Reclaiming other geographical traditions: The hidden roots of Italian radical geography

Abstract

Abstract The article recalls the history of Geografia Democratica, a collective of scholars that during the second half of the 1970s sought to dismantle the old deterministic approach and promote a critical and radical turn in Italian academic geography. The aim is to contribute to the ongoing debate about ‘other geographical traditions’ beyond the Anglo‐American hegemony, to highlight the pluriversal roots of contemporary critical geographies and the influence that the transnational circulation of knowledge had in their unfolding, in light of recent quests for a more global geographical imagination. To do so, the article first engages with Geografia Democratica as a ‘rupture experience’ in the mainstream of Italian geography, and then discusses how it intersected or not similar turns that occurred elsewhere, focusing on the mostly implicit dialogue between Italian and Anglo‐American critical/radical geographies of the time. By following the controversial story of the collective during and after its short existence, we question its legacy for today's geographical scholarship, and reflect more generally upon the significance of reviving other critical and radical traditions. To highlight the plurality of our disciplinary past, we suggest, is crucial not only to fill the ‘asymmetric ignorance’ between various traditions, but also to nurture and reposition the present ‘worlding’ practices of non‐Anglophone critical geographers.

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