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Simon Springer
  • Discipline of Geography and Environmental Studies
    School of Environmental and Life Sciences
    University of Newcastle
    University Drive
    Callaghan NSW 2308
    Australia

Simon Springer

The University of Newcastle, Geography and Environmental Studies, Faculty Member
Authored Books
The Discourse of Neoliberalism: An Anatomy of a Powerful Ideamore
by Simon Springer
'The Discourse of Neoliberalism: An Anatomy of a Powerful Idea' explores the internal workings of capitalism’s most infamous contemporary offspring by dissecting the diverse interpretations of neoliberalism that have been advanced in... more
'The Discourse of Neoliberalism: An Anatomy of a Powerful Idea' explores the internal workings of capitalism’s most infamous contemporary offspring by dissecting the diverse interpretations of neoliberalism that have been advanced in academia. Using a critical geographical approach to pierce the heart of neoliberal theory, the book arrives at a discursive understanding wherein political economic approaches to neoliberalism are sutured together with poststructuralist interpretations in an attempt to overcome the ongoing ideological impasse that prevents the articulation of a more vibrant solidarity on the political left. Reading neoliberalism as a discourse better equips us to understand the power of this variegated economic formation as an expansive process of social-spatial transformation that is intimately bound up with the production of poverty, inequality, and violence across the globe. In examining how imaginative geographies are employed to discursively bind neoliberalism’s attendant violence to particular places and thereby blame its victims, this vivisection of neoliberalism reveals the concealment of an inherently bloodthirsty character to an ever-mutating process of socio-spatial transformation that simply refuses to die.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Date: 2016
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, History, Sociology, Political Sociology, and 32 more
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The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipationmore
by Simon Springer
"The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Towards Spatial Emancipation" sets the stage for a radical politics of possibility and freedom through a discussion of the insurrectionary geographies that suffuse our daily experiences. By embracing... more
"The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Towards Spatial Emancipation" sets the stage for a radical politics of possibility and freedom through a discussion of the insurrectionary geographies that suffuse our daily experiences. By embracing anarchist geographies as kaleidoscopic spatialities that allow for non-hierarchical connections between autonomous entities, wherein solidarities are voluntarily assembled in opposition to sovereign violence, predetermined norms, and assigned categories of belonging, we configure a political imagination that is capable of demanding the impossible. Experimentation in and through space is the story of humanity’s place on the planet, and the stasis and control that now supersedes ongoing organizing experiments is an affront to our very survival. Singular ontological modes that favor one particular way of doing things disavow geography by failing to understand the spatial as an ongoing mutable assemblage that is intimately bound to temporality. Even worse, such stagnant ideas often align to the parochial interests of an elite minority and thereby threaten to be our collective undoing. What is needed is the development of new relationships with our world, and crucially, with each other. By infusing our geographies with anarchism we unleash a spirit of rebellion that foregoes a politics of waiting for change to come at the behest of elected leaders, and instead engages new possibilities of mutual aid through direct action in the here and now. Anarchism is accordingly framed as a perpetually evolving process of geographical prefiguration that seeks to refashion entrenched modes of understanding and being in the world vis-à-vis the authoritarian institutions, proprietary relations, and pugnacious geopolitics that dominate contemporary political relations and their associated configurations of space. We can no longer accept the decaying, archaic geographies of hierarchy that chain us to statism, capitalism, gender domination, racial oppression, and imperialism. Instead, geography must become beautiful, wherein the entirety of its embrace is aligned to emancipation.
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Economic History, Sociology, and 124 more
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Violent Neoliberalism: Development, Discourse, and Dispossession in Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
Violent Neoliberalism explores the relationship between neoliberalism and violence through a critical poststructuralist perspective. Springer exposes the supposed humanitarianism of what has become the world's most dominant political... more
Violent Neoliberalism explores the relationship between neoliberalism and violence through a critical poststructuralist perspective. Springer exposes the supposed humanitarianism of what has become the world's most dominant political economic model as a process of transformation that is shot through with a significant degree of cruelty. Employing a series of theoretical dialogues informed by the empirical experiences of development, discourse, and dispossession in contemporary Cambodia, Violent Neoliberalism engages as a diagnostic rupturing of commonsense to reveal the manifold ways in which ongoing patterns of neoliberalization have become engrossed with violence.
More Info: Springer, S. 2015. Violent Neoliberalism: Development, Discourse and Dispossession in Cambodia. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication Date: 2015
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, and 53 more
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Cambodia’s Neoliberal Order: Violence, Authoritarianism, and the Contestation of Public Spacemore
by Simon Springer
Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the promise that markets will bring... more
Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the promise that markets will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, neoliberalisation has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills.

This book deals with the post-conflict geographies of violence and neoliberalisation in Cambodia. Applying a geographical analysis to contemporary Cambodian politics, the author employs notions of neoliberalism, public space, and radical democracy as the most substantive components of its theoretical edifice. He argues that the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. The book demonstrates Cambodian perspectives on the role of public space in Cambodia's process of democratic development and explains the implications of violence and its relationship with neoliberalism.

Taking into account the transition from war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, and command economy to a free market, this book offers a critical appraisal of the political economy in Cambodia.
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Reviews:

Gunn, G. C. 2013. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43.1: 188-191.

Brickell, K. 2011. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52.3: 372-374.

Percival, T. 2011. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 32.2: 270-272.

Christie, R. 2010. South East Asia Research, 19.2: 349-372.

Ordóñez de Pablos, P. 2010. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management, 1.4: 65-66.
More Info: Published by Routledge, Hardback 2010, Paperback 2012
Publisher: Routledge
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Geography, and 135 more
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Edited Books & Special Issues
Vegan Geographies: Spaces Beyond Violence, Ethics Beyond Speciesismmore
by Simon Springer and Ophélie Véron
Fourteen chapters from international geographers and cultural analysts, academic and otherwise, on veganism as a conceptual and physical space. Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it... more
Fourteen chapters from international geographers and cultural analysts, academic and otherwise, on veganism as a conceptual and physical space.

Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently emerged from sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, or critical animal studies, a comprehensive geographical analysis is missing. Until now. In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement. Vegan Geographies fundamentally challenges outdated but still dominant human–nature dualisms that underpin widespread suffering and ecological degradation, providing practical and accessible pathways for people interested in challenging contemporary systems and working collectively toward less destructive worlds.
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Vegan Geographies: Spaces Beyond Violence, Ethics Beyond Speciesism
Research Interests:
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Undoing Human Supremacy: Anarchist Political Ecology in the Face of Anthroparchymore
by Simon Springer
The Earth is in crisis. We know this. We have known this for a long time. In the throes of the unfolding nightmare we call “capitalism” it is not hard to see and hear the violence that is being enacted against the planet. If we are to... more
The Earth is in crisis. We know this. We have known this for a long time. In the throes of the unfolding nightmare we call “capitalism” it is not hard to see and hear the violence that is being enacted against the planet. If we are to move beyond the idea that humanity is tasked with expressing our dominion over nature and towards a renewed integral understanding of humanity as firmly located within the biosphere, as an anarchist political ecology demands, then we have to start interrogating the privileges, hierarchies, and human-centric frames that guide our ways of knowing and being in the world.

This volume centers around the idea that anarchism, as a conceptual framework, encourages us to contend with the multiple lines of difference, the various iterations of privilege, and the manifold set of archies that undergird our understandings of the world, and crucially, our place within it.
Publication Date: 2021
Research Interests:
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Inhabiting the Earth: Anarchist Political Ecology for Landscapes of Emancipationmore
by Simon Springer
Over the last several decades, scholars and practitioners have progressively acknowledged that we cannot consider cities as the place where nature stops anymore, resulting in urban environments being increasingly appreciated and theorized... more
Over the last several decades, scholars and practitioners have progressively acknowledged that we cannot consider cities as the place where nature stops anymore, resulting in urban environments being increasingly appreciated and theorized as hybrids between nature and culture, entities made of socio-ecological processes in constant transformation. Spanning the fields of political ecology, environmental studies, and sociology, this new direction in urban theory emerged in concert with global concern for sustainability and environmental justice. This volume explores the notion that connecting with nature holds the key to a more progressive and liberatory politics.
Publication Date: 2021
Research Interests:
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Energies Beyond the State: Anarchist Political Ecology and the Liberation of Naturemore
by Simon Springer
Resource and environmental management generally entail an attempt by governing authorities to dominate, reroute, and tame the natural flows of water, the growth of forests, manage the populations of non-human bodies, and control nature... more
Resource and environmental management generally entail an attempt by governing authorities to dominate, reroute, and tame the natural flows of water, the growth of forests, manage the populations of non-human bodies, and control nature more generally. Often this is done under the mantle of conservation, economic development, and sustainable management, but still involves a quest to “civilize” and control all aspects of nature for a specific purpose.

The results of this form of environmental management and governance are many, but by and large, across the globe, it has meant governments construct a specific idea regarding nature and the environment. These forms of control also extend beyond the natural environment, allowing for particular methods of managing human and non-human populations in order to maintain power and enact sovereignty.

This volume contributes to advancing an ‘ecology of freedom,’ which can critique current anthropocentric environmental destruction, as well as focusing on environmental justice and decentralized ecological governance. While concentrating on these areas of anarchist political ecology, three major themes emerged from the chapters: the legacies of colonialism that continue to echo in current resource management and governance practices, the necessity of overcoming human/nature dualisms for environmental justice and sustainability, and finally discussions and critiques of extractivism as a governing and economic mentality.
Publication Date: 2021
Research Interests:
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The Handbook of Neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer and Kean Birch
The Routledge Handbook of Neoliberalism seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of neoliberalism by examining the range of ways that it has been theorized, promoted, critiqued, and put into practice in a variety of... more
The Routledge Handbook of Neoliberalism seeks to offer a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of neoliberalism by examining the range of ways that it has been theorized, promoted, critiqued, and put into practice in a variety of geographical locations and institutional frameworks. Neoliberalism is easily one of the most powerful discourses to emerge within the social sciences in the last two decades, and the number of scholars who write about this dynamic and unfolding process of socio-spatial transformation is astonishing. Even more surprising though is that there has, until now, not been an attempt to provide a wide-ranging volume that engages with the multiple registers in which neoliberalism has evolved. The Handbook of Neoliberalism accordingly serves as an essential guide to this vast intellectual landscape. With proposed contributions from over 50 leading authors, the Handbook of Neoliberalism will offer a systematic overview of neoliberalism’s origins, political implications, social tensions, spaces, natures and environments, and aftermaths in addressing ongoing and emerging debates. Numerous books have been published on neoliberalism, including important edited volumes, but none of these contributions have attempted to bring the diverse scope and wide-ranging coverage that we plan to incorporate here. Most of the edited volumes and monographs on neoliberalism that have been published to date have a very specific thematic focus, either on particular empirical case studies, or alternatively attempt to wrestle with a specific theoretical concern. In contrast, the Routledge Handbook of Neoliberalism aims to provide the first comprehensive overview of the field.

With authors working at institutions around the world, the Handbook of Neoliberalism will offer a thorough examination of how neoliberalism is understood by social scientists working from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Our goal is to advance the established and emergent debates in a field that has grown exponentially over the past two decades, coinciding with the meteoric rise of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, state form, policy and program, and governmentality. In short, the Handbook of Neoliberalism will intervene by both outlining how theorizations of neoliberalism have evolved and by exploring new research agendas that we hope will inform policy making and activism. The Handbook of Neoliberalism will include a substantive introductory chapter and seven main thematic sections. By presenting a comprehensive examination of the field, this edited volume will serve as an invaluable resource for undergraduates, graduate students, and professional scholars alike. We envision the book as both a teaching guide and a reference for human geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, heterodox economists, and others working on questions of neoliberalism and its multifarious effects.
More Info: Springer, S., Birch, K, and MacLeavy, J. eds. 2016. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. London: Routledge.
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2016
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Business, Management, Business Ethics, Finance, and 322 more
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The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revoltmore
by Simon Springer and Richard J White
Without questioning the importance of anarchist socio-spatial experiments of the past, the fact is that the last two decades have seen a kind of re-birth of libertarian practices and principles (horizontality, self-management,... more
Without questioning the importance of anarchist socio-spatial experiments of the past, the fact is that the last two decades have seen a kind of re-birth of libertarian practices and principles (horizontality, self-management, decentralisation, and so on), that are not necessarily connected to the anarchist tradition in a strict sense. Many contemporary social movements and forms of protest (and certainly most of those that are particularly creative and innovative) present a clear left-libertarian ‘soul’.  Examples of such practices of freedom abound, especially in Europe and the Americas, though there are some highly interesting examples in other continents as well, such as South Africa’s Abahlali base Mjondolo (literally ‘Movement of the Shack Dwellers’), particularly strong in Durban and Cape Town. Nowadays, emancipatory praxis is becoming gradually synonymous with direct action, horizontal decision-making and autonomy, and not with political parties and a ‘taking-state-power’ mentality. More than ever before, Marxist - and especially Leninist - methods and strategies have been placed under considerable suspicion. These developments create a range of important questions to consider, including: to what extent spatial practices have been consistently compatible with left-libertarian principles? To what extent can we say that anarchism and anarchists (or rather neo-anarchists, as well as libertarian autonomists) animate these movements, waves of protest, and forms of resistance? And what activities have been developed by these activists (in the realms of self-defence, production, culture etc.)?
More Info: Volume 3 of the 'Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt' series
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, and 72 more
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Theories of Resistance: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revoltmore
by Simon Springer and Richard J White
Space is never a neutral ‘stage’ on which social actors play their roles, sometimes cooperating with each other, sometimes struggling against each other. Space is a product of interrelations, and is always under construction. Its... more
Space is never a neutral ‘stage’ on which social actors play their roles, sometimes cooperating with each other, sometimes struggling against each other. Space is a product of interrelations, and is always under construction.  Its co-constitutive role in the development of social relations is multiple and complex: a reference for identity-building and re-building; a material condition for existence and survival; a symbol and instrument of power. However, as much as space has been made instrumental for the purposes of heteronomy (from class exploitation to gender oppression to racial segregation), space (spatial re-organisation, spatial practices and spatial resources) is also a basic condition for human emancipation, i.e. for autonomy and freedom. Recognising the way space has been used for resistance, especially in those more specifically left-libertarian contexts (from the early anarchist organising efforts in the 19th century, to the Paris Commune, to the early kibbutzim, to the makhnovitchina in Ukraine, to the socio-spatial revolution during the Spanish Civil War, to the contemporary re-birth of left-libertarian and sometimes specifically anarchist praxis among social movements such as Mexican Zapatistas) is important. Here, a greater understanding of space can teach a great deal about both limits and potentialities, particularly in relation to the possibilities and tasks of re-purposing and re-structuring the built environment, changing images of place, and overcoming old and new boundaries of all sorts.
More Info: Volume 2 of the 'Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt' series
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, and 51 more
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The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revoltmore
by Simon Springer and Richard J White
Pedagogy is central to geographical knowledge, where Kropotkin’s ‘What Geography Ought to Be’ has significantly shaped the face of contemporary geographical thought. At the same time, anarchists have developed very different political... more
Pedagogy is central to geographical knowledge, where Kropotkin’s ‘What Geography Ought to Be’ has significantly shaped the face of contemporary geographical thought. At the same time, anarchists have developed very different political imaginations than Marxists, where the importance of pedagogy has always been of primary importance. Pedagogy accordingly represents one of the key sites of contact where anarchist geographies can continue to inform and revitalize contemporary geographical thought. Anarchists have long been committed to bottom-up, ‘organic’ transformations of societies, subjectivities, and modes of organizing. For anarchists the importance of direct action and prefigurative politics have always taken precedence over concerns about the state, a focus that stems back to Max Stirner’s notion of insurrection in 'The Ego and Its Own' as walking one’s own way, ‘rising up’ above government, religion, and other hierarchies, not necessarily to overthrow them, but to simply disregard these structures by taking control of one’s own individual life and creating alternatives on the ground. Thus, the relevance of pedagogy to anarchist praxis (understood in a broad sense, as in Paulo Freire’s 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed') stems from its ability to guide a new way of thinking about the world and as a space that is able to foster transgression.
More Info: Volume 1 of the 'Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt' series
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Social Theory, and 130 more
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The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia offers a comprehensive overview of the current situation in the country, providing a broad coverage of social, cultural, political and economic developments within both rural and urban... more
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia offers a comprehensive overview of the current situation in the country, providing a broad coverage of social, cultural, political and economic developments within both rural and urban contexts during the last decade. Cambodia has undergone a rapid transformation in the years since the UNTAC mission of the early 1990s, and it seems necessary to take stock and explore the dimensions of these significant shifts in a country now garnering global media attention. From the violence of its (still) disputed 2013 elections, the protests of garment workers calling for higher pay on the global assembly line, to the widespread reality of forced evictions attracting international condemnation, it is an apposite time for an essential guide to examine these and other injustices which mark out the contemporary landscape of Cambodia.

With proposed contributions from over 35 leading Cambodia scholars, the Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia will offer a systematic overview of Cambodia’s political-economic tensions, rural developments, urban conflicts, social processes and cultural currents. Numerous books have been published on Cambodia, including important edited volumes, but none of these contributions have attempted to bring the diverse scope and wide-ranging coverage that we plan to incorporate here. Most of the edited volumes and monographs on Cambodia that have been published to date have a very specific thematic focus, either on particular empirical case studies, or alternatively attempt to wrestle with a specific historical concern. In contrast, the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia aims to provide the first comprehensive overview of the state of the field today.

