Geographical Sensemaking: Situating, Relating, and Positioning as Spatial Practices Between Self and World

Lucas Pohl and Ilse Helbrecht

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2025, vol. 115, issue 7, 1489-1505

Abstract: How people attach meaning to space is one of the most central questions of human geography. Space has no meaning in itself but must be made meaningful through human action. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at this process of geographical sensemaking. Although most human geographers would agree that space is bound to certain subjective relations to become meaningful, which spatial practices geographical sensemaking is based on still remains an open question. Drawing on an international research project involving image-based interviews in Singapore, Vancouver, and Berlin, we lay out three such practices that contribute to geographical sensemaking: situating, relating, and positioning. We outline an empirically grounded framework that aims to grasp how people make sense of spaces they see: how they contextualize and familiarize themselves with spaces previously unknown to them, how they draw links between these spaces and their own biographies, and how they position themselves and develop a political stance in relation to these spaces. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of investigating geographical sensemaking for understanding the shaping of differing self–world relationships.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2025.2493825

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