Unravelling Spatialities in Research Writing (re)Production

Space matters in research writing (re)production. As evident from the very title of this collection, global and dissemination are inherently spatialised codes: one overtly scalar, another covertly trans-scalar, trans-territorial, cross-networked, and dis/em-placed. Language almost appears to take a backstage role, albeit integral to the social (re)production of writing, and ultimately, of knowledge. Centring on socio-spatial, material and ideological discourses around research writing (re)productive practices, my chapter argues for an explicit spatial turn in studies of Writing for Research and Publication Purposes (WRPP). It does so by unravelling and reframing the various spatialities at work in our practices and understandings of writing (re)production in contemporary transnational academia via combined theoretical insights from human geography and reflections on my own experiences as a researcher and research writing broker. The chapter closes with a set of mappings for a spatially conscious, dialectical model of research writing (re)production that can potentially lead to more solidary and transformative praxis against the normative pull of the Anglophone/Global North centre.