With authors working at institutions spread across the globe, the Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia will offer a thorough examination of how contemporary Cambodia is understood by social scientists working from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Our goal is to advance the established and emergent debates in a field of study that has changed rapidly in the past ten years. In short, the Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia will intervene by both outlining how understandings of sociocultural and political economic processes in Cambodia have evolved and by exploring new research agendas that we hope will inform policy making and activism. The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia will include a substantive introductory chapter and six main thematic sections. By presenting a comprehensive examination of the field, this edited volume will serve as an invaluable resource for undergraduates, grad students, and professional scholars alike. We envision the book as both a teaching guide and a reference for Asian studies scholars, human geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, and critical economists.
More Info: Brickell, K. and Springer, S. eds. 2015. The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia. London: Routledge.
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2015
Publication Name: The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia
Research Interests:
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Leaky Geopolitics: The Ruptures and Transgressions of WikiLeaksmore
by Simon Springer and Wes Attewell
The unfurling of violent rhetoric and the show of force that has lead to the arrest, imprisonment, and impending extradition of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, serve as an exemplary moment in demonstrating state-sanctioned violence.... more
The unfurling of violent rhetoric and the show of force that has lead to the arrest, imprisonment, and impending extradition of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, serve as an exemplary moment in demonstrating state-sanctioned violence. Since the cables began leaking in November 2010, the violent reaction to WikiLeaks evidenced by numerous political pundits calling for Assange’s assassination or execution, and the movement within the US to have WikiLeaks designated a ‘foreign terrorist organization’, amount to a profound showing of authoritarianism. The ‘Wikigate’ scandal thus represents an important occasion to take stock and think critically about what this case tells us about the nature of sovereign power, freedom of information, the limits of democracy, and importantly, the violence of the state when it attempts to manage these considerations. This forum explores a series of challenges inspired by WikiLeaks, which we hope will prompt further debate and reflection within critical geopolitics.
More Info: Springer S, Chi H, Crampton J, McConnell F, Cupples J, Glynn K, Warf B, Attewell W. 2012. Leaky Geopolitics: The Ruptures and Transgressions of WikiLeaks. Geopolitics, 17 (3), 681–711.
Publication Date: 2012
Publication Name: Geopolitics
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Criminology, Media Sociology, and 124 more
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Anarchist Geographiesmore
by Simon Springer, Anthony Ince, and Gavin Brown
VIDEO ABSTRACT: http://antipodefoundation.org/2012/09/11/anarchist-geographies-special-issue-guest-editors-video-abstract/ This edited volume proceeds from the perspective that as contemporary global challenges push anarchist agendas... more
VIDEO ABSTRACT: http://antipodefoundation.org/2012/09/11/anarchist-geographies-special-issue-guest-editors-video-abstract/

This edited volume proceeds from the perspective that as contemporary global challenges push anarchist agendas back into widespread currency, geographers need to rise to this occasion and begin (re)mapping the possibilities of what anarchist perspectives might yet contribute to the discipline. We develop an exploratory volume, where explicitly and unashamedly anarchist approaches to human geography have been allowed to blossom in all their wonderful plurality. Accommodating a diversity of positionalities demands an unconstrained and eclectic embrace, and accordingly we understand the potentialities of anarchist theory and praxis as protean and manifold.  Through this unfolding and variegated approach, we seek to expose readers to a variety of epistemological, ontological, and methodological interpretations of anarchism, unencumbered by the strict disciplining frameworks that characterize other political philosophies, and purposefully open to contradiction and critique.

Included articles:

1. Foreword: Looking Forward / Acting Backward - Myrna Margulies Breitbart

2. Reanimating Anarchist Geographies: A New Burst of Colour - Simon Springer, Anthony Ince, Jenny Pickerill, Gavin Brown & Adam J. Barker

3. Anarchism! What Geography Still Ought to Be - Simon Springer

4. The Pervasive Nature of Heterodox Economic Spaces at a Time of Neoliberal Crisis: Towards a "Postneoliberal" Anarchist Future - Richard J. White & Colin C. Williams

5. In the Shell of the Old: Anarchist Geographies of Territorialisation - Anthony Ince

6. Emotion at the Center of Radical Politics: On the Affective Structures of Rebellion and Control - Nathan L. Clough

7. Anarchy, Geography and Drift - Jeff Ferrell

8. Radicalizing Relationships To and Through Shared Geographies: Why Anarchists Need to Understand Indigenous Connections to Land and Place - Adam J. Barker & Jenny Pickerill

