Quantitative Revolution 2: The Critical (Re)Turn

Although many have questioned the adequacy of quantitative methods for addressing issues of concern in critical geographies, such as social justice and inequality, many have argued that quantification can potentially make rich contributions to understanding and addressing these issues. In light of the recent attempts to reassert the critical potential and positive role of quantitative geography, we suggest in this introductory article for the Focus Section that the antagonism between critical and quantitative geographies is not beneficial to the discipline. We highlight some promising developments in modern quantitative geography and reflect on the ways in which the critical–quantitative binary can be at least partially eclipsed. We emphasize that knowledge in quantitative methods is essential for deciphering and challenging regressive political agendas, now often supported by numbers and quantitative analysis. Quantitative geography, when integrated with a critical sensibility and used appropriately, can be a powerful tool for fostering progressive social and political change.     

Vital Statistics∗

This article questions the idea that quantitative methods, in particular the analysis of social statistics, is at odds with critical approaches to geography. It argues that numbers-based research is vital to highlight social injustice and oppression and that quantitative research can meet the requirements of critical geography to be reflexive, politically conscious, and activist. The article highlights two issues of pressing interest for research and activism by critically inspired quantitative researchers. First, there should be vigilance about the retrenchment of data collection and releases by the state, which will end up obscuring the ability to see social inequalities. Second, there should be a vigorous challenge to the political and judicial undermining of the results of statistical sampling and inference. These are vital tools for estimating hard-to-count populations and inferring inequalities between groups. The article gives examples of where these estimation issues are critical, which include civilian deaths in Iraq, counting minority populations in the United States, and the detection and remediation of structural racism.     

Reflections on a White Discipline

Utilizing a partially autobiographical format, this article considers the practice and study of race within geography. I argue that the overwhelmingly white composition of the discipline has very real implications for both individual experiences and our intellectual production and disciplinary culture. I explore these issues by drawing on my own experiences as a Chicana within geography, and by examining the extent to which one area of research, environmental justice, has engaged questions of race and the consequences of that engagement. I conclude with some general remarks on what it might take to significantly diversify geography.     

Reflections on a White Discipline

Utilizing a partially autobiographical format, this article considers the practice and study of race within geography. I argue that the overwhelmingly white composition of the discipline has very real implications for both individual experiences and our intellectual production and disciplinary culture. I explore these issues by drawing on my own experiences as a Chicana within geography, and by examining the extent to which one area of research, environmental justice, has engaged questions of race and the consequences of that engagement. I conclude with some general remarks on what it might take to significantly diversify geography.     

An Overview of Spatial Analysis of Emerging Infectious Diseases

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are of increasing global concern, and quantitative geography can play an important role in integrating spatial data describing drivers of disease emergence and building models of EID risk. This article lays out the key issues of EIDs and describes problems and opportunities for integrative quantitative geography to inform on patterns of EIDs. Issues of data quality are highlighted, as are methods of spatial analysis and forms of research communication and visualization as they relate to the study of EIDs. Our review demonstrates that geography is critically needed in EID research, and many of the issues central to understanding and predicting EIDs are inherently of a geographical nature.     

Bridging the Qualitative–Quantitative Divide in Transport Geography∗

Recent viewpoints concerning the state of research in transport geography have touched on the issue of insularity and the need to bridge the divide between the largely spatial–analytical or quantitative research in transport geography and the critical or qualitative research prevalent in urban, economic, and most other subfields of human geography. Transport geography has been criticized by some for being a quiet corner of our discipline that has lost its centrality largely because it remains within the analytical framework of the 1960s. This article explores these sentiments by reexamining recent transport-oriented research in highly cited geography journals to assess the degree to which the qualitative–quantitative divide exists within transport geography and between transport and other subfield in human geography, as well as to explore issues of productivity and centrality of transport-oriented research in geography. Results indicate that geographical research involving transport topics is much more prevalent and reflects a wider range of epistemological and methodological approaches than is frequently assumed. Nevertheless, there is still a considerable divide between “mainstream” transport geography and other human geographical research that necessitates much more interaction between transport and other subfields and greater incorporation of alternative research approaches within the mainstream of transport geography. To that end, we propose a preliminary critical transport geography research agenda that is open to a variety of methodological approaches, including quantitative analysis.     

