Shrinking geographies or challenged rurality’s? Three points of reflection – commentary to Syssner

Authors

  • Marlies Meijer

Abstract

By asking ‘what could geographers do for shrinking geographies’ Josefina Syssner offers a very comprehensive overview of what has been and should be on the research agenda’s for understanding rural shrinking geographies. In this commentary I would like to address three issues related to the Fennia keynote, that may add an additional perspective or a moment of reflection: 1) the issue of demographic change, rather than shrinkage, 2) how we can imagine the future of shrinking geographies, and 3) what Nordic perspectives have to offer. In conclusion, I believe that peripheral geographies, and challenged rurality’s deserve a key position within geography and related disciplines, and call for a repolitisation of the topic: what we research, how we conceptualise or even advice has consequences for those living and imagining futures in peripheral, rural and depopulating regions.

How to Cite

Meijer, M. (2023). Shrinking geographies or challenged rurality’s? Three points of reflection – commentary to Syssner. Fennia - International Journal of Geography, 200(2), 251–254. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.121861