9. Practice What You Teach: Placing Anarchism In and Out of the Classroom - Farhang Rouhani

10. Afterword: Anarchist Geographies and Revolutionary Strategies - Uri Gordon
More Info: Simon Springer, Anthony Ince, Jenny Pickerill, Gavin Brown and Adam J. Barker (Eds.)
Publication Date: Nov 2012
Publication Name: Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, Special Issue, 44 (5), 1579–1754.
Research Interests:
Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Historical Geography, Political Geography and Geopolitics, and 32 more
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Journal Articles
Decolonizing Knowledge Upstream: New Ways to Deconstruct and Fight Disinformation in an Era of COVID-19, Extreme Digital Transformation and Climate Emergencymore
by Simon Springer and Vural Özdemir│ազատ
Lies and disinformation have always existed throughout human history. However, disinformation has become a “pandemic within a pandemic” with convergence of COVID-19 and digital transformation of health care, climate emergency, and... more
Lies and disinformation have always existed throughout human history. However, disinformation has become a “pandemic within a pandemic” with convergence of COVID-19 and digital transformation of health care, climate emergency, and pervasive human–computer interaction in all facets of life. We are living through an era of post-truth. New approaches to fight disinformation are urgently needed and of paramount importance for systems science and planetary health. In this study, we discuss the ways in which extractive and entrenched epistemologies such as technocracy and neoliberalism co-produce disinformation. We draw from the works of David Collingridge in technology entrenchment and the literature on digital health, international affairs, climate emergency, degrowth, and decolonializing methodologies. We expand the vocabulary on and interventions against disinformation, and propose the following: (1) rapid epistemic disobedience as a critical governance tool to resist the cultural hegemony of neoliberalism and its master narrative infinite growth that is damaging the planetary ecosystems, while creating echo chambers overflowing with disinformation, and (2) a two-tiered taxonomy of reflexivity, a state of self-cognizance by knowledge actors, for example, scientists, engineers, and physicians (type 1 reflexivity), as well as by chroniclers of former actors, for example, civil society organizations, journalists, social sciences, and humanities scholars (type 2 reflexivity). This article takes seriously the role of master narratives in quotidian life in production of disinformation and ecological breakdown. The infinite growth narrative does not ask critical questions such as “growth in what, at what costs to society and environment?,” and is a dangerous game of brinkmanship that has been testing the planetary ecological boundaries and putting at risk the veracity of knowledge. There is a need for scholars and systems scientists who break ranks with entrenched narratives that pose existential threats to planetary sustainability and are harmful to knowledge veracity. Scholars who resist the obvious recklessness and juggernaut of the pursuit of neoliberal infinite growth would be rooting for living responsibly and in solidarity on a planet with finite resources. The interventions proposed in this study, rapid epistemic disobedience and the expanded reflexivity taxonomy, can advance progressive policies for a good life for all within planetary boundaries, and decolonize knowledge from disinformation in ways that are necessarily upstream, radical, rapid, and emancipatory.
DOI: 10.1089/omi.2022.0041
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
Research Interests:
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Thanatechnology and the living dead: new concepts in digital transformation and human-computer interactionmore
by Simon Springer and Arif YILDIRIM
In a digital society, shall we be the authors of our own experience, not only during our lifetime but also after we die? We ask this question because dying and bereavement have become even harder, and much less private, in the digital... more
In a digital society, shall we be the authors of our own experience, not only during our lifetime but also after we die? We ask this question because dying and bereavement have become even harder, and much less private, in the digital age. New big data-driven digital industries and technologies are on the rise, with promises of interactive 3D avatars and storage of digital memories of the deceased, so they can continue to exist online as the "living dead" in a digital afterlife. Famous rock and roll icons like Roy Orbison, Frank Zappa, Ronnie James Dio, and Amy Winehouse have famously been turned into holograms that can once again give "live" performances on the touring circuit, often pulling in large audiences. Death studies, dying, and grief have become virtual in the 21st century. We live in truly unprecedented times for human-computer interactions. Thanatology is the scientific study of death, dying, loss, and grief. In contrast to the biological study of biological aging (cellular senescence) and programmed cell death (apoptosis), thanatology employs multiple professional lenses, medical, psychological, physical, spiritual, ethical, descriptive, and normative. In 1997, Carla Sofka introduced the term thanatechnology as "technological mechanisms such as interactive videodiscs and computer programs that are used to access information or aid in learning about thanatology topics." Onward to 2021, the advent of social media, the Internet of Things, and sensors that digitize and archive nearly every human movement and experience are taking thanatechnology, and by extension, digital transformation, to new heights. For example, what happens to digital remains of persons once they cease to exist physically? This article offers a critical study and snapshot of this nascent field, and the "un-disciplinary" sociotechnical issues digital thanatechnologies raise in relation to big data. We also discuss how best to critically govern this new frontier in systems science and the digital society. We suggest that new policy narratives such as (1) the right to nonparticipation in relation to information and communication technologies and (2) the planetary public goods deserve further attention to democratize thanatechnology and big data. To the extent that systems science often depends on data from online platforms, for example, in times of pandemics and ecological crises, "critical thanatechnology studies," introduced in this article, is a timely and essential field of scholarship with broad importance for systems science and planetary health.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
Research Interests:
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Caring geographies: The COVID-19 interregnum and a return to mutual aidmore
by Simon Springer
Mutual aid is the fundamental basis of all human societies, an understanding that is exemplified with striking clarity during times of crises. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the caring geographies of mutual aid into sharp relief... more
Mutual aid is the fundamental basis of all human societies, an understanding that is exemplified with striking clarity during times of crises. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the caring geographies of mutual aid into sharp relief with the failings of both capitalism and the state. Beyond fear and uncertainty, this commentary examines the one single theme that has resonated with the COVID-19 pandemic more than all others: care.
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Dialogues In Human Geography
Research Interests:
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Comprender la geografía anarquistamore
by Simon Springer
El anarquismo siempre se ha malinterpretado. Lejos de representar la violencia y el caos, el anarquismo es una praxis que se centra en las formas de organización social no jerárquicas y en la práctica del apoyo mutuo, implementadas en... more
El anarquismo siempre se ha malinterpretado. Lejos de representar la violencia y el caos, el anarquismo es una praxis que se centra en las formas de organización social no jerárquicas y en la práctica del apoyo mutuo, implementadas en las políticas cotidianas de la acción directa, el asociacionismo voluntario y la autogestión. Caricaturizada a veces como una ideología exclusivamente preocupada por la destrucción del Estado, el poder de las geografías anarquistas reside en su carácter holístico. Desde estos planteamientos, se renuncia a dar prioridad a cualquiera de los múltiples aparatos de dominación que encorsetan nuestras vidas, pues unos y otros no son enteramente coincidentes. El anarquismo es la lucha contra todas las formas de opresión y de explotación. Es un proceso proteico y multiforme que tiene un carácter marcadamente geográfico.
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Libre Pensamiento
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Peak neoliberalism? Revisiting and rethinking the concept of neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer and Kean Birch
Neoliberalism has become a ubiquitous term in popular and academic debates, used to describe a diverse and varied array of things. As a result, it has come to mean many different things to many different people. It is used as a concept to... more
Neoliberalism has become a ubiquitous term in popular and academic debates, used to describe a diverse and varied array of things. As a result, it has come to mean many different things to many different people. It is used as a concept to analyze organizational governance and restructuring, the marketization of organizational thinking and bureaucracy, the social reproduction of corporate managers, and the transformation of corporate governance. And much more besides. Neoliberalism’s increasing conceptual ubiquity has come at a significant price though. Such variety and diversity in intellectual analysis and substantive topic have produced a glut of diverse concepts, theories, analyses, and so on; while this medley can be seen as a necessary – and even fruitful – outcome of such a hybrid and heterogeneous process, it also has the potential side-effect of leaving us more confused than enlightened. This has led us to ask, have we reached peak neoliberalism? Is neoliberalism useful anymore as a concept? Contributors to this special issue revisit and rethink neoliberalism as an analytical tool and empirical object in order to critically evaluate these questions.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Ephemera
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НЕОЛИБЕРАЛИЗМ: ЭКСПАНСИИ, ПЕСТРОТА, ФОРМАЦИИmore
by Simon Springer and Sergei Basik
В общественной географии «неолиберализм» – термин, который обычно относится к новому политическому, экономическому и социальному устройству, подчер- кивающему рыночные отношения, минимальные государственные обязанности и вме-... more
В общественной географии «неолиберализм» – термин, который обычно относится к новому политическому, экономическому и социальному устройству, подчер- кивающему рыночные отношения, минимальные государственные обязанности и вме- шательство, и индивидуальную ответственность – кажется, виртуально на устах прак- тически у каждого. Идея захватила воображение дисциплины от озабоченности тем, как неолиберализм формирует процессы пересмотра политики и государственной реформы до растущего интереса к пересечениям неолиберализма с субъектообразованием. За пре- делами географии, литература общественных наук и активистов также рассматривала, как неолиберализм заменяет более ранние штампы, которые ссылались на конкретных политиков и/или политические проекты. Среди активистов именно серия «встреч» сапатистов с неолиберализмом в Чьяпасе, Мексика, начиная с подписания Североамери- канского соглашения о свободной торговле в 1994 г., впервые ввела этот термин в глобаль- ный оборот. С тех пор «неолиберализм» стал средством выявления, казалось бы, повсе- местного набора рыночных стратегий, в значительной степени отвечающих за широкий круг социальных, политических, экологических и экономических проблем.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: The Mahiliou Meridian / МАГІЛЁЎСКІ МЕРЫДЫЯН
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Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralismmore
by Simon Springer
Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on the one hand, studies influenced by Foucault in emphasizing neoliberalism as a form of governmentality, and on the other hand, inquiries influenced by... more
Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on the one hand, studies influenced by Foucault in emphasizing neoliberalism as a form of governmentality, and on the other hand, inquiries influenced by Marx in foregrounding neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology. This article seeks to shine some light on this division in an effort to open up new debates and recast existing ones in such a way that might lead to more flexible understandings of neoliberalism as a discourse. A discourse approach moves theorizations forward by recognizing neoliberalism is neither a ‘top down’ nor ‘bottom up’ phenomena, but rather a circuitous process of socio-spatial transformation.
More Info: Springer, S.2012. Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism. Critical Discourse Studies. 9 (2), 133-147.
Publication Date: 2012
Publication Name: Critical Discourse Studies
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Semiotics, Languages, History, and 195 more
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Human geography without hierarchymore
by Simon Springer
Contemporary geographical thought is constrained by a political economic imagination rooted in binarism, which is exemplified in debates surrounding neoliberalism. Neoliberal proponents call for decentralization and increased capital... more
Contemporary geographical thought is constrained by a political economic imagination rooted in binarism, which is exemplified in debates surrounding neoliberalism. Neoliberal proponents call for decentralization and increased capital flows, while Marxists respond by pairing centralization with capitalism’s abrogation. The latter view considers hierarchy necessary, a position that promotes authority and regards horizontal politics as propitious to neoliberalism. Anarchism’s coupling of decentralization with anti-capitalism is dismissed because Marxism cannot accommodate the processuality of prefigurative politics. Marxism demands a revolution with a masterplan, considering horizontality a future objective. Such a temporality ignores the insurrectionary possibilities of the present and implies a politics of waiting. The spatial implications of centralized hierarchy are also questionable, employing a vertical ontology, wherein horizontal organization is deemed inappropriate when ‘jumping scales’. Yet scale represents both a theoretical dis-traction from grounded everyday particularities and a ‘master-signifier’ by providing a point de capiton, or anchoring point, that rests on the exclusion of unconsciousness–the knowledge that is not known¬. Thus the point de capiton is the (Archimedean) point at which an essentialist illusion of fixed meaning is created, as scale is unconscious of geography’s ‘hidden enfolded immensities’. The discourse of scale accordingly dismisses the openness of rhizomic politics by predetermining the political as an arborescent register. Yet the inevitable terra incognita that scalar hierarchies produce becomes a powerful resource for the oppressed, which is why anarchist direct action often proceeds outside of authority’s view. A flat ontology has significant resonance with anarchism, imparting that politics should operate horizontally rather than vertically. This ontological shift suggests that we need not wait for the emergence of a ‘greater’ class-consciousness, as one can immediately disengage capitalism by reorienting economic landscapes in alternative ways. Consequently, a human geography without hierarchy gains significant traction when we reject scale and embrace an anarchist flat ontology.
More Info: Springer, S. 2014. Human geography without hierarchy. Progress in Human Geography 38(3): 402-419.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Progress in Human Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Semiotics, History, Economic History, and 276 more
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Earth Writingmore
by Simon Springer
Geography means earth writing, and so it is perhaps fitting that writing itself has become a primary intellectual battleground in contemporary geographical thought. This paper advocates for metaphorical earth writing, arguing that it... more
Geography means earth writing, and so it is perhaps fitting that writing itself has become a primary intellectual battleground in contemporary geographical thought. This paper advocates for metaphorical earth writing, arguing that it unchains our geographical imaginations from the shackles of our disciplinary past by boldly embracing geopoetics. I hope to spark debate by promoting the un-disciplining of geography as a means to open up a theoretical space for voice, where a material space of emancipation might follow. The notion that our epistemological, ontological, and methodological choices are not apolitical decisions without consequence guides my inquiry. Accordingly I critique the accusation of esotericism as a narrative that reifies the false dichotomy between academia and society. Aversion to metaphor fails to recognize the epistemological challenge it raises and underestimates how jargon combats commonsense notions that reinforce hierarchical power relations. How we write the earth constitutes a political choice, where disciplining others into a singular way of knowing, being, and doing geography is an affront to the possibilities of space. When we make space for earth writing as a beautiful flourishing of geopoetics, we place the earth at the center of experience, releasing the light and energy of a more powerful geography.
More Info: Currently In Review. Comments Welcome.
Research Interests:
Creative Writing, Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Social Theory, and 139 more
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Geographers Against Trumpmore
by Simon Springer and The ACME Resistance
Reflections on the First Annual ACME Protest by The ACME Resistance
Research Interests:
Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Geography, and 55 more
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Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Anarchist? Rejecting Left Unity and Raising Hell in Radical Geographymore
by Simon Springer
The logic and sincerity of Marxist appeals to unity on the Left are worthy of critical scrutiny. I argue against such pleas, suggesting that the devil is in the details. In practice, 'Left unity' could only result in the co-optation of... more
The logic and sincerity of Marxist appeals to unity on the Left are worthy of critical scrutiny. I argue against such pleas, suggesting that the devil is in the details. In practice, 'Left unity' could only result in the co-optation of anarchism under a Marxist leadership. Such vanguardism is one of the fundamental divisions between the two approaches, having long been rejected by anarchists. I further argue that Marxism cannot withstand the anarchist critique, striking fear into the heart of Marxists as it threatens their worldview. It also means that despite appeals to 'fertile collaboration' between the red and black, there is an explicit lack of willingness among some Marxists to actually engage with anarchists in legitimate debate. So be it. Anarchists will continue to raise hell all the same.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Economic History, Sociology, and 60 more
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Say 'Yes!' to peer review: Open Access publishing and the need for mutual aid in academiamore
by Simon Springer and Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch
Scholars are increasingly declining to offer their services in the peer review process. There are myriad reasons for this refusal, most notably the ever- increasing pressure placed on academics to publish within the neoliberal university.... more
Scholars are increasingly declining to offer their services in the peer review process. There are myriad reasons for this refusal, most notably the ever- increasing pressure placed on academics to publish within the neoliberal university. Yet if you are publishing yourself then you necessarily expect someone else to review your work, which begs the question as to why this service is not being reciprocated. There is something to be said about withholding one’s labour when journals are under corporate control, but when it comes to Open Access journals such denial is effectively unacceptable. Make time for it, as others have made time for you. As editors of the independent, Open Access, non-corporate journal ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, we reflect on the struggles facing our daily operations, where scholars declining to participate in peer review is the biggest obstacle we face. We argue that peer review should be considered as a form of mutual aid, which is rooted in an ethics of cooperation. The system only works if you say ‘Yes!’.
DOI: 10.11143/fennia.66862
Publication Date: 2017
Publication Name: Fennia: International Journal of Geography
Research Interests:
Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory, Psychology, and 95 more
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The limits to Marx: David Harvey and the condition of postfraternitymore
by Simon Springer
Responding to David Harvey’s critique of my paper ‘Why a radical geography must be anarchist’, I once again reiterate the importance of anarchist perspectives in contemporary politics and geographical praxis. In challenging Harvey on the... more
Responding to David Harvey’s critique of my paper ‘Why a radical geography must be anarchist’, I once again reiterate the importance of anarchist perspectives in contemporary politics and geographical praxis. In challenging Harvey on the limits to Marx, I urge him to think again about the hidden vanguardism, implied statism, and veiled hierarchy that continue to lurk within the Marxist project, and importantly how these specters constrain both our collective political imagination and the possibilities of radical geography. I am admittedly very critical of Harvey, but I nonetheless refuse to close the door on dialogue between the Black and Red, even in the face of ongoing Marxist ridicule of anarchist politics. Accordingly, I propose an agonistic embrace of a ‘postfraternal’ or ‘postsororal’ politics on the left, where we come to appreciate ongoing conflict as a sign of a healthy leftist milieu. In doing so we can move beyond the misguided idea that all disagreements over strategies, tactics, and organizing methods will ever be resolved. Ultimately, what I have dubbed ‘the condition of postfraternity’ keeps us alert to the continually unfolding possibilities of a thoroughly politicized and forever protean space. By embracing this shifting horizon, not as a static limit to our politics, but as a beautiful enabler of visionary possibilities, the rhizomes of emancipation grow stronger.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Management, History, Economic History, Sociology, and 212 more
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Property is the mother of famine: On dispossession, wages, and the threat of hungermore
by Simon Springer
Poverty is rooted in the accumulation of wealth, a process that plays out through the dispossession of the many so as to secure excess for the few. While this insight is commonly assigned to Marx and particularly his understanding of... more
Poverty is rooted in the accumulation of wealth, a process that plays out through the dispossession of the many so as to secure excess for the few. While this insight is commonly assigned to Marx and particularly his understanding of primitive accumulation,  Proudhon had worked out the contradictory underpinning of capitalism several decades earlier when he declared “property is theft!” Indeed, the very possibility of poverty, and its expression as famine, is rooted in the institution of property itself. This paper argues that we need to turn to anarchism, to refuse the expropriation of our means to survive under the tenets of property, and to cast off the chains of slavery that we euphemize as wage labour. Only by returning to the principle of mutual aid can famine ever be averted, whereby reciprocity becomes the compass of our collective morality.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Industrial And Labor Relations, History, Economic History, Sociology, and 67 more
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Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographiesmore
by Simon Springer
Through imaginative geographies that erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs, the notion that violence is 'irrational' marks particular cultures as ‘other’. Neoliberalism exploits such imaginative geographies in... more
Through imaginative geographies that erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs, the notion that violence is 'irrational' marks particular cultures as ‘other’. Neoliberalism exploits such imaginative geographies in constructing itself as the sole providence of nonviolence and the lone bearer of reason. Proceeding as a ‘civilizing’ project, neoliberalism positions the market as salvationary to putatively ‘irrational’ and ‘violent’ peoples. This theology of neoliberalism produces a discourse that binds violence in place. But while violence sits in places in terms of the way in which we perceive its manifestation as a localized and embodied experience, this very idea is challenged when place is reconsidered as a relational assemblage. What this re-theorization does is open up the supposed fixity, separation, and immutability of place to instead recognize it as always co-constituted by, mediated through, and integrated within the wider experiences of space. Such a radical rethinking of place fundamentally transforms the way we understand violence. No longer confined to its material expression as an isolated and localized event, violence can more appropriately be understood as an unfolding process, derived from the broader geographical phenomena and temporal patterns of the social world.
More Info: Springer, S. 2011. Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies. Political Geography. 30 (2), 90-98.
Publication Date: 2011
Publication Name: Political Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Semiotics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, and 188 more
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Why a radical geography must be anarchistmore
by Simon Springer
Radical geographers have been preoccupied with Marxism for four decades, largely ignoring an earlier anarchist tradition that thrived a century before radical geography was claimed as Marxist in the 1970s. When anarchism is considered, it... more
Radical geographers have been preoccupied with Marxism for four decades, largely ignoring an earlier anarchist tradition that thrived a century before radical geography was claimed as Marxist in the 1970s. When anarchism is considered, it is misused as a synonym for violence or derided as a utopian project. Yet it is incorrect to assume anarchism as a 'project', which instead reflects Marxian thought. Anarchism is more appropriately considered a protean process that perpetually unfolds through the insurrectionary geographies of the everyday and the prefigurative politics of direct action, mutual aid, and voluntary association. Unlike Marxism’s stages of history and revolutionary imperative, which imply an end-state, anarchism appreciates the dynamism of the social world. In staking a renewed anarchist claim for radical geography, I attend to the divisions between Marxism and anarchism as two alternative socialisms, wherein the former positions equality alongside an ongoing flirtation with authoritarianism while the latter maximizes egalitarianism and individual liberty by considering them as mutually reinforcing. Radical geographers would do well to reengage anarchism as there is a vitality to this philosophy that is missing from Marxian analyses that continue to rehash ideas–such as vanguardism and a proletarian dictatorship–that are long past their expiration date.
More Info: Forthcoming in "Dialogues in Human Geography"
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, European History, Economic History, Sociology, and 116 more
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Neoliberalism and geography: expansions, variegations, formationsmore
by Simon Springer
The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its virtual absence from the literature less than a decade ago. While the growing attention afforded to neoliberalism among... more
The pervasiveness of neoliberalism within the field of human geography is remarkable, especially when we consider its virtual absence from the literature less than a decade ago. While the growing attention afforded to neoliberalism among geographers is new, the phenomenon of neoliberalism is not. This paper traces the intellectual history of neoliberalism and its expansions across various institutional frameworks and geographical settings. I review the primary contributions geographers have made to the literature, and specifically their recognition for neoliberalism’s variegations within existing political economic matrixes and institutional frameworks. Contra the prevailing view of neoliberalism as a pure and static end-state, geographical inquiry illuminates neoliberalism as a dynamic and unfolding process. The concept of ‘neoliberalization’ is thus seen as more appropriate to geographical theorizations insofar as it recognizes neoliberalism’s hybridized and mutated forms as it travels around our world. I also consider some of the most salient ways that neoliberalism has been theorized among human geographers. In particular, I highlight understandings of neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology, as a policy-based approach to state reform, and as a particular logic of governmentality, arguing that while there are significant differences between these various formations, it may also be important to work beyond methodological, epistemological, and ontological divides in the larger interest of social justice.
More Info: Springer, S. 2010. Neoliberalism and geography: expansions, variegations, formations. Geography Compass. 4 (8), 1025-1038.
Publication Date: 2010
Publication Name: Geography Compass
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, and 65 more
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Anarchism! What geography still ought to bemore
by Simon Springer
This article is a manifesto for anarchist geographies, which are understood as kaleidoscopic spatialities that allow for multiple, non-hierarchical, and protean connections between autonomous entities, wherein solidarities, bonds, and... more
This article is a manifesto for anarchist geographies, which are understood as kaleidoscopic spatialities that allow for multiple, non-hierarchical, and protean connections between autonomous entities, wherein solidarities, bonds, and affinities are voluntarily assembled in opposition to and free from the presence of sovereign violence, predetermined norms, and assigned categories of belonging. In its rejection of such multivariate apparatuses of domination, this article is a proverbial call to nonviolent arms for those geographers and non-geographers alike who seek to put an end to the seemingly endless series of tragedies, misfortunes, and catastrophes that characterize the miasma and malevolence of the current neoliberal moment. But this is not simply a demand for the end of neoliberalism and its replacement with a more moderate and humane version of capitalism, nor does it merely insist upon a more egalitarian version of the state. It is instead the resurrection of a prosecution within geography that dates back to the discipline’s earliest days: anarchism!
More Info: Springer, S. 2012. Anarchism! What geography still ought to be. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 44 (5), 1605–1624.
Publication Date: 2012
Publication Name: Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, History, Economic History, Sociology, and 236 more
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Violence and space: an introduction to the geographies of violencemore
by Simon Springer
Violence is a confounding concept. It frequently defies explanation and lacks an agreed upon definition. Yet geographers are well positioned to bring greater conceptual clarity to violence by thinking through its intersections with space.... more
Violence is a confounding concept. It frequently defies explanation and lacks an agreed upon definition. Yet geographers are well positioned to bring greater conceptual clarity to violence by thinking through its intersections with space. In setting the tone for this special issue on Violence and Space we highlight some of the key lines of flight that have shaped geographical thinking on violence. While there are a significant number of geographers interested in the question of violence, the field of ‘geographies of violence’ remains an emerging area of research that deserves greater attention and a more rigorous examination. By emphasizing the spatiality of violence, this special issue aims to contribute to a more sustained conversation on the violent geographies that shape our daily lives, our encounters with institutions, and the various structures that configure our social organization. This introduction is but an initial sketch of what we believe needs to be a much larger and unfolding research agenda dedicated to understanding violence from a geographical perspective.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Theory, Psychology, and 169 more
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Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violencemore
by Simon Springer
In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space... more
In establishing an anarchic framework for understanding public space as a vision for radical democracy, this article proceeds as a theoretical inquiry into how an agonistic public space might become the basis of emancipation. Public space is presented as an opportunity to move beyond the technocratic elitism that often characterizes both civil societies and the neoliberal approach to development, and is further recognized as the battlefield on which the conflicting interests of the world's rich and poor are set. Contributing to the growing recognition that geographies of resistance are relational, where the “global” and the “local” are understood as co-constitutive, a radical democratic ideal grounded in material public space is presented as paramount to repealing archic power in general, and neoliberalism’s exclusionary logic in particular.
More Info: Springer, S. 2011. Public Space as emancipation: meditations on anarchism, radical democracy, neoliberalism and violence. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. 43 (2), 525-562.
Publication Date: 2011
Publication Name: Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Public Sociology, and 157 more
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War and piecesmore
by Simon Springer
There is increasing recognition among human geographers that conceptualizing the spatiality of peace is a vital component of our collective disciplinary praxis. Within this emergent literature, I seek to position anarchism as an ethical... more
There is increasing recognition among human geographers that conceptualizing the spatiality of peace is a vital component of our collective disciplinary praxis. Within this emergent literature, I seek to position anarchism as an ethical philosophy of nonviolence and the absolute rejection of war. Such an interpretation does not attempt to align nonviolence to any particular organized religious teaching, as has recently been advocated by Nick Megoran (2011). Instead, I argue that the current practices of religion undermine the geographies of peace by fragmenting our affinities into discrete pieces. Advancing a view of anarchism as nonviolence, I go beyond religion to conceptualize peace as both the unqualified refusal of the manifold-cum-interlocking processes of domination, and a precognitive, pre-normative, and presupposed category rooted in our inextricable entanglement with each other and all that exists. Yet far from proposing an essentialist view of humanity or engaging a naturalized argument that reconvenes the ‘noble savage’, I contextualize my arguments within the processual frameworks of radical democracy and agonism in seeking to redress the ageographical and ahistorical notions of politics that comprise the contemporary post-political zeitgeist.
More Info: Springer, S. 2014. War and pieces. Space and Polity. 18(1): 85-96.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Space and Polity
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Religion, Abrahamic Religions, Christianity, Dharmic Religions, and 211 more
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Postneoliberalism?more
by Simon Springer
With the recent development of the Occupy Movement, public criticism of neoliberalism has climaxed since the onset of a global financial crisis in late 2008. The mobilization of protesters in cities throughout the world was preceded by... more
With the recent development of the Occupy Movement, public criticism of neoliberalism has climaxed since the onset of a global financial crisis in late 2008. The mobilization of protesters in cities throughout the world was preceded by much speculation in the media and blogosphere over the past few years, where commentators have been quick to suggest that the end of neoliberalism is upon us. The validity of postneoliberalism, however, remains tenuous, as its advocates continue to treat neoliberalism as a monolithic, static, and undifferentiated end-state. Despite the desire to move beyond neoliberal strictures, there is an undeniable continuity to neoliberalism that must be appreciated if we ever hope to leave this unforgiving version of capitalism truly in the past.
More Info: Springer, S.2015. Postneoliberalism? Review of Radical Political Economics.
Publication Date: 2015
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, and 120 more
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Anarchism and geography: a brief genealogy of anarchist geographiesmore
by Simon Springer
Anarchism and geography have a long and disjointed history, characterized by towering peaks of intensive intellectual engagement and low troughs of ambivalence and disregard. This paper traces a genealogy of anarchist geographies back to... more
Anarchism and geography have a long and disjointed history, characterized by towering peaks of intensive intellectual engagement and low troughs of ambivalence and disregard. This paper traces a genealogy of anarchist geographies back to the modern development of anarchism into a distinct political philosophy following the Enlightenment. The initial rise of geographers’ engagement with anarchism occurred at the end of the nineteenth-century, owing to Élisée Reclus and Peter Kropotkin, who developed an emancipatory vision for geography in spite of the discipline’s enchantment with imperialism at that time. The realpolitik of the war years in the first half of the twentieth-century and the subsequent quantitative revolution in geography represent a nadir for anarchist geographies. Yet anarchism was never entirely abandoned by geographical thought and the counterculture movement of the 1970s gave rise to radical geography, which included significant interest in anarchist ideas. Unfortunately another low occurred during the surge of neoliberal politics in the 1980s and early 1990s, but hope springs eternal, and from the late 1990s onward the anti-globalization movement and DIY culture have pushed anarchist geographies into more widespread currency. In reviewing the literature, I hope to alert readers to the ongoing and manifold potential for anarchist geographies to inform both geographical theory and importantly, to give rise to more practice-based imperatives where building solidarities, embracing reciprocity, and engaging in mutual aid with actors and communities beyond the academy speaks to the ‘freedom of geography’ and its latent capacity to shatter its own disciplinary circumscriptions.
More Info: Springer, S. 2013. Anarchism and geography: a brief genealogy of anarchist geographies. Geography Compass. 7(1): 46-60.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Geography Compass
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Industrial And Labor Relations, History, European History, Intellectual History, and 186 more
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Violent accumulation: a postanarchist critique of property, dispossession, and the state of exception in neoliberalizing Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
Employing a poststructuralist-meets-anarchist stance that advances conceptual insight into the nature of sovereign power, this article examines the dialectics of capitalism/primitive accumulation, civilization/savagery, and law/violence,... more
Employing a poststructuralist-meets-anarchist stance that advances conceptual insight into the nature of sovereign power, this article examines the dialectics of capitalism/primitive accumulation, civilization/savagery, and law/violence, which are argued to exist in a mutually reinforcing 'trilateral of logics'. In deciphering this triadic system, this article offers a radical (re)appraisal of capitalism, its legal process, and its civilizing effects, which together serve to mask the originary and ongoing violences of primitive accumulation and the property system. Such obfuscation suggests that wherever the trilateral of logics is enacted, so too is the state of exception called into being, exposing us all as potential homo sacer (life that does not count). Proceeding as a diagnostic assessment of sovereign power, where although signposted by Cambodia's contemporary experiences of violent land conflict, this article is not intended as a fine-grained empirical analysis. Instead, it forwards a theoretical dialogue where Cambodia's neoliberalizing processes offer a window on how sovereign power configures itself around the three discursive-institutional constellations (i.e., capitalism, civilization, and law) that form the trilateral of logics. Rather than formulating prescriptive solutions, the intention here is critique, where in particular it is argued that the preoccupation with strengthening Cambodia's legal system should not be read as a panacea for contemporary social ills, but as an imposition that serves to legitimize the violences of property.
More Info: Springer, S. 2013. Violent accumulation: a postanarchist critique of property, dispossession, and the state of exception in neoliberalizing Cambodia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, and 180 more
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Neoliberalising violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing momentsmore
by Simon Springer
This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to... more
This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.
More Info: Springer, S. 2012. Neoliberalizing violence: of the exceptional and the exemplary in coalescing moments. Area 44 (2), 136-143.
Publication Date: 2012
Publication Name: Area
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Economic Sociology, and 204 more
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Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally... more
The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.
More Info: Springer, S. 2013. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change. 13(4): 520-546.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Journal of Agrarian Change
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Real Estate, History, Cultural History, Economic History, and 147 more
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Radikal Bir Coğrafya Neden Anarşist Olmalıdır?more
by Simon Springer
Turkish translation of 'Why A Radical Geography Must Be Anarchist'
More Info: http://meydangazetesi.org/sayi-35/
Publisher: Meydan Gazetesi
Journal Name: Meydan Gazetesi
Publication Name: Meydan Gazetesi
Research Interests:
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Geografias anarquistas: uma breve genealogiamore
by Simon Springer
O presente artigo traça uma genealogia das geografias anarquistas numa tentativa de mostrar essa rica e tortuosa relação. O percurso começa com a geografia emancipadora de Élisée Reclus e Piotr Kropotkin, na passagem do século XIX... more
O presente artigo traça uma genealogia das geografias anarquistas numa tentativa de mostrar essa rica e tortuosa relação. O percurso começa com a geografia emancipadora de Élisée Reclus e Piotr Kropotkin, na passagem do século XIX para o século XX, depois recuperada no contexto do movimento da contracultura nos anos 1960 para, décadas depois, ser redescoberta uma vez mais em meio ao despontar das lutas antiglobalização que abalaram o consenso neoliberal dos anos 1980 e 1990. Ao revisar a literatura recente sobre a relação entre anarquismo e geografia, o artigo destaca a importância das novas geografias do anarquismo focadas nos temas e desafios contemporâneos voltados à ampliação das práticas de liberdade.
Research Interests:
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Neoliberalizmi Siktir Et!more
by Simon Springer and Gürçim YILMAZ
Evet, siktir et gitsin. Neoliberalizm iğrenç bir şey. Hiç lazım değil.
Research Interests:
Economic History, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, and 63 more
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Jebać Neoliberalizmmore
by Simon Springer and Filip Brzeźniak
Tak, jebać go. Neoliberalizm jest do bani. Nie potrzebujemy go. Słowa kluczowe: jebać neoliberalizm; jebać go, do diabła!
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: Praktyka Teoretyczna
Research Interests:
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Scheiß auf den Neoliberalismusmore
by Simon Springer and Ursula Brandt
Genau, fick dich, Neoliberalismus. Du bist scheiße. Wir brauchen dich nicht.
Research Interests:
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Fuck Nyliberalismenmore
by Simon Springer
Japp, fuck it. Nyliberalismen su- ger. Vi behöver den inte.
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: OEI: ART IN THE AGE OF KLEPTOMANIA
Research Interests:
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Fuck le Néolibéralismemore
by Simon Springer
Oui, qu’il aille se faire foutre. Le néolibéralisme craint. On n’en a pas besoin.
Research Interests:
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干新自由主義more
by Simon Springer
摘要:對，就是干!新自由主義太差了。我們根本不需要。
關鍵詞:干新自由主義;把它干上天
Research Interests:
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操新自由主义more
by Simon Springer
摘要:对，就是操! 新自由主义太差了。我们根本不需要。
关键词:操新自由主义;把它操上天
Research Interests:
Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Geography, and 53 more
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Γάμα το Νεοφιλελευθερισμόmore
by Simon Springer and Haris Tsavdaroglou
Ναι, γάμα τον. Ο νεοφιλελευθερισμός είναι χάλια. Δεν τον χρειαζόμαστε.
Research Interests:
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Fotti-'Fanculo il Neoliberismomore
by Simon Springer
Dai, fottilo. Il neoliberismo fa schifo. Non ne abbiamo bisogno.
Research Interests:
Sociology, Political Sociology, Italian (European History), Italian Studies, Political Science, and 47 more
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नवउदारवाद भाड़ में जाए!more
by Simon Springer, Jai Kaushal, and Dhiraj Barman
जी हाँ, यह भाड़ में जाए, नवउदारवाद सोख डालता है, हमें ये नहीं चाहिए.
Research Interests:
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¡A la Mierda el Neoliberalismo!more
by Simon Springer and Xaranta Baksh
Sí, a la mierda con ello. El neoliberalismo no tiene ningún valor. No lo necesitamos.
Research Interests:
Languages, Latino/A Studies, Latin American Studies, Spanish Literature, Philosophy Of Language, and 62 more
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くたばれ、ネオリベラリズムmore
by Simon Springer
題名通り、くたばれ、ネオリベラリズム(Fuck it)。 ネオリベラリズムは最低、最悪。私たちには必要ない。
Research Interests:
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Foda-se o Neoliberalismomore
by Simon Springer
Isso mesmo, que ele se foda. O neoliberalismo é uma merda. Não precisamos dele.
Research Interests:
Sociology, Human Geography, Latin American Studies, Portuguese and Brazilian Literature, Latin Literature, and 50 more
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Fuck Neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer
Yep, fuck it. Neoliberalism sucks. We don't need it.
More Info: This paper was also delivered as a talk at the AAG meeting in San Francisco. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNMakfcZzAo
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Management, Marketing, History, Cultural History, and 175 more
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Anarchismo! Quello che dovrebbe essere la geografiamore
by Simon Springer
L’anarchismo è una filosofia politica calunniata; su questo non ci possono essere dubbi. Comunemente l’anarchismo è descritto come una caotica espressione di violenza perpetrata contro il supposto pacifico «ordine» dello stato. Questa... more
L’anarchismo è una filosofia politica calunniata; su questo non ci possono essere dubbi. Comunemente l’anarchismo è descritto come una caotica espressione di violenza perpetrata contro il supposto pacifico «ordine» dello stato. Questa rappresentazione mistifica il cuore del pensiero anarchico, che è propriamente compreso come il rifiuto di tutte le forme di dominazio- ne, sfruttamento, e «archia» (sistema di regole, governo), da cui la parola «an-archia» (contro il sistema di regole, non governo). L’anarchismo è una teoria e una pratica che cerca di produrre una società in cui gli individui possano cooperare liberamente come uguali in ogni aspetto, non in base alla legge o a una garanzia sovrana (che introduce nuove forme di autorità, impone criteri di appartenenza e rigidi legami territoriali), ma a partire da sé stessi in solidarietà e mutuo rispetto. Conseguentemente l’anarchismo si oppone a tutti i sistemi di regole o forme di archia (cioè gerarchia, patriarchia, monarchia, oligarchia, antropoarchia, eccetera) ed è invece fonda- ta su forme cooperative ed egualitarie di organizzazione sociale, politica ed economica, dove possono fiorire spazialità autonome e in continua evoluzione. Sebbene sia stato spesso detto che ci sono tanti anarchismi quanti sono gli anarchici, il mio assunto è che l’anarchismo debba abbracciare un’etica della non violenza precisamente perché la violenza si riconosce sia come un atto che come un processo di dominazione.
More Info: Translated by Fabrizio Eva.
Publication Date: 2015
Publication Name: Libertaria
Research Interests:
Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Social Geography, and 70 more
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Olympic violence: memory, colonialism, and the politics of placemore
by Simon Springer
This paper proceeds as a brief intervention in response to Andrew Foxall's article "Geopolitics, genocide and the Olympic Games: Sochi 2014". I address the violence that is associated with the Olympic Games and the politics of place that... more
This paper proceeds as a brief intervention in response to Andrew Foxall's article "Geopolitics, genocide and the Olympic Games: Sochi 2014". I address the violence that is associated with the Olympic Games and the politics of place that are involved in site selection. In offering some reflections on how the Olympics are irrevocably tied to colonial processes, my primary contention is that it is necessary to ask critical geographical questions about the Games. Such interrogation opens up a dialogue wherein greater awareness for the legacies of violence may be established, which has the potential to interrupt its ongoing unfoldings.
More Info: Springer, S. Forthcoming. Olympic violence: memory, colonialism, and the politics of place. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Historical Geography, and 43 more
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For anarcho-geography! Or, bare-knuckle boxing as the world burnsmore
by Simon Springer
Responding to the set of dialogues on my original article, ‘Why a radical geography must be anarchist’, I throw my hat back in the ring and offer a blow-by-blow commentary on the sucker punches and low blows that some Marxists continue to... more
Responding to the set of dialogues on my original article, ‘Why a radical geography must be anarchist’, I throw my hat back in the ring and offer a blow-by-blow commentary on the sucker punches and low blows that some Marxists continue to want to throw at anarchism. In particular, I go toe to toe with the fallacious idea that Marxism remains the only viable politics on the left and demonstrate why anarchism is not only up to scratch, but in a world that continues to be marked by domination, as far as emancipation is concerned, anarchism is a heavyweight contender. While I pull no punches with the two Marxist pugilists, the remaining commentators are in my corner, and I welcome their thoughtful critiques by taking it on the chin. Yet rather than throw in the towel, I attempt to set the record straight by repositioning anarchism as an ethos that merges rebellion with reciprocity, subversion with self-management, and dissent with direct action, where the potential combinations are infinite. Anarchism is to be thought of, quite simply, as an attitude. When we remember this quality, without attempting to pin anarchism down to a particular set of commitments or distinct group of activities, we begin to recognize that anarchism can both float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. The reason for this multifarious character is because anarchism is not an identity, but is instead something you do. Anarchism consequently has knockout potential to unite diverse strategies and tactics under the black flag of this radical political slogan. Insofar as the future of radical geography is concerned, anarchism has got the guts, the spirit, and the heart to go the distance. Let’s get ready to rumble!
More Info: Springer, S. 2014. For Anarcho-Geography! Or, Bare-Knuckle Boxing As the World Burns. Dialogues in Human Geography.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Dialogues in Human Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, and 99 more
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God dethroned: a reply to Nick Megoranmore
by Simon Springer
A brief reply to Nick Megoran's "On (Christian) anarchism and (non)violence: a response to Simon Springer", which was a response to my article "War and pieces".
More Info: Springer, S. 2014. God dethroned: a reply to Nick Megoran. Space and Polity. 18(1): 106-109.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Space and Polity
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Religion, Christianity, Sociology, Political Sociology, and 58 more
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Neoliberalism in denialmore
by Simon Springer
In responding to Weller and O’Neill’s ‘argument with neoliberalism’, I question the novelty of their approach and the problematics of denying the critical power and associated violence that neoliberalism continues to wield in our world.... more
In responding to Weller and O’Neill’s ‘argument with neoliberalism’, I question the novelty of their approach and the problematics of denying the critical power and associated violence that neoliberalism continues to wield in our world. While they do raise an important epistemic challenge, a closer reading of the geographical literature on neoliberalism reveals that Weller and O’Neill tend to paint with the broad strokes of caricature. Notions of neoliberalism as inevitable or as a paradigmatic construct have long been debunked by human geographers, replaced by protean notions of variegation, hybridity, and articulation with existing political economic circumstances. A discursive understanding of neoliberalism further reveals it as an assemblage, and thus to hold neoliberalism to a sense of purity is little more than a straw man argument. Despite the positive desire to allow space for alternatives, Weller and O’Neill unfortunately construct their argument in such a way that positions it as part of an emerging genre of  ‘neoliberalism in denial’.
More Info: Springer, S. 2014. Neoliberalism in denial. Dialogues in Human Geography. 4 (2): 154-160.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Dialogues in Human Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Economic Sociology, and 55 more
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Space, time, and the politics of immanencemore
by Simon Springer
As part of a special issue on ‘Protest’, and in reply to Nicholas Kiersey’s “Occupy Dame Street as Slow-Motion General Strike? Justifying Optimism in the Wake of Ireland’s Failed Multitudinal Moment”, I argue that we need to attune our... more
As part of a special issue on ‘Protest’, and in reply to Nicholas Kiersey’s “Occupy Dame Street as Slow-Motion General Strike? Justifying Optimism in the Wake of Ireland’s Failed Multitudinal Moment”, I argue that we need to attune our accounts of emancipation to both space and time in articulating a politics of immanence. Immanence becomes a resource for horizontal organization and prefigurative politics precisely because the here and now folds protest and process together in an integral embrace. Through such a politics we no longer make demands of a political system that has never listened to us and has never been democratic. Instead, we simply start organizing for ourselves. This does not suggest that the large public spectacle of protest suddenly becomes unimportant, but instead requires that we start to think about such action through a very different logic, wherein it becomes seen as a conduit not for the contestation of power, but for power’s reclamation. Protest is accordingly recast a rite of passage towards a new consciousness, wherein the idea that we can explore alternatives without seeking permission is both celebrated and actually lived.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought
Research Interests:
Sociology, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, and 38 more
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Spatial delight and the possibilities of childhoodmore
by Simon Springer
This paper is part of a book review forum on Mark Purcell's "The Down-Deep Delight of Democracy", where I argue that the boundary between childhood and adulthood is deeply problematic and consequently we cannot discount the political... more
This paper is part of a book review forum on Mark Purcell's "The Down-Deep Delight of Democracy", where I argue that the boundary between childhood and adulthood is deeply problematic and consequently we cannot discount the political agency of children, particularly in building a more autonomous version of democracy.
More Info: Springer, S. 2014. Spatial delight and the possibilities of childhood. Dialogues in Human Geography 4: 80-83.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Dialogues in Human Geography
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Rural Sociology, Social Change, and 137 more
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The third cheer for anarchismmore
by Simon Springer
My contribution to a Book Review Forum in Antipode on James C. Scott's "Two Cheers for Anarchism".
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Antipode Foundation
Research Interests:
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And 10 more

