indigenous land, life and knowledge and the more-than-human beings living within it as expendable. Alligator Alcatraz pushes us to consider what carceral geographies of US immigration policy reveal about the disposability of certain bodies—human, ecological and more than human. Ultimately, existing in this spectacle of the racialised past and present are the real human costs of detention development in the Everglades, which is damaging local ecologies and Indigenous and migrant lives.

New in Area - 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟑 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬

'Alligator Alcatraz and the production of environmental carcerality in the Everglades' by Caitlin Jones et al.

This paper explores the weaponising of animals & landscapes to construct racialised geographies of fear in the U.S.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

7 7 0 0

1 week ago

New in Area - 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟑 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬

'Alligator Alcatraz and the production of environmental carcerality in the Everglades' by Caitlin Jones et al.

This paper explores the weaponising of animals & landscapes to construct racialised geographies of fear in the U.S.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

7 7 0 0

1 week ago

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This research examines the role of social media in building social capital during crises, focusing on recent Ukrainian refugees, mainly women and children. Findings from the Facebook platform United ...

New in Area:

'Gendered networking and social capital building among Ukrainian refugees: Insights from the "United for Ukraine" Facebook platform in Romania' by Sorina Voiculescu

This paper examines the role of social media in building social capital during crises.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

0 0 0 0

1 week ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Tommy H. Y. Chan, Artur Sadowski & Jan K. Kazak (2026) entitled: '‘I'm Tight on Time, So Let's Make It a Fast Interview on the Go’: Rapid Serial Interview for Quick Ethnographies With Busy People' with a black banner at the top.

New in Area:

'"I'm tight on time, so let's make it a fast interview on the go": Rapid serial interview for quick ethnographies with busy people' by @tommyhychan.bsky.social et al.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

1 1 0 0

1 week ago

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper explores drawn ethnography as a methodological tool in the social sciences, highlighting its capacity to complement interviews, photography and cartography. By combining in situ observatio....

New in Area:

'Drawing points, tracing lines: Writing social sciences through ethnographic drawing' by Dolorès Bertrais

This paper explores drawn ethnography as a methodological tool, combining in-situ observation with visual storytelling.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

3 1 0 0

1 week ago

https://doi.org/10.1111/area.70094 Feeding Hungry Students: Geographies of On-Campus Free Food Provision Across England
Emma Wainwright, Ellen McHugh, Mamoon Bhuyan

in Area (Royal Geographical) open access

On my campus, I know (a) increase in need/demand & (b) lack of resources provided. We never had student food banks when I was in uni. What does it say about us now?

"Feeding Hungry Students: Geographies of On-Campus Free Food Provision Across England" (open access) doi.org/10.1111/area...

2 1 0 0

2 weeks ago

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library Conservation often continues to be undertaken in ways that exclude nearby communities, despite extensive critique of such practices. This paper examines the reactions to the creation of a marine prot...

New in Area:

'We woke up with a sign: Exclusion, conflict and the politics of marine conservation in South Africa' by Msimelelo Gqaleni & Mary Lawhon

This paper examines community reactions to the creation of a marine protected area in KwaZulu-Natal.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

1 0 0 0

2 weeks ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Thomas K. Rudel (2026) entitled: 'The social contexts for forest expansions: A review' with a black banner at the top.

Regional contexts appear to have shaped reforestation processes in six distinctive ways around the world. Two have predominated in wealthy regions and have entailed the spontaneous regeneration of relatively biodiverse secondary forests on former agricultural lands. Another one, featuring planted forests, has occurred close to cities in both the Global North and the Global South. Three additional reforestation dynamics involving smallholders and planted trees in the Global South have had their origins in episodes of imperialism and efforts at agricultural development. Attention to these contextual dynamics in reforestation processes would strengthen reforestation programs and, in so doing, increase their capacity to curb climate change through carbon sequestration.

New in Area:

'The social contexts for forest expansions: A review' by Thomas K. Rudel

doi.org/10.1111/area...

1 0 0 0

3 weeks ago

Nicely done @areajournal.bsky.social !

