ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will consider the place of sexuality, queer politics and the erotic within geographical knowledge. In doing so I want to revisit an earlier paper I wrote on this subject (Binnie 1997) that focused on the relationship of sexuality to ‘the field’ – the sexual and erotic politics of fieldwork and the sexualised construction of geographical knowledge. A rethinking of the reasons for the original paper and the re-evaluation of its main arguments are necessary for a number of reasons. There has been an explosion in work on sexuality and space within human geography in recent years. In this work one emerging line of enquiry and debate is the role of the erotic within geographies of sexualities. A second and related concern has been the place of queer politics and theory within geographical studies of sexuality. I will develop these concerns about queer and the erotic through an examination of the way they have been treated in discussions on the mundane and normativity. This chapter then considers the practical example of the undergraduate geography field trip which is reflective and illustrative of these more abstract theoretical concerns.
