Geography and the Covid-19 Crisis in Ireland

Abstract

In the few short months since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world had paid more daily attention to maps, charts, rates and locations than ever before; the function and value of a wider geographical imagination, research and education has never been more apparent. Geography and its concerns with place, locations, networks, mobilities and impacts are central to critical reporting on the management, analysis and potential future impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. As the leading journal for geographers it would be remiss for Irish Geography not to identify and promote the different ways in which geographers, both in Ireland and globally, inform, shape and reflect on the current global pandemic. For contemporary geographers, understanding and tackling spatial inequality is effectively a mission statement. In the current crisis, a relational geographical understanding of how we tackle inequalities and how relations; social, spatial and political, work themselves unequally in and between places, are central. In this short editorial, I focus on several sub-themes; medical/health, urban, social & cultural, online and environmental geographies to suggest ways in which ongoing and future work by geographers will matter. A short analytical report on publicly available spatial data has already been made available1; a longer piece with invited first wave responses (under the ‘Contemporary Critical Geographies’ banner) is planned for the next issue of this journal.