Theorizing ‘crisis’ as performative politics

Abstract

As physical/environmental geographers, we respond to Larner (2011) in two ways. First, we argue that the crisis frame – which she caveats, but implicitly accepts – is problematic because it performs and legitimates a certain kind of politics, and pulls analytical foci away from other approaches. The ontological and epistemological moments of Larner’s crises require clarification, and the ‘value added’ from declaring yet more geographical crises needs to be assessed. Second, we develop epochal themes from physical geography to converse with Larner’s call for more situated approaches to the production and circulation of knowledge. Place-based and historically contingent science and knowledge networks are increasingly important for understanding and enacting progressive and sustainable environmental governance regimes. Physical and human geographers can find productive common ground in developing situated knowledges of ‘change response’ across a spectrum of social-environmental concerns.