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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Robert ShawORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Geographers have shown that power structures shape the doing of geography and the knowledge that we produce. These power structures are maintained, in part, by discourses that themselves are supported by the representative work of images. This paper explores how geography is visualised as an institutional academic discipline, using a discourse and content analysis of 196 images from 15 geography department websites and Instagram accounts. In these images, geography is depicted as an active discipline, with empirical and particularly rural field-based research at its heart. Qualitative methods and urban research are rarely depicted. Geographers themselves are shown as friendly and welcoming, revealing the evolution from a paternalistic academic of old to an (apparently) engaging academia of the neoliberal university. While welcome in some ways, the depiction of education in particular will be misleading for many, showing a more discursive and collaborative practice than many students experience. This appearance of engagement is further undone by the lack of diversity of people shown as geographers. The geography of institutional websites is dominated by racial majorities. There are few if any markers of difference that suggest the presence of oppressed or minority groups in geography, although outside East Asia there is a healthy gender split. The images from Instagram offer, in some instances, more diversity in terms of showing geographic practice, and the paper suggests that despite concerns about social media, it may still be a place where geographers can construct more varied representations of our discipline.
Author(s): Shaw R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Area
Year: 2025
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 23/05/2025
Acceptance date: 02/05/2025
Date deposited: 28/05/2025
ISSN (print): 0004-0894
ISSN (electronic): 1475-4762
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.70025
DOI: 10.1111/area.70025
Data Access Statement: Research data are not shared.
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