‘You're stuffed, bear!’: Geography's colonial legacies in the ‘Paddington Empire’

Abstract

As academic geographers continue to investigate popular geographical knowledges and imaginations beyond the bounds of academic publications, less attention has been given to moments when popular geographies reverse the gaze, expressly lifting the curtain on the production of knowledge by those of us who call ourselves professional geographers. What could turning to popular culture tell professional geographers about perceptions of our discipline, its history of complicity with imperialism, and its practices of knowledge production? This paper offers some partial answers by turning to an English popular cultural metaseries that is remarkably explicit and dynamic in its depiction of geography: Michael Bond's Paddington Bear franchise, or as Bond ironically referred to it, the “Paddington Empire.” From the very first Paddington story published in 1958 to the 2014 feature film, the Paddington franchise scrutinises geography and stages the work of professional geographical institutions, from the Royal Geographical Society to the imaginary “Geographers' Guild of Great Britain.” Drawing on archival work in Bond's collected papers, interviews, contextualising scholarship, journalism, and careful readings of the Paddington texts, I argue that the Paddington Empire iteratively reprises colonial encounters, at times in troubling ways, but also offers insightful critiques of extractive forms of geographical knowledge production.

History and philosophy of geography I: Heterodox progress, critical scepticism and intellectual voluminosity

“…To this set of interesting interventions another suite of related work is to be added, which account for the variety of topics, figures and places that are interrogated historically. Examples range from investigation on popular culture (such as Michael Bond’s Paddington Bear stories from 1958 to 2014) in which geography’s image and perceived complicities of geographical institutions with Empire is revealed (Seitz, 2022); to engagements with the entanglements between field and archive in early 20th century Arctic expeditions, which were central to the practices of ecology (Bruun, 2022); or even the changing nature of ‘discursive tactics’ of colonial officials reporting about the 1952 cyclone in present-day mainland Tanzania under British rule (Tanganyika Territory), whose account of the severity of the damages shifted depending on the audience and what they wanted to obtain by addressing central government.…”

Ecological kin‐making in the multispecies muddle: An analytical framework for understanding embodied environmental citizen science experiences

“…For example, it is now well understood that geographical knowledge creation played a central role in injustices perpetuated in the name of empire building and colonisation (Tilley, 2011). Acknowledging these realities is crucial to creating a more equitable future of scientific discovery, not least within geographical research, which lives with its imperial legacies (Seitz, 2022).…”