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Kurzfassung: „German Theory" is a theory that has not yet been written, but could have been. „Theory" is here understood as a "territory of thought" that transcends the boundaries of its origins, and travels to other sites. „French Theory", for example, is the label for the travel of French poststructuralism to Anglophone humanities. In this sense, „German Theory" does not exist (yet), but as this paper will argue, it exists as a potentiality that has not (yet) actualized. To show this potential, this paper turns to the work of Friedrich A. Kittler. To illustrate why Kittler did not become a cornerstone of „German Theory", and to discuss how it could have been, this paper proceeds in two steps: first, it traces the recent history of the reception of Foucault in German language geography and the humanities. This analysis shows that Kittler and German language geography morphed Foucault's discourse theory into two distinct thought styles – the „discourse school" in German language geography into a „textual" one; Kittler into a „materialist" one. This incompatibility of thought styles, this paper asserts, obstructed the travel of Kittler to Anglophone geography, although Kittler's notion of „materiality of communication" resonates with the „material turn" in Anglophone geography. Nor did the Foucault of the „discourse school" travel to Anglophone geography. Kittler's „German Foucault" travelled to Anglophone media studies as „German School", though. In the last part of the paper, I ask the question how Kittler's „German Foucault" could have travelled to (anglophone) geography and what could have been gained theoretically through this travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurzfassung: Sustainable development is of equal concern to Geography as an academic discipline and Geography Education. Given Geography's explicit conceptual and thematic affinity to sustainable development, various professional organizations developed normative documents proclaiming Geography to the main carrier subject of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The aim of this paper is to explore what effects the special proximity of school Geography to the promotion of ESD has on the design of geographical specialist knowledge. Lower secondary Geography curricula (1992–2022) of the federal state of Berlin served as sample for content analysis. Viewed in light of work from the History of Education, Sociology of Education, and Subject Education, the results show a progressive loss of disciplinary identity accompanied by a concurrent shift in focus from factual judgments to value judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurzfassung: While a broad debate on carceral geographies has been part of human geography and related disciplines in English-speaking academia, there are only scarce publications among German-speaking geographers. This special issue aims at bringing different researchers (Tobias Breuckmann, Julia Emprechtinger, Sarah Klosterkamp, Nadine Marquardt, Marco Nocente, Marina Richter and Anna Schliehe) and their rich and diverse research insights in the carceral field into a dialogue. What started with a session at the 2019 conference of German-speaking geography (Deutscher Kongress für Geographie), developed into a special issue that encompasses papers based on the contributions to the session as well as additional papers that round up the insights into current research in carceral geographies in German-speaking countries. The papers show the importance of applying a carceral geography perspective to research in German-speaking geography to focus on different institutions, places and spaces that share common carceral characteristics. In addition, the focus on German-speaking researchers also adds to the international debate on carceral geographies with specific insights from the national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurzfassung: This paper examines whether and to what extent the application of the method of hermeneutic photography can contribute to reducing epistemic relations of violence and thus to decolonizing empirical social research. To this end, an empirical study by the author is subjected to a re-reading and methodological reflection from postcolonial perspectives. On the basis of this, it will then be worked out which potentials and limits the work with the method of hermeneutic photography offers for research projects that are carried out in countries of the so-called Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurzfassung: This article examines the constitution of affective atmospheres that arise through the encounter of scientific and theatre practices. Using an autoethnographic approach, the presented work focuses on a collaborative theatre project on the climate crisis. Here, the author performed in the role of a scientific expert next to colleagues that have a climate change-related research background. Three aspects of affective atmospheres emerging in the rehearsal process are analysed: one's position in the interplay of powerful materialities, the relationality of sensual bodies, and the (in)stability of scientific identities. This paper shows that the artistic collaboration opens up space for reflecting on science that seek to overcome ostensible dualisms of subject/object, mind/body, and reason/emotion. It emphasizes the opportunity of art to bring into account body, more-than-humanity and relationality as part of scientific practices in times of anthropocentric debates facing climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurzfassung: A central diagnosis driving research around social relations of nature is the thesis of the "end of nature". In an era marked by climate change and global warming, the image of nature as a pristine and stable foundation of human existence seems outdated. In light of this, recent scholarship demonstrates how environmental changes and conflicts increasingly affect people's daily lives and present significant threats to psychic well-being. In contrast, in this paper we investigate the conditions under which nature continues to function as an effective source of 'ontological security'. As part of an international comparative research project that engages geographical imaginaries of security and insecurity in Berlin, Vancouver, and Singapore, we analyze how nature is imagined by city dwellers as an object of desire that offers a place of refuge to escape the burdens from urban everyday life. Against this background, we emphasize imaginary nature as a powerful everyday source for the ontological security of subjects even under today's postnatural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]