How to decontextualize in economic geography?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hassink
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Underlying Processes

Moving beyond regional description by focusing on decontextualization and strengthening the explanatory power of theories in economic geography is a key undertaking. Therefore, the analysis of underlying processes and causal mechanisms is useful, but too often process and mechanism are conflated, as has been convincingly argued by Yeung ((2019) Rethinking mechanism and process in the geographical analysis of uneven development. Dialogues in Human Geography 9(3): 226–255 in his theory of mechanism in which he clearly distinguishes process from mechanism. However, while achieving clarity concerning process and mechanism, other key notions, namely conditions, context, and decontextualization, remain relatively unclear and show the need to intensify and continue the dialogue.

Is, ought and being careful what you wish for

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Whiteside
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Geography ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Rigor Mortis ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Realist Ontology

This brief commentary on Henry Wai-chung Yeung’s “Rethinking Mechanism and Process in the Geographical Analysis of Uneven Development” makes three points. First, the commentary supports the article’s assertions that ‘analytical rigor’ is compromised when process and mechanism are conflated, that causal mechanisms are under- theorized in much economic geography, and that a latent realist ontology often lurks beneath interpretive and process-based approaches. Second, it explores the inherent hurdles that a revival of critical realism presents for efforts of engaged pluralism given geography’s contending perspectives on ontology and epistemology and multiple social and substantive theories. Third, the commentary concludes with a hopeful yet cautionary tale of what multidisciplinary engagement on causal mechanisms might entail given the ‘rigor mortis’ mainstream orthodoxy elsewhere in the social sciences.

scholarly journals What kind of theory for what kind of human geography?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Wai-chung Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Human Geography ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Spatial Change ◽  
Geographical Analysis ◽  
Geographical Research ◽  
Epistemological Position

While upholding the analytical relevance of a better distinction of mechanism from process in the geographical analysis of uneven development, the five commentators of my forum paper have raised some critical epistemological issues that provoke three points of clarification in this response. First, I argue for an epistemological position that views theory not only as abstract devices but more importantly as explanation of social–spatial change. I elaborate further on the importance of causal mechanism in such an explanatory kind of theory. Second, I discuss the relevance and usefulness of mid-range theories in geographical research. Finally, this response ends with a return to the bigger picture of the kind of human geography that might benefit from mechanism-based theorizing.

Global Prospects: The Asian Century?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Berry ◽  
Benno Engels
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Data ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
The Future ◽  
Development And Differentiation ◽  
National Economies ◽  
Broad Region ◽  
Broad Overview

This chapter explores the development and differentiation of the Asian region in the twenty-first century. The discussion commences with a broad overview of those national economies in Asia that have been described as ‘the breakout nations’, drawing on the available comparative economic, environmental, and social data. It then moves on to a consideration of the nature of the complex and changing interrelations between economies in the broad region, stressing the nature of uneven development emerging. A discussion of the key development issues identified and the drivers at work follow this. Is the ‘convergence thesis’ a useful framework for understanding what is happening? In looking to the future, what might happen in the leading Asian economies, both established and emerging over the next decade and beyond? Finally, the challenges that the study of a dynamic region like Asia raises for the development of economic geography as a discipline are noted.

Positions without Negations? Dialectical Reason and the Contingencies of Space

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (11) ◽  
pp. 2613-2622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Collinge
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Scale Analysis ◽  
Dialectical Logic ◽  
Dialectical Reason

The dialectical tradition that derives from Hegel and Marx has been very influential within social science, flowing into human geography from the early 1970s through the work of Lefebvre and Harvey. In their different ways these two scholars sought to extend dialectical logic to encompass the contingencies of space, and it is in this context that their seminal contributions to scale analysis can be understood. Since the 1980s, however, confidence in the dialectical tradition has been undermined by poststructural philosophers such as Derrida—who (whilst being careful to avoid simply negating Hegelian dialectics) has exposed the nontotalisable structure of contingency that both subtends and subverts dialectical reason. In this paper I draw upon Derrida's treatment of contingency, and explore the nondialectical ‘foundations’ of dialectical logic through a reading of Neil Smith's 1984 book on Uneven Development (Blackwell, Oxford), a classic text from Marxist geography which was the first to articulate a fully theorised scale framework.

