Fielding the (geographical) subject [Terrains de je. (Du) sujet (au) géographique]

摘要

This introduction to the special issue "Fielding the (geographical) subject" takes up the issue of fieldwork as both a scientific problem and the object of epistemological research, by positioning oneself simultaneously at the view point of the subject researching - and the question of his or her identity - and within a spatial perspective. It presents the main discussions of the symposium on this subject held at Arras, then continues by considering the issue of the field(work) from epistemological and theoretical points of view. The contributions of English-speaking feminist epistemologies on the question (on its political aspects, reflexivity and positionality, relationality, corporality) are confronted to a French approach which has long been strictly methodological but which is now in the throes of an intense process of renewal (relation between the spatialities of the research object and of research practices, aesthetics of the field, reflexivity). Lastly, this introduction offers two proposals. The first is to use the field as a lever for a Latourian history of geography, where practices, materialities along with the processes of writing would be central. The other involves going beyond existing epistemologies to use transitional psychoanalysis to develop the idea of a haptic and figurative regime of spatial knowledge, based on the investigation of the relational and performative dimensions of field(work) practices and experience.