Resumen de Journeys through our inner geographies: a geohumanities approach. Discovering the interconnectedness of awareness, atmospheres, and imagination in barcelona
As a psycho-spatial phenomenon, the inner geographies has seldom been investigated due to its abstract, intangible, and somewhat elusive nature, thereby evading definitive explanation. To derive a better understanding of the phenomenon and enhance engagement with it, this research presents a GeoHumanities approach to explore and describe how we experience the inner geographies and what contributes to it. Just as the topic of the inner geographies suggests psychological and geographical inclination, so too does it evoke a relation between journeys and biographies, wherein the concepts of awareness, atmospheres, and imagination offer a leitmotif to structure the investigation and thread together diverse yet relevant interdisciplinary inferences. The phenomenon of the inner geographies is theoretically explored via these concepts as framed within inner-sensory perception in relation to the frameworks of emotional geographies, which links lived encounters with affective involvements, and global mobilities, which is pertinent to the current condition of contemporary society. The concepts are applied in the empirical investigation of the phenomenon by using the metanarrative of journeys to engage a sample group in Barcelona through fieldwork that employs narrative and creative methods within an emotively-orientated sensory methodology. The results reveal the interconnectedness of awareness, atmospheres, and imagination as a ‘way of feeling and knowing’, which is integrally related to individuals’ ‘significant encounters’. They coalesce to uncover an entanglement of nuances within the subtle realms of emotionality – conveying the value of the phenomenon as actively guiding individuals through the myriad lives lived within a lifetime, and highlighting the inherent potential of the inner geographies in terms of ‘situatedness’ and ‘mindfulness’ in everyday life. By demonstrating the merit of the phenomenon through the contribution of a theory and methodology, the research intends to establish the inner geographies as a niche within the field of the GeoHumanities, making a broader contribution to social science scholarship and society – enlightening our understanding of the intimate existential nature of humanity today.