国际上的政治地理学研究进展与启示————对《Political Geography》杂志2005-2015年载文的分析

通过对国际上的政治地理学旗舰性杂志《Political Geography》2005-2015年期间391篇成果的分析,总结出国际政治地理学研究的主要研究议题为:边境与边界,环境政治,空间与尺度,领土和主权以及安全问题,选举地理,社会和文化政治,其中空间与尺度,领土和主权以及安全问题,社会和文化政治几个方向研究成果占较大比例,而其他三个方向则相对较少.通过研究方法分析发现,国际政治地理学主要采用定性分析的方法,尤其是民族志和文本分析的方法,定量分析的使用存在一定的局限性.最后,从该杂志的研究对象和研究机构两个方面的分析归纳出:欧美主导的发达国家(尤其是英国和美国)对世界政治地理学话题的学术霸权与世界南,北差异发展具有一定的相关性.在中国综合国力日渐增强,参与国际事务能力不断提高以及作为新兴的地缘政治力量崛起的社会历史背景下,政治地理学经世致用之能亟待被展现.因此,中国政治地理学发展作为发展中国家的声音势必将越来越洪亮.     

国内外情感地理研究热点、内涵及意义——基于文献计量与可视化

随着西方地理学的情感转向,以人为本的“情地关系”研究逐渐受到国内外学者的高度关注。基于文献计量法与可视化对1992—2020年主题为“情感地理”的265篇外文文献与248篇中文文献进行全面梳理、归纳,凝练出情感地理的研究热点、内涵和意义。结果发现,国内外情感地理经过近30年的研究,主题与内容不断拓展：国外侧重教育、政治、社会性别、儿童的情感地理成为研究热点,国内则侧重旅游和居民的地方感研究;研究内涵方面,国外学者不同学术领域专家对情感地理有不同的诠释,教育地理学家侧重教学互动关系,人类地理学家注重情感空间特征,文化地理学者强调情感与文化的联系。国内大多数学者则认为情感地理是揭示人、情感与地方三者之间的相互关系,着力研究不同地理空间的自然和人文特征对情感的影响;情感地理突出情感的时间性、空间性和社会性研究,关注人地关系“情地关系”、人际关系“情感传递”,将有温度的情感融入空间或区域,赋予地方新的使命。情感是社会关系的重要组成部分,研究其在教育、政治、社会性别、儿童、旅游和居民等方面都具有重要意义。     

Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality: A Challenge for Feminist Geography*

This article focuses on the concept of intersectionality, which is being used within the wider social sciences by feminists to theorize the relationship between different social categories: gender, race, sexuality, and so forth. Although research within the field of feminist geography has explored particular interconnections such as those between gender and race, the theoretical concept of intersectionality as debated in the wider social sciences has not been addressed. This article attempts to respond to that omission. It begins by tracing the emergence of debates about the interconnections between gender and other identities. It goes on to reflect on attempts to map geometries of oppressions. The emphasis then moves from theorizing intersectionality to questioning how it can be researched in practice by presenting a case study to illustrate intersectionality as lived experience. The conclusion demonstrates the contribution that feminist geography can make to advance the theorization of intersectionality through its appreciation of the significance of space in processes of subject formation. It calls for feminist geography to pay more attention to questions of power and social inequalities.     

Advancing Human Geography at the Commencement du Siècle*

Human geography today exhibits unprecedented vitality and diversity. This survey first charts some major lines of research in the field in light of the ascendancy of critical theory, political economy, and poststructuralist thought, including feminism, the cultural turn, consumption, urban geography, and globalization. Next, it focuses on several “cutting‐edge” issues, such as race, postcolonialism, the social construction of nature, representations of space, and cyberspace. Finally, the article turns an eye toward the future, offering comments on the discipline's likely trajectories with regard to the blurring of traditional dualisms, methodological integration, and the lacunae of public policy and geographic education.     

