Postcolonialism

This chapter outlines three broad themes within postcolonial geographies that coalesce around the dynamics between power and difference at the heart of postcolonialism. First, the study of postcolonial geographies helps in understanding the different ways in which geographical knowledge has shaped, and been shaped by, colonial power relations in different locations and the ways that geographic practices themselves can be "postcolonialized." Second, examining postcolonial geographies sheds light on the complex spatialities, effects, and expressions of colonial power and identities. Third, careful consideration of postcolonial geographies demonstrates the ways that colonial practices have been encountered and resisted by colonized peoples within their everyday worlds and the forms of subjectivity produced through and productive of these encounters. The remainder of this chapter looks at each of these themes to show the diverse contributions cultural geographers can make to the field of postcolonialism.