“Regarding the pain of others”: urban geography after empathy

Abstract

While urban geography has made significant contributions to mainstreaming disruptive thinking through its invocation of justice, less discussed is what good must our descriptions do especially when they pertain to others’ suffering. This essay addresses the ethics of practicing social inquiry by drawing two thematic lessons: painful clarity and the appropriation of space. Centering the importance of painful clarity reflects on the relational politics of plural claims-making, the ongoingness of which helps us focus not only on our everyday complicity in others’ struggles but also on what can be done here and now. The appropriation of space highlights the role of spatial milieu as a medium through which structural constraints and political agency can be situated in a specific time and place, enabling forms of social inquiries that are instrumental and operative. I conclude by suggesting three considerations that could help bridge the separation between knowledge and action.

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