The ironic misfortunes of ‘geographic theory’. Sceptic musings on a sexy oxymoron

Statistics, Spatial

Editor's report 2005

To me, one of the most exhilarating instances of American geography writing of recent years is a short piece by a geographer turned 'commercial archeologisť in a collection of written snapshots. It contains a portrait of the majestic landscapes between Chicago and LA, explains the particulars of highway construction through these landscapes, describes social and economic life developing along the highway during and after the Great Depression, and it suggests the nostalgia of the whole scene by quoting from the lyrics of an early postwar song: Route 66 (Krim, 1992). There is of course more to American geography and American geography writing, but perhaps hardly anything more typical US-American; at least in the eyes of an outsider. What US geographers and geographers in the US have done over the years has been recorded and analyzed in a number of convincing works of synthesis and analysis. Martin and James (1993) provide ample space for US geography in their overview of the history of the discipline. Johnston's repeatedly updated and revised work on AngloAmerican geography since 1945 (the fifth is dated 1997) gives a masterly and even-handed history of geographical theories, their accompanying methodologies and the epistemologies in which they have been grounded, plus their implementation in research work in all the different directions that those adhering to the discipline of geography in Britain and the US have followed over a number of decades.

This short piece is a partial translation of the introduction to Gilbert Simondon’s most succinct philosophical reflections on the notions of form, information, and potentials. The material was presented on February 27, 1960, at the Session of the Société française de philosophie. After the abstract and Simondon’s definitions of form, information, and transductive operation, there is a discussion between Simondon and other attendees who were present at his talk, including Paul Ricoeur and Jean Hyppolite, both of whom had been part of Simondon’s viva panel in 1958. The piece represents an interesting moment in the history of philosophy where cybernetics and information theory were problematized by thinkers like Simondon, who thought that the concept of information needed to be expanded and refined to adequately account for processes of individuation, or "ontogenesis."

The emphasis of this book is to explore two major philosophical influences in contemporary human geography, namely logical positivism and Marxism, and to explore the relationships between philosophy, methodology and geographical research. Rather than being a biography of David Harvey, the book contributes to the understanding of one of the most innovative and iconoclastic scholars in contemporary Anglo-American human geography.

With the performative in social sciences and the humanities the concept of performance has arrived in human geography. Performance denotes an understanding of social actions and practices as consti- tutive for non-representational realities. This paper looks at the relationship between and performance especially in urban geography and develops the new term situational place to grasp the increasing phe- nomenon of (intercultural) encounters in the cities of modern world society. Situational places are situated performances of these (intercultural) interactions between strangers in cities of the contemporary world so- ciety. With the aid of performance theory the influence of the omnipresent interactions between strangers in cities on urban space is conceptualized. Therewith, we hope to present some fruitful theoretical and empirical possibilities for a cultural urban geography within and beyond the performative turn. In contemporary human geography many di erent theoreti- cal turns are discussed. The spectrum ranges from the lin- guistic to the somatic, from the spatial to the performative turn. Most of these theoretical turnarounds could be sub- sumed under the broader umbrella of the cultural turn. In this paper we understand turn as a metaphor for a move- ment because it signals and is a sign for the eternal motion contained in human geography. A scholastic fixing of theo- retical concepts in human geography is in many accounts im- possible because of its openness and conceptual complexity. It may well be argued that it is exactly this conceptual flexi- bility and openness, the constant ability to transgress bound- aries, that characterizes human(e) geography as a discipline beyond disciplination. The di erent turns which are dis- cussed in recent human geography could be considered as empirical evidence of sorts for this theoretical thesis. Within this broad field of di erent turns the argument of this paper focuses on one very specific problem: the implications of the performative for urban geography or cultural urban geography. Because the performative gives space for