4 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

A graphic publicising a new Special Section in Area called 'Map Room Conversations'. There are six tiles with the names of papers and authors as follows:

1) Map Room Conversations
Stephen Legg, Katherine Parker

2) Mapping Indigeneity in the RGS-IBG map collections
Peter R. Martin, Katherine Parker

3) Mapping Language: Names, Speakers and Voices
Beth Williamson, Philip Jagessar

4) Map Room Conversations: Mapping Objects
George Tobin, Jane Wess

5) Mapping Disjuncture: Internationalism and Palestine
Zena Agha, Jake Hodder

6) Maps and Diaspora: Affect, Agency and Epistolary Praxis
Rohini Rai, Iqbal Singh

A black tile publicising the new 'Map Room Conversations' Special Section in Area. There is a quote from Stephen Legg & Katie Parker's introduction. It reads: "This Special Section breaks down a false equation of active/passive to outdoor/indoor, or digital/paper, maps. Instead, the papers included show how the map collection is also a space of becoming and creation".

New Special Section in Area!

'Map Room Conversations' guest edited by @stephenlegg11.bsky.social, @kparkerhistorian.bsky.social & Jason Liu

Read the fully #OpenAccess collection here ⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

2 3 0 1

1 month ago

It was such an honour working with Katie, the map presenters, and the engaged audiences in these Map Room Conversations. Follow the thread for a CFP for a similar venture at this year's RGS-IBG conference!

4 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Kauê Lopes dos Santos & Livia Cangiano Antipon (2026) entitled: 'Mobile Work: Handcart and Bicycle Workers Across the Urban Economy of Greater Accra Region' with a black banner at the top.

This article examines the everyday labour of handcart and bicycle workers in Accra and Tema, showing how their activities constitute a form of relational infrastructure in the urban economy of Ghana's Greater Accra Region. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork based on interviews, direct observation and photographic documentation, the study highlights how workers improvise repairs, adjust routes to shifting rhythms of demand and rely on dense networks of trust and reciprocity. Their practices link household production, street-level consumption and small-scale recycling chains, sustaining circulation in contexts marked by uneven infrastructure and low capitalisation. Through the combined lens of AbdouMaliq Simone's people as infrastructure and Milton Santos's theory of urban economic circuits, the analysis shows that these workers operate not at the margins but as key connectors of goods, materials and information. Their mobility, bodily endurance and inventive responses to uncertainty reveal how ordinary actors make Ghanaian cities function on a daily basis.

New in Area:

'Mobile work: Handcart and bicycle workers across the urban economy of Greater Accra Region' by Kauê Lopes dos Santos & Livia Cangiano Antipon

This paper explores mobile work as a form of relational infrastructure, sustaining urban life through improvisation.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

0 0 0 0

3 weeks ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Ayushman Bhagat (2026) entitled: 'Internal Deportation'.

This article introduces the concept of internal deportation as a form of intra-state expulsion of citizens to their ‘spaces of origin’. Drawing on nine years of multi-sited, participatory, ethnographic, and feminist research in Nepal, I examine how multiple state and non-state organisations forcibly return women migrating for sex and domestic work to their spaces of origin, which are often structured by the hierarchies of gender, class, caste, and indigeneity. I demonstrate how internal deportation seeks to immobilise Nepali citizens within the existing hierarchies that they have sought to escape through their migration projects. The article contributes to deportation studies by demonstrating that deportability is a condition which operates within the spaces of origin for some citizens, continues in the host countries where they become 'immigrants', and persists upon their return to their spaces of origin after deportation.

New in Area:

'Internal Deportation' by @ayushmanbhagat.bsky.social

This article draws on research undertaken in Nepal to introduce the concept of internal deportation as a form of intra-state expulsion of citizens to their 'spaces of origin'.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

2 2 0 0

1 month ago

Incredibly excited to share my open-access article, Internal Deportation, published in AREA bsky.app/profile/area...

It introduces the concept of internal deportation as a form of intra-state expulsion of citizens to their ‘spaces of origin’.

Link: rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

2 2 0 0

1 month ago

A graphical abstract of a flowchart which outlines the principles of Process-Oriented Ethics in Geography: reflexivity, dialogicity, situationally, responsibility, representation, self-determination, reciprocity, deference, more-than-human ethic, skills as ethical practice.

These fan out into four key areas: ethical support throughout the research process; integrity of knowledge production; responsibility for all research participants; empowerment of researchers.

These then culminate in 'implementation': in university, faculty, graduate schools, curriculum.

New in Area:

'Beyond judgment and approval: Establishing process-oriented ethics in Geography' by Jeannine Wintzer & Susan Thieme

This paper proposes a process-oriented ethics approach that engages with ethical questions continuously throughout the research process.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

0 0 0 0

1 month ago

So pleased to be a part of this, and what a fabulous set of papers!

