Groundwater is key to the survival of people and ecosystems. Due to global change impacts, conflicts around groundwater thrive and knowledge gaps exist. In the assessment of five case studies we find that groundwater research is in tension between the rapid production of knowledge to solve existential crises and the slow production of knowledge to challenge injustices. Geographic research that combines different perspectives can play an important role in addressing this tension.

Using the example of resistance to a mega-project in southern Mexico, this paper explores the emotional connections between bodies and land. The mega-project in question is the Interoceanic Corridor, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, leading to significant territorial reorganisation. Based on interviews with women who identify as defenders of territorio, I investigate how the women use their emotional link strategically in their practices of resistance.

This introduction presents the fields of peripheries, conflicts and transformations as core topics of critical energy geographies. These fields point to different ways how the provision of energy is interwoven with social inequalities and uneven spatial development. Tackling the relations between energy technology and social power, the contributions to this Theme Issue highlight how power and resistance unfold in different spatial contexts and are linked to various notions of justice.

Empirical research on pet cemeteries demonstrates that ambivalent attributions to pets as social partners, material objects, and abject cadavers shape the place and related practices. Situated within the frameworks of more-than-human geographies and animal geographies, the article argues (1) that analysing the multidimensional status of dead animals provides a productive lens for understanding human-animal relations and illustrates (2) how loss processing can be read in a more-than-human way.