Agricultural modernity and popular geographies: the public perceptions of the Coker Farm Settlement landscape

ABSTRACT

The public geography of the Coker Farm Settlement highlights its existential knowledge and threat to its continued existence. I argue that visualization is crucial in the public geography, which seeks to contest the social alienation of the farm settlement landscape in the state’s agricultural politics of visibility. Employing landscape analysis, this paper explores the origins of the Coker farm, the unfolding visual knowledge of the landscape, and the media representation of a threatened agricultural landscape. This paper contributes to the importance of visualization in public geographies engaged in the agricultural politics of visibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural landscape
• Coker Farm Settlement
• public geography
• state cartography
• popular geographies

Acknowledgments

I appreciate the editorial guidance of Dr Amber Murrey-Ndewa, discussions with Dr Alex Wafer and comments of the anonymous reviewers, which has improved the earlier manuscript of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Emancipatory Futures Studies Project, 2020-2021, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Notes on contributors

Babatunde A. Ogundiwin

B. A. Ogundiwin is a PhD student at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds first and second degrees from the University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria. His doctoral research examines interconnections in cartography, landscape studies, and development geography.