Fostering geographical conversations

Abstract

A conversation can be viewed as a relatively mundane act, one that many of us perform daily. We speak to family members, friends, colleagues, or strangers, in person, on the phone, or online. These conversations play a vital role in connecting us to each other and the world around us. As I write this editorial, global shocks—economic, political, and social—are ever more present in our lives. At the same time, our capacity to respond to such disruptions is also being challenged. Conversations, then, particularly those of a geographical nature, serve as a critical conduit to maintain care, solidarity, and conviviality as we situate ourselves in these increasingly turbulent environments.

Academic journals, including Geographical Research, play an important role in nurturing such conversations. The geographical relevance of current global debates hardly needs to be stated. From the spatial dynamics of global finance to the social impacts of climate change, the richness of geography is reflected in the wide range of manuscripts we publish in the journal, all of which contribute to ongoing dialogues in their fields. We are currently reviewing our article types to allow us to appropriately capture and communicate these important exchanges and will share more information about this in due course. At a more personal level, as the (still relatively new) Editor-in-Chief, I am taking great pleasure in conversations about all elements of the journal, including supporting authors with submissions, engaging with reviewers, and working alongside the editorial team.

Beyond the array of published articles in Geographical Research, we are also fostering other means of conversation. As an editorial team, we have decided to move away from Twitter/X as a social media platform. We now have a growing presence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/geographical-research/ and Bluesky @geogresearch.bsky.social. We encourage you to follow us there for news and updates that we will post regularly.

Our 2025 webinar series, held in collaboration with Wiley and the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG), is now up and running. Organised by our Senior Associate Editor, Elaine Stratford, our theme this year is Elemental geographies. In the coming months, we will explore how, at a time of accelerating planetary crises, geography remains attuned to the agency of the elements—earth, air, fire, water, wood, and metal—as these more-than-human forces shape landscapes, lifeworlds, and governance.

Conversations will consider how elemental processes are theorised, practiced, and mobilised for advocacy. Our first webinar in April was a plenary presented by Elaine Stratford on The Drowned – a cultural and political geography while our upcoming May webinar comprises a discussion with Catherine Walker and colleagues on young people’s stories of climate change, drawing from a recent special section in the journal (see Walker et al., 2025). We are also seeking expressions of interest for the topics of metal, wood, and earth; please reach out to Elaine if you would like to participate. Webinars are held on the first Tuesday of every month, and you can register here: https://bit.ly/4ituMNh. All webinar recordings are available on our webpage: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17455871.

All of this to say that geographical conversations matter now more than ever, and our challenge is to collectively nurture them. I look forward to your continued engagement with Geographical Research as part of this undertaking.

This issue of Geographical Research includes a rich array of articles, comprising a commentary, two original stand-alone papers, others that form a special section on Indigeneity and Infrastructures of Settler Colonialism, and concluding with a book review and an obituary.

Miriam Williams (2025), one of our Associate Editors, provides a topical commentary on the role of school canteens and tuckshops as places vital for children to access food at school in Australia. Inspired by her work with the Feeding Minds research team and the national round table into canteens led by the Federation of School Canteens in Schools (FOCIS) Australia, Williams considers the significance of canteens as an infrastructure of care.

The issue continues with a paper by Cardoso and colleagues (2025) who provide insights into the concept of social–ecological memory and its application in social–ecological systems. Using a systematic review approach, the authors examine the emergence and evolution of the concept and highlight important developments in the field. They suggest that potential uses of social–ecological memory in conservation and sustainable development are underexplored and hindered by a lack of formal tools and frameworks for real-world applications.

The second original paper in the issue is by Lois et al. (2025) on legal geographies in the context of COVID-19. The article draws on a mixed methodology that combines discourse analysis and statistical data from social actors and multi-level institutions. The paper highlights patterns of socio-spatial inequalities in Madrid in light of the urban impact of pandemic regulations and the role of public institutions in re-territorialising existing inequalities.

Next in this issue is a special section curated by Phil McManus and colleagues on Indigeneity and Infrastructures of Settler Colonialism, drawing on a session delivered at the 2021 IAG Conference. The special section is introduced by an editorial (McManus et al., 2025) that identifies four themes: infrastructure as colonisation; resisting infrastructure; surfacing Indigeneity; and life-affirming infrastructure. These perspectives are elaborated in the five papers in the section (Blatman et al., 2025; Clements et al., 2025; Coyne, 2025; Maher, 2025; Rogers et al., 2025), which together offer critical insights into infrastructure as a historical, structural, and ongoing element of Australian settler colonialism.

The issue concludes with a review of Genius loci: An essay on the meanings of place by Dadpour (2025) and an obituary of Robert John Solomon (Freestone, 2025).