Quandaries of apparently contradictory feelings

I’ve been thinking about ‘space’ for a long time. But usually I’ve come at it indirectly, though some other kind of engagement. The battles over globalisation, the politics of polace, the question of regional inequality, the engagements with ‘nature’ as I walk the hills, the complexities of cities. Picking away at things that don’t seem quite right. Losing political arguments because the terms don’t fit what it is you’re struggling to say. Finding myself in quandaries of apparently contradictory feelings. it is through these persistent ruminations—that sometimes don’t go anywhere and then sometimes do—that I have become convinced both that the implicit assumptions we make about space are important and that, maybe, it could be productive to think about space differently. – Doreen Massey, for space, Sage publications, London, p. 1.

I love this opening because it acknowledges that academic research and writing are slow and complex processes, tied to our politics, outcomes of many discussions that may never be directly cited, and fraught with emotion. Writing like this provides small hints as to how I can make my own writing better, and do more to develop my own voice in my research.