Book Chapters
Check Your Anthroprivilege! Situated Knowledge and Geographical Imagination as an Antidote to Environmental Speciesism, Anthroparchy, and Human Fragilitymore
by Simon Springer
It is difficult to know where to begin in writing about anthroprivilege, precisely because it is so overwhelmingly pervasive in our contemporary world. What I mean by ‘anthroprivilege’ is the social norms that reinforce anthropocentrism... more
It is difficult to know where to begin in writing about anthroprivilege, precisely because it is so overwhelmingly pervasive in our contemporary world. What I mean by ‘anthroprivilege’ is the social norms that reinforce anthropocentrism and confer automatic unearned benefits upon human individuals. Perhaps the best place to begin then is in the somatic domain, as it is something that we all embody as humans. The expression of anthroprivilege is encapsulated in the following reactions. Upon reading my title you have rolled your eyes or snickered under your breath. You’ve immediately dismissed the idea as navel gazing. You reject the connotations it implies for questions of race, gender, sexuality, or other positionalities where privilege and normativity are key spheres of struggle, which you feel are ultimately incomparable (Twine 2010). You have thought to yourself “here come the Vegan Police again”, in the same contemptuous way that the alt-right has framed so-called “Social Justice Warriors.” Anthroprivilege is fundamentally made possible through such aversion to reflecting critically on human positionality. As with all forms of privilege, it is undergirded and enabled by a deep cognitive dissonance and outright denial. Yet the implications of anthroprivilege are no mere thought experiment. Instead, anthroprivilege is a tangible and demonstrable planetary scourge, for it forms the foundations of human supremacy. It is only through anthroprivilege that processes like extractivism, climate change, and factory farms become possible. The consequence of such hubris is simple. If we don’t begin to get this profound sense of human entitlement in check, it will ultimately be our undoing as a species.
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Vegan Geographies
Research Interests:
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Ethical Veganism for More Critical Geographiesmore
by Simon Springer and Ophélie Véron
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently... more
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalizing the study of veganism. Whereas occasional publications have recently emerged from sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, or critical animal studies, a comprehensive geographical analysis is missing. Until now. In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement. Vegan Geographies fundamentally challenges outdated but still dominant human–nature dualisms that underpin widespread suffering and ecological degradation, providing practical and accessible pathways for people interested in challenging contemporary systems and working collectively toward less destructive worlds.
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: Vegan Geographies: Spaces Beyond Violence, Ethics Beyond Speciesism
Research Interests:
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The Political Ecology of Human Supremacymore
by Simon Springer
The Earth is in crisis. We know this. We have known this for a long time. In the throes of the unfolding nightmare we call “capitalism” it is not hard to see and hear the violence that is being enacted against the planet. If we are to... more
The Earth is in crisis. We know this. We have known this for a long time. In the throes of the unfolding nightmare we call “capitalism” it is not hard to see and hear the violence that is being enacted against the planet. If we are to move beyond the idea that humanity is tasked with expressing our dominion over nature and towards a renewed integral understanding of humanity as firmly located within the biosphere, as an anarchist political ecology demands, then we have to start interrogating the privileges, hierarchies, and human-centric frames that guide our ways of knowing and being in the world.

This volume centers around the idea that anarchism, as a conceptual framework, encourages us to contend with the multiple lines of difference, the various iterations of privilege, and the manifold set of archies that undergird our understandings of the world, and crucially, our place within it.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Undoing Human Supremacy: Anarchist Political Ecology in the Face of Anthroparchy
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The Political Ecology of Inhabiting the Earthmore
by Simon Springer
Over the last several decades, scholars and practitioners have progressively acknowledged that we cannot consider cities as the place where nature stops anymore, resulting in urban environments being increasingly appreciated and... more
Over the last several decades, scholars and practitioners have progressively acknowledged that we cannot consider cities as the place where nature stops anymore, resulting in urban environments being increasingly appreciated and theorized as hybrids between nature and culture, entities made of socio-ecological processes in constant transformation. Spanning the fields of political ecology, environmental studies, and sociology, this new direction in urban theory emerged in concert with global concern for sustainability and environmental justice. This volume explores the notion that connecting with nature holds the key to a more progressive and liberatory politics.
Publication Date: 2021
Research Interests:
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The Political Ecology of Resource and Energy Management beyond the Statemore
by Simon Springer
Resource and environmental management generally entail an attempt by governing authorities to dominate, reroute, and tame the natural flows of water, the growth of forests, manage the populations of non-human bodies, and control nature... more
Resource and environmental management generally entail an attempt by governing authorities to dominate, reroute, and tame the natural flows of water, the growth of forests, manage the populations of non-human bodies, and control nature more generally. Often this is done under the mantle of conservation, economic development, and sustainable management, but still involves a quest to “civilize” and control all aspects of nature for a specific purpose.

The results of this form of environmental management and governance are many, but by and large, across the globe, it has meant governments construct a specific idea regarding nature and the environment. These forms of control also extend beyond the natural environment, allowing for particular methods of managing human and non-human populations in order to maintain power and enact sovereignty.

