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SGTN

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Four Ways Into the Network

SGTN is not an audience. It is a working network of travellers, residents, scholars and readers who are all doing the same thing from different angles: paying closer attention to how places are made. Pick the pathway that matches how you arrive.

A member of station staff giving directions to a traveller with a suitcase on a railway concourse
Every arrival depends on somebody who was already there.
01Travellers & Writers

Field Notes

Record the encounter, not the itinerary.

Submit a 100–300 word account of a single moment where a space became a place — an exchange, a routine you were let into, a misunderstanding that taught you something. Pair it with one photograph. Our editors read every submission and work with contributors on the pieces we publish.

  • One encounter, 100–300 words
  • One photograph you took yourself
  • A named location — city or region
  • Written in the first person, no itinerary summaries

City or region — as specific as the people involved are comfortable with.

Optional

Our editors may suggest another.

One encounter, first person. Tell us what happened, not where you went.

0/300 words

Photographs are requested by email once a note is accepted, so you keep control of the file and its credit. We never publish a person’s name, face or location without their explicit consent.

02Locals & Guides

Community Ambassadors

Represent the place you actually live in.

Ambassadors are residents who agree to describe their own city on their own terms — the ordinary geography, not the highlight reel. You set what is on and off limits, and SGTN never publishes a location or a person’s details without explicit consent.

  • You live in the place you would represent
  • Comfortable writing or recording in any language
  • Willing to correct visitors, publicly, when we get it wrong
  • Paid commissions for accepted long-form pieces

The place you would represent.

Optional

Roughly is fine.

A short paragraph is plenty. We are more interested in what you would correct than in what you would recommend.

03Scholars & Students

The Academic Circle

Put the scholarship back in circulation.

For geographers, anthropologists, architects and educators. The Circle contributes scholar features, reviews field notes for conceptual accuracy, and builds teaching material from the archive. Classroom use of SGTN material is free and always will be.

  • Contribute or review scholar features
  • Use the field note archive in teaching
  • Propose a framework or a reading list
  • Postgraduate and undergraduate members welcome

Postgraduate and undergraduate members are welcome.

Tell us what you would contribute, review, or use in the classroom.

04Curious Minds

The Field Letter

One letter. One encounter. Every other week.

No digest, no listicles, no deals. The Field Letter carries a single field note, the geographical idea that makes sense of it, and one question to carry into your own week. Unsubscribe in one click; we never sell or share the list.

  • Fortnightly, one encounter per issue
  • No advertising, ever
  • One-click unsubscribe

Inside each issue

  • One field note
  • The idea behind it
  • One question for your week

Every other Thursday

One letter a fortnight. No advertising, no list sharing, one-click unsubscribe.

Not sure which pathway fits? Write to us and describe what you would like to contribute — we will point you at the right one.