Catalan Geography in Times of Crisis

Resumo

This contribution provides a critical review of the geographical literatureproduced about Catalonia since 2010. Although other references are mentioned in thetext, the focus is to review two multi-authored books published in 2021. On the onehand, La nova Geografia de la Catalunya postcovid (‘The New Geography of post-covidCatalonia’). On the other, a history of the Societat Catalana de Geografia (‘Catalan Societyof Geography’), an institution founded in 1935 that serves as a meeting point for Catalangeographers. By so doing, the current Catalan geography (as a territory) and the evolutionand state of Geography (as a discipline) in Catalonia are critically examined.The contents are structured around four crises considered significant forunderstanding the current tasks of Catalan Geography: (1) the crisis that was initiated in2008, initially impacting the property market and the financial sector, but which laterwould have far-reaching socioeconomic effects for the whole of Catalonia; (2) the Covid19 crisis, which broke out in March 2020 and which is profoundly reconfiguring the livesof people everywhere, including in Catalonia; (3) the geopolitical crisis in Spain andCatalonia, whose origin can be traced to 2010; and, finally, (4) the global environmentalcrisis, which, if we adhere to one of the recent theories about the Anthropocene, beganwith the industrial revolution but whose effects did not acquire a combined humansignature until the last decades of the 20th century or even the beginning of the currentone.To sum up, current Catalan geographical research is responding in real time to themultifaceted manifestations of these four crises. However, this ability to conductgeographical analyses of Catalonia that has developed in the course of the last decadeshould not be separated from the highly idiosyncratic sustained tradition enjoyed byGeography as a consolidated science in Catalonia. Likewise, many Catalan geographershave lately been involved in the discipline’s applied and future-oriented dimension,including policy-making.