The paradigm shifts of the various philosophical-cultural turns (e.g., spatial, linguistic) significantly brought the subjective perception and construction of space into focus in geography as a spatial science. In video games, vast digital spaces are created and experienced. These digital spaces—often oriented to “real” spaces—are created by designers/programmers based on different motives, values, prior knowledge domains, abilities, emotions, and worldviews, and in turn, are received/played by players through these same filters. Thus, when playing and producing/programming games, constructions of (digital) spaces are created, negotiated, and interpreted. Players and designers communicate about spaces and what they experience, thus successively influencing their view of spaces. Based on this argumentation, this contribution wants to initiate more intensively the discourse to recognize video games as a medium in geography and hence wants to integrate itself into the relevant discourses of the disciplines of geography and geography education. In the following article, the main aim is to theoretically develop and present a model of reflexive spatial analysis in video games based on discourses of the digital turn and (digital) spatial reflexivity in geography (education). This model is then, secondarily, used to theoretically justify the concept of a lesson design, which applies the model and is used in a bilingual geography classroom with the goal of promoting pupils’ reflexive competencies of spatial perceptions and constructions of digital space in video games. The empirical analysis of the lesson and its processing of digital spatial reflexivity is based on the qualitative analysis of transcripts of 51 students (Most of the time, if not separately explained/defined with students, pupils at high school are meant.) and three teachers (think aloud protocols). It reflects upon the subjective construction and perception of digital spaces with reference to the generated emotions—as an example of spatial reflexivity—of the recipients, using the game That Dragon, Cancer. The results show that students can actively and critically relate gameplay and spatial constructs and certainly reflect on the emotional impact of digital spaces.

Anthropogenic climate change nowadays has an impact on many young people's lives. However, awareness of the climate crisis does not necessarily lead to a transformation of one's lifestyle. With high hopes of preparing students for global challenges and sensitizing them to act in solidarity, the pedagogical approach of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is now part of many curricula, but this does not necessarily achieve the desired success. The field of Transformative Education is currently developing out of the criticism of the now institutionalized educational approach of ESD, both in terms of content and methodology. The aim of this paper therefore is to give an overview how Transformative Learning and Digital Location-Based Gaming can be combined as a different way of climate change-related knowledge transfer.

This essay argues that the scripting of the urban geography in Beat Cop (2017) complicates the subversive potential ascribed to the everyday practice of walking by Michel de Certeau in The Practice of Everyday Life (1984). Walking constitutes the predominant mode of movement in the game, thereby placing limitations on the players’ policing powers when chasing suspects. Because players step into the shoes of a police officer and play as the disciplining authority themselves, however, the use of walking in the game thwarts any direct sense of what de Certeau describes as “eluding discipline.” The depiction of the urban space in Beat Cop furthermore perpetuates long-standing prejudices about black communities and communities of color in the United States as in particular need of surveillance. This racist coding finds expression in the narrative, the gameplay mechanics, and especially the visual focus of the game with players monitoring their game space from a wide-angle camera position. Beat Cop thus maps uncomfortably onto existing surveillance models driven by the expansion of CCTV technology and resonates with the first trials to patrol neighborhoods with robots as well as forms of distant surveillance using drones.

Field trips are firmly established in geography education. However, the constructivist turn in geography education poses new challenges, especially for the implementation of field trips. According to a constructivist theoretical approach, space is to be understood as a social construct and not only as a physical phenomenon. Consequently, the question arises as to how the implementation of a field trip can be theoretically justified. An answer to this question is given by the method of searching and reading traces according to Hard. In the context of a field trip on-site, traces are searched which then can be read and interpreted as consequences of human actions. At the same time, digital media and computer games are increasingly being used to enrich teaching and therefore field trips. Location-based games are a special form of computer game. With these games, a learning location can be explored interactively with the help of a computer game. Consequently, location-based games can also be used to search for traces in the sense of Hard’s theory. But is the use of a location-based game in this context a medium that enables a search for traces, or is the game itself moreover a trace, which needs to be analysed in the classroom? With recourse to recent contributions to systems theory, this contribution gives an answer to this question.

