Edward Elgar Publishing A Research Agenda for Geographies of Slow Violence: Making Social and Environmental Injustice Visible (Elgar Research Agendas)

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This timely Research Agenda highlights how slow violence, unlike other forms of conflict and direct, physical violence, is difficult to see and measure. It explores ways in which geographers study, analyze and draw attention to forms of harm and violence that have often not been at the forefront of public awareness, including slow violence affecting children, women, Indigenous peoples, and the environment. Demonstrating a range of research methods and theoretical perspectives, this Research Agenda looks at the topic of slow violence through qualitative fieldwork, document analysis, geospatial technologies and cartographic analysis and representation. Key case studies consider slow violence in the form of social injustice, environmental alteration, and harmful human-environment interactions. The chapters also highlight how physical infrastructure, social and legal practices, places that have experienced armed conflict, and groups of people being labeled or marginalised can foster forms of slow violence. Scholars and students of human geography, particularly those looking at decolonization, environmental and social justice and different geographic methods for research, will find this book to be a beneficial read. It will also be useful for those studying structural harm and indirect violence more widely. Review 'This collection of impressive research and poignant scholarship is a must read for scholars interested in examining the spatial temporalities of violence. Also, recommended for professors seeking to engage students in productive and provocative dialogue about violence and its myriad and insipid encroachments into the geographies of everyday life.' -- Jennifer L. Fluri, University of Colorado, Boulder, US 'This book explores vital new avenues of thought and political possibility across a wide range of geographical locations. O'Lear has brought together a crucial set of consequential analyses and interventions. This is an invaluable book for scholars of environmental and social justice.' -- – Rob Nixon, Author of Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor 'Engaging with the spatial and temporal complexities of slow violence requires innovative theoretical and methodological approaches. The chapters in this valuable collection do not disappoint. Essential reading for anyone interested in exploring diverse ways to analyze the practices and processes that shape contemporary forms of systemic and structural violence.' -- Kevin J. Grove, Florida International University, US 'Peace is arguably more than just the absence of war. It should be about identifying and rooting out all the insidious forms of violence, particularly between human groups, that not only can lead to war but that also poison the everyday lives of people when unaddressed. This is the basis for investigating ''silent violence.'' Yet, as this innovative volume suggests, the spatial and temporal framings and contexts must also be central to that investigation, since it is the accumulation of threats over time and their embeddedness in places that makes them so intractable.' -- John Agnew, UCLA, US, and Co-Editor of The Handbook of Geographies of Power About the Author Edited by Shannon O’Lear, Professor, Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science, and Environmental Studies Program, University of Kansas, US