This volume contributes to advancing an ‘ecology of freedom,’ which can critique current anthropocentric environmental destruction, as well as focusing on environmental justice and decentralized ecological governance. While concentrating on these areas of anarchist political ecology, three major themes emerged from the chapters: the legacies of colonialism that continue to echo in current resource management and governance practices, the necessity of overcoming human/nature dualisms for environmental justice and sustainability, and finally discussions and critiques of extractivism as a governing and economic mentality.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Energies Beyond the State: Anarchist Political Ecology and the Liberation of Nature
Research Interests:
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Total Liberation Ecology: Integral Anarchism, Anthroparchy, and the Violence of Indifferencemore
by Simon Springer
Few political ecologists have taken anarchism seriously, while many anarchists have ignored the question of the animal other, treating anthroparchy, or the supremacy of the human species, as somehow different than other forms of... more
Few political ecologists have taken anarchism seriously, while many anarchists have ignored the question of the animal other, treating anthroparchy, or the supremacy of the human species, as somehow different than other forms of hierarchy. Yet the relationship between the state, capitalism, and the subjugation of non-human animals should be clear in light of Ag-gag laws and the targeting of animal liberation activists as 'terrorists'. Building on the idea of an integral anarchism, which considers speciesism as forming the same violent genus as racism, classism, sexism, childism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia, I argue that these ostensibly separate pieces are in fact interlocking systems of domination. Such an intersectional view leads us towards one inevitable ethical conclusion in the pursuit of an anarchist political ecology: veganism. Consequently I question the indifference that anarchists, political ecologists, and critical geographers alike have assigned to the unintelligible violence that is meted out against non-human animals, primarily through euphemizing their dismembered, decapitated, and disemboweled bodies as 'meat'. I argue that the liberation ecology proposed by Peet and Watts (1996) appears facile in the face of pervasive anthroparchy, which although every bit as vile as gender domination and white supremacy, barely registers within the current literature. Given the extraordinary depletion of water resources, widespread deforestation, intensified climate change, pervasive pollution, and mass murder that all flow from contemporary animal agriculture, our current food practices represent nothing short of ecocide. As an antidote to this shameful apathy and horrendous violence, I propose 'Total Liberation Ecology'.
Publication Date: 2021
Publication Name: Undoing Human Supremacy: Anarchist Political Ecology and the End of Anthroparchy
Research Interests:
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No More Room in Hell: Neoliberalism as Living Deadmore
by Simon Springer
Neoliberalism is a frightening proposition. It is a violent ideology made flesh as a cruel and vengeful material practice. The virulence of neoliberalism is, perhaps, even more pronounced in its ‘post’ form, where we think we have a... more
Neoliberalism is a frightening proposition. It is a violent ideology made flesh as a cruel and vengeful material practice. The virulence of neoliberalism is, perhaps, even more pronounced in its ‘post’ form, where we think we have a handle on its death, while it simultaneously continues to terrorize our social and political landscapes. The implication is that postneoliberalism is akin to a zombie apocalypse, where the horror we are exposed to is characterized by the mutations, deformity, and insatiable hunger of a living dead idea.
Publication Date: 2018
Publication Name: Sage Handbook of Neoliberalism
Research Interests:
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Neoliberalism and Antiestablishment Movementsmore
by Simon Springer
This chapter argues that the nebulous nature of neoliberalism helps to explain why the discourse has successfully convinced so many that its carceral capacities are somehow representative of our collective liberation. I trace the... more
This chapter argues that the nebulous nature of neoliberalism helps to explain why the discourse has successfully convinced so many that its carceral capacities are somehow representative of our collective liberation. I trace the histories of antiestablishment movements and the influences that have shaped its current trajectories, from the rise of indigenous movements like the ELZN in Mexico to the global force of the Occupy Movement. In examining the solidarities that are being expressed in the form of anti-austerity movements and supports offered to migrants in the neoliberal fallout, this chapter insists that our collective capacity to engage in direct action and prefigurative politics will ultimately allow us to awaken from the neoliberal nightmare.
Research Interests:
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I, Dirty Anarchistmore
by Simon Springer
How is it that the very substance of life itself, the soil, the mud, the dust, the soot, the debris, the Earth, became the primary metaphor assigned to anarchists? We need not reject this charge. Instead, let us embrace the metaphor that... more
How is it that the very substance of life itself, the soil, the mud, the dust, the soot, the debris, the Earth, became the primary metaphor assigned to anarchists? We need not reject this charge. Instead, let us embrace the metaphor that aligns us to our loving Earth.
Research Interests:
Creative Writing, Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, and 66 more
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Anarchist geographymore
by Simon Springer
Anarchism is a perennially misunderstood idea. Far from representing violence and chaos, anarchism is instead a form of praxis that centers on non-hierarchical organization and the practice of mutual aid, implemented through the everyday... more
Anarchism is a perennially misunderstood idea. Far from representing violence and chaos, anarchism is instead a form of praxis that centers on non-hierarchical organization and the practice of mutual aid, implemented through the everyday politics of direct action, voluntary association, and self-management. Although often misrepresented as an ideology solely concerned with the destruction of the state, the power of anarchist geographies resides in their integrality, which refuses to assign priority to any one of the multiple dominating apparatuses that constrain our lives, as all are seen as irreducible to one another. Anarchism is the struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation, a protean and multivariate process that is decidedly geographical.
Publication Date: 2015
Publication Name: The Wiley-AAG International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology
Research Interests:
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Klepto-Neoliberalism: authoritarianism and patronage in Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
Neoliberalism is never uniform. Instead, it is always hybridized and imbricated within existing political economic matrixes and sociocultural process. In the Cambodian context neoliberalism is characterized by its intersection with... more
Neoliberalism is never uniform. Instead, it is always hybridized and imbricated within existing political economic matrixes and sociocultural process. In the Cambodian context neoliberalism is characterized by its intersection with kleptocracy, and specifically the ways in which patronage has enabled local elites to transform, co-opt, and (re)articulate neoliberal reforms through a framework that has focused on ‘asset stripping’ public resources. This chapter examines the Royal Government of Cambodia’s (RGC) discursive positioning of populism vis-à-vis international ‘enemies’ inasmuch as it presents a convenient pretext for the tensions of neoliberal development. This discussion critiques the frequent suggestion that the RGC maintains a ‘communist’ outlook rather than recognizing the kleptocratic ‘shadow state’ practices that have been modified to accommodate a neoliberal modality. I then turn my attention more specifically to the mechanisms of Cambodia’s patronage system via an analysis of privatization and primitive accumulation. I assess these developments through a critique of the purview that legal reform will somehow serve as cure-all for development, contrasting this idea with the realities of a judiciary firmly entrenched within patron relations. The degree of political patronage in Cambodia reflects a certain nepotism, or what I am calling ‘nepoliberalism’ to signify a particular application of neoliberalism that is never without the influence of patron politics. The enduring impunity of those with connections to power is the concentration of the final section before the conclusion, where I assess the continuing constraints of the poor with regards to patronage and the inequality and precarity it affords. It is here, in the question of (in)security that Cambodia’s neoliberalization alongside patronage demonstrates the depth of kleptocracy and violence in the country.
Research Interests:
History, Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, and 79 more
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Anarchy is forever: the infinite and eternal moment of strugglemore
by Simon Springer
Foreword for Historical Geographies of Anarchism

Edited by F. Ferretti, F. Toro, G. Barrera, and A. Ince
Research Interests:
Religion, History, Military History, Cultural History, Economic History, and 102 more
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Subverting the meaning of 'theory'more
by Simon Springer
Anarchists and other left-libertarians have been intuitively aware of the problematics typically embodied in Marxists’ use of ‘theory.’ The original meaning of theory is related to observation and to an outsider perspective. These... more
Anarchists and other left-libertarians have been intuitively aware of the problematics typically embodied in Marxists’ use of ‘theory.’ The original meaning of theory is related to observation and to an outsider perspective. These characteristics define a speculative activity, at first glance precisely the opposite of Marxism. Ironically, the supposed ‘philosophy of praxis,’ once synthesized by Marx (“Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it”), has been strongly committed to ‘objectivity’ in a sense that is prone not only to a hierarchical and authoritarian approach to history and knowledge, but also to rationalism and theoreticism. Anarchists have been largely aware of the flaws, shortcomings, bottlenecks and risks typically embodied in Marxists’ use of ‘theory’, which is one of the reasons why they have been misunderstood by Marxists as ‘anti-theoretically’ minded. Yet, ‘theory’ has also often been regarded with suspicion by many anarchists. This refusal of ‘theory’ narrows our vision and diminishes our ability to put things into context, to make comparisons and to think forward. While anarchists have had their motives for thinking this way, as ‘theory’ has often served as intellectualized justification for heteronomous power, it is high time to depart from this ‘theory-is-nothing-but-blah-blah-blah’-bias. Yet Marxists have used the empiricism of many anarchists as an alibi to denigrate them as a whole – and that is simply unfair. The problem here is not only that Marxism’s ‘theory’ is objectionable, but also that left-libertarians have always produced theoretical knowledge. Failing to acknowledge it (due to intellectual blindness or simply for political reasons, as Marxists have done for almost two centuries) is ridiculous. From Proudhon’s federative principle and his contributions to the theories of surplus-value, to Reclus’s critical and dialectical conservationism, to Kropotkin’s idea of ‘mutual aid’, to Bookchin’s libertarian municipalism, anarchists have long been contributing sophisticated theoretical insights. In spite of a remarkable record of intellectual achievements, knowledge developed by anarchists and other left-libertarians has commonly been neglected or dismissed as irrelevant. Is it not possible to see in this devaluation a kind of elitarianism?
More Info: Introduction to "Theories of Resistance: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt"
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Name: Theories of Resistance: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt
Research Interests:
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Performing anarchism, practicing freedom, pursuing revoltmore
by Simon Springer
If anarchism is a spirit, it is the spirit of revolt. For those unfamiliar with the actual content of anarchism or the enabling possibilities of revolt this statement might appear doubly negative. Just as so much of the contemporary... more
If anarchism is a spirit, it is the spirit of revolt. For those unfamiliar with the actual content of anarchism or the enabling possibilities of revolt this statement might appear doubly negative. Just as so much of the contemporary discourse surrounding anarchism is framed by derision and a seemingly wilful confusion of what the idea represents, so too has the idea of revolt been read though an unfavourable lens. What happens when we shatter that lens, thus allowing the light of revolt to refract in new ways that illuminate a path toward freedom? We want to create freedom in our lives, to bring the poetic joy of being in the world to each moment of breath, and to fill the spaces of our existence with a deep and unshakable love for the mystery known as ‘life’. To do this requires us to revolt. To bring light we must pursue a trajectory that refuses the darkness, death, and dismay of the age we live in. The challenges of our time require us to rebel against the disabling faith in the idea that oppression, hierarchy, and captivity are somehow the natural consequences of human evolution. Our revolt is our emancipation. It is the aperture through which the light of freedom passes, revealing a full spectrum of colour, wonder, and imagination. Yet this sentiment of revolt should not be conceived as a transcendental moment, as it is much more accurate to envision revolution as a politics of the everyday, a product of immanence. Accordingly, because our lives are lived in the here of this space and the now of this moment, it is only in the ongoing enactment of our actual daily performances that freedom itself is called into being. But these ordinary routines can’t be any presentation, for performances are multiple and they can just as often be cruel as they can be compassionate. To pursue revolt then is to practice freedom, and it is our contention that to practice freedom is to perform anarchism.
More Info: Introduction to "The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt"
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Name: The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Economic History, Sociology, and 129 more
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Introduction to Contemporary Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
Introductory chapter to "The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia"
More Info: 2016
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Name: The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia
Research Interests:
Religion, History, Cultural History, Economic History, Sociology, and 169 more
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Transgressing frontiers through the radicalization of pedagogymore
by Simon Springer and Richard J White
While anarchist geographies have a long tradition, albeit scattered and temporally diffuse, there has been a limited engagement within the notion that pedagogical concerns have a tremendous latent energy to spark the flames of a more... more
While anarchist geographies have a long tradition, albeit scattered and temporally diffuse, there has been a limited engagement within the notion that pedagogical concerns have a tremendous latent energy to spark the flames of a more emancipatory politics. Although there are some recent notable exceptions, where geographers have offered tremendously important interventions that help us think through the anarchist and autonomous spaces that can be procured in our educational practices, the connection to pedagogy within anarchist geographies has thus far been only partial at best. This incompleteness is surprising for two key reasons. The first is that anarchism more broadly takes pedagogy as a primary site of resistance and transgression, as it allows for and actively fosters the possibility of building a new world ‘in the shell of the old’. The second reason that the limited engagement of anarchist geographies with pedagogy is surprising is because education is absolutely central to the production of geographical knowledge, and particularly in the production of critical geographies. In this introductory chapter we set forth an argument that brings pedagogy to the center of our collective writing practice in an attempt to incubate, instill, and inspire a renewed desire for resistance against the dominating structures that condition our lives.
More Info: Introduction to "The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt"
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Name: The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, and 80 more
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An introduction to neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer, Kean Birch, and Julie MacLeavy
Introduction to 'The Handbook of Neoliberalism'.
More Info: Introduction to 'The Handbook of Neoliberalism'
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Name: The Handbook Of Neoliberalism
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Business, Marketing, Finance, Discourse Analysis, and 111 more
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Learning through the soles of our feet: unschooling, anarchism, and the geography of childhoodmore
by Simon Springer
Schooling is a form of misopedy and a fundamental structure in conditioning societal acceptance of domination in other registers. The subordination of children begins with the misguided notion that they are incapable of autonomy,... more
Schooling is a form of misopedy and a fundamental structure in conditioning societal acceptance of domination in other registers. The subordination of children begins with the misguided notion that they are incapable of autonomy, reinforcing a dichotomous understanding of adult/child or teacher/student. Schooling should not be confused with education. The former represents the interests of oppression, molding societal consciousness to accept the conditions of subjugation. In contrast, education in its idealized form is a process of self-discovery, an awakening to one’s potential, and a desire to see such abilities realized. To ensure the absence of coercion in education children need to explore for themselves, making their own decisions about what their interests are, and how those curiosities might be fulfilled. Presenting a broad range of opportunities is crucial, but the decision about what path to follow should be determined by the child. When bound to a classroom we often mistake obedience for education. Yet learning, as geographers recognize, best occurs 'through the soles of our feet' and when children explore the world through unschooling, they live into their creative potential, opening an aperture on alternative ontologies. Unschooling is, in short, one of the most powerful forms of anarchism we can engage.
More Info: Springer, S. 2016. Learning through the soles of our feet: unschooling, anarchism, and the geography of childhood. The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt. Eds. Springer, S., White, R. J., and Souza M. L. de. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Publication Name: The Radicalization of Pedagogy: Anarchism, Geography and the Spirit of Revolt
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, and 112 more
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Söylem olarak neoliberalizm: Foucaultcu politik ekonomi ile Marksçi postyapısalcılık arasındamore
by Simon Springer
Turkish translation of 'Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism'. Neoliberalizm çağdaş kuramları , bir yandan , çalışmalar yönetimsellik biçimi olarak neoliberalizm vurgulayan... more
Turkish translation of 'Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism'.