The rapid development of extended reality (XR) technologies, notably virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), is transforming various sectors of society, including gaming, education, and security training. This chapter explores the adoption of VR in training emergency, police, and security personnel for complex, life-threatening situations based on qualitative interviews and participant observations with German state police agencies, software vendors, and police instructors. Some stakeholders promise a safe, immersive, and cost-effective alternative to traditional training methods, which are often considered resource-intensive and disruptive to general workflows. By simulating real-world encounters, VR training allows for comprehensive debriefings and data analysis, enhancing some learning processes. This chapter examines the spatial dimensions of VR, the role of gamification and creative guidance in scenario training, as well as potential unintended learning effects. It also addresses the challenges of integrating VR with traditional training frameworks, emphasizing the necessity for trainees to understand and navigate the virtual world effectively. While VR training presents unique advantages, it raises critical questions about its impact on real-world operations and the future of police training. The findings suggest that—if implemented and evaluated carefully—VR training can be a valuable supplement. But it is not a replacement for traditional training methods and comes with its own questions and problems.

“Flyover country” is a distinctly US-American concept that uses the semantics of geography to talk about culture as it creates a “metaregional” (Anthony Harkins) imagination that eradicates any local or regional specificity within its larger national framework. This notion has taken on a variety of different rhetorical purposes: it can serve a struggle for recognition or for hegemony, and it has also developed as a particular way of addressing class difference and economic exploitation. My essay detaches the concept of “flyover country” from its meaning as a vague synonym for the American Midwest in order to describe a certain kind of cultural differentiation that may also apply to other contexts, so that it no longer describes a certain regionalism but serves to analyze regionalism as such. I want to use this highly ambiguous concept to analyze how Far Cry 5 dramatizes this polarization in its controversial representation of Americanness and maintains it as a tension: it depoliticizes a variety of tropes associated with right-wing politics, yet a simplifying political reading of its setting as “Trump Country” also participates in the metaregional defamation whose binary cultural imagination glosses over relevant specificities.

Key concepts are fundamental guiding ideas of systemic thinking that are comprehensible to learners and that can be found in the various different geographic subject matters. They represent systematic patterns of thought and analysis patterns as well as explanatory approaches, and they can represent the subject-specific approach of geography to a learning object. Thus, the key concepts and the responsibility to understand the objectives and structure of these concepts in the teacher training program in geography play an important role. However, due to a certain level of abstraction, it is often difficult for students/pupils to internalize the (full) complexity and scope of these key concepts. Therefore, it is important to continue to strive for innovative teaching concepts in order to anchor the guiding ideas of the key concepts sustainably through emotional learning and memorable examples that perhaps go beyond previous views. Video games are an essential part of youth culture and systems in itself. Video games create digital spaces that deal with geographical issues. Video games further somehow digitally represent aspects of the real world and therefore shape the views students/pupils gain of the world. Therefore, competences for students/pupils are important that enable a mature, reflective handling of games. These are all reasons why video games should be further integrated as a medium in geography education. The article presents a best practice of seminars and lectures for teacher students in an early stage of their professionalization in which open world games were used to reflexively teach key concepts. Furthermore, the digression discussed with the students the potentials for using the games in the classroom to teach basic geographical thinking approaches. For this purpose, the goals, structures, courses of action, further gameplay elements, and game design decisions used in the games are considered. The paper serves to incorporate a best practice into the discourse around the potential of video games for reflexive methods in higher education teaching and in geography education and calls for increased empirical testing of these ideas as well.

