Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2026-10: Kenneth Cardenas on the geography of possibility

In 2005, David Prytherch and Sallie Marston posed a question regarding an urban geography of possibility: How may we better see the potential of people and localities, where new spatial networks are forged by actors who embody and must negotiate a world of material and symbolic flows? Prytherch and Marston offer a possible first step: "[C]hallenge ... a rethinking [of] urban geography’s dominant perspectives on the city, neoclassical positivist and Marxian political-economic, and their chronic blind spot: social and cultural practice" (p. 99).

The UP Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society (PGS) proudly present this month's Heo/Geo Lecture Series with Dr Kenneth Cardenas as speaker. This will be on Monday, 14 September 2026 at 5:30PM (Philippine Time) / 5:30AM (Eastern Standard Time) via Zoom. The talk, titled For a geography of possibility for the 21st century Philippines: Three ways of noticing, intersects some of the question's broad strokes. 

The talk suggests three ways of seeing possibility in the political economy of the early 21st century Philippines. Dr Cardenas will articulate a version of geography as a mode of knowledge attuned to unevenness and difference, uniquely positioned for reading against ‘damage-centred’ accounts of neoliberalism, underdevelopment, and inequality. Specifically, reflexive, careful attention to scale and abstraction, as dimensions to how we theorize about the Philippines, can help sensitize us to how projects of concentrating wealth and power had never fully consolidated in this place, and to the ways that non-, anti-, and post-capitalist practices co-constitute its economic and political life. 

Through completed and in-progress research on capitalism and state formation in the Philippines, the talk illustrates (1) attention to long timescales, (2) small spatial and institutional scales, and (3) unlikely comparisons across places, periods, and commodity relations as elements to a research repertoire in the aid of noticing possibility.

Dr Kenneth Cardenas completed his PhD in Geography at York University, where he remains affiliated as a research associate with the York Centre for Asian Research. He holds an MA (distinction) in Sociology from the University of Manchester, and a BA in Sociology from the University of the Philippines Diliman. His PhD dissertation, Land, infrastructure, and the new geographies of class power in the 21st century Philippines, is an urban and economic geography of the Philippines' ruling rentier class, as it has been transformed by remittances and a globally-deployed workforce. His Heo/Geo talk draws from feminist and institutional economic geographies to attend to non-, anti-, and post-capitalist possibilities, as they inhere in the Philippine landscape. See more of his work at https://kennethcardenas.com/.

The Heo/Geo Lecture Series exists because of an abundance of geography-related undertakings in multiple scales. The Lecture Series which is a rebranded version earlier brown bag iterations brings together place-based ideas, intellectual provocations, and practices from scholars, geography practitioners, and communities. This monthly talk remains online to reach a broader audience, especially those outside of Metro Manila and the Philippines. It is in line with the SDG #4 (Quality Education) of the United Nations. This is also co-sponsored by the Human Geography (HUG) research cluster of the UP Department of Geography.

To participate in the lecture, use this link to register: https://tinyurl.com/y7mfud2p

Work cited: 

David L. Prytherch & Sallie A. Marston (2005) Editorial: An Urban Geography of Possibility, Urban Geography, 26:2, 97-99, DOI: 10.2747/0272-3638.26.2.97

Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2023-04: Aireen Andal on urban world-building among children

What ideas might geographers learn if children were to plan a fictional city?

For the fourth Heo/Geo Lecture Series, sponsored jointly by the UP Department of Geography and the Philippine Geographical Society, the focus is on urban imaginaries among slum-dwelling children in San Jose del Monte City. Aireen Andal from Macquarie University presents children’s urban imaginaries through a worldbuilding workshop with slum-dwelling children in the Philippines. Building on Donna Harraway’s notion of “standpoints of the subjugated”, making fictional cities prioritises the engagement of children as active participants in urban discourses, rejecting a technocratic and adultist approach in knowledge production. 

The lecture, entitled What if children created a fictional city? Urban imaginaries of slum-dwelling children in San Jose del Monte City, Philippines happens on 31 March at 4:00PM (Philippine Standard Time) | 7:00PM AEDT.

Fifteen children, 9-12 years old, created four fictional cities in groups of four. This method used a low-tech cartographic technique, including a big paper and art materials for children to design their fictional cities. Findings reveal that the fictional cities embody children’s lived realities and their aspirational visions. On the one hand, the fictional cities are tethered to slum life. On the other hand, these fictional cities also reflect children’s ideal cities. Analysis shows that children’s insights shed light on how city-building is an ongoing and evolving process, subject to the complexities and limitations of human experience. It is also argued that children are not separated from the politics of everyday spaces but are rather uniquely positioned in the power structures in their cities. Ultimately, the creation of fictional cities illustrates the role of creative methodologies to thicken geographical data and to acknowledge that children can be strong allies of critical scholarship in geographical research when their voices are taken seriously.

Aireen Andal (she/her) is a PhD candidate under a Double-PhD track in Social Sciences (Macquarie University, Australia) and Social Philosophy (Ural Federal University, Russian Federation). She is also a research fellow at the Space for Engagement and Epistemic Diversity (SEED) (University of Melbourne) and Centre of Global Urbanism (Ural Federal University). Her research pays particular attention to children and children’s spaces and the importance of children as co-creators of spatial knowledge. Majority of her academic engagements involve children’s voices on the urban spaces they occupy, with emphasis on slum-dwelling communities in the global South. Some of her recent publications include topics in the fields of children’s geographies, childhood studies, and urban and regional studies, on top of serving as a reviewer of manuscripts related to childhood research. Aireen is a scholar for and with children and their spaces. Her academic life is devoted to making children’s voices heard, their insights acknowledged, and their lives seen—matters that are hitherto often dismissed. This project is funded by the Institute of Human Geography.

The Heo/Geo Lecture Series is a space that encourages geographers and geography-oriented researchers, activists, writers, artists and civil society to engage interventions and provocations with various publics. This lecture series is part of the UP Department of Geography's 40th-year celebration and an acknowledgment that 2023 is the 100th-year when geography was first taught in UP.

To participate in the lecture, please check this link to register.

Heo/Geo Lecture Series 2023-01: Kaloy Cunanan discusses spatial patterns of underdevelopment in urban Metro Manila

Sa kauna-unahang talakayan ng Heo/Geo Lecture Series ngayong taon, ang UP Department of Geography ay nagagalak na ipakilala si Kaloy M. Cunanan at ang kanyang presentasyon na pinamagatang Ilang Tala sa Medyasyon at Konsepsyon sa Paglalapat ng Siyudad Kumprador. Gaganapin ito ngayong Biyernes, ika- 20 ng Enero, taong 2023 (alas-5 ng hapon) sa Zoom.

     Photo: Amanda Echanis | Poster: Dominique Amorsolo | Heo/Geo logo: Azariah Cortez

Nagsisikap na manggagawa sa panlipunang pananaliksik si Kaloy Cunanan. Siya ay isang independyenteng mananaliksik na kasapi ng UP Center for International Studies. Sa kanyang lektyur, napagpapatuloy niya ang kanyang personal na mga adhikaing pumapaksa sa maka-Pilipinong espasyo at pag-unlad.

Kung nais mong makilahok sa panayam na ito, pindutin ang link na ito para mag register o itong link: https://tinyurl.com/dswyb7ad

Ang Heo/Geo ay ang proyektong pag-ugnayan ng UP Department of Geography at Philippine Geographical Society.