The geographies of cultural geography III: Material geographies, vibrant matters and risking surface geographies

The doing of material geographies within the subdiscipline of cultural geography has been inspired by Jane Bennett’s (2010) account of Vibrant Matter. This review follows the various trajectories in recently published research in the field of material geographies and argues that scholars should aim to embrace the call of matter to think politically and beyond the surface. The review argues that there is a risk of doing ‘surface geographies’ where research reflects matters at play rather than evaluate the interconnectivity and co-constitution of materialities and their geographies.