Constructing a Social Justice Tour: Pedagogy,Race, and Student Learning through Geography

This article describes a high-impact learning project that combines geography, history, and ethnic studies. It describes the construction of the course, student outcomes, and the final and publicly presented collaborative project: the Social Justice Tour of Corvallis. Based on work in a small largely white town, this project presents a reproducible model for student learning and actively engaging with questions of race and geography.     

超越地理学二元性: 混合地理学的思考

20世纪的地理学经历了“空间-分析”地理学和“社会-文化”地理学的分裂,对学科的发展带来了持久的影响。本文从历史角度探究“空间-分析”地理学和“社会-文化”地理学分裂的原因,提出保持地理学观点的多样性、促进不同领域的沟通是地理学学科发展的理性选择。在实现“空间-分析”地理学与“社会-文化”地理学沟通的方式方面,地理学认识论与研究方法之间并不存在一一对应的关系,定量方法与定性方法可以在不同领域中混合使用,从而实现对社会-理论与空间-分析隔阂的超越。本文阐释了“混合性”的理念在超越地理学社会-文化/空间-分析二元性中所具备的潜质,并简要总结了混合地理学已有的研究实践,对以“混合性”为基础、面向“后社会-理论、后空间-分析”的地理学未来进行了展望。     

Fatal Couplings of Power and Difference: Notes on Racism and Geography

To study the complexities of race and geography, research and analysis should center on the fatally dynamic coupling of power and difference signified by racism. The author considers briefly the theoretical and methodological implications of key frameworks geographers used during the past century to account for racialized power differentials. To illustrate the political, economic, and cultural capacities that historical materialist geographical inquiry ought to consider, the author outlines the background for a new project—a case study of the U.S. during a period of unusually intense state‐building in the mid‐twentieth century. The article concludes that the political geography of race consists of space, place, and location as shaped simultaneously by gender, class, and scale.     

Masculinist Epistemologies and the Politics of Fieldwork in Latin Americanist Geography*

Given the importance of fieldwork in Latin Americanist geography, it is intriguing to note the absence of a dialogue about the politics of fieldwork within the subdiscipline. Drawing from feminist theories about the production of knowledge, this article suggests that the silence about fieldwork is rooted in masculinist epistemologies that predominate in Latin Americanist geography. After analyzing the epistemological and pedagogical implications of masculinism, I argue for increased attention to the nexus of power and knowledge and in particular, to how the researcher's geographic location, social status, race, and gender fundamentally shape the questions asked, the data collected, and the interpretation of the data. Dialogue about these issues in our teaching and writing not only will better prepare students for fieldwork, but also has the potential to foster research that subverts rather than reproduces power inequalities.     

The Evolution and Research Trends of Port Geography

Despite the long existence of port geography research, there has been no systematic investigation on its evolution and research trends. Hence, through investigating 155 port geography articles featured in geography journals between 1956 and 2011, this article studied the evolution and research trends of port geography. The article argues that port geography had gradually evolved from a secondary and encyclopedic subdiscipline within transport and human geographies to a primary and specialized one. Such a trend had blurred its “geographicalness,” however, with port geography moving toward the more applied and interdisciplinary transportation. The article also indicates that further research would be required to understand the communication between port geography and other disciplines, as well as philosophical and epistemological issues.     

人文—经济地理学的学科融合和创新

学科融合与交叉是当今科学研究的趋势之一。本论文阐述了人文—经济地理学学科研究的综合性、交叉性和复杂性;概况了学科经济化、社会化和生态化发展历程和特点,总结了经济社会快速革新背景下学科的技术化新特征;分析了经济社会变革与技术进步背景下学科发展的可持续问题聚焦趋势和技术导向发展趋势,介绍了在这两种趋势下学科与经济区位研究、社会公平研究、生态要素研究、信息技术研究相关学科的深入融合方式;预测了人文—经济地理学学科将可能出现关注个体的理论创新、基于空间数据分析的技术创新、融合新产业的应用模式创新以及重视生态要素的理念创新;尝试提出了新区位理论、空间定制、地理业态等创新思路及促进学科创新的实现途径。并以此文纪念中国杰出的地理学家吴传钧先生的百年诞辰。     

What kind of quantitative methods for what kind of geography?