Neoliberalizm çağdaş kuramları , bir yandan , çalışmalar yönetimsellik biçimi olarak neoliberalizm vurgulayan Foucault tarafından etkilenmiş , diğer yandan , soruşturmalar bir hegemonik ideoloji olarak neoliberalizm öne çıkan Marx tarafından etkilenmiş arasında yanlış bir ikiliğin tarafından çerçeveli . Bu makalede , bir söylem olarak neoliberalizm daha esnek anlayışlara yol açabilecek şekilde yeni tartışmaları ve değişiklik var olanları açmak için bir çaba bu bölünmenin biraz ışık parlamaya istiyor. Bir söylem yaklaşımı öne neoliberalizm tanıyarak kuramları hamle ' yukarıdan aşağıya ' ne de ' aşağıdan yukarıya ' fenomen değil, sosyo-mekansal dönüşüm dolambaçlı bir süreç ne olduğunu.
Location: Istanbul
More Info: Published in Çoban, B. (Ed). 2015. Söylem ve Ideoloji. Istanbul: SU Publishers, pp. 263-282.
Publisher: SU Publishers
Publication Name: Söylem ve Ideoloji
Research Interests:
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The violence of neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer
As austerity measures intensify in the wake of the most recent global financial crisis, it is becoming ever more clear that neoliberalization exhibits a distinct relational connection with violence. This is not an admonishment of the... more
As austerity measures intensify in the wake of the most recent global financial crisis, it is becoming ever more clear that neoliberalization exhibits a distinct relational connection with violence. This is not an admonishment of the protests that continue to swell, but rather a recognition that these movements are in fact pushing back against the violent measures that have frustrated and demoralized everyday existence under neoliberalism. There is now considerable room for scepticism with regard to the ‘rising tides lifts all boats’ discourse that is perpetuated by proponents of neoliberal ideology, as the free market has categorically failed at producing a harmonious global village. Promises of utopia are confronted with the stark dystopian realities that exist in a growing number of countries where neoliberalization has not resulted in greater peace and prosperity, but in a profound and unmistakable encounter with violence. This paper questions how neoliberalizing processes often comes suffused with processes of othering that result in conflict, arguing that neoliberalism itself might be productively understood as a particular form of violence.
More Info: Springer, S. 2016. The violence of neoliberalism. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Eds. S. Springer, K. Birch, and J. MacLeavy. London: Routledge.
Publication Date: 2016
Publication Name: The Handbook of Neoliberalism
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Criminology, Political Sociology, and 103 more
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Homelessness in Cambodia: the terror of gentrificationmore
by Simon Springer
This chapter examines the plight of homeless peoples in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as a consequence of their enmeshment in a new logic of urban governance being effected by city officials and municipal planners. I argue that the widespread... more
This chapter examines the plight of homeless peoples in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as a consequence of their enmeshment in a new logic of urban governance being effected by city officials and municipal planners. I argue that the widespread adoption of free market economics has produced conditions of globalized urban entrepreneurialism from which Phnom Penh is clearly not exempt. The (re)production of cultural spectacles, enterprise zones, waterfront development, and privatized forms of local governance all reflect the powerful disciplinary effects of interurban competition as cities aggressively engage in mutually destructive place-marketing policies. In this regard, I examine the ongoing pattern of violence utilized by municipal authorities against homeless peoples in Phnom Penh as part of a gentrifying process that the local government has dubbed a ‘beautification’ agenda. Of particular concern is how city officials have begun actively promoting the criminalization of the urban homeless and poor through arbitrary arrests and illegal detention, holding them in ‘re-education’ or ‘rehabilitation’ centres. I argue that such centers are not what they seem, where such euphemisms attempt to mask the systemic abuse of marginalized peoples who are unwanted on the streets of the capital city as they are deemed to present a negative image for Phnom Penh.
More Info: Springer, S. 2015. Homelessness in Cambodia: the terror of gentrification. The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia. Eds. K. Brickell and S. Springer. London: Routledge.
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2015
Publication Name: The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia
Research Interests:
Sociology, Criminology, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, and 38 more
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Radical political geographiesmore
by Simon Springer
Political geography as a subfield of geographical thought has done a great deal to support the interests of the powerful. There was and continues to be a desire among many political geographers to service the status quo, rather than... more
Political geography as a subfield of geographical thought has done a great deal to support the interests of the powerful. There was and continues to be a desire among many political geographers to service the status quo, rather than seeking to use the field as a means to communicate alternatives and undermine existent structures of authority. To a significant extent this speaks to the wider historical positioning of geography as a discipline vis-à-vis the machinations of imperialism, but in particular, political geography has had a tendency to focus its energies on promoting the articulation of realpolitik, the practice of statecraft, and the apotheosis of war, none of which lend themselves well to a radical trajectory. The result is that for much of the preceding century political geography has been viewed as a pugnacious domain, receiving a very chilly reception from other practitioners within the wider discipline of human geography. Peter Taylor (2003: 47) acknowledged these exact patterns and deficiencies in an earlier edition of this volume, where in considering the radical turn of the late 1960s, he argues that political geography was ignored by radicals and that “there has not been an identifiable radical tradition in political geography”. While there is a lot to be said for the lack of engagements and the potential reasons behind them, here I focus my efforts on demonstrating how radical critique can be and has been sutured together with political geography. In doing so I challenge Taylor’s interpretation and suggest that while his view of the last few decades is correct vis-à-vis the development of radical geography as a Marxist undertaking, had he looked further into the past and beyond Marxism he would have discovered that there was indeed an identifiable radical tradition to be found in anarchism, which showed significant potential and continues to resonate in the present.
More Info: Springer, S. 2015. Radical political geographies. Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Geography. Eds. J. Sharp, J. Agnew, V. Mamadouh and A. Secor. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Publication Date: 2014
Publication Name: Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Geography
Research Interests:
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Neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer
This chapter seeks to demonstrate how a critical geopolitics has contributed to a reading of neoliberalism that challenges the assumed inevitability and all-encompassing ‘bulldozer effect’ that pervades in popular media accounts of free... more
This chapter seeks to demonstrate how a critical geopolitics has contributed to a reading of neoliberalism that challenges the assumed inevitability and all-encompassing ‘bulldozer effect’ that pervades in popular media accounts of free market capitalism and its colloquial understanding as ‘globalization’. I emphasize neoliberalism’s mongrel character, by attending to the series of mutations, hybridizations, and variegations across space that foreground the role of geography in creating multiple forms of processual and unfolding neoliberalizations, rather than a singular and static neoliberalism. I then turn my attention to the continuing role of the state and address how discourse functions to secure consent for neoliberalism’s particular political rationality. I hope to remind readers that although the role of the state has become subtler under neoliberalism through a reconfiguration of the citizen-subject via processes of governmentality, this does not mean that it has entirely exited the political scene. To the contrary, I argue that the transformed role of the state under neoliberalization is susceptible to expressions of authoritarianism and violence, which brings the state back into plain view as it comes into conflict with those individuals who have been marginalized by neoliberalism’s belligerent regulatory reforms and discriminatory policy initiatives.
More Info: Springer, S. 2013. Neoliberalism. The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics. Eds. K. Dodds, M. Kuus, and J. Sharp. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, pp. 147-164.
Publisher: Ashgate
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: The Ashgate Research Companion to Critical Geopolitics
Research Interests:
Sociology, Criminology, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, and 39 more
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The neoliberalization of security and violence in Cambodia’s transitionmore
by Simon Springer
This chapter seeks to deconstruct the implications of shifting security’s frame of reference from the state to the individual, and the potential for this scalar adjustment to be colonized by the purely economic goal of market... more
This chapter seeks to deconstruct the implications of shifting security’s frame of reference from the state to the individual, and the potential for this scalar adjustment to be colonized by the purely economic goal of market preservation. These concerns are placed in the empirical context of Cambodia’s UN sponsored transition in the early 1990s, which effectively served as the pilot programme of the emerging human security agenda. The UN’s orchestration of the Cambodian ‘peace process’ is argued to have allowed the organization to formalize the newly minted human security doctrine during a self-congratulatory fervor that followed in the wake of what was presumed to be a successful transition to peace. However, the violence that swelled both during and after the transition reveals the human security discourse as deceptive, having very little to do with the prevention of violence other than in a rhetorical sense. Rather, the (in)actions of the international community in response to extrajudicial murders, threats of secession, electoral fraud, and coup d'état suggest that human security can be read as a pretext that effectively translates into the acceptance and promotion of the political status quo, as secured hegemony for the reigning political party means a secured marketplace open to foreign interests.
More Info: Springer, S. 2009. The neoliberalization of security and violence in Cambodia's transition. Human Security in East Asia: Challenges for Collaborative Action. Ed. Sorpong Peou. New York: Routledge, pp. 125-141.
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: Human Security in East Asia: Challenges for Collaborative Action
Research Interests:
Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, and 82 more
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Between war and peace: violence and accommodation in the Cambodian logging sectormore
by Simon Springer and Philippe Le Billon
This chapter explores how forests contributed to the prolongation of conflict and to the difficulties of transition to peace in Cambodia, including the financing of the Khmer Rouge, the reconfiguration of politico-economic networks of... more
This chapter explores how forests contributed to the prolongation of conflict and to the difficulties of transition to peace in Cambodia, including the financing of the Khmer Rouge, the reconfiguration of politico-economic networks of power, and the causes behind the apparent failure of both the government and the international community to transform this valuable natural resource into a positive factor for peace and reconstruction.
More Info: Le Billon, P. and Springer, S. 2007. Between war and peace: violence and accommodation in the Cambodian logging sector. Extreme Conflict and Tropical Forests. Eds. Wil de Jong, Deanna Donovan, and Ken-ichi Abe. New York: Springer, pp. 17-36.
Publisher: Springer
Publication Date: 2007
Publication Name: Extreme Conflict and Tropical Forests
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, and 102 more
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Editorials
Broadening Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) through Gender and 2SLGBTQ+ Equitymore
by Simon Springer and Vural Özdemir│ազատ
We have much work to do for diversity and democracy in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields worldwide. We need to think beyond heteronormativity and the gender binary, so transgender, nonbinary and 2SLGBTQ+... more
We have much work to do for diversity and democracy in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields worldwide. We need to think beyond heteronormativity and the gender binary, so transgender, nonbinary and 2SLGBTQ+ scientists are well represented in science, health research and society. To live into the promise of equity, the desire for diversity and inclusion must mean more than simply shuffling a stacked deck so that we might draw a better hand. Instead, we must be willing to do the difficult work of questioning and unpacking the game itself so that we are better positioned to rewrite its rules.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/omi.2022.0059
DOI: 10.1089/omi.2022.0059
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
Research Interests:
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Toilet Paper Wars and the Shithouse of Capitalismmore
by Simon Springer
The run on toilet paper has brought the failings of capitalism front and center to the bathroom of every house across Australia, a trend that has now spread to other countries. We are witnessing, in real-time and with stunning... more
The run on toilet paper has brought the failings of capitalism front and center to the bathroom of every house across Australia, a trend that has now spread to other countries. We are witnessing, in real-time and with stunning consequence, the stone-cold fact that markets are an ineffective mediator of resources, prone to the worst vagaries of herd mentality.
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: Common Dreams
Research Interests:
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Thrash not trash: why heavy metal is a valid and vital PhD subjectmore
by Simon Springer
When I put out a call for PhD students wanting to research heavy metal, it captured international attention. But why the surprise? Heavy metal is a cultural trend and academia aims to the world we live in.... more
When I put out a call for PhD students wanting to research heavy metal, it captured international attention. But why the surprise? Heavy metal is a cultural trend and academia aims to the world we live in.

https://theconversation.com/thrash-not-trash-why-heavy-metal-is-a-valid-and-vital-phd-subject-120096?fbclid=IwAR3HMgOvjWQyVhsRSil486zfwaN4F8rMjKNnYMh8mQVgE_qbQXof40r_QO0
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: The Conversation
Research Interests:
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Abandoning Our Humanity: Total Liberation and the Political Ecology of Speciesismmore
by Simon Springer
An argument for a veganarchist perspective in political ecology.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: DOPE Magazine
Research Interests:
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Confronting Hate Speech with the Geography of Freedommore
by Simon Springer
Margaret Wente chose an ironic title to defend Acadia University’s Rick Mehta, invoking what she calls “the free speech-wars.” She implies that he should be free to speak, while arguing that I should be silenced. Admitting that she made... more
Margaret Wente chose an ironic title to defend Acadia University’s Rick Mehta, invoking what she calls “the free speech-wars.” She implies that he should be free to speak, while arguing that I should be silenced. Admitting that she made no attempt to understand my work, Wente sees me as everything wrong with contemporary academia. She labels my “brand of rubbish”, “depressingly common at our institutions of higher learning”. After moulding her caricature of me, she twists her call for free speech into an open invitation to harass me. Such hypocrisy is a common move by the political Right. What is missed is that free speech must align with freedom itself. Words shape how we think and act. Speech is always political and comes with material consequences. When speech advocates harm, any dedication to freedom is lost. Violence destroys freedom. What Wente is promoting is an excuse to justify hate speech.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Political Sociology, and 84 more
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Anarchist Praxis and the Evolution of Social Change: The Problem With Revolution and Thoughtmore
by Simon Springer
Instead of waiting for revolution this paper argues for the power of the everyday, where our collective undoing of capitalism is an ongoing process of subversion. Such an evolutionary politics of insurrection, a protean “spirit of... more
Instead of waiting for revolution this paper argues for  the power of the everyday, where our collective undoing of capitalism is an ongoing process of subversion. Such an evolutionary politics of insurrection, a protean “spirit of revolt”, is located as a politics of immanence entwined within our very being in the world. It is an ontology of rebellion, rather than an epistemology of deferral. Everyday conversations and mundane practices can embody this ethos of insurrection through the principles of continual reflexivity and revision. Since geography is ultimately a politics of process it bespeaks evolution rather than revolution, and so we need to consider what it might mean to drop the “r”. Although the ordinary story that such a philosophy of transformation implies is less alluring than the grandiose idea of revolution, it has greater potential to bring results, as it is more in tune with how social change actually happens.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, and 168 more
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Visiting Moscow and Dmitrov for Kropotkinmore
by Simon Springer
Simon Springer (Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Canada) contributes this short essay about his visit to Moscow and Domitrov. He organized a session titled “For Kropotkin” with Anthony Ince for the IGU Moscow Regional... more
Simon Springer (Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Canada) contributes this short essay about his visit to Moscow and Domitrov. He organized a session titled “For Kropotkin” with Anthony Ince for the IGU Moscow Regional Conference and made a trip to the Kropotkin museum in Dmitrov.
Publication Name: IGU Commission on Political Geography Newsletter
Research Interests:
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Rules bloody rules: safety, security, Stockholm syndrome, and the statemore
by Simon Springer
It is critically important to challenge the grip of neoliberalism, yet we need to be very careful not to view a lack of regulation as ipso facto evidence of a more insidious form of institutionalized violence. Such a position treads the... more
It is critically important to challenge the grip of neoliberalism, yet we need to be very careful not to view a lack of regulation as ipso facto evidence of a more insidious form of institutionalized violence. Such a position treads the slippery slope of more regulation being somehow tantamount to less violence, which assumes a benevolent state or at least the possibility of one. Regulation is a form of rule, and accordingly it is imperative that we expand our political compass beyond the binary idea of neoliberalism–less regulation–bad versus socialism–more regulation–good and start thinking through the possibilities of ‘other socialisms’ (i.e., anarchism, autonomism, feminism) that would tear up the social contract by recognizing that it has always and only ever been inked with the blood of innocents. States have repeatedly proven themselves untrustworthy insofar as safety is concerned, and we only need to look to the toll that the claim to a monopoly of violence has taken in human lives through the centuries, often in the name of ‘public safety’ and ‘security’, to appreciate this claim. The ongoing deception that heightened security measures and safety concerns represent in the form of the notion that ‘freedom is not free’ is deeply offensive precisely because it licenses more violence by legitimizing the state.
More Info: Springer, S. 2013. Rules Bloody Rules: Safety, Security, Stockholm Syndrome, and the State. Antipode Foundation.
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Antipode Foundation
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Industrial And Labor Relations, Sociology, Geography, Human Geography, and 93 more
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The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
A detailed response to a critique of my work on neoliberalism in Cambodia.
More Info: Springer, S. 2011. The straw man critique of neoliberalism in Cambodia. New Mandala: New Perspectives on Mainland Southeast Asia.
Publication Date: 2011
Publication Name: New Mandala
Research Interests:
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Pamphlets
Fuck Neoliberalism... And Then Some!more
by Simon Springer
In a long history of ruination and destruction, neoliberalism is the most recent and virulent form of capitalism. This pamphlet is a call to action against the most persistent and pestilent disease of our time. Watch your back... more
In a long history of ruination and destruction, neoliberalism is the most recent and virulent form of capitalism. This pamphlet is a call to action against the most persistent and pestilent disease of our time. Watch your back neoliberalism, we’re coming to fuck you up!*

*armed with high impact factor pitchforks and well-referenced battle songs
Location: London
Publisher: Active Distribution
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Semiotics, Economic History, Sociology, Economic Sociology, and 87 more
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Working Papers
The fallout: invisible geographies beyond the liquid eyemore
by Simon Springer
A response to Arthur and Marlouise Kroker’s essay “Dreaming with Drones”, this brief paper refuses the pessimism of the supposed omniscience of surveillance and drones. Instead, it insists that not only are there are important geographies... more
A response to Arthur and Marlouise Kroker’s essay “Dreaming with Drones”, this brief paper refuses the pessimism of the supposed omniscience of surveillance and drones. Instead, it insists that not only are there are important geographies and temporalities to consider, but when we think critically about the intersections of space and time we enable a more emancipatory frame of reference wherein the absoluteness and absolution of power becomes contestable. The paper was written for the ‘Futures of Theory’ symposium on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (CSPT) Program at the University of Victoria, February 6th, 2015.
More Info: DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2171.7289
Publication Date: 2015
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, American History, Cultural Studies, Political Sociology, Social Theory, and 128 more
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The neoliberal 'order'in Cambodia: political violence, democracy, and the contestation of public spacemore
by Simon Springer
Neoliberal economics have emerged in this post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of the Third World. For many Third World countries, however, the promise that the market will bring emancipation... more
Neoliberal economics have emerged in this post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of the Third World. For many Third World countries, however, the promise that the market will bring emancipation from tyranny and increased standards of living has been an empty one. Instead, the free market has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills. In Cambodia, the promotion of unfettered and intense marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. Neoliberal policies further explain why authoritarianism remains the principal mode of governance among Cambodia’s ruling elite, an inclination that is often elicited through the execution of state violence. In this paper, neoliberalism is conceived as effectively acting to suffocate an indigenous burgeoning of democratic politics in Cambodia. Such asphyxiation is brought to bear under the neoliberal rhetoric of ‘order’ and ‘stability’, which can be read through Cambodia’s geography, and specifically through the production of the country’s public space. The preoccupation with ‘order’ and ‘stability’ in Cambodia serves the interests of capital at the global level, and political elites at the level of the nation-state; however, Cambodians themselves fiercely contest these particular interests. This contestation is strongly evidenced in the burgeoning geography of protest that has emerged in Cambodian public spaces in the post-transition era. Recognition of the ‘unmediated interaction’ vision of public space many Cambodian’s have championed allows a more ‘radical’ democracy to emerge, and hence a more just and equitable social order.
More Info: Springer, Simon. 2005. 'The neoliberal 'order' in Cambodia: political violence, democracy, and the contestation of public space'. Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies (CCSEAS) Working Paper Series. Toronto: Canadian Southeast Asian Trilateral Initiative (CSEASTI).
Publisher: Canadian Southeast Asian Trilateral Initiative (CSEASTI)
Publication Date: Jan 1, 2005
Publication Name: Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies (CCSEAS) Working Paper Series
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Book Reviews
Book Review Forum - The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipationmore
by Simon Springer, James D Sidaway, Richard J White, and Nicholas J Crane
The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation advances several arguments. On the one hand, it wishes to recover and applaud the legacies of two anarchists who were also geographers—Kropotkin (1842– 1921) and Reclus... more
The Anarchist Roots of Geography: Toward Spatial Emancipation advances several arguments. On the one hand, it wishes to recover and applaud the legacies of two anarchists who were also geographers—Kropotkin (1842– 1921) and Reclus (1830–1905)—and celebrate others. Then there is an argument for anarchism to be central to a reworked radical geography today and that Marxism has crowded out anarchist voices. There are also arguments about what anarchism might mean and how this involves space. Geography is represented as anarchic in itself as a discipline and in opening Springer seeks “to remind readers that geography has never had, and nor should it desire, a single disciplinary plan or pivot” and that periodic attempts to impose one have failed. ... Springer’s book might therefore represent a coming of age for anarchist geography, making it harder for future texts on geographic thought to be judged adequate unless more care is taken with anarchist currents.
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Accumulation by Dispossession: Transformative Cities in the New Global Ordermore
by Simon Springer
More Info: By Swapana Banerjee-Guha (Ed.)
Publication Date: 2013
Publication Name: Urban Studies
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Domesticating Neo-liberalism: Spaces of Economic Practice and Social Reproduction in Post-Socialist Citiesmore
by Simon Springer
More Info: Alison Stenning, Adrian Smith, Alena Rochovská and Dariusz Swiatek (Eds)
Publication Date: 2012
Publication Name: New Zealand Geographer
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Social Justice and Neoliberalism: Global Perspectivesmore
by Simon Springer
More Info: By Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning and Katie Willis (Eds)
Publication Date: 2009
Publication Name: Journal of Economic Geography
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Neoliberalization: States, Networks, Peoplesmore
by Simon Springer
More Info: By Kim England and Kevin Ward (Eds)
Publication Date: 2008
Publication Name: Journal of Economic Geography
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A Brief History of Neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer
More Info: By David Harvey
Publication Name: Journal of Peace Research
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Globalization and Inequality: Neoliberalism’s Downward Spiralmore
by Simon Springer
More Info: By John Rapley
Publication Date: 2006
Publication Name: Journal of Peace Research
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Call For Papers
Homelessness in Times of Crisis – PhD Scholarship Availablemore
by Simon Springer
Scholarship available. Call for a PhD student wanting to work on the geographies of homelessness.
Publication Date: 2022
Research Interests:
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Anarchist Currents Against Brutality: The Global Struggle to End Police Violencemore
by Simon Springer
Call For Papers! Police are becoming evermore militarized and brazen in their approach, so much so that a general sentiment of anxiety exists towards to those who are said to ‘serve and protect’. Anarchists have long been cognizant of... more
Call For Papers!

