Crises dominate current political debates. They shift the spaces of possibility for geographical research practice and global theory formation. The environmental impact of research and conference travels makes data collection in distant cities largely incompatible with ecological sustainability goals, and while economic crises have led to the cancellation of research funds, repressive political regimes and interventions in academic freedom constrict urban geographic research.
The challenges of crisis-ridden times overlap with epistemological questions about global theory formation. For decades, researchers have criticized the Eurocentric premises of dominant parts of urban theory and have called for its provincialization. At the same time, they have asked questions about the possibility for a globally just, decolonial, and contemporary knowledge practice. Clearly, crisis phenomena that restrict mobility or create precarious working conditions have always shaped the everyday research life of many scholars worldwide, have dictated global theory formation, and are firmly embedded in the geographical knowledge canon. Thus, both the absence of researchers from large parts of the world at international conferences and the absence of these voices in international publications shape current knowledge production.
A rethinking of geographical knowledge practice is urgently needed. This concerns the handling of methods (for instance, through advances in digital research or explorations of off-site ethnography) and theory formations (such as with regards to the question of what knowledge is read theoretically or through a critical examination of power relations written into theory), changing collaborative research approaches (such as the inclusion of "local" research partners), or innovations in publication practices (for example, in the selection of references, in the translation of knowledge, or in publication formats). This forum discusses the transformation of urban geography in times of multiple crises: how do we react with our research practices to restrictions in data collection? How can we link the conditions of crises with epistemological questions? Finally, how do we rethink practices of theory formation and the production or handling of empirical data?
