Untitled Notes

Definition: Geoscientisation refers to the phenomena whereby geography is subjected to top-down managerial neoliberalisation, resulting in administrative (re)locations in sciences and engineering faculties.
Characteristics of Geoscientisation: Includes forced mergers with physical sciences, e.g., geology, earth sciences, and environmental sciences/studies.
Consequences for Geography: Implies significant epistemic erasure and negative implications especially for critical human geographers within these new structural configurations.

Historical Background: In recent years, standalone departments of geography have been disappearing globally, merging into faculties of science and engineering instead of humanities and social sciences.
Emergence of Geosciences: Geography often gets reclassified under the umbrella term 'geosciences,' historically linked to geosciences disciplines more closely associated with the physical sciences.
Regional Examples: Notable universities experiencing these changes include Sydney, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, where geography is subsumed under the reified structure of geosciences.

Nature of Epistemic Erasure: The systematic elimination of geography as a distinct discipline; for example, many school configurations fail to explicitly include human geography.
Exemplary Definition: American Geosciences Institute defines geoscience strictly in physical terms, neglecting the contributions from humanities and social sciences and, consequently, human geography.
Experiences of Academics: Anecdotes from geographers highlighting the emotional trauma linked to administrative restructuring and the continuous struggle for recognition within their institutions.

Top-down restructuring: Resultant of neoliberal policies that redefine the academic structure including college governance, funding allocation, and departmental hierarchies.
Impact of Restructuring: The pressures of reform have led to emotional exhaustion among geographers, with some experiencing traumatic responses to their academic environments.

Historical Perspective on Geography: Geography's history is one of identity struggle, grappling with its placement between established sciences and humanities.
Colonial Legacy: The historical roots of geography's turmoil derive from its colonial origins and relationship with empire, which persist in cultural discourses today.
Quantitative Revolution: Legacy impacts of this past era continue to haunt geography departments, breeding tensions regarding methodologies and scholarly status.

Ongoing Vulnerabilities: Geography departments worldwide remain under threat with substantial closures noted in places like Harvard University and in Australia.
Need for Interdisciplinary Engagement: Arcane academic traditions within geography demand engagement with diverse disciplines for survival and to nourish critical scholarship.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Highlighting successful collaborations exemplifies paths to sustaining critical human geography despite a prevailing inclination toward positivism in the academy.

Neoliberal Metrics: The shifting landscape rewards physical scientists with more funding and publication prospects compared to their human geography counterparts, privileging physical science output.
Institutional Policy Challenges: Human geographers perceive policy frameworks as punitive, often resulting in stifled research outputs and restrictions on academic progression.

Naming and Branding Challenges: Geo-scientific branding can erase geography's identity, as disciplinary names often carry implications that marginalize human geography's critical contributions.
Disciplinary Metrics: The superficial application of publication metrics often disadvantages human geographers who produce slower, more nuanced publications—such as monographs.
Promotion Challenges: Those evaluating academic perspectives are predominantly composed of physical scientists who overlook or misinterpret contributions from the humanities.

Need for Advocacy: There is a necessity to advocate for standalone geography departments and assert visibility and recognition for human geographical contributions within academia.
Decolonization Movements: Mobilizing existing frameworks for equity and decolonization to combat the forces of epistemological monopolization prevalent in geo-scientific frameworks.
Student Influence: Student perspectives and demands for critical inquiry in geology and humanitarian studies can leverage institutional reforms.

Critical Stance Required: Academic freedom must be defended against the neoliberal forces of geoscientisation that challenge fundamental geographic scholarship.
Affirmative Politics: Emphasizing the right to identify as geographers rather than geoscientists paves the way for a renewed liberation of the discipline beyond scientific constrictions.
Collaborative Relationships: Building bridges across divisions in geography may counteract the inequities amplified by existing institutional structures, ultimately refining interdisciplinary research.