Police are becoming evermore militarized and brazen in their approach, so much so that a general sentiment of anxiety exists towards to those who are said to ‘serve and protect’. Anarchists have long been cognizant of the dangers that policing poses to the general public, recognizing that we should be ever vigilant of the potential for abuse and harassment. This volume seeks contributions written from an anarchist perspective addressing themes including but not limited to:

• Everyday anarchism in responding to police brutality
• Race and racism in policing
• Police overreach and excessive power
• Filming police, data seizure, and police cover-ups
• Gender politics and sexual misconduct in policing
• Uneven geographies of police violence
• The blue wall of silence
• Property, the ruling class, and policing
• Policing and schooling
• Restorative justice and prison abolition
• The state, the police, and the police state
• Police brutality in the global south
• Representations of anti-policing in media and popular culture
• Undercover policing and infiltration of activist/anarchist groups
• Anti-police slogans and graffiti
• The militarization of policing
• Community-led alternatives to policing
• Deconstructing ‘crime’ and the decriminalization of society
• Vigilantism, community patrols, and intervention teams
• The policing of poverty, and the poverty of policing
• Historical and contemporary encounters between police and anarchists
• The politics of anti-policing sentiment
• Copwatch, Peaceful Streets, and other grassroots organizations
• The thin blue lie
• Intersectional and Total Liberation responses to anti-policing
• Intimate partnerships with undercover police as sexual and emotional violence
Publication Date: 2020
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RGS-IBG DEADLINE 1ST FEB 2019: Environmental and Ecological Justice: Anarchist Contributions and Perspectivesmore
by Richard J White, Ophélie Véron, and Simon Springer
The goal of the panel ‘Environmental and Ecological Justice: Anarchist Contributions and Perspectives’ is to provide a space-time in which geographers (as well as those non-geographers interested in deepening the discussion of the spatial... more
The goal of the panel ‘Environmental and Ecological Justice: Anarchist Contributions and Perspectives’ is to provide a space-time in which geographers (as well as those non-geographers interested in deepening the discussion of the spatial aspects of the problem) can meet in order to examine and debate the contributions that a specifically anarchist (or, more broadly speaking, left-libertarian) perspective can offer to illuminate the various aspects of the subject in a distinct and potent way.
Publication Date: 2019
Publication Name: Royal Geographical Society
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Geographies of Anarchist Praxesmore
by Simon Springer
An anarchist praxis within geography continues to inspire and invite new imaginaries and praxis to flourish within the discipline. In recent years, anarchist geographers have revitalised approaches toward radical learning spaces (Rouhani,... more
An anarchist praxis within geography continues to inspire and invite new imaginaries and praxis to flourish within the discipline. In recent years, anarchist geographers have revitalised approaches toward radical learning spaces (Rouhani, 2017, Springer et al, 2016); historical geographies (Ferretti 2015; Springer 2016), neoliberalism (Springer 2011), post-statist geographies (Barrera and Ince, 2016), practices of freedom (White et al, 2016); postcoloniality/decoloniality (Barker and Pickerill 2012), theories of resistance (Souza et.al 2016); urbanism (Souza 2014), nonhuman animal oppression (White, 2017) and a reassessment of our discipline’s radical potential (Springer 2014, 2016), among others. While wishing to see these anarchist geographies unfold still further, at this point in time - and with the AAG conference being held in New Orleans - we feel it is particularly relevant and important to invite papers that engage directly with the following three areas: 1. Anarchist Geographies and Anti-racism/ intersectionality; 2. Anarchist Geographies and Colonialism, postcolonialism, and decolonization; 3. Anarchist Geographies and Critical Pedagogies, Learning, and Teaching in the University.
Research Interests:
History, Cultural History, Sociology, Political Sociology, Geography, and 80 more
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Peak neoliberalism? Revisiting and rethinking the concept of neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer and Kean Birch
The aim of this special issue is to revisit and rethink neoliberalism as an abstract concept and as an empirical object. We invite contributors to critically evaluate dominant conceptions of neoliberalism, to examine how we use... more
The aim of this special issue is to revisit and rethink neoliberalism as an abstract concept and as an empirical object. We invite contributors to critically evaluate dominant conceptions of neoliberalism, to examine how we use neoliberalism as an analytical and methodological framework, and to offer new ideas about how to productively (re)conceptualize neoliberalism. Below we outline some broad questions that contributors might like to engage with, although others are welcome:
• How conceptually useful is neoliberalism in different disciplines?
• How has the concept of neoliberalism evolved over time?
• Does neoliberalism represent a useful or critical way of understanding
the current state of the world?
• What are the limitations to our use of neoliberalism?
• Does neoliberalism need updating as a critical concept in ways that
take us beyond hybridity and variegation?
• What is missing from debates on neoliberalism in contemporary
scholarship?
• What makes neoliberalism such a popular analytical framework?
call for papers | 2
• Are there alternative ways to conceptualize neoliberalism?
• Are we in need of finding alternative conceptions that break with the
language of ‘neoliberalism’ altogether?
• What might new visions beyond neoliberalism yield in terms of our
collective political future?
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Perspectivas Anarquistas y Libertarias sobre las Geografías de la Pazmore
by Simon Springer
LLAMAR POR PAPELES: Perspectivas Anarquistas y Libertarias sobre las Geografías de la Paz La paz posee un valor intrínseco para los anarquistas y libertarios en general, tanto ética y estéticamente. Un compromiso con una paz... more
LLAMAR POR PAPELES: Perspectivas Anarquistas y Libertarias sobre las Geografías de la Paz

La paz posee un valor intrínseco para los anarquistas y libertarios en general, tanto ética y estéticamente. Un compromiso con una paz significativa y duradera es necesariamente el verdadero antípoda del fascismo, una ideología arraigada en la noción de "gloria" militar y en el culto de la fuerza bruta. El liberalismo burgués y su formal y superficial “estado de derecho” no es suficiente para impugnar estos impulsos catastróficos, mientras que las corrientes anarquistas y libertarias en general proporcionan una respuesta en forma de rechazo de la soberanía estatal y la misma noción de un “monopolio de la violencia”. Y así, en la cara profunda de la violencia, nosotros desde la izquierda libertaria preguntamos: ¿en qué circunstancias se puede lograr la paz de una manera efectiva y duradera? ¿Cómo pueden las geografías anarquistas ayudarnos a entender la lógica de la lucha social y las posibilidades de paz en varias escalas? ¿En qué medida han contribuido las tradiciones libertarias para el nuestro entendimiento de estos desafíos, y cómo pueden el anarquismo y las perspectivas libertarias en general contribuir a un futuro de paz?
Research Interests:
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Anarchist and Left-Libertarian Perspectives on the Geographies of Peacemore
by Simon Springer
CALL FOR PAPERS: Anarchist and Left-Libertarian Perspectives on the Geographies of Peace Peace possesses an intrinsic value for anarchists and left-libertarians, both ethically and aesthetically. A commitment to meaningful and lasting... more
CALL FOR PAPERS: Anarchist and Left-Libertarian Perspectives on the Geographies of Peace

Peace possesses an intrinsic value for anarchists and left-libertarians, both ethically and aesthetically. A commitment to meaningful and lasting peace is necessarily the true antipode of fascism, an ideology rooted in notions of military ‘glory’ and the worship of brute force. A bourgeois liberalism and its formal and superficial ‘rule of law’ is not enough to contest these catastrophic impulses, while anarchism and left-libertarian streams provide an answer in the form of rejecting state sovereignty and the very notion of a ‘monopoly of violence’. And so in the face of profound violence, on the libertarian-left we ask, under which circumstances can peace be achieved in an apt and durable way? How can anarchist geographies help us understand the logic of social struggle and the possibilities of peace at various scales? To what extent have left-libertarian traditions added to our understanding of these challenges, and how can anarchism and left- libertarian perspectives more generally contribute to a peaceful future?
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Vegan Geographies: Ethics Beyond Violencemore
by Simon Springer, Richard J White, Yamini Narayanan, Ophélie Véron, and Andrew Mcgregor
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalising the study of veganism. Scholars who examine this theory and action are... more
Veganism as an ethics and a practice has a recorded history dating back to Antiquity. Yet, it is only recently that researchers have begun the process of formalising the study of veganism. Scholars who examine this theory and action are usually situated in sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies or critical animal studies. The centrality and contested nature of place in the actions and discourse of animal rights activists however suggest an inherently spatial praxis. Slaughterhouses are deliberately closed and placed out of the sight; our familiar urban environment is filled with references to eating meat and exploiting animals, although normalised and rendered invisible. On the other hand, activists take to the street to defend animal rights and invite individuals to change their perception on everyday places and practices of animal violence. Animal liberation and veganism therefore embody an inherently spatial praxis – the desire to live without places of violence (White, 2015). As underlined by Harper (2010:5-6), ‘veganism is not just about the abstinence of animal consumption; it is about the ongoing struggle to produce socio-spatial epistemologies of consumption that lead to cultural and spatial change’. While an interest in domination over non-human animals has gained momentum within critical geography circles in the last two decades (Wolch and Emel, 1995; Philo and Wilbert, 2000; Emel et al., 2002, Gillespie and Collards, 2015; White, 2015), the scarcity of available literature highlights the need for geographers to further reflect on vegan activism and practice. As scholars-activists identifying with veganism, we seek to underscore what geographers can contribute to our understanding of critical veganism and vegan praxis.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Social Movements, Geography, Human Geography, and 57 more
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Anarchist Political Ecology: Theoretical Horizons and Empirical Axesmore
by Simon Springer and Martin Locret-Collet
Recent efforts among anarchist geographers to re-investigate foundational concepts like ‘space’ and ‘territory’ have helped to cast a new light on the flows and regulations that shape contemporary life and spatial organization, both in... more
Recent efforts among anarchist geographers to re-investigate foundational concepts like ‘space’ and ‘territory’ have helped to cast a new light on the flows and regulations that shape contemporary life and spatial organization, both in and outside of neoliberal and consumerist developments. Political ecology, as a very diverse body of work that tries to articulate the ever-changing dialectic between society and environmental resources, and further, between the various classes, communities and groups constituting society itself, offers considerable latitude for the deployment and development of anarchist thought and critique. It is peculiar then that most political ecologists seem to shy away from further engagement with anarchist theory, falling back on Marxism and neo-Marxism, which remain the dominant political ideologies in the field. Given that the State is an institution inextricably bound to capitalism, and thus undeniably one of the primary perpetrators of environmental ruination, this is a curious crutch, worthy of our suspicion and doubt. While Murray Bookchin critiqued anti-ecological trends under the banner of ‘social ecology’ in the 1970s and 80s, the remerging field of anarchist geography in the 2010s has yet to advance an ‘ecology of freedom’ that demonstrates a sustained engagement with important domains like environmental justice, resource security, and ecological governance. We seek to rectify this deficiency in the literature.
Research Interests:
Environmental Engineering, Landscape Ecology, Sociology, Social Movements, Geography, and 162 more
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1st International Conference of Anarchist Geographies and Geographers (ICAGG)more
by Simon Springer
Call For Papers 1st International Conference of Anarchist Geographies and Geographers (ICAGG) – Geography, social change and antiauthoritarian practices Reggio Emilia (Italy) – Centro Studi Cucine del Popolo, via Beethoven 78/e, 21-23... more
Call For Papers

1st International Conference of Anarchist Geographies and Geographers (ICAGG) – Geography, social change and antiauthoritarian practices

Reggio Emilia (Italy) – Centro Studi Cucine del Popolo, via Beethoven 78/e, 21-23 September 2017 – www.icagg.org
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Fulfilling The Promise of Anarchist Geographiesmore
by Simon Springer, Anthony Ince, and Richard J White
The re-emergence of anarchist perspectives has been one of the most significant new developments in critical geography over the last few years. Two journal special issues in 2012 (Clough and Blumberg 2012; Springer et al. 2012) galvanised... more
The re-emergence of anarchist perspectives has been one of the most significant new developments in critical geography over the last few years. Two journal special issues in 2012 (Clough and Blumberg 2012; Springer et al. 2012) galvanised a diverse set of anarchist- inspired geographers and set the scene for a range of scholarship to emerge, including studies of non-capitalist economies (Ince 2015; White 2013), historical geographies (Ferretti 2013; 2014), political praxis (Curran and Gibson 2013), neoliberalism (Springer 2013), the state (Ince and Barrera forthcoming), governance (Gorostiza et al. 2013; Wilkin and Boudeau 2015), postcoloniality/decoloniality (Barker 2013), urbanism (Lopes de Sousa 2014), and a reassessment of our discipline’s radical potential (Springer 2016), among others.
New ideas and concepts have emerged through this renewed interest in anarchism, which promises to transform the intellectual landscape of geography as we know it. This growing maturity and diversity of anarchist thought, however, has been characterized by a heavy focus on theory. As scholars identifying with anarchist traditions, we feel it is both timely and vitally important to explore critically and in greater depth what these theoretical and conceptual innovations mean for academic praxis – in the empirical, as well as pedagogical and methodological, dimensions of geographical scholarship.
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Geography, and 78 more
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The Mont Pelerin Plague? Revisiting and Rethinking Neoliberalismmore
by Simon Springer and Kean Birch
Call for Papers - Association of American Geographers Conference 2016, San Francisco, 29 March – 2 April 2016 From its initial conceptualization in Mont Pelerin in 1947, neoliberalism has now become a ubiquitous term. In geography, and... more
Call for Papers - Association of American Geographers Conference 2016, San Francisco, 29 March – 2 April 2016

From its initial conceptualization in Mont Pelerin in 1947, neoliberalism has now become a ubiquitous term. In geography, and elsewhere, it is used to theorize everything from the development of ecosystem services through urban regeneration to financialization (Springer, Birch & MacLeavy 2016). Across a range of disciplines it is conceptualized in various ways as, for example, a geographical process; a form of governmentality; the restoration of elite class power; a discourse; a political project of institutional change; a set of transformative ideas; a development policy paradigm; a radical political slogan; an epistemic community or thought collective; an economic ideology or doctrine; a particular form of violence; and so on. Such variety and diversity in intellectual analysis (i.e. an explanatory framework) and substantive topic (i.e. a thing to explain) have produced a glut of concepts, theories, and analyses. While this medley might be seen as a necessary – and fruitful – outcome of such a hybrid and heterogeneous process, it also has the potential side-effect of leaving us more confused than enlightened. It is increasingly difficult, on the one hand, to parse or synthesize this intellectual (yet often contradictory) abundance and, on the other hand, to apply it to policy or practical issues facing diverse communities, societies, organizations and individuals around the world. It also risk becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, where despite our hesitancies, we come to believe that there really is no alternative. A body of literature is emerging that is critical of current conceptions and understandings of neoliberalism, highlighting these issues (e.g. Boas & Gans- Morse 2009; Barnett 2009; Weller and O’Neill 2014; Flew 2014; Birch 2015; Venugopal 2015).
Research Interests:
Critical Theory, Sociology, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Geography, and 50 more
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Teaching Documents
Political and Economic Geographiesmore
by Simon Springer
Research Interests:
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Space and Powermore
by Simon Springer
This course focuses on the two-way relationship between space and power. It investigates how political processes shape human geography, and conversely, how assumptions about geography underscore global politics. We will examine the key... more
This course focuses on the two-way relationship between space and power. It investigates how political processes shape human geography, and conversely, how assumptions about geography underscore global politics. We will examine the key themes, concepts, and theories that define the study of politics from a geographical perspective. Students will gain a critical understanding of and appreciation for the historical and contemporary challenges of sovereignty, territoriality, governmentality, identity, citizenship, difference, violence, genocide, colonialism, and war. The course culminates with the themes of resistance and emancipation, which will allow students to consider alternative configurations of space and power in keeping with the paper’s critical approach.
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Activism and Community Based Planningmore
by Simon Springer
"This course focuses on the planning and design of cities from a radical perspective. It investigates how the planning of urban space has been critiqued in the literature and the everyday approaches to planning that have been employed by... more
"This course focuses on the planning and design of cities from a radical perspective. It investigates how the planning of urban space has been critiqued in the literature and the everyday approaches to planning that have been employed by individuals and communities. In challenging rigid and modernist approaches to planning theory we will examine key themes, concepts, and theories which define the study of planning theory from what can be considered an anarchistic, or anti-authoritarian perspective. You can expect to gain a critical understanding of and appreciation for emancipatory approaches to planning theory, which will allow students to consider alternative configurations of space and power in keeping with the course’s radical approach.

As a fourth-year course, our approach within the classroom will be largely theoretical, where you are required to think critically about the concepts we explore though your engagement with the readings and during our meetings. At the same time, the course involves a hands-on component that requires you to directly engage with the community on a topic or issue of your choosing. This two-sided approach is considered an important pedagogical exercise in that it breaks down the proverbial “Ivory Tower” in bringing theory outside of the academy and into our shared streets and neighborhoods. The course itself is run as a seminar, which means that it requires your active participation."
Research Interests:
Geography, Human Geography, Cultural Geography, Social Geography, Urban Geography, and 38 more
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Geography of Southeast Asiamore
by Simon Springer
This course introduces students to the geography of Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis placed on development in the region. The intention of the course is to build awareness for and understanding of the multiple issues and... more
This course introduces students to the geography of Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis placed on development in the region. The intention of the course is to build awareness for and understanding of the multiple issues and challenging problems that people, organizations, and governments are facing within the region. Southeast Asia is characterized by a great deal of diversity, where sites of significant capital accumulation stand in stark contrast to other locations wherein poverty is embedded within the landscape. Historically, Canadians have significantly misunderstood Southeast Asia. Knowledge of the region comes primarily through Hollywood representations of the Vietnam War, and to a lesser extent via the economic shock waves that followed the Asian crisis of 1990s. More recently media attention has focused on recent political upheaval in Thailand and Indonesia, as well as terrorist activities in the Philippines. This course seeks to bring a more encompassing view of the region, where we will learn about the colonial legacies and geopolitical complexity that continues to shape public concern in Southeast Asia. A broad geographical survey of agrarian transformation, changing gender relations, urbanization, economic reform, Cold War intervention, nationalism and ongoing political struggle, industrialization, and regional cooperation and conflict will be complemented by a detailed case study of Cambodia’s genocide and subsequent neoliberalization. The course will foster a deeper geographical comprehension through building student’s critical appreciation for the processes of change that are occurring across Southeast Asia.
Research Interests:
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Advanced Seminar in Human Geographymore
by Simon Springer
This graduate seminar explores some of the major theoretical trends in contemporary human geography. We will investigate key debates and concepts that inform current scholarship on social, cultural, political, and economic geographies... more
This graduate seminar explores some of the major theoretical trends in contemporary human geography. We will investigate key debates and concepts that inform current scholarship on social, cultural, political, and economic geographies using different lenses through which to understand geographical notions of space, place, and scale. The aims of the course are, therefore, threefold:

(1) to provide a solid foundation and appreciation for the diversity of contemporary perspectives in human geography;

(2) to examine major thematic areas of human geographical inquiry and debate;

(3) to, above all, cultivate one’s own “geographical imagination” by critically assessing current geographical scholarship while also contributing to the literature with an original piece of geographical research.