This discussion forum brings together some of the leading voices in the debate on climate change and security to reflect on the possibilities and limits of critical research in the face of global ecological crises. If we – as critical geography, IR, and security scholars – take the ongoing ecological crisis seriously, how must our questions, concepts, and methodologies change? How, if at all, can security be provided in a climate-changed world, for and by whom? How to come to terms with the unequal landscape of climate insecurity? What is left of security, and what comes instead: mere survival, resilience, or navigating through disasters?Seeking answers to these questions, the authors of these short forum pieces discuss and rethink core concepts and themes of human geography and neighboring disciplines. The reflection pieces trouble the racist imaginaries that often underpin existing policy debates on climate change, scarcity, and insecurity. They discuss the implications of climate security for the liberal international order, North-South relations as well as the relationship between humans and the non-human world. They reflect on the complicity of our research – both critical and problem-solving – in the violent transformation of the planet and the repression of the racialized “others” of colonial modernity. And they explore the emancipatory potential of alternative security discourses that center on the complex web of beings, practices, and relations endangered by the unfolding climate crisis.

The present book is an attempt to bring all theories of geography in one book for easy reading of teachers and students. Many divisions in geography has many theories. Readers should take effort to collect the theories from all books. All divisions has certain theories. There are so many theories in physical geography as well as human geography. A simple idea makes it convenient to read the theories in one book. First, we selected the certain theories as follows: Theory of continental drift, The theory of Isostasy, Von Thunens location theory, Crop combination method, The central place theory, Internal structure of city, The rank size rule, The social area analysis method, Losch’s theory of economics of location, Walter Isard’s theory, Alfred Weber’s theory of least cost location, Demographic transition theory, Malthusian Theory of population- Criticism and applicability and Growth pole theory. Like this, there are 14 theories collected and compiled in this book as first volume. The theories collected from both physical geography and human geography. These theories are very important for those who are preparing for UPSC, should go through the theories.

This article aims to present how the comparative bibliometric analysis of seminal books’ reference lists reflects, and enables scrutinising, some fundamental structural characteristics of the functioning of Geography as a scientific discipline in different periods. It employs David Harvey’s Explanation in Geography, a magnum opus of Geography’s quantitative revolution from 1969, and Henry W. Yeung’s Theory and Explanation in Geography from 2024, a comprehensive conceptual work whose title consciously evokes Harvey’s volume, as case studies. After discussing the possibilities and limits of investigating books as imprints of changing academic practices and addressing methodological questions, the paper reveals a significant increase in the number of references and referenced publications between the two books. It reaffirms the rising share of journal articles (instead of books) and multi-author publications (instead of single-author ones) as structural outcomes of ‘academic neoliberalisation’, while revealing that books, book chapters and single-author publications still make a difference and have a considerable impact on academic discourses. It presents that ‘Geography’ as a term has become rather a synonym of ‘Human Geography’ in certain contexts, instead of containing both Human and Physical Geography. The results prove a significant growth in the impact of publications by female authors and the visibility of scholars outside the UK and the USA, including the Global South. At the same time, they still indicate a firm male dominance and the hegemony of Anglo-American authors and English language publications in the discipline.

Emerging over the past ten years from a set of post-structuralist theoretical lineages, non-representational theories are having a major impact within Human Geography. Non-representational theorisation and research has opened up new sets of problematics around the body, practice and performativity and inspired new ways of doing and writing human geography that aim to engage with the taking-place of everyday life. Drawing together a range of innovative contributions from leading writers, this is the first book to provide an extensive and in-depth overview of non-representational theories and human geography. The work addresses the core themes of this still developing field, demonstrates the implications of non-representational theories for many aspects of human geographic thought and practice, and highlights areas of emergent critical debate. The collection is structured around four thematic sections – Life, Representation, Ethics and Politics - which explore the varied relations between non-representational theories and contemporary human geography.

