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This piece provides an overview of decolonising approaches for geographers unfamiliar with the field, first by examining some of the ways in which decolonial scholarship seeks to build on — and go beyond — postcolonialism. Developing these points, it turns to discuss what it means to think about decolonising geography at this particular political, institutional and historical conjuncture, examining the urgencies and challenges associated in this moment particularly for British geography. The introductory intervention then moves to examine how the remaining intervention pieces understand and address the theme of decolonial scholarship and geography.

Across urban Indonesia, the surviving vestiges of 'modern' architecture and infrastructure built in the final decades of colonial rule are increasingly being re-defined as 'heritage'. Through an ethnographic study of Pasar Johar - a striking marketplace in the city of Semarang designed by the Dutch architect and town planner Thomas Karsten in the 1930s - I argue that such cases of modernity-cum-heritage enable the contemporary challenge of hegemonic teleologies of what makes a 'modern' city, while also facilitating the perpetuation of insidious colonial-era notions of who counts as a 'modern' urban subject. By tracing the 'afterlives' of the marketplace and its Dutch creator in present-day debates over the trajectory of Semarang's development, this article reveals how Indonesian heritage advocates are endeavouring to chart alternative urban futures via their city's past. Through their lively campaign to save the structure, 'being modern' in the postcolonial city comes to be a project not of imitation but of recovery, as well as a passionate critique of urban politics as usual. However, such enthusiastic reclamations of colonial modernity as urban heritage also run the risk of reproducing the same logics of 'progress' that once governed the cityscape and its populace a century ago.

Modern historians have repeatedly cast Sri Lanka’s historical female monarchs as ‘queens’, without critically reflecting on the conceptual limits and nuances of that term. Through a close examination of sources from the early second millennium, and their reception by scholars from the colonial period onwards, I demonstrate that Sri Lanka’s female monarchs—particularly Līlāvatī of Poḷonnaruva (r. 1197–1200, 1209, and 1210)—engaged in a more creative and subversive performance of gender than modern ‘queenship’ allows. In particular, I argue, a discourse of kingship’s inherent masculinity, advanced in literary and didactic texts written primarily by male monastics, was too-willingly accepted by colonial-period scholars. Closer attention to the material evidence of Līlāvatī’s reign, however, challenges this discourse and further suggests a politics of gender beyond the binary.

This book examines what Amr Kamal calls the phenomenon of emporialism , or the convergence between the spaces and imaginaries of empires and emporia in the context of a modern Mediterranean divided among the British, French, and Ottoman empires. By \"emporia,\" Kamal refers to the commercial network of nineteenth-century department stores, which gained prominence after the Suez Canal project. Taking as a focal point French and Egyptian department stores, the author examines emporialism as a set of phenomenological experiences, discursive and social praxes, and mechanisms of control and resistance, born from the intersection of modernity, colonialism, and mass consumption. Drawing on archival evidence, Kamal reads iconographic and literary representations of emporia in English, French, Arabic, and Hebrew, from the nineteenth century to the present, addressing works by Émile Zola, Huda Shaarawi, Jacqueline Kahanoff, and others. Emporialism, Kamal argues, served to rewrite the history of the Mediterranean, to reinvent national belonging, and to interrogate issues of modernity and social justice.

This analysis investigates the limits of colonial modernity in the 20th century Dutch East Indies at a time that coincided with the building of the Indonesian national project. I am interested in the constitution of the national teleology as an inexorable socio-political project, deploying specific racial and gendered economies. As a locus of investigation I choose the literary narratives of two celebrated Indonesian intellectuals (and participants in the anti-colonial struggle), Pramoedya's Buru Quartet and Mangunwijaya's Durga/Umayi. Were the impulses of anti-colonial resistance intrinsically national in their orientation? Through what erasures and re-appropriations has the nationalism/modernity paradigm become the medium of decolonisation?

This article presents the initial research and development phases of a transformative climate education program for adults in a semi-rural community on southern Vancouver Island. Using design-based research (DBR), we developed a workshop series informed by adult and lifelong education (ALE), transformative learning, and the theoretical frameworks of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective and its members, including Vanessa Machado de Oliveira. Our research began with a community needs assessment (n = 183), identifying key concerns such as affordability, climate anxiety, and social cohesion. We articulate six design principles emerging from these insights, which highlight the importance of pedagogical entry points, the role of worldview transformation, and the integration of localized climate solutions with broader systemic critiques. This study contributes to climate education by offering a model that moves beyond information dissemination, and instead cultivates critical, justice-oriented engagement with climate action in ways that are both locally relevant and globally situated. Cet article présente les premières phases de recherche et de développement d’un programme d’éducation climatique transformatrice destiné aux adultes dans une communauté semi-rurale du sud de l’île de Vancouver. En utilisant une approche de recherche fondée sur la conception (design-based research [DBR]), nous avons développé une série d’ateliers inspirés de l’éducation des adultes et de l’éducation permanente (adult and lifelong education [ALE]), de l’apprentissage transformateur et des cadres théoriques du collectif Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures et de Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (2022). Notre recherche a commencé par une évaluation des besoins communautaires (n = 183), identifiant des préoccupations majeures, comme l’accessibilité financière, l’écoanxiété et la cohésion sociale. Nous formulons six principes de conception issus de ces résultats, soulignant l’importance des points d’entrée pédagogiques, du rôle de la transformation des visions du monde et de l’intégration de solutions climatiques locales dans une critique systémique plus large. Cette étude contribue à l’éducation climatique en proposant un modèle qui dépasse la simple diffusion d’informations et favorise plutôt un engagement critique et axé sur la justice en matière d’action climatique, à la fois pertinent à l’échelle locale et inscrit dans un contexte global.