The format for class sessions will be based upon group discussions of the assigned readings, where students will have the opportunity to present to the class and facilitate at least one class discussion over the course of the semester.
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Planning and Urban Developmentmore
by Simon Springer
This course introduces students to some of the major thematic concerns that have traditionally shaped urban geography, with a particular emphasis on the implications of planning and development. It also allows students to engage with... more
This course introduces students to some of the major thematic concerns that have traditionally shaped urban geography, with a particular emphasis on the implications of planning and development. It also allows students to engage with emerging issues that are likely to become focal points in shaping future debates among urban geographers. The aim of the course is to explore the co-constitutive relationship between planning, development, and urban space. As the planning and development of society have spatial consequences, so too does geography influence our understanding of planning and development, which becomes particularly acute within the urban sphere. These relations are negotiated and contested in multiple ways that cut across different locations, scales, and temporalities. Accordingly, we will examine urban concerns, disputes, accommodations, and consequences from a geographical perspective, where students can expect to acquire a critical appreciation for the historical trajectories and evolving implications of urban order, gentrification, housing, slums, policing and crime, city marketing, urban segregation, suburbanization, and land rent theory, all of which influence the planning and development of urban sphere.
Research Interests:
Human Geography, Urban Geography, Criminal Justice, Development Studies, Ethnography, and 65 more
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Media Appearances & Public Talks
Las raíces anarquistas de la Geografíamore
by Simon Springer
Una conferencia para el INSTITUTO DE GEOGRAFÍA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO El anarquismo y la Geografía como disciplina académica tienen una larga y discontinua relación histórica. A nales del siglo XIX Peter Kropotkine... more
Una conferencia para el INSTITUTO DE GEOGRAFÍA UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO

El anarquismo y la Geografía como disciplina académica tienen una larga y discontinua relación histórica. A  nales del siglo XIX Peter Kropotkine y Élisée Reclus, destacados pensadores anarquistas, produjeron una importante cantidad de escritos geográ cos. Aun así, a pesar de la intensa discusión intelectual que los trabajos de estos dos individuos generó, tras sus muertes en los primeros años del siglo XX, las ideas anarquistas en el ámbito la disciplina geográ ca disminuyeron considerablemente. No fue sino hasta mediados de la década de 1970 que el anarquismo una vez más fue parte de los trabajos de geógrafos que, al establecer las bases de lo que hoy es conocido como “geografía radical”, buscaron reintegrar el anarquismo como una  losofía política válida y digna de ser parte del debate intelectual dentro de la disciplina. Lamentablemente, este  orecimiento fue relativamente corto y aunque muchos geógrafos radicales contemporáneos utilizan en cierto sentido teorías y prácticas que comparten a nidades con el anarquismo, el vínculo explícito con las ideas anarquistas ha sido limitado entre los geógrafos debido, sobre todo, a la popularidad del Marxismo, feminismo y más recientemente las críticas post-estructuralistas.

Esta conferencia se desarrolla desde una perspectiva en donde los desafíos globales contemporáneos han adjudicado una amplia aceptación a las agendas anarquistas. En este contexto algunos han hablado abiertamente de un “giro anarquista” en las ciencias sociales. Investigadores y activistas necesitan alzarse ante esta coyuntura y comenzar a (re)mapear las posibilidades de cómo las perspectivas anarquistas pueden contribuir al entendimiento de la geografía y, de la misma manera, cómo puede contribuir la geografía al entendimiento, apreciación y práctica del anarquismo.
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Interview with Simon Springer, Author of “Violent Neoliberalism: Development, Discourse, and Dispossession in Cambodia”more
by Simon Springer
Interview about “Violent Neoliberalism: Development, Discourse, and Dispossession in Cambodia”
Research Interests:
Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Movements, Geography, and 47 more
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The WDCAG Newsletter 2016 - Geography Faculty Focus Interview with Simon Springermore
by Simon Springer
Interview on geography, pedagogy and the state of the university today.
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Cambodia: The Violence of Lawmore
by Simon Springer
A public talk I gave to the Marxist Education Project in New York City. Here I argue that the unfolding of a legal property system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in... more
A public talk I gave to the Marxist Education Project in New York City. Here I argue that the unfolding of a legal property system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation.
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Whichside Podcast Interview with Simon Springermore
by Simon Springer
http://whichsidepodcast.com/simon-springer-phd/

We talk Veganism, Anarchism, Peter Kropotkin, Cambodia, Protesting, Police Violence, the Refugee Crisis, Xenophobia, Geography and much more.
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Faces of UVic Research: Simon Springermore
by Simon Springer
UVic promotional clip.
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Interview with Simon Springer on Anarchist Geographiesmore
by Simon Springer
https://soundcloud.com/cfuv/doers-makers-thinkers-simon
More Info: CFUV 101.9 FM "Doers, Makers, Thinkers" Program.
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Dissertations & Theses
Neoliberalizing Violence: (Post)Marxian Political Economy, Poststructuralism, and the Production of Space in ‘Postconflict’ Cambodiamore
by Simon Springer
In spite of a United Nations sponsored transition to democracy and peace in the early 1990s, violence remains a ubiquitous feature of the Cambodian landscape in the posttransitional era. Contra the commonplace Orientalist renderings that... more
In spite of a United Nations sponsored transition to democracy and peace in the early 1990s, violence remains a ubiquitous feature of the Cambodian landscape in the posttransitional era. Contra the commonplace Orientalist renderings that suggest an inherently violent and authoritarian culture underpins Cambodia’s failure to consolidate democracy and its ongoing encounters with violence, this study advances an alternative interpretation. Combining (post)Marxian and poststructural theoretical approaches, this study proceeds as a (post)anarchist critique through a series of distinct yet thematically connected chapters that examine the intersections between neoliberalism and violence, and the (re)productions of space that both result from and contribute to their entanglement. This critical approach reveals how neoliberalization plays a paramount role in the continuation of violent geographies in Cambodia’s contemporary political economy. The first half of this study theorizes the geographies of neoliberalism and violence through an analysis of the discursive procession of neoliberalism and the imaginative geographies that position it as the sole providence of nonviolence. In orienting itself as a ‘civilizing’ project, neoliberalism as discourse actively manufactures the misrecognition of its violences. Struggles over public space are viewed as a necessary reaction against such symbolic violence, allowing us to relate similar constellations of experiences across space as a potential basis for emancipation, and thereby quicken the pace at which neoliberalism recedes into history. The second half of this study examines the violent geographies of neoliberalism in ‘postconflict’ Cambodia, bringing empirical focus to the (re)visualizations, (re)administrations, and (re)materializations of space that have informed the neoliberalization of violence in the country. The pretext of security under which marketization proceeded, the asphyxiation of democratic politics through ordered productions of space, the discursive obfuscations of the ‘culture of violence’ thesis, and Cambodia’s ongoing encounters with primitive accumulation are all revealed to inform the exceptional and exemplary violences of neoliberalization. Ultimately, this study illuminates the multiplicity of ways in which the processes of neoliberalization are suffused with violence. A critical appraisal of neoliberalism’s capacity for violence can open geographical imaginations to the possibility of (re)producing space in ways that make possible a transformative and emancipatory politics.
More Info: PhD Dissertation, The University of British Columbia
Publication Date: May 2009
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Cambodia’s Fractured Crucible: Democratic Development, Political Violence, and the Contestation of Public Spacemore
by Simon Springer
Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of the Third World. However, for many Third World countries, the promise that the market will bring increased... more
Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of the Third World. However, for many Third World countries, the promise that the market will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, the free market has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills. In Cambodia, the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. Neoliberal policies further explain why authoritarianism remains the principal mode of governance among Cambodia’s ruling elite, an inclination that is often elicited through the execution of state violence. In this study, neoliberalism is conceived as effectively acting to suffocate an indigenous burgeoning of democratic politics in Cambodia. Such asphyxiation is brought to bear under the neoliberal rhetoric of ‘order’ and ‘stability’, which can be read through Cambodia’s (re)production of public space. The preoccupation with ‘order’ and ‘stability’ in Cambodia serves the interests of capital at the global level, and political elites at the level of the nation-state, a reality that has been fiercely contested by Cambodians. This contestation is strongly evidenced in the burgeoning geography of protest that has emerged in Cambodian public spaces in the post-transition era. This study advocates public space as a model for democracy and development. Public space is the site where ‘the voiceless’ can materialise their claims and make their demands heard, it is a medium for the contestation of power as it provides visibility to subaltern groups, and it is the space in which identity is constructed, reified, and contested. In short, public space is the crucible of democracy. Democracy as public space puts power back in the hands of the people, and unlike the concept of ‘civil society’, it allows us to move beyond Eurocentric ‘top-down’ models of development and democracy.
More Info: Ma Thesis, Queen's University at Kingston
Publication Date: Jul 2005
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Speaking Tours
From Neoliberal Damnation to Total Liberation - A Speaking Tour by Simon Springer, April-June 2020more
by Simon Springer
A Speaking Tour by Simon Springer, April-June 2020.
Publication Date: 2020
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Anarchist Roots Under Europe - A Speaking Tour by Simon Springer, April-June 2018more
by Simon Springer
A Speaking Tour by Simon Springer, April-June 2018 in support of "The Anarchist Roots of Geography" Toward Spatial Emancipation" (University of Minnesota Press).
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Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Economic History, Sociology, and 101 more
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ACME Journal
ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, Volume 15, Number 3, 2016more
by Simon Springer
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ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, Volume 15, Number 2, 2016more
by Simon Springer
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ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, volume 14, issue 2, 2015more
by Simon Springer, Sarah Hunt, Myriam Houssay-Holzschuch, and Lawrence D Berg
Vol 14, No 2 (2015): Themed Sections: (1) Civic Geographies (2) Migration and Activism | Various Articles Table of Contents Themed Section - Civic Geographies Civic Geographies: Pictures and Other Things at an Exhibition PDF Chris... more
Vol 14, No 2 (2015): Themed Sections: (1) Civic Geographies (2) Migration and Activism | Various Articles

Table of Contents

Themed Section - Civic Geographies
Civic Geographies: Pictures and Other Things at an Exhibition PDF
Chris Philo, Kye Askins, Ian Cook 355-366
Civic Geographies of Architectural Enthusiasm PDF
Ruth Craggs, Hilary Geoghegan, Hannah Neate 367-376
“I can do things here that I can’t do in my own life”: The Making of a Civic Archive at the Salford Lads Club PDF
Luke Dickens, Richard L. MacDonald 377-389
Waterwise: Extending Civic Engagements for Co-creating more Sustainable Washing Futures PDF
Anna R. Davies, Ruth Doyle 390-400
Civic MacBough Goes To Town PDF
Issie MacPhail 401-412
Occupy RGS(IBG) 2012 PDF
Carlus Hudson, Ian Cook 413-421
Us and Us: Agonism, Non-Violence and the Relational Spaces of Civic Activism PDF
Kye Askins, Kelvin Mason 422-430
Radical Civic Transitions: Networking and Building Civic Solutions PDF
Larch Maxey, Tom Henfrey, Shaun Chamberline, Chris Bird, Jesus Gonsalez 431-441
Themed Section - Migration and Activism
Guest Editorial: Interventions in Migration and Activism PDF
Deirdre Conlon, Nick Gill 442-451
An ‘Invented People’: Palestinian Refugee Women and Meanings of Home PDF
Maria Holt 452-460
Stories Told By, For, and About Women Refugees: Engendering Resistance PDF
Kate Smith 461-469
Being Together: Everyday Geographies and the Quiet Politics of Belonging PDF
Kye Askins 470-478
Precarious Lives: Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Resistance within Unfree Labouring PDF
Louise Waite, Hannah Lewis, Peter Dwyer, Stuart Hodkinson 479-491
Subverting neoliberal citizenship. Migrant struggles for the right to stay in contemporary Italy PDF
Federico Oliveri 492-503
Narratives of Resistance: Space, Place, and Identity in Latino Migrant Activism PDF
Mauro J. Caraccioli, Bryan Wright 504-511
Policing Immigrants as Politicizing Immigration: The Paradox of Border Enforcement PDF
Walter J Nicholls 512-521
Transit Migration in Mexico: Violence, Activism, and Structural Change PDF (ESPAÑOL)
Júlio da Silveira Moreira 522-538
Research
Violence, Colonialism and Space: Towards a Decolonizing Dialogue PDF
Cindy Holmes, Sarah Hunt, Amy Piedalue 539-570
Becoming Periphery - Israeli LGBT “Peripheralization” PDF
Gilly Hartal 571-597
Whose Commons are Mobilities Spaces? – The Case of Copenhagen’s Cyclists PDF
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen 598-621
Commentary
Geopolitics, Genocide and the Olympic Games: Sochi 2014 PDF
Andrew Foxall 622-630
Olympic Violence: Memory, Colonialism, and the Politics of Place PDF
Simon Springer 631-638


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ISSN: 1492-9732
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Papers
COVID-19 Digital Health Innovation Policy: A Portal to Alternative Futures in the Makingmore
by Simon Springer
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert Inc
Publication Date: 2020
Publication Name: OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
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Disinformation as COVID-19's Twin Pandemic: False Equivalences, Entrenched Epistemologies, and Causes-of-Causesmore
by Simon Springer
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert Inc
Publication Name: OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
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Stop the Spam! Conference Ethics and Decoding the Subtext in Post-Truth Science. What Would Denis Diderot Say?more
by Simon Springer
Science and its practice always had a subtext, subject to influence by scientists', funders', and other innovation actors' values and assumptions. The recent emergence of post-truth, authoritarian and populist penchants, in... more
Science and its practice always had a subtext, subject to influence by scientists', funders', and other innovation actors' values and assumptions. The recent emergence of post-truth, authoritarian and populist penchants, in both developed and developing countries, has further blurred the already fluid boundaries between material scientific facts and their social construction/shaping by scientific subtext, human values, powers, and hegemony. While there are certain checks, balances, and oversight mechanisms for publication ethics, other pillars of science communication, most notably, scientific conferences and their governance, are ill prepared for post-truth science. Worrisomely, the proliferation of spam conferences is a major cause for concern for integrative biology and postgenomic science. The current gaps in conference ethics are important beyond science communication because conferences help build legitimacy of emerging technologies and frontiers of science and, th...
Publication Date: Nov 30, 2017
Publication Name: Omics : a journal of integrative biology
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Co-Authored
Broadening Diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) through Gender and 2SLGBTQ+ Equitymore
by Vural Özdemir│ազատ and Simon Springer
We have much work to do for diversity and democracy in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields worldwide. We need to think beyond heteronormativity and the gender binary, so transgender, nonbinary and 2SLGBTQ+... more
We have much work to do for diversity and democracy in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields worldwide. We need to think beyond heteronormativity and the gender binary, so transgender, nonbinary and 2SLGBTQ+ scientists are well represented in science, health research and society. To live into the promise of equity, the desire for diversity and inclusion must mean more than simply shuffling a stacked deck so that we might draw a better hand. Instead, we must be willing to do the difficult work of questioning and unpacking the game itself so that we are better positioned to rewrite its rules.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/omi.2022.0059
Publication Date: 2022
Publication Name: OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology
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What does diversity mean for public engagement? A new metric for innovation ecosystem diversitymore
by Vural Özdemir│ազատ and Simon Springer
Diversity is increasingly at stake in early 21st century. Diversity is often conceptualized across ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual preference, and professional credentials, among other categories of difference. These are... more
Diversity is increasingly at stake in early 21st century. Diversity is often conceptualized across ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual preference, and professional credentials, among other categories of difference. These are important and relevant considerations and yet, they are incomplete.

Diversity also rests in the way we frame questions long before answers are sought.

Such diversity in the framing (epistemology) of scientific and societal questions is important for they influence the types of data, results, and impacts produced by research. Errors in the framing of a research question, whether in technical science or social science, are known as type III errors, as opposed to the better known type I (false positives) and type II errors (false negatives). Kimball defined “error of the third kind” as giving the right answer to the wrong problem. Raiffa described the type III error as correctly solving the wrong problem. Type III errors are upstream or design flaws, often driven by unchecked human values and power, and can adversely impact an entire innovation ecosystem, waste money, time, careers, and precious resources by focusing on the wrong or incorrectly framed question and hypothesis. Decades may pass while technology experts, scientists, social scientists, funding agencies and management consultants continue to tackle questions that suffer from type III errors.

We propose a new diversity metric, the Frame Diversity Index (FDI), based on the hitherto neglected diversities in knowledge framing. The FDI would be positively correlated with epistemological diversity and technological democracy, and inversely correlated with prevalence of type III errors in innovation ecosystems, consortia, and knowledge networks. We suggest that the FDI can usefully measure (and prevent) type III error risks in innovation ecosystems, and help broaden the concepts and practices of diversity and inclusion in science, technology, innovation and society.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/omi.2018.0002
DOI: 10.1089/omi.2018.0002
More Info: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/omi.2018.0002
Publication Date: Feb 12, 2018
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Decolonizing Knowledge Upstream: New Ways to Deconstruct and Fight Disinformation in an Era of COVID-19, Extreme Digital Transformation, and Climate Emergencymore
by Vural Özdemir│ազատ and Simon Springer
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” —Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Lies and disinformation have always existed throughout human history. However, disinformation has become a “pandemic within a pandemic” with convergence of... more
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

Lies and disinformation have always existed throughout human history. However, disinformation has become a “pandemic within a pandemic” with convergence of COVID-19 and digital transformation of health care, climate emergency, and pervasive human–computer interaction in all facets of life. We are living through an era of post-truth. New approaches to fight disinformation are urgently needed and of paramount importance for systems science and planetary health.

In this study, we discuss the ways in which extractive and entrenched epistemologies such as technocracy and neoliberalism co-produce disinformation. We draw from the works of David Collingridge in technology entrenchment and the literature on digital health, international affairs, climate emergency, degrowth, and decolonializing methodologies.

We expand the vocabulary on and interventions against disinformation, and propose the following: (1) rapid epistemic disobedience as a critical governance tool to resist the cultural hegemony of neoliberalism and its master narrative infinite growth that is damaging the planetary ecosystems, while creating echo chambers overflowing with disinformation, and (2) a two-tiered taxonomy of reflexivity, a state of self-cognizance by knowledge actors, for example, scientists, engineers, and physicians (type 1 reflexivity), as well as by chroniclers of former actors, for example, civil society organizations, journalists, social sciences, and humanities scholars (type 2 reflexivity).

This article takes seriously the role of master narratives in quotidian life in production of disinformation and ecological breakdown. The infinite growth narrative does not ask critical questions such as “growth in what, at what costs to society and environment?,” and is a dangerous game of brinkmanship that has been testing the planetary ecological boundaries and putting at risk the veracity of knowledge. There is a need for scholars and systems scientists who break ranks with entrenched narratives that pose existential threats to planetary sustainability and are harmful to knowledge veracity. Scholars who resist the obvious recklessness and juggernaut of the pursuit of neoliberal infinite growth would be rooting for living responsibly and in solidarity on a planet with finite resources. The interventions proposed in this study, rapid epistemic disobedience and the expanded reflexivity taxonomy, can advance progressive policies for a good life for all within planetary boundaries, and decolonize knowledge from disinformation in ways that are necessarily upstream, radical, rapid, and emancipatory.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/omi.2022.0041
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