This introductory article provides a discursive overview of the forthcoming book that explores the intersection of gaming and geography. The book seeks to advance the consideration of video games as a significant geographical medium, acknowledging the role of digital spaces and worlds in shaping our experiences and perceptions. It aims to offer a comprehensive overview of current discourses within the realm of video game research, particularly focusing on geography and geography education, which remain relatively nascent fields. By transferring research questions from various geographical sub-disciplines to the context of video games, the book encourages scholars to reflect on the geographical potential of video games and their implications for education. Additionally, the book endeavors to make the concept of reflexivity within digital spaces more accessible and relevant to geographical education. Through a combination of theoretical insights, empirical evidence, and practical examples from both school and university settings, the book aims to bridge the gap between discourse and practice, enriching the pedagogical approach to geography with innovative perspectives from video game studies.

Through plot, game play, and design, computer games can convey spatial images and notions of identity that are especially problematic when they involve right-wing propaganda. The following analysis explores the question of how these images are discursively produced and represented in the 2D jump-'n'-run digital game ‘Heimat Defender: Rebellion’. The game provides insights into how German right-wing extremists imagine a dystopia in 2084 and what role migration, globalisation, urbanisation and liberalism, among others, play in shaping public space. The analysis shows that, using the concept of ‘Heimat’, Germany’s Far Right justifies social demarcations, spatial classifications of the own and the foreign, as well as resistance and militant self-defence against ‘the other’.

As leisure activities, tourism and video games share the context of exploration and joy and serve the escapist fantasy. Drawing on theory of the respective field, we are able to identify even deeper similarities on how geographical space is produced by environmental storytelling and visual consumption in both cases. Both form hypergeographies highlighting only relevant fragments of space meant to provide convenience for the visitor during a stay. Can this congruence been shown by empirical analysis of gameplay and marketing materials? And how can these findings inform geo-education? In a mixed-method approach, we use digital walk-alongs to observe how players react on the identified categories during gameplay in selected games representing geographic space. In a second step, we show that marketing materials advertising tourist destinations and video games respectively also make congruent and intense use of the concepts identified. This comes at the risk that hegemonic structures known from tourism also apply to video games and can be made visible by counter-narratives from the Global South. Based on these findings, we propose to use the method asking pictures to teach students about the structural similarity and to reflect on the possible consequences.

Argumentation competencies are essential in order to participate in social discourse. Teaching these skills is one of the aims of geography lessons. However, since pupils often find it difficult to produce correct, complete and convincing arguments, there is a need for support from the teacher in developing these skills. In order to be able to support pupils individually, their existing argumentation competencies must first be determined by an educational diagnosis. In the study presented here, a diagnostic tool was developed in a digital learning unit and used and evaluated in a seminar with geography student teachers (This study was conducted with student teachers of the subject geography. We will further refer them as “students”) at the University of Cologne in Germany. The study showed that the students were mostly able to use the diagnostic tool correctly and to apply it competently. The results of the evaluation also showed a high level of acceptance of the OER and a good rating of the diagnostic tool by the students, especially due to its practical relevance.

The study of global challenges, such as climate change or water scarcity, requires specific educational concepts. This chapter talks about an international project that conducted parallel courses on geography education for teacher training in Germany, France, and Israel. This international virtual academic collaboration was facilitated using different long-distance communication options. The goal of the project was to enable students to have experiential and meaningful distance learning while implementing ESD in teacher training seminars in geography. The main content of the collaboration was called “Water is Life” which focused on the thematic area of water and was connected to the Erasmus Plus V-Global project. During the seminar, the students developed virtual teaching concepts for geography lessons. The feedback from many of the students indicated that it was an extraordinary opportunity to meet and work together. The project allowed them to discover the issues of water from different perspectives. Multi-linguistic challenges, cultural differences, and online learning difficulties were an integral part of this project and constituted its challenges. Although many obstacles emerged, this project enabled students to use the skills they acquired in their work as future teachers. Finally, the article outlines the conceptual basis and results of the seminar.

