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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License Newcastle University ePrints-eprint.ncl.ac.uk Pain R. Social geography: participatory research.

Recent debates around urban encounter, integration and cosmopolitanism and renewed engagement with contact theory have raised questions about the spaces of interaction that may enable meaningful encounters between different social groups. Reflecting on a participatory art project with young people of African and British heritage in north east England, we argue that discussion and practice around participatory action research, including the deployment of contact zones as theory and method, can cast some light on what fosters transformative spaces. Through analysis of two different approaches to community art used in the project, we show how elements of each enabled and disabled meaningful interaction between young people. We draw attention to the materiality of art (the tools) within participatory practices (the doing of it) in contributing to a space where interactions might take place, emphasising a complex interplay across/between actors, materials and space that frames encounters as emergent, transitory, fragile yet hopeful. We examine the potential of a focus on the material in thinking beyond moments of encounter to how transformative social relations may be 'scaled up', before considering the implications for research and policy. IntroductionRecently, increasing attention has been given to the spatialities of interethnic encounters, focusing on how the settings of contact between different groups, as well as their wider political and social contexts, play a key role in the experiences and outcomes of encounter 'contact theory' (after Allport 1954), focusing on the spaces of interaction that may enable 'meaningful encounters' between different social groups, particularly because separation and hostility between existing and newly arrived groups is a key current social and political issue of concern in the UK and elsewhere.While in this paper we emphasise that there can be no quick fix for 'integration', our perspective is a hopeful one. We discuss an example that begins to map out the detailed practices and spaces that might move beyond the reiterative and exclusionary processes that We aim to make three main contributions to academic and policy literatures in this paper.First, we wish to make an explicit link between spatiality, encounter and the notion of contact zones, emphasising contact zones as method as well as theory. We suggest that feminist and participatory epistemological perspectives are critical to conceptual work on contact zones, if we are to develop a more nuanced and ethical approach to research, policy and practice in this area. Secondly, we highlight the role of the physical nature of encounters in fostering or foreclosing interaction, suggesting that alongside enabling spaces for intercultural encounter, attention must be paid to the materialities of such encounters -or more specifically, the epistemological deployment of materials within arenas of social interaction. Finally, we argue that paying close attention to these 'geographies of matter' can help us think through issues ...

This article reviews the literature on fear of crime of interest to the geographical and environmental disciplines. After discussing definitional and methodological issues, the article focuses on accounts which link fear with the physical environment, and then on fear, social identity and exclusion. It considers the significance of one area of recent research that attempts to link place and social relations through developing local ethnographies of fear. The review concludes with some suggestions for building upon this work, and highlights the relevance of the geographical themes discussed to current policy debates.

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Drawing on feminist scholarship, I call for an emotional geopolitics of fear which connects political processes and everyday emotional topographies in a less hierarchical, more enabling relationship. I employ conscientization as a tool to inform the reconceptualisation of global fears within critical geopolitics, and to move forward epistemological practice and our relationship as scholars with social change.

A recent opinion piece rekindled debate as to whether geography's current interdisciplinary make-up is a historical relic or an actual and potential source of intellectual vitality. Taking the latter position, we argue here for the benefits of sustained integration of physical and critical human geography. For reasons both political and pragmatic, we term this area of intermingled research and practice critical physical geography (CPG). CPG combines critical attention to power relations with deep knowledge of biophysical science or technology in the service of social and environmental transformation. We argue that whether practiced by individuals or teams, CPG research can improve the intellectual quality and expand the political relevance of both physical and critical human geography because it is increasingly impractical to separate analysis of natural and social systems: socio-biophysical landscapes are as much the product of unequal power relations, histories of colonialism, and racial and gender disparities as they are of hydrology, ecology, and climate change. Here, we review existing CPG work; discuss the primary benefits of critically engaged integrative research, teaching, and practice; and offer our collective thoughts on how to make CPG work.Keywords: physical geography, critical human geography, transdisciplinarity, anthropoceneIntervention en géographie physique critique Un article d'opinion paru récemment est à l'origine de la relance d'un débat qui pose la question à savoir si le fondement interdisciplinaire actuel de la géographie serait une relique historique ou une source réelle et potentielle de vitalité intellectuelle. En prenant la défense de la seconde position, nous militons en faveur des bénéfices découlant de l'intégration soutenue de la géographie physique et de la géographie humaine critique. Pour des raisons à la fois politiques et pragmatiques, nous avons nommé ce domaine de recherche et de pratique enchevêtré la géographie physique critique (GPC). C'est au service de la transformation sociale et environnementale que la GPC intègre un regard critique sur les relations de pouvoir à la connaissance profonde de la science ou de la technologie biophysique. Que se soient des individus ou des équipes qui la pratiquent, les travaux de recherche en GPC peuvent contribuer à l'amélioration de la qualité intellectuelle et à l'élargissement de la pertinence politique de la géographie humaine critique et géographie physique, compte tenu que la séparation de l'analyse des systèmes naturels et des systèmes sociaux pose des difficultés d'ordre pratique. À l'origine des paysages sociobiophysiques se trouvent autant les relations inégales de pouvoir, les histoires de colonialisme et les disparités raciales et entre les sexes que l'hydrologie, l'écologie et les changements climatiques. Dans cette partie de l'article, nous passons en revue les travaux actuels en GPC, nous engageons une discussion sur les principaux avantages des approches intégratives et véritablement critiques en recherche, dans l'ense...

Participatory research approaches are increasingly popular with geographers in developed as well as developing countries, as critical qualitative methodologies which at their best work with participants to effect change. This paper adds to recent debates over the methodologies, practices, philosophical and political issues involved. Drawing on a project on young people, exclusion and crime victimization in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, we discuss the limitations of participatory diagramming and illustrate some of the social and political barriers to meaningful participation in, and action from, this type of research.

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