scholarly journals A Review of Multimodal Hallucinations: Categorization, Assessment, Theoretical Perspectives, and Clinical Recommendations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella Montagnese ◽  
Pantelis Leptourgos ◽  
Charles Fernyhough ◽  
Flavie Waters ◽  
Frank Larøi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
User Involvement ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Adverse Impact ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service User Involvement ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Underlying Processes

Abstract Hallucinations can occur in different sensory modalities, both simultaneously and serially in time. They have typically been studied in clinical populations as phenomena occurring in a single sensory modality. Hallucinatory experiences occurring in multiple sensory systems—multimodal hallucinations (MMHs)—are more prevalent than previously thought and may have greater adverse impact than unimodal ones, but they remain relatively underresearched. Here, we review and discuss: (1) the definition and categorization of both serial and simultaneous MMHs, (2) available assessment tools and how they can be improved, and (3) the explanatory power that current hallucination theories have for MMHs. Overall, we suggest that current models need to be updated or developed to account for MMHs and to inform research into the underlying processes of such hallucinatory phenomena. We make recommendations for future research and for clinical practice, including the need for service user involvement and for better assessment tools that can reliably measure MMHs and distinguish them from other related phenomena.

Introduction Economic Geography in the Twenty-first Century

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon L. Clark ◽  
Maryann P. Feldman ◽  
Meric S. Gertler ◽  
Dariusz Wójcik
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
First Century ◽  
Scale Heterogeneity ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Development Stability

The introduction approaches economic geography with reference to where, why, and so what questions focused on understanding economy. The latter is defined broadly as a totality of processes through which individuals, households, and societies make a living and sustain themselves. This economic–geographical approach is then elaborated with the concepts of location, place, territory, distance, proximity, diversity, scale, heterogeneity, and differentiation. The evolution of the discipline, the main challenges facing the world economy in the twenty-first century, and ways in which the discipline has responded to understanding these challenges are outlined briefly. The chapter demonstrates that the discipline has remained open and dynamic in a pursuit of explaining the spatiality of economic processes and their impacts on growth, uneven development, stability, and sustainability. Finally, the structure and arguments of the Handbook are previewed, highlighting how the discipline has changed since the first Handbook was published in 2000.

scholarly journals Principles of Human Geography The Principles of Economic Geography

Nature ◽  
1921 ◽  
Vol 107 (2703) ◽  
pp. 774-775
Author(s):  
GEO. G. CHISHOLM
Keyword(s):  
Economic Geography ◽  
Human Geography

Differentiation under capitalism: Genesis and consequences of the rent gap

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110329
Author(s):  
Cheng Liu ◽  
Yu Deng ◽  
Weixuan Song ◽  
Qiyan Wu ◽  
Jian Gong
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Global Cities ◽  
Fault Line ◽  
Wide Applicability ◽  
Rent Gap Theory

Uneven development theory and its corollary (i.e. rent-gap theory) are either excessively general or insufficiently flexible to expound the variations of gentrification with unique historical trajectories. A representative example is education-led gentrification in China. The lacuna restricts the explanatory power of rent-gap theory and justifies the fault line between the rent gap and two important phenomena: the forms of displacement identified by Marcuse and territorial stigmatisation. This paper recasts Neil Smith's insights about uneven development from two perspectives, temporal and social differentiations, and elaborates how the interplay between both differences engenders territorial stigmatisation and displacement. Moreover, as two diametrically opposed phenomena, territorial glorification (e.g. super-gentrification and education-led gentrification) and territorial stigmatisation are simultaneously situated in one framework, which is evaluated in education-led gentrification in Nanjing. Redirecting the empirical research from global cities to less established but more representative urban centres, this research shows the potentially wide applicability of the theoretical framework.

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