Subterranean geopolitics: Designing, digging, excavating and living

Abstract This position paper aims to frame and supplement other papers in this special issue on subterranean geopolitics. We trace the research genealogy that brings together the subterranean with the geopolitical before accounting for the state-of-play in the subfield of subterranean geopolitics. Six research themes and foci that can connect to and enrich the study of subterranean geopolitics are being highlighted and proposed: (i) the three-dimensional conceptualisation of territory, (ii) the political geographies of the environmental, marine and earth sciences, (iii) Anthropocene geopolitics, (iv) lived experiences and intersectional encounters, (v) popular cultures and imaginative possibilities and (vi) moral geographies. These intersect and overlap in complex ways and none are exhaustive. Indeed, along with the collection of papers in the special issue, they serve as invitations to further scholarly reflections and cross-cultural research into understanding the designing, digging, excavating and living of subterranean geopolitics.