Analysis of an editorial experience to reflect on the potential and limits of the debate in Italian geography

Abstract

This introduction does not merely present the specific contents discussed at the conference WHERE. The situated dimension of power: why it matters, how much it matters, how to investigate it, but takes the opportunity from this experience to reflect on the problems of our research activity. With regard to the first aspect, we wanted to test a fundamental category of the geographical sciences, that of position, in order to relaunch an authentically geographical discourse on power. With regard to the aspect of disciplinary practices, on the other hand, we reflected on the potential and limits of research activity in the current scientific context on the basis of the experience that the editors have encountered while working on the production of this work: refractoriness to intellectual confrontation, obstacles imposed by the current system of evaluating scientific production, academic individualism, reluctance to engage with theoretical questions, and difficulties intrinsic to geopolitical knowledge. Since we are a community on the move, it is good to emphasise both the strengths on which to push and the weaknesses to amend.