Power is an all-pervasive concept in contemporary human geography. In particular, following widespread concern with the limiting effects of a focus on the state, power would probably, space or place aside, be many political geographers' candidate for their key concept, if they had to name one. Yet, as Allen (2003) points out, while it is ubiquitously invoked in human geography, the concept does not often receive the degree of examination and elaboration that we might expect. Concern about the effects of unequal power relationships motivate much research and debate, yet at the same time theories of power tend not to take centre-stage. Where they do, it is often in the course of the discussion of particular theorists such as Foucault or Latour, or in the context of reviewing debates in urban politics. Where, as in a textbook, some explanation of the concept seems desirable for student readers, the resulting definition or discussion is not always carried forward in an explicit way in the remainder of the text. There are at least two important exceptions (Pile and Keith, 1997; Sharp et al., 2000a). These focused forays into questioning and debating power and space have, however, remained important isolated examples rather than feeding into or informing in an explicit way the majority of invocations of the concept in the discipline. Part of the explanation for this may be that 'power' is such a ubiquitous term outside the academy, as well as within, that it is easily deployed unglossed in a variety of contexts in ways that make perfect sense to the reader at the time and in those particular contexts. Other potentially difficult terms, such as 'justice', 'democracy', 'the state', 'ideology' and so on, are often similarly used with apparent clarity without the need for theoretical elaboration at every point. Moreover, it is possible that 'power', like, at times, some of these other words, is easily digested in most of the contexts where it is used because it is not, after all, really the centre of attention1 In some circumstances it has the role of telling us that some set of, (e.g. economic or cultural), processes or relations being examined have political consequences, an important function in terms of any project of constructing a critical economic or cultural geography. In others the term serves to place a general emphasis on the necessarily political nature of the critical human geographic project in general, as in comments to the effect that space is 'thoroughly imbued with', 'saturated with' or 'constituted in and through' power relationships. It is important in these ways in emphasizing political (as opposed to merely scholarly or theoretical) commitments, or in the construction of human geography as an ongoing, but varied, set of political projects. But because it is not analytically central in many of the contexts where it is thus invoked, other concepts are often performing most of the political 'work'. Moreover, as Allen (2003) attests, foregrounding power, defining it, mediating between very different theorizations and commonsense understandings of the word, let alone linking it effectively with other concepts in the context of theory building and research, opens up some very difficult questions indeed. So, given that we commonly seem to get along nicely without opening these up, a preliminary question to raise may be whether we need to actually talk about power in a conceptually explicit way at all, or whether we should treat it, as it sometimes is, as a useful supplementary term that points to wider political implications or consequences. The collection edited by Herod and Wright (2002) raises this question fairly starkly. Entitled Geographies of Power: Placing Scale, it comprises a series of chapters concerning scale, space, place and globalization in which there are many important arguments and insights. Despite the title, however, none of the chapters foregrounds 'power' as a central object of analysis. Only Kathy Gibson-Graham discusses theories of power at any length (pp. 50-51), but in the context of an article concerned largely with discourses of place, space and scale, on the one hand, and their links to a discourse about social life as homogeneously capitalist, on the other. Kevin Cox mentions state power (pp. 89, 104) and state authority (p. 104), in the context of a critique of regulation theory, but

The article discusses changing research orientations in contemporary human geography. Emphasis is given to diversification of concepts and approches in postpositivistic geography. General tendencies in contemporary orientations in human geography affect strongly current developments in the Czech social geography. Due to dramatic changes in the Czech society after the political changes of 1989, the Czech geography has been confronted with a new great theme of "geography of societal trasformation". In this context, however, some critical remarks must also be made: an one-side "import" of concepts and approaches from social sciences, further weakening of specificity of human geography, and a new emphasis given to differences between physical and human geography.

This short piece introduces a three-paper theme section on the theme of ‘Insecure bodies/selves’, growing out of a conference session held in 2012. Using the brief example of a brain-injured soldier's ‘shattered world’, creating a thoroughly ‘unsecured’ self/body, attention is given to how contemporary human geography has gradually opened itself to engaging with the multiple spaces of insecure bodies/selves. The three papers are then formally outlined and situated within these new currents of geographical and trans-disciplinary scholarship.

