Belonging to a different landscape: repurposing nationalist affects

This is an article about the embodied, sensual experience of rural landscape as a site where racialized feelings of national belonging get produced. Largely impervious to criticism and reformation by 'thin' legal-political versions of multicultural or cosmopolitan citizenship, it is my suggestion that this racialized belonging is best confronted through the recognition and appreciation of precisely what makes it so compelling. Through an engagement with the theorization of affect in the work of Divya Praful Tolia-Kelly, I consider the resources immanent to the perception of landscapes of national belonging that might be repurposed to unravel that belonging from within. I suggest that forms of environmental consciousness can unpick the mutually reinforcing relationships between nature and nation, opening up opportunities for thinking identity and belonging in different ways, and allowing rural landscapes to become more hospitable places

Rancière and the re-distribution of the sensible: The artist Rosanna Raymond, dissensus and postcolonial sensibilities within the spaces of the museum

Through aesthetics we can articulate affective politics and demonstrate new ways of ‘doing’ progressive politics (Rancière, 2004).The paper explores the politics and practice of dissensus, within the museum with artist Rosanna Raymond. The paper argues that the museum space when critiqued through a postcolonial perspective and artistic practice, can be a vehicle for political change. Using Ranciere's account of 'politics' the paper outlines how a 'redistribution of the sensible' might be possible, that is inclusive of Maori space-time, self-determined cultural values and geoaesthetics

Co-production: towards a utopian approach

This article outlines how co-production might be understood as a utopian method, which both attends to and works against dominant inequalities. It suggests that it might be positioned ‘within, against, and beyond’ current configurations of power in academia and society more broadly. It develops this argument by drawing on recent research funded through the UK’s Connected Communities programme, led by the Arts and Humanities Research Council; and by attending to arguments from the field of Utopian Studies. It explores particular issues of power and control within the field of co-production, acknowledging that neoliberalism both constrains and co-opts such practice; and explores methodological and infrastructural issues such that its utopian potential might be realised

Landscape, Race and Memory: Biographical Mapping of the Routes of British Asian Landscape Values

In this paper the migration routes of British Asian women living in London are examined. It is shown that British Asians connect with a myriad of landscapes abroad, including East Africa, India and Pakistan. These connections to past landscapes are mapped and considered here as valued environments of British Asian women in Britain. Through the mapping of their biographies, it is apparent that memories of other landscapes are embedded in environmental practices in Britain, therefore contributing to making the landscape in Britain inclusive and meaningful in the context of the South Asian migration. The maps of migration show the heterogeneity of landscapes experienced by the British Asian women. Memories of other lands manifest themselves in the UK. The effect of these memories on the South Asian home itself in the process of shaping diasporic geographies of belonging and being within the UK is illustrated

The spaces and politics of affective nationalism

Over the last decade affect has emerged as one of the most prominent concepts within human geography. More recently, scholars engaging with the nation have also have also drawn on insights from studies of affect to interrogate the ways in which relations between people and materially heterogeneous assemblages underpin national forms of identification, organisation and expression. This symposium aims to interrogate affective nationalism both as an analytical lens and a topic of investigation. More specifically it looks into the spaces and the politics of affective nationalism as a way to explore how the nation continues to operate as a salient register in people’s everyday lives.</p