Socio-spatial experiences of living with cancer: new landscapes of a geographer-patient

Abstract

This paper makes the case that the diagnosis of and treatment for stage IV colon cancer is essentially a socio-spatial experience. It utilizes autoethnography to describe issues of place and identity, the design implications of healthcare spaces, places of home and work, and the ways in which new therapeutic landscapes are assembled. Given the contradictory and transgressive nature of advanced cancer, this paper draws upon contrasting theoretical frameworks of humanistic geography, the production of space, and non-representational theory to convey the experience of becoming a geographer-patient. The author’s new positionality is shown to inform and enrich his understandings of space and place while also shaping his experience of living with cancer. Finally, this paper advocates for a more formal role that human geographers might play in the treatment of disease. By helping patients understand the socio-spatial aspects of cancer, the adoption of geographical insights may offer the possibility of relocating the experience of cancer beyond landscapes of morbidity to landscapes of agency and vitality.

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