Look out for the cfp from @stephenlegg11.bsky.social at the end - would highly recommend all geographers (and others!) engage with these collections and see what comes out as a result! 🗺️

6 1 0 0

1 month ago

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library Click on the title to browse this issue

What happens when you put experts, prescient topics, engaged audiences, and #maps together? A Map Room Conversation!

Our Area special section is now available #openaccess

#geography #skystorians 🗃️

11 6 1 2

1 month ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Francesca Guarino (2026) entitled: 'Blurring Migrant Solidarity: Navigating the Troubled Regime of ‘Helping Others’ From the Urban Ground of Palermo' with a black banner at the top.

This paper explores migrant solidarity in the aftermath of the 2015 so-called ‘migration crisis’ from the ground of the Southern Italian ‘solidarity city’ of Palermo, building on ethnographic material collected across 2022/2023. It argues that migrant solidarity both resists and reproduces racialised borders, as it is never entirely and clearly detached from the border regime, but is deeply entangled within it. Although this argument is not new per se, this paper adds empirical depth to it following two strands. First, presenting solidarity in Palermo as embedded within the city's political economy, the paper reflects on how, within a persisting unequal and racialised access to rights, solidarity can allow for multiple extractions to be operated against migrants, while simultaneously providing a ‘safer space’ for existence. Second, drawing on the experiences of migrants who have—at least from a surface level outside perspective—comparatively better positions within the city, the paper defies their portrayals as mere recipients of help, and explores the complex ways in which they navigate the restricted opportunities opened up by solidarity alongside ubiquitous borders. The paper thus shows (1) how in Palermo solidarity has produced several outcomes—moral recognition abroad, local economies, opportunities for a vast array of people involved with migration—in the overall permanence of local shortages and everyday structural racism; (2) how the local solidarity network fills the gaps of a local retreating social care and of the state's repressive politics; (3) how this network is strategically navigated by racialised migrants to carve out opportunities, social ties and space for political development.

New in Area:

'Blurring migrant solidarity: Navigating the troubled regime of "helping others" from the urban ground of Palermo' by Francesca Guarino

This paper explores migrant solidarity in Sicily in the aftermath of the so-called 'migration crisis' in 2015.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

4 0 0 0

1 month ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Zinaïda Sluijs (2026) entitled: 'More Than a Course, More Than a Method: Study Circles as a Pedagogical and Research Method Working With Asylum Seekers Across Language Barriers and Differences' with a black banner at the top.

Participatory research with people in the asylum process faces limits and challenges. Building on ethnographic research on study circles for and with asylum seekers in Sweden, I discuss two methods (collage workshops and card-based discussions) which were introduced to deal with the challenges of conducting participatory research and to foster the inclusion of participants in the asylum process. While collage workshops allowed for conversations on emotional and embodied experiences across language barriers, card-based discussions created space for dialogue and discussion on different experiences of participating in study circles. I argue that these methods were both inspired by the study circle method and participatory methodologies and, therefore, are an example of how research' epistemology and methodology can be aligned to participating organisations' knowledge and practices. Consequently, the contribution of the paper is two-fold: Collage workshops and card-based discussions not only allowed for new participants and perspectives to be included but also enabled the research to intervene in and contribute to the study circle practice.

New in Area:

'More than a course, more than a method: Study circles as a pedagogical and research method working with asylum seekers across language barriers and differences' by @zsluijs.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

1 1 0 0

1 month ago

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper reflects on the pedagogical possibilities of cultivating a ‘geography of hope’.

New in Area:

'Teaching a geography of hope' by Mariasole Pepa

This paper explores the spaces within higher education where hope can be cultivated, inside and outside of the classroom.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

2 0 0 0

1 month ago

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library This paper turns to the work of Henri Bergson to offer a distinctly geographic perspective on debates around attention by emphasising the intimate links between attention and the material environment....

Congratulations to @georgeburdon.bsky.social for his wonderful paper 'Displaced attention: Bergson, attentive habits and Tony Conrad’s drone music' which has been highly commended as part of the Cultural Geography Study Groups annual paper prize award! rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

0 2 1 1

1 month ago

The paper I published in @areajournal.bsky.social last year has very kindly been 'highly commended' by @culturalgeogaus.bsky.social as part of their annual paper prize for early career researchers. Do consider following the study group if you are a cultural geographer in Australia!

