The Centrality of Geography: from concepts to practises

Abstract

In 2013, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Portuguese Association of Geographers, we published, in the journal Inforgeo, a small essay entitled: We continue to seek Geography: what is it and what is it for. The concerns and challenges remain, in other times and other spaces. Contemporaneity has favoured the centrality of geographical knowledge: from spatial planning to sciences, arts, philosophy, there is the fascination with concepts such as the border, travel, nomadism, margin, inclusion and exclusion, concepts that long since are also part of the geographical grammar. From the challenge placed in the congress presentation text, requiring “the continuous rethinking of Geography”, in order to achieve a better understanding of the “concreteness of the World”, we have supported ourselves in the thematic axis proposed as working areas to organize our intervention, which is summarized in four topics: (1) Space-time-innovation: where it speaks of Hägerstrand and the remote village of Palaçoulo (Trás-os-Montes, Portugal); (2) The struggle for Land: where it speaks of the essence of Geography and of the Agrarian Reform in Alentejo (South of Portugal), from the collective production units to Leanfarming; (3) Planning and Urban Management as instruments of the city’s social segmentation: where it speaks of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and the new urban social movements; (4) The need of Geography to reclaim its territory: where it speaks of nature, environment, eating, drinking, man, and woman (Ang Lee: yin, shi, nan, nu: 飲食男女).