Editorial: Towards more gentle geographies: Narrating a virtue turn, and possibilities for multi-tonal politics of activism and academic labour

Abstract

This editorial introduces a Special Section on gentle geographies in which the authors were invited to problematise ideas of gentleness in their research and practice. We understand gentleness to mean the act of limiting or moderating capacities to affect others, or ourselves, in ways that could otherwise cause harm. Gentleness is not necessarily a risk-averse practice that stands or sits in the way of other forms of resistance, and we should distinguish the gentleness we advocate for from a white classist form of etiquette as ‘niceness’, or a smiling acquiesce to injustice. Rather, acting gently modifies action so that it is experienced as recognising, and adequately responding to, the intersubjective and more-than-human capacities to affect, and be affected by, others. We write for gentleness as part of a multi-tonal politics of activism and academic labour, and locate this as part of a ‘virtue turn’ in and beyond human geography. We draw out themes in the papers around acts and activisms, and gentle methodologies which draw our attention to the absencing of human and more-than-human others.