Cosmohistories and pluriversal dialogues : The future of the history of geography. Special issue: “Reimagining the Futures of Geographical Thought and Praxis”

When it comes to ‘the History of Geography’, many people still wonder of something descriptive and conservative, which has virtually no links with the ‘future’, a metaphorical place where ‘progress’ and ‘advancements’ are usually located. The existence of such feelings exposes how some lingering positivistic views still remain also in parts of the discipline that claimed to have got rid of positivism. We instead contend that the history of geography can bring innovative and challenging contents that should play important roles for the future of the discipline. First, drawing upon our own research experience and extending recent literature on ‘geographical futures’, we expose why the history of geography is making increasingly important contributions to key discussions in a plural and evolving discipline. We especially focus on the ongoing pluralistic and multilingual rediscovery of ‘other geographical traditions’ that is enriching critical, radical and feminist approaches to geography. Then, we propose to enrich an intellectual field of prevailing ‘Western’ origins like geography by engaging in pluriversal dialogues with indigenous knowledges and practices, focusing on Latin America and on decolonial notions such as cosmohistory, which show that there are many histories of geography, and they all matter for the futures of the discipline.