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A field researcher bending down by a crack in a glacier holding a transparent tube and looking at the contents.

What is geographical exploration?

We champion a broad, inclusive and modern vision of exploration that deepens our understanding of the world and addresses urgent global challenges.

Contemporary geographical exploration aims to deepen our understanding of complex global systems, address pressing environmental and societal challenges, and foster a more sustainable relationship with our planet.

It is about asking new questions, applying diverse methodologies, inspiring and enabling future generations, and ensuring that the knowledge gained is shared equitably.

Exploration in all its forms

Exploration may take place in remote and challenging environments of the popular imagination, but it also includes the work of researchers examining human-environment interactions in cities, educators inspiring the next generation through fieldwork in schools, and travellers seeking to bridge cultural boundaries and share insights and narratives with broad audiences.

Contemporary explorers, whether as individuals or in teams, often work collaboratively across political, cultural and linguistic boundaries. They utilise a wide array of tools, techniques and methodologies to acquire and disseminate new findings, perspectives and stories. And they range from young people taking their first tentative steps into the world of geographical exploration to those who have dedicated their careers to exploring our world.

Fostering inclusive and ethical exploration

Our activities and advocacy foster the understanding that an explorer is not confined to a certain type of individual, from a particular background, who undertakes a specific kind of journey or investigation.

The diverse range of projects supported by our grants, the individuals who are recognised through our medals and awards, and the speakers who take the stage at our annual RGS Explore Weekend exemplify the values of curiosity, rigorous inquiry, critical thinking, ethical practice, determined commitment, and the responsible sharing of knowledge that define exploration today.

Rethinking exploration for the 21st century

The Society has been associated with the concept of exploration since its inception. Our Royal Charter of 1857 enshrines the "advancement of Geographical Science" through carrying out "important Expeditions in every quarter of the Globe" and "communicating important discoveries". This foundational principle continues to guide the Society’s work to inspire and support the practical pursuit of knowledge about our world.

Yet the meaning of ‘exploration’ and the image of an ‘explorer’ have evolved over time, reflecting broader societal understandings of our interconnected world, its complex history, and the role of practical geographical inquiry and those who practice it.

Uncovering the hidden histories of exploration

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European explorers were often portrayed in their own cultures as intrepid individuals venturing into ‘unknown’ territories and the ‘last wild places’, accompanied by superlative rhetoric and sublime imagery. The focus later shifted to the achievement of heroic-sounding ‘firsts’ in the context of national and individual competition.

The image of exploration as the conquests of exceptional individuals in extraordinary circumstances continues to hold sway in popular imagination. In reality, the explorers and expedition teams of the past were as dependent on local knowledge and support, and on intermediaries such as interpreters and guides, as are the collaborative practitioners of today.

Our online Hidden Histories of Exploration exhibition brings to the fore the stories of those sidelined by traditional colonial narratives.

Exploration with purpose

By the later decades of the twentieth century, a clear commitment to environmental and social purpose emerged, including in the large-scale, multidisciplinary, scientific field research programmes funded and operated by the Society that became an established model for contemporary exploration.

At its heart, geographical exploration remains about making and sharing discoveries: not just of new places, but of new perspectives, new solutions, and new ways of understanding our world and our place within it.

So you want to be an explorer?

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Two speakers on a stage at the RGS expedition and fieldwork festival. A slideshow with tips on how to be mindful during expeditions is projected on the wall behind them.