2024 | Article of the year
Finisterra congratulates the winners of the Best Article Award 2024.
The winners are selected by vote of a specially appointed committee. Manuscripts published in Finisterra are assessed on the basis of clarity of writing and content, organisation, graphics, contribution to knowledge, among other criteria.
On 10 December 2024, following the Finisterra Annual Conference with Jarkko Saarinen, the Chair of the Jury, Marcelo Fragoso, announced the winner of the Article of the Year 2024.
The Finisterra Article of the Year, intended to reward the best article published in the journal in 2024, was awarded to:
Margarida Fontes, Hélder Santos and Teresa Sá Marques, for the article “On the crest of a wave: the variety of place configurations around an emerging energy technology in Europe (1992–2019)”. Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LIX(126), e32697. https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis32697
The study investigates the variety in place configurations around a sustainable technology, in its early phase of development. Adopting a systemic and multi-scalar approach to technology development, this article proposes that the spatially distributed nature of technology emergence leads to the formation of different place configurations of actors and networks around the technology, which can contribute in different ways to its development. Using the case of wave energy technology and a methodology that permits encompassing and comparing emergent processes unfolding across Europe, the research uncovers five place profiles, which denote different positions in the emerging system and thus need to be jointly considered to fully understand the process of new system development. The article contributes to knowledge on the multi-place and multi-scale systemic processes at work in the early phases of technology development, enhancing understanding of global system construction around a new sustainable technology.
Two honourable mentions were also awarded:
1) Mateus Fachin Pedroso, for the article “Uma Geografia do que acontece: intersecções da vida de mulheres à luz do contexto geográfico”. Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LIX(125), 41–54. https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis31298
The central concern of this article was to understand the life trajectories experienced intersectionally by women based on the concept of assemblage thinking in the production of their respective geographical contexts, specifically the reality of those who lived/live with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in Presidente Prudente – SP, Brazil. For this study, the methodological articulation between Life History and Discourse Analysis (DA) was chosen, based on the production and analysis of qualitative data (childhood, youth, adulthood). This approach made it possible to interpret the meanings and connections produced by the research participants through the complex realities of space-time, content and agency revealed in the narratives. The women involved in the research interacted with different agents within the geographical context, which demonstrated constant changes in their fields of possibility, highlighting key events and turning points. This understanding underlines the potential of assemblage thinking and geographical context as contributions to Geography, particularly in fields committed to subjects, their cultures, bodies and intersectionalities.
2) Maria Teresa Santos, Maria Lucinda Fonseca and Jorge Malheiros, for the article “Migration flows within a fragmented global north: (re)placing the nexus between migration and development”. Finisterra – Revista Portuguesa de Geografia, LIX(127), e35692. https://doi.org/10.18055/Finis35692
The migration and development debate has traditionally focused on the Global South, constructing a rigid division between a “developed Global North” and an “underdeveloped Global South”. This article challenges this binary by situating the migration–development debate within the Global North. It argues that maintaining this divide overlooks the effects of global capitalism in the North, where uneven development and intra-regional migration are also prevalent. By examining processes of reterritorialisation and neoliberal restructuring, the article shows how migration flows within the European Union (EU) express unequal development among member states. Through a quantitative analysis of economic indicators and migration flow dynamics, the article exposes contradictions within global capitalism and argues for embedding the migration–development nexus within the Global North.
The Jury for the Best Article Award 2024 was composed of:
Marcelo Fragoso (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal) (Chair of the Jury)
Daniela Ferreira (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal)
Carlos Neto (CEG, IGOT, ULisboa, Portugal)
Jorge Trindade (Universidade Atlântica, Portugal)
Olga Castreghini (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Portugal)
Olivia Bina (Instituto de Ciências Sociais, ULisboa, Portugal)
