Geography and decolonisation

Abstract

This introduction to a special issue on Geography and Decolonisation examines the complex relationship between the discipline of geography and the process of post-war decolonisation. It argues that little attention has been paid to decolonisation within geographical thought and scholarship or to the role that geographers played in the dissolution of colonial empires. It discusses the semantic difficulties surrounding the term decolonisation and examines the ways in which it used in current projects to reshape the academy and the production of knowledge. Serving as an introduction to the five substantive papers in the special issue it identifies cross-cutting themes and sets out a case for further examination of the spatiality of decolonisation.