Cosmohistories and pluriversal dialogues: The future of the history of geography

Abstract

When it comes to the ‘History of Geography’, many still think of something descriptive and conservative, which has virtually no links with the ‘future’, a metaphorical place where ‘progress’ and ‘advancements’ are usually located. The existence of such feelings exposes how some lingering positivistic views still remain in parts of the discipline that claimed to have got rid of positivism. In this commentary, we contend that the history of geography can play an important role in re-imagining the future of the discipline. First, drawing upon our own research experience and extending recent literature on ‘geographical futures’, we expose why the history of geography is making increasingly important contributions to key discussions in a plural and evolving discipline. We especially focus on the ongoing pluralistic and multilingual rediscovery of ‘other geographical traditions’ that is enriching critical, radical, and feminist approaches to geography. Next, we propose to enrich the field of geography and its prevailing ‘Western’ origin stories by engaging in pluriversal dialogues with Indigenous knowledge and practices, focusing on Latin America and on decolonial notions such as cosmohistory, which show that there are many histories of geography, and they all matter for the futures of the discipline.