The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), one of the nine permanent expert bodies of the Economic and Social Council of the UN, promotes the national standardization of geographical names, as an essential building block for international toponymic standardization and the production of gazetteers, the creation of geographical names databases, all necessary for location-based services. This requires rather specialized training, unavailable in most countries, and that is why UNGEGN has developed training material, on-line courses and contact courses in order to build on a national level the required capacities for geographical names collection and processing, the creation of names databases and their validating, and the distribution of the standardized names. Since 1982 UNGEGN has regularly engaged in international training courses in toponymy in developing countries. This chapter focuses on the necessary training material to be made available, the structure of these courses, the required expertise of the lecturers and the teaching conditions, the criteria for selecting suitable fieldwork areas, and the necessary hardware and software for student participants. The whole process from collecting the names in the field to their incorporation into databases and their publication on maps and in web applications will be described by the lecturers who have recently been engaged in these courses.

This chapter scrutinizes the UN’sUnited Nations (UN) commitment to economic growthEconomic growth as described in SDGSustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 8 whilst providing a critique of its neoliberal understanding of developmentDevelopment. It presents various alternativesAlternatives for “economics for future” from post-growth economies whilst considering different scales and perspectives. The young are considered central to the implementation of 2030 Agenda2030 Agenda for Sustainable DevelopmentDevelopment. Selected findings from an empirical survey of young people’s views from Germany are therefore presented and discussed in relation to post-growth economies and sustainabilitySustainability. The findings suggest that, whilst the younger generation is interested in concepts of diverse economies, it has little knowledge about them. Some recommendations are provided for further researchResearch and for integrating these ideas into the subject of geography in secondary and higher educationHigher education.

This chapter presents Geography as a blending of the Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. Through an analysis of the attempts to define Geography in primary school settings, we determine that Geography is about developing values and attitudes and should be taught weekly so that the child learns to understand their world as it occurs around them. The two International Charters on Geographical Education (from 1992 and then 2016) are explored in terms of how Geography is defined, and then more recently, in terms of an action plan for geographical education. Geography education is seen as a transformative subject where attitudinal shifts of being and growing into an agent of change are advocated. The chapter highlights a model where the student is central to a geographical education that promotes attitudinal change where the student becomes an agent of change. The chapter also presents the necessary development of Advanced GeoSkills that blend key 21st Century skills and Geography’s discipline-specific investigative tools and thinking through inquiry practices to develop the leaders of tomorrow.

This chapter explores the teaching of primary school geography by contrasting the multi-perspective Sachunterricht subject from Germany and the single discipline subject of Geography in the Australian Curriculum: HASS. Both Germany and Australia adopt the notion of integrated geographical education. Learning and teaching prepare the children for their actual and future lives in an increasingly globalised world dominated by complex connections and tasks. Children need to gain fundamental insights into complex contemporary topics such as mobility, sustainability and climate change. The teacher must select examples familiar to the child to enable the child to understand the complexity and the mutual interdependence of environment, society and economy. Appropriate connections with the relevant subject disciplines are therefore necessary. At the same time, good teaching and learning must allow children the most significant possible link to their general and individual living experiences.

What knowledge, skills and attitudes do children and young people need to be able to deal with the uncertain and complex issues of today and tomorrow, to question our current actions and to learn from the mistakes of the past? And how can primary school geography make a decisive contribution to these knowledge, skills and attitudes? The chapter addresses these questions and summarises the results of current teaching and learning research for geography teaching in primary school. To help the geographical community better understand primary school geography and offer new ideas for high-quality and future-oriented geography teaching, this chapter provides an expert discussion based on current teaching and learning research on geography teaching in primary school. The chapter argues why geography in primary school must be a compulsory subject based on a multi-perspective, integrative and problem-solving approach. The chapter concludes with a Framework for Primary Geography Education, which highlights the essential present and future learnings, indicating three critical goals: dispositions, knowledge, and responsibility.