There are around 400,000 international students studying on Australian campuses in 2018, and the education of international students is Australia’s third largest export, behind that of iron ore and coal, thereby playing a significant role in the country’s economy and particularly the financial sustainability of Australian universities. Chinese international students, account for one-third in this cohort, are paradoxically both coveted as ‘cash cows’ and labelled as a ‘security threat’ to Australian society. The paper examines this particular ‘Chinese Student Syndrome’ through the lens of ‘colonial modernity’ and argues that along with the problems of Chinese firms in Australia, Chinese international students on Australian campuses, in many ways, take on the persona of China itself in Australia, and the implications associated with its global rise. At the core of this syndrome lies a deep-seated ontological framing of a historical teleology that centres the Anglo-European pathway to modernity as universal that grounds the epistemic certainty of higher education institutions in Australia and regards Chinese students as the outsider to this teleology.

Both Taipei and Seoul underwent a process of colonization and modern urbanization during the early part of the 20th century, under Japanese rule. In both countries, urban-planning projects from the colonial period have had a great impact on recent urban changes. This comparative analysis aims to identify the characteristics of modern cities with Japanese colonial histories, focusing on the following three aspects: (1) Urban structure based on spatial distribution by ethnic group; (2) Japanese colonial urban planning; and (3) modern boulevards that convey the power and spectacle of a colonial city. Taipei and Seoul have multi-cores because the Japanese and Taiwanese/Korean areas were not clearly separated spatially. Secondly, Japanese colonial urban planning was influenced by Japanese settlements and government facilities. Thirdly, the main boulevards in each city, created through modern urban planning, combine modern streetscapes with imperial spectacle. These boulevards took on an important political meaning after liberation. Comparative studies of Taipei and Seoul can illuminate the difference between modern cities with a Japanese colonial history and colonial cities under European rule. Such comparisons make it possible to analyze the meaning, value, and relevance of colonial remnants, including urban structure and artifacts, for each city’s sustainable future.

Abstract This article puts John Urry's thought on the mobilities turn into conversation with Caribbean critical theory, which was in fact the starting point for my collaborations with Urry on the new mobilities paradigm twenty or more years ago. It describes the relation between my work on the Caribbean and the emergence of the new mobilities paradigm at Lancaster University between about 1999 and 2006. Then it considers the influence of Urry's work on thinking more widely about climate mobilities and carbon form. Finally, it seeks to “pluralize” mobilities research by showing how decolonial and indigenous critiques of the ongoing relations between mobility/immobility, energy production/consumption, and the “coloniality of climate” are necessary to dismantle the powerful racialized mobility regimes that work in the interest of kinetic elites.

“Battala” is a Bengali metonym for commercial print culture which gained popularity during the Bengal Renaissance. This print culture became a translational palimpsest, disseminating literary genres and leading to the creation of a site where high and low culture converged. Our paper examines the complex relationship between 19th-century colonial Calcutta and the languages in this fast-developing city. The popular print culture blurred distinctions between cultural forms, transcending geographical and literary boundaries of the colonial cosmopolis. This paper contributes to the discourse on translating otherness in the city by demonstrating how Battala intricately reflected relationships between language, memory, and urban space within the historical and cultural context of colonial Calcutta. This is done through an analysis of selected works, including Koutuk Shatak by Harishchandra Mitra, Rar Bhar Mithya Katha Tin Loye Kolikata by Pyarimohan Sen, and Ki Mojar Koler Gari by Munsi Azimuddin. Other works that highlight the blurring of cultural spaces include the translation of The Arabian Nights by Avinash Chandra Mitra (titled Sachitra Ekadhik Sahasra Dibas). Additionally, translations of Ameer Hamzar Puthi by Abdun Nabi and Shah Muhammad Saghir’s Yūsuf Zuleikhā show significant Urdu and Arabic-Persian influence. By analyzing Battala’s interactions with marketplaces, different communities, and intellectual salons, this study adds to the interdisciplinary discussion on translation and urban space. It examines the city’s symbolic representations in popular literature, as well as its geographic location and social significance.