On geography and encounter

Abstract

The notion of encounter has been used widely within work on urban diversity and socio-cultural difference, yet it remains under-theorized. This paper argues that ‘encounter’ is a conceptually charged construct that is worthy of sustained and critical attention. Drawing on a wide range of geographical interests, including animal geographies, urban diversity, postcolonialism, mobile geographies, and the more-than-human, it offers the first examination of how ‘encounter’ has been deployed across the discipline. By further tracing the historical links between geography and encounter, the paper contends that encounters are distinct genres of contact, and demonstrates why this matters for geographical thought, and how we think about bodies, borders, and difference.

Re-working encounter: the role of reflexivity in managing difference

“…They can neglect distinct histories (Harris, Jackson, Piekut, & Valentine, 2017), and sustained relationships with place and others that shape accumulated cultural knowledge and subsequent outcomes of encounter (Bennett & Crawley-Jackson, 2017;Neal et al, 2016;Wilson, 2016). As Sadgrove (2014, p. 1979) have argued, affective approaches have at times lost sight of the significance of the subject: of the reflective judgements of 'others' made by individuals; of our ability to make decisions around the control of our feelings and identifications; and of the significance of personal pasts and collective histories in shaping the ways we perceive and react to encounters.…”

“…There is little doubt that the scripts of everyday practice and space use are deeply written into subjectivity and identity, as Akram and Hogan (2015) suggest; for example, entrenched heuristics of race and gender (see also Wilson, 2016). Such constraints can impede reflexivity as internal conversations may be foreclosed by hegemonic discourse.…”

“…As Wilson (2016) has argued, sites of encounter create the possibility of pedagogy. Nor do I suggest inevitable positive outcomes, given the intersections of social categories brought into any encounter.…”

“…When asked why this surprised him, he responded that it was because he was not dressed 'trendy' . Tyrell's research underlines the importance of a personal relationship with an out-group member, enabling others' beliefs and norms to be experienced as specific emotions, thoughts and practices rather than abstract entities, in order to develop the sense of something shared (Lawler, 2001;Pagani et al, 2011;Wilson, 2016).A particular moment of reflexivity was sparked by meeting a young woman, in Goth style clothing, who expressed how she felt more at home in Broadway Market than in her hometown of Leeds (Figure 4). …”

“I never felt targeted as an Asian … until I went to a gay pub”: Sexual racism and the aesthetic geographies of the bad encounter

“…Building on Wilson's (2016) argument about the importance of understanding the multifaceted ways that encounters may be ''meaningful,'' I examine the bad encounter of sexual racism in order to show how participants ''learn from blockages'' (Ahmed, 2010: 215) and develop response-both quotidian and more organized-to encounters with racializing dispositions and practices.…”