3 1 0 0

1 month ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Jennifer Langill (2026) entitled: 'Researcher Positionality and Relational Power: Playing With ‘Researching Up’ and ‘Researching Down’ in Critical Reflexivity' with a black banner at the top.

Critical development scholars and feminist geographers call for reflexivity on the relationships between researchers and the subjects of their research. This includes questioning the power dynamics that shape knowledge generation, while recognising the partiality of these insights and the subjectivity of knowledge production. To advance these debates, I draw on the concepts of ‘researching up’ and ‘researching down’, sometimes used to distinguish between relative ‘power over’ and ‘power under’ interlocutors. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Hmong village in northern Thailand, I reflect on the relationality between myself and research participants, including moments of entering into more or less relational power. I suggest that by mobilising the heuristic of ‘researching up’ and ‘researching down’ as a relational analytic rather than oppositional categories, we can generate new insights into our own positionalities, and subsequently, the social difference, relationality and power dynamics within the populations we learn from. This approach helps to reject homogenising narratives of ‘vulnerable subjects’ to better unravel shifting power dimensions and affect within positional spaces.

New in Area:

'Research positionality and relational power: Playing with "researching up" and "researching down" in critical reflexivity' by @jlangill.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

0 0 0 0

1 month ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Subham Roy (2026) entitled: 'Everyday Geographies of Night-Time Fear: (Re)Negotiating Fear of Crime, Gender and Safety' with a black banner at the top.

Grounded in qualitative research in Siliguri, a rapidly expanding city in eastern India, this paper examined how low-income residents perceive and negotiate fear of crime after dark. Based on immersive, night-time ethnographic methods—including narrative interviews, walk-alongs and sensory observations—this study examines the lived geographies of crime and fear in the everyday urban margins. While extensive literature on fear of crime exists in Western contexts, Global South research remains uneven, with limited attention to how fear is shaped by infrastructural neglect and marginality. In developing countries like India, such place-based, embodied studies remain limited, especially in low-income residential contexts. Findings reveal that night-time fear is deeply gendered, relational, and amplified by territorial stigma and infrastructural neglect. Women deploy everyday tactics—rerouted paths, bodily discipline, walking in groups—to manage insecurity. The paper contributes to scholarship on crime, marginality and emotional geographies by showing how fear is not only a response to threats but a force that reshapes urban life. It calls for a more grounded, context-sensitive understanding of urban safety and affirms the right to move, dwell and be visible in the city after dark. By situating fear as a spatial force that (re)organises urban life after dark, this paper contributes to debates on emotional geographies, urban marginality and the nocturnal geographies of fear of crime in the Global South.

New in Area:

'Everyday geographies of night-time fear: (Re)negotiating fear of crime, gender and safety' by Subham Roy

This paper explores the geographies of crime and fear in a Global South context, drawing on research conducted in Siliguri, India.

doi.org/10.1111/area... #geosky

2 2 0 0

1 month ago

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Area by Stephen Taylor (2026) entitled: 'Witnessing Health and Place: Sebastião Salgado and the Photographic Legacy of Polio Eradication' with a black banner at the top.

The death of Brazilian photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado in May 2025 invites renewed reflection on photography's role in shaping global health narratives. Celebrated for his evocative black-and-white images that document human suffering and resilience, Salgado's work has addressed international issues, such as labour, migration, indigeneity and environmental degradation. Among an extensive portfolio, his documentation of global polio eradication efforts stands out as a significant yet often overlooked contribution, providing vital insights into the spatial dynamics of a global health campaign. This paper situates Salgado's polio photographs within the context of health geography and visual geography, arguing that these images function not only as humanitarian testimony but also as a visual cartography of care. By analysing the spatial, embodied and ethical dimensions of this work, I examine how visual methodologies can enhance geographies of health, vulnerability and intervention. Salgado's archive of polio photographs constructs a powerful visual grammar of place-based inequality and collective resilience, while also raising questions about power dynamics in image production, institutional commissioning and the ethics of witnessing. The paper offers geographers a critical lens through which to understand global health as a situated, contested and relational phenomenon.

New in Area:

'Witnessing health and place: Sebastião Salgado and the photographic legacy of polio eradication' by @wstaylor87.bsky.social

This paper situates the photographic work of Salgado on polio vaccination within debates on humanitarian visual culture.

doi.org/10.1111/area...

3 2 0 0