Practicing critical physical geography: New trading zones and interactional expertise in an expanding field

Abstract

In 2014, an intervention paper was published in The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien, calling for greater integration of physical and critical human geography, through an intellectual practice termed critical physical geography (Lave et al., 2014). The 2014 piece took shape following several years of formal and informal conversations among its 19 authors at conference panels, colloquium talks, in hallways, over coffee, and at bathroom sinks. They argued that practicing critical physical geography (CPG) is necessary given the eco-social hybridity of our world. Lave et al. (2014, p. 2) wrote: "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." The piece then asked: "What are the opportunities for a more critical physical geography and a more physical critical human geography? What new research, teaching, and political practices can we build on a foundation of subaltern studies, biogeography, political-