From 30th August to 2nd September 2022, I attended and presented at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG) at Newcastle University in the UK. This year’s conference theme, Geographies beyond recovery, covered a wide range of topics, including mitigation of and adaptation to climate change-related issues, urban development challenges, imaginaries of the future, and gendered inequalities. Besides interesting case study-based and theoretical contributions, I was particularly interested in the innovative methodological approaches to empirical data collection, such as creative engagement processes, artistic practices as well as relational aesthetics to improve our understanding of risk awareness and trigger behavioural change. While many of the presentations were geographically focused on the UK, there were also case studies from other regions of the world.

I presented parts of my findings on the role of social identities in adaptation to flooding from TRANSCEND’s Jakarta case study in a session called ‘Water: management and security’, which broadly dealt with water management, its consequences and its political economy in Israel, UK and Indonesia.