Walking through our differences

Abstract

In this commentary, I respond to Shawn Bodden’s (2023) work ‘Working Through Our Differences’, which discusses the limits of ontology in critical geographical theories. I build upon Bodden's invitation to bring attention to ordinary voices and acts to understand how people place themselves instead of pointing people to their proper place. I echo the proposal and at the same time, suggest that we might want to even follow how people walk with places rather than to places with respect to Indigenous methodologies and critical geographies. To extend the discussion, I suggest a deeper engagement with the potential of walking as an embodied form of working and to see walking in its plural forms. I also found Bodden's critical writing, in line with Clive Barnett and others, offering an opportunity for us to review some of the classical writings on/against cities. Last but not the least, a reconsideration of ‘invitation and hospitality as situated political acts and embodied ethics could prevent us from enclosing politics with particular ontological experimentation’. I conclude by suggesting that not only do we want to work through our differences, as Bodden suggests, but also we wish to walk through our differences.