Kath Browne

Introduction: towards trans geographies

Gender geographies have focused on normatively gendered men and women, neglecting the ways in which gender binaries can be contested and troubled. Trans people question hegemonic conventions that link sexed bodies, gender roles and lives. This collection spans a range of theoretical fields in this context, including trans theories, queer engagement, feminist geographies, gender geographies and sexualities geographies. It offers empirical investigations of trans lives, while addressing the often theoretical use of ‘trans’ to render gender fluid, incoherent and unintelligible. As a whole this themed section questions geographys presumption of man/woman and male/female.

Sedgwick’s geographies: Touching space

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1950—2009) was one of the founders of queer theory and a significant contributor to the fields of literary theory and philosophy. The four papers in this forum consider the impact and influence her work has had on diverse fields of research in human geography. Specifically, the papers examine how her work on the epistemology of the closet has been materialized and contested by geographers of sexualities; how her queer theorizing inspired the diverse economies approach in economic geography; and how her understanding of affect offers an alternative to Deleuzian-inspired approaches to more-than-representational thinking in geography. The forum highlights various ways in which Sedgwick’s writings can continue to inspire novel thinking in human geography.

Reinvigorating social geographies? A ‘social re/turn’ for a changing social world: (re)opening a debate

Stemming from a Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG)-funded twoday conference held in Brighton, UK, in 2009, the papers in this debate reflect on a key subdisciplinary moment, namely the question of the ‘social’ in Social and Cultural Geography. The impetus and timing for the conference stemmed from recurring ‘mutterings’ and informal exchanges about a perceived disconnect between social and cultural geographers, and associated uncertainties about the rationale and value of a research group that seeks to unite social and cultural geographers. Underpinning these sentiments were emotive allegations, albeit unsubstantiated, of: the stranglehold of the sub-discipline by cultural geographers and the over-privileging of ‘cultural’ themes, the disenfranchisement and relative powerlessness of social geographers, and the rising sub-disciplinary ascendance of cultural geography. As conference organisers, and particularly given that the three of us hail from different positions on the social and cultural geography spectrum, we were intrigued to explore the veracity of these perceptions and hearsay about the recent direction of the SCGRG. The prominence of Social and Cultural Geography, particularly within the Social & Cultural Geography, Vol. 12, No. 6, September 2011

‘What you say when you're pissing’: gender and sexual difference in heteronormative toilets

This article is part of a review symposium of Sheila Cavanaghs book Queering bathrooms: gender, sexuality and the hygienic imagination, 2010, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 295 pp., £19.94 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-4426-10736