'Geographers are mystics': the beauty of emancipated sausages

Spaces of beauty and spirituality all woven together to the beat of a bongo drum. What a way to kick off a Tuesday morning, and what a perfect end to Series 1 of the Otherworlds student activities. Thank you to everyone who has taken this opportunity to think outside the box: and well done to those of you who decided not just to take a tentative look outside that box, but wholeheartedly made a leap for it, feet first into the great unknown. Let's hope we see Series 2 running so successfully next year.

The first group today suggested beauty can be a cause for liberation. The second group argued critical engagement with education can be empowering and emancipatory. We may not all be able to obtain some elusive universal image of beauty to liberate us in the consumer driven society of the spectacle, but we can all grab any opportunity for learning with both hands and break out of the sausage factory... or at least add our own unique spice and flavour to the recipe.

As the group said, the course is indeed sculpted by each and every one of you, which gives you a unique opportunity to take geography wherever you want it to go. I hope you enjoyed your roles as sculptors, and that you have found the journey as much fun as I have. Mike's definition of geography as a spiritual process bothered some - but his reason for defining it in this way is spot on - geography is about "trying to figure out things that are bigger than yourself". Otherworlds has given you an opportunity to be in the driving seat of that figuring-out process.

If there is a 'universal beauty' to be had - then I think we saw it in action on the grass outside Mansfield Cooper in the sunshine this morning. Go forth and search for unity, emancipated sausages, and as Craig said - where critical pedagogy isn't up for grabs, you should fight for it!!