Geopolitics and the geographer: ethics and the everyday in times of global existential crisis

This is a version of the Eurasian Geography and Economics sponsored keynote paper presented at the Cities After Transition (CAT-network) 10th International Urban Geographies of Post-Communist States Conference, hosted by the Department of Human Geography, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia in September, 2023. Given the numerous overlapping crises that threaten life around the globe at every scale, this paper questions the relevance of status-quo approaches to geographical inquiry, beginning from but not limited to Central and Eastern Europe. In the context of so much urgent and ongoing need, the paper posits that a refinement of conceptual, methodological, and ethical commitments is necessary if we wish to do work that matters. It proposes a series of keystone sensitivities: humility and the appreciation of difference, relevance and the appreciation of the moment, and scale and the appreciation of the everyday. The paper presents the theoretical commitments underpinning each of these keystones and then suggests a menu of practical moves to inform future research and ground academic work within the urgency of the present moment. Ultimately, the paper aspires to break out of the limitations of regional container thinking and instead puts into practice the notion that theory can be generated anywhere, rather than only from select sites in the dominant Anglo-American circuits of knowledge production. On this foundation, the paper attempts to make meaning from difficulty, and offers theoretical and practical suggestions for scholars to do ethical and relevant work in this era of existential crisis.