CAUSE AND EFFECT IN GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS: ANACHRONISM OR USEFUL CONCEPT? Orin C. Patton* The terminology of "cause and effect" has been regarded with great suspicion in geographic literature since the decline and fall of environmental determinism. (1 ) Hartshome tells us that in earlier days "Hettner, and other writers following him, including such phrases as 'causally related,' 'causal connections,' or 'differences . . . interrelated with each other,' " (2 ) The explanations of that era emphasized causes originating in the physical environment , and Emrys Jones has traced efforts to salvage some sort ofconnection between the environment and man's reaction to it through "possibilism," Griffith Taylor's "modified determinism," O.H.K. Spate's "probabilism," and A.F Martin's call for an "uncompromisingly scientific human geography based on cause and effect and rigorous scientific law." (3) In spite ofthe continuing calls for a more scientific geography emphasizing both non-human and human determinants, we rarely see the term in contemporary human geography , although it is common in scientific literature as well as in everyday speech. We apparently take a great deal of care to avoid the expression although there is an irreducible minimum of the basic notion whether we dress it in the language of "possibilism," "probabilism," or "empirical regularities." If we deny all possibility of anything akin to causal relations, ifthere are no observable regularities that justify the expectation that certain states, causes or forces are followed by certain other states or effects, then our analyses are meaningless. This paper contends that 1 ) the terminology of cause and effect, as well as the explicit use of the concept, can rest on respectable philosophical grounds, 2 ) this useage is methodologically viable, 3 ) this is a useful and natural approach to research with great heuristic values, and 4 ) it is compatible with recent restatements of the purpose and scope of geography. We will assume here that "scientific geography" (4) may be defined, after Yeates, as the "science concerned with the rational development, and testing, of theories that explain and predict the spatial distribution and location of various characteristics on the surface of the earth." (5) This definition, while not all-inclusive, was chosen to emphasize scientific methods with the purposes of constructing theories that explain and predict. The construction and testing of geographic theory will be the process ofidentifying and testing the *Major Patton is assistant professor of geography at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. The paper was accepted for publication in November 1969. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and in no way reflect the views of the United States Government or the United States Air Force. Vol. X, No. 1 interrelationships among spatial variables, but our theories and causal interpretations apply explicitly to the models we use, rather than to the real world, to avoid the philosophical problems discussed below. PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS OF CAUSE AND EFFECT. The questions of cause and effect relations have been among the more prominent themes ofwestern philosophy, but they have not yet been resolved. A list ofthe major contributors to the literature would read like a "Who's Who" in philosophy and science. Any concise summary of the literature is quite likely to do violence to philosophical subtleties, but an identification of the major issues is necessary. (6) The issues most directly relevant to modern philosophy were introduced in the attacks led by Hume and the empiricists on causality. (7) It was Hume's position that we are limited to sense experience and that we have no grounds for attributing cause and effect relations of any sort since we are limited to the experience of perceiving only "one object following another." (8 ) The "necessary connexion" linking the cause and the effect can never be experienced; the expectation of experiencing the effect when we experience the cause is a "species of natural instincts, which no reasoning or process of the thought and understanding is able either to produce or to prevent." (9) Thus, not even Hume denies the expectation ofthe effect, and he denies only the metaphysical link between the effect and its cause. The Humean "connexion " arises not from the observation of a single event "but when many uniform instances appear...

PurposeEducation for equity in global development and cultural diversity calls for professional capacity building to perceive diverse perspectives on complex procedures of globalisation. The discipline of human geography is such a “provider of perspectives”. The purpose of this paper is to propose a historic series of how theories of geography and human development have emerged.Design/methodology/approachThis paper contributes to education and training by proposing a historic series of how theories of geography and human development have emerged.FindingsThe outcomes of this analysis of geographic paradigms offer options for the management of multicultural education in development. A critical synopsis and a combination of various paradigms on global development seem most promising for a holistic and comprehensive understanding of globalisation.Research limitations/implicationsIn particular, recent developments in human geography exhibit rapidly changing paradigms (ironically called “the Latin America of sciences”) and are hence difficult to systematise.Practical implicationsSpaces are understood to be communicational spaces, the substrate of which is enabling communication technologies. The theoretical contemplations of this paper permit to design learning environments, learning styles and related technologies.Social implicationsPerception and understanding of contradicting theories on global (economic and human) development facilitate education fostering multiple cultures of understanding. The author's own professional experience shows that only esteem for all paradigms can provide the full picture. Success means “collective production of meaning”.Originality/valueUnderstanding history frees us to reach future consensus.