ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the nature of the contemporary renaissance of anarchist geography, considering how geographers are applying anarchist ideas, concepts and analytical tools to the critical study of our complex relationships with the spaces and places we inhabit. It introduces the historical connections between anarchism and geography, as well as cognate fields such as architecture and planning. The chapter discusses how anarchist thought has emerged in contemporary academic geography, and suggests some possible reasons for this. It explores three key contemporary themes emerging through anarchist interventions in Anglophone geographical scholarship. They are the relationship between anarchism and ‘autonomous’ practices, thought, and movements; the anarchist critique of authority and statism in relation to broader geographical debates on the spatialities of governance; and anarchist perspectives on the role, nature and politics of ‘publics’ and public space. Much like the spatialities of governance, the discipline of geography has a long tradition in critical analyses of public space, especially in the urban context.
