Process-ing with mechanism: The renaissance of critical realism in human geography?

Abstract

This paper fleshes out the advantages of critical realism in social explanation. It does so first through criticizing the obsession with process-ing in the field of geography, which uses time to explain space, for obscuring inherited social relations and key mechanism in social research. Second, the paper argues that under such a circumstance, Yeung’s ((2019) Rethinking mechanism and process in the geographical analysis of uneven development. Dialogue in Human Geography 9(3): 226–255) accusation that the conflation of process and mechanism leads to chaotic concepts makes great sense. While he distinguishes the process as a contingent change from the mechanism as a necessary relation, he combines them to explain specific and concrete outcomes. Finally, the paper argues that this insight suggests the need to return to Doreen Massey’s distinction and interaction between time- and space-dimension explanations by comparing Harvey’s views on the Marxist political economy with Ong’s assemblage thinking used when scrutinizing ‘neoliberalization’ in China. As such, the purpose of this paper is to underscore the merit of causal analysis as advocated by critical realism.