This paper recounts an experiment in learning together, which took place over a series of six reading weekends in different cities over a period of 6 years. The participants were German-speaking geography students plus one English academic. The aim was to discuss issues (beginning with queer theory) that could not be discussed within the German academy and to do so in a way which was open, questioning, cooperative and based on friendship.
The MomentOn a sunny day in June 1998 on a terrace in Heidelberg it happened that a group of about six German-speaking feminist geographers were talking with Doreen Massey. The occasion was the prestigious Hettner Lecture organised by the geography department of the University of Heidelberg, to which 30 geography graduate students from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are invited annually. This year the lecture and guest at the subsequent week of discussion was Doreen Massey. The two main topics were high technology and globalisation, on one hand, and identity, gender and space on the other hand. Especially while discussing the latter theme queer theory was mentioned, both by Doreen as a question and by a few of us who really wanted to explore the issue. But somehow it was never taken further. In fact, it became clear that in this kind of formal occasion in German academic geography it was not easy to open up a space for discussion of such a topic. However, on the terrace later, during a break from formal proceedings, a group of us, including Doreen, got talking about it again. Why was it so difficult to raise in such a setting? Both the group of feminist geographers and Doreen Massey felt an urge to continue this rather informal terrace talk on queer issues. The involvement in-and critique of-identity politics was important to the terrace group, for central to identity politics is to understand the social injustice which is linked to identity categories. In this context, queer theory opened up possibilities to approach identity politics beyond gender. This very moment on the terrace was only possible because of a set of
