Questioning Geography: Fundamental Debates Noel Castree Alisdair Rogers Douglas Sherman Editors Blackwell Publishing Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_1_pretoc Final Proof page i 5.7.2005 5:04pm stioni Que ng G y eograph Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_1_pretoc Final Proof page ii 5.7.2005 5:04pm Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_1_pretoc Final Proof page iii 5.7.2005 5:04pm QUESTIONING GEOGRAPHY Fundamental Debates Edited by Noel Castree, Alisdair Rogers and Douglas Sherman Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_1_pretoc Final Proof page iv 5.7.2005 5:04pm ß 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd except for editorial material and organization ß 2005 by Noel Castree, Alisdair Rogers and Douglas Sherman blackwell publishing 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Noel Castree, Alisdair Rogers, and Douglas Sherman to be identified as the Authors of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechan- ical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copy- right, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2005 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Questioning geography : fundamental debates : essays on a contested discipline / edited by Noel Castree, Alisdair Rogers, and Douglas Sherman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0191-2 (hard cover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0191-1 (hard cover : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0192-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0192-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Geography. I. Castree, Noel, 1