This paper asks why we teach what we teach to geography undergraduates in quantitative methods courses. We re-consider the origins of quantitative geography and note how partial and historically contingent the traditional syllabus is. From this basis, we suggest that other approaches should be considered in order to provide a broader training in quantitative methods. We then propose an example syllabus that attempts to integrate a range of quantitative methodologies within a common, applied context that is also connected to relevant social, economic and political issues. We conclude that students with a better understanding of methods in physical and social science could be very valuable to the betterment of society, but to achieve this may require a change to our quantitative methods teaching.     

重建地方：人文地理与GIS结合研究的路径

地方是很重要的地理学概念。中外学界对地方的研究有丰富积累。围绕地方的理论与现实问题,探索人文地理与GIS结合研究的路径和方法对中国地理学尤为重要。“重建地方”旨在打破学科界限,重新发现学术研究的“地方”,并将学术与生活、思想与技术紧密结合起来,反思和重建生活中的“地方”。人文地理与GIS结合研究主要聚焦于流动性的大尺度城市空间与稳定性的小尺度社区空间。通过运用开放的街景地图、3D-VQGIS等新GIS工具和方法,整合大数据与小数据,将定量与定性结合,丰富了地方性研究的方法与理论,使人文地理与GIS结合有新的方法论与可操作的手段。以地方为主题,人文地理与GIS的结合还将重塑这2个子学科,进而促进地理学发展。未来应该大力探索人文地理与GIS结合的思想、理论与方法,实现学科内的交融互动,并将其应用于解释尺度交错的现实问题,进而在理论和实践上重建地方。     

战略耦合对区域经济韧性的影响研究——以广东省为例

战略耦合与区域经济韧性分别为关系经济地理学派与演化经济地理学派的关键变量,在当下已有的研究中,前者缺乏区域长期演化的动态视角,后者忽视区域外部的经济联系对区域内部的影响,二者缺乏理论对话;同时,战略耦合在当下缺乏定量研究,成为两个学派之间进行融合的阻碍之一。因此,以广东省21个城市为例,基于回归分析、地理探测器等方法,从区域经济中外资的出口主导、生产主导、技术主导3个维度来测度战略耦合程度对区域经济韧性的影响,以此尝试推动两个学派的互动。研究结论：① 证实战略耦合对区域的经济韧性有着显著的影响,其中外资的生产主导影响最为显著,其次是外资的技术主导,影响最小的是外资的出口主导;② 中国港澳台地区投资与其他外资对区域经济韧性的作用机制存在根本性差异,体现在区域韧性变动的过程中,二者在技术主导和生产主导维度上的影响效果相反;③ GDP、FDI、出口总额等传统的全球化程度的测度指标不适合作为测度战略耦合对区域经济韧性影响的重要变量。本研究通过方法的创新,实现了对战略耦合的一次完整的定量测度,进一步实现了关系经济地理学派与演化经济地理学派在方法上的一次理论互动,为全球生产网络后续更加深入的量化研究奠定了基础。     

Context in Human Geography: A Multilevel Approach to Study Human–Environment Interactions∗

One of the shortcomings of quantitative methods in human geography is an overreliance on models that can only account for the average outcomes of spatial events. Although methodological advancements in the form of multilevel models now allow human geographers to account for average outcomes as well as deviations about average outcomes of spatial events, it is not without question that such models can fully account for the cultural, political, and social contexts that affect human behavior. In this article I argue for the adoption of a multilevel approach to the study of human behavior to address some of the criticisms of quantitative methods in human geography. Using a transportation geography research agenda as an example, I discuss how a multilevel approach can complement qualitative methods. Such mixed research methods offer human geographers the opportunity to identify the appropriate role for quantitative methods and explore how context affects behavior.