Population geography II

Abstract

The geographic study of mortality is enjoying a renaissance. This is indicated by the growing number of studies on necropolitics, thanatopolitics, ‘deathscapes’, and the inequalities of premature death. Population geographers, however, have contributed little to the broader theoretical conceptualization – and spatiality – of mortality. Previously, I encouraged population geographers to reflect on the survivability of vulnerable populations. In this second progress report, I extend this focus through a reconsideration of mortality from the standpoint of survivability. As a discipline, population geography has long engaged with the concept of ‘premature’ death; here it is indicated how this concept is intimately bound to the modernist ordering of life that dominates our contemporary understanding of bodies and populations. First, I reflect on the embodiment of mortality, and this is followed by a critical engagement with the ‘bio-logics’ of life and death. I maintain that population geography is well positioned to contribute to ongoing debates regarding who lives, who dies, and who decides.