REALISM AND THE PRACTICE OF GEOGRAPHY* |
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| Authors: | Victoria A. Lawson Lynn A. Staeheli |
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| Affiliation: | 1. VICTORIA LAWSON is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. Her interests include the developing world and the nature of work in Latin America.;2. LYNN STAEHELI is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309. Her interests include urban geography and political processes in urban development. |
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| Abstract: | Realism is a philosophy of science wherein researchers attempt to identify structures and agents present in society and how they tend to act. Philosophical debates over realism, which have often been confrontational, have clouded the practical contributions of a realist approach to substantive research. The latter is the focus of this paper. Many realists combine several bodies of theory to explain the complexity of societies. In using these theories, realists clarify the distinctions between questions concerning observable phenomena and the processes that create them. A realist approach illuminates the elusive nature of social “facts” and the problems of meaning, interpretation, and understanding in researching the social world. |
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| Keywords: | realism conceptualization social world place |
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