Access to digital technologies and the Internet is having a decisive impact on all levels of a child’s life: personal, family, social, and in the future, professional. In the educational context of primary schools, both analogue and digital media play a decisive role through various media-didactic (media-educational) functions. On the one hand, digital media and artifacts are used extensively in primary geography lessons. Thus, mainly due to its specific approach, Geography teaching can contribute to reconstructing the complex, digitally shaped reality of life in an interdisciplinary didactic way (learning about media). On the other hand, digital media can support learning and cognitive processes in geography lessons in such a way that includes the development of the understanding of geography as a science process (scientific literacy, e.g., in the form of data acquisition and communication). In this respect, digital media can be seen as “media-didactic added value” (learning with and through media). In addition, digital media are used in geography lessons in several ways. For example, to allow access to things, as a source of information, as a research tool, as a means of documentation, and as a means of communication. This chapter describes the potential of digital technologies and digital media for the further development and innovation of education. It presents ways in which primary geography can and should contribute to facilitating children’s digital competence.

During recent decades, much research has been conducted on misconceptions and conceptual change in science education focusing on the physical environment. Only a part of this research refers to primary school settings. An even smaller amount of this covers pertinent questions about primary school students and their ideas about scientific concepts on geography-related topics. This chapter will summarise conceptual change theories and implications for a didactical perspective. Furthermore, there will be a brief review of the international literature on research concepts on geography-related topics. The chapter will end with insight from an empirical study of primary children’s conceptions about rivers.

On the grounds that geography is a system science, systems thinking or system competence is considered a fundamental concept of the school subject in the German Educational Standards in Geography. Accordingly, the Earth is understood as the biggest possible system consisting of a countless number of (geographical) complex, dynamic sub-systems. In contrast to non-systems thinking, a systems thinker takes superordinate principles of systems into account in the cognitive analysis and mental representation of geographical phenomena. This principle-led perspective provides deeper understanding of the internal and external interplay and complexity of systems, which may prevent human interference in such systems having unpredictable and unwanted adverse effects. In order to know what dimensions the construct ‘systems thinking’ consists of and which proficiency levels students can reach, there is a need for corresponding theoretical and empirical foundations and an assessment instrument for diagnosing, for example, whether certain interventions effectively promote systems thinking or not. This chapter primarily explains how a normative theoretically derived structure and stage model of geographic system competence was empirically validated. Finally, three item response models are evaluated, of which a two-dimensional model with the dimensions ‘System organization and System behavior’ and ‘System-adequate intention to act’ showed the best fit according to quality criteria. This provides a valid and reliable assessment tool for future diagnosing and promoting geographical system competence.

Erosion is one of the most significant environmental problems in Turkey and many other regions of the world. Thus, appropriate erosion control services can help reduce soil loss and maintain ecosystem services (ES). Forests play a crucial role in this process as they are very useful in erosion control when properly managed. This chapter depicts a case of erosion control service in a forest ecosystem in northeastern Turkey by assessing statistical relationships of soil properties with forest inventory data through field observations, direct measurements and calculated data of growing stock, basal area, and soil erodibility (K-factor) from 108 forest plots. We found several significant correlations between those factors and in particular tree density, basal area, stand age, layered forest structure, stand height, undergrowth, and species composition along with some ecological parameters proofed to be useful indicators for a quick assessment of erosion control ES of forests. Erosion rates could be reduced by increasing the number of trees per unit area with smart forest management. It seems that optimum species composition can easily be achieved through the presence of the broadleaved trees ES indicator. Because mixed forests generally had lower silt content in their soil, they seem to be less prone to erosion processes. This case study helped to identify the site-specific key indicators for assessing erosion control ES as well as potential mitigation strategies for forest ecosystems in northeastern Turkey. It also showed that a single proxy indicator might not sufficiently represent such complex processes. Thus, the use of a bundle of indicators may result in more accurate estimates. For a more general assessment, sound ES indicators still need to be developed on regional or national level for decision-makers and practitioners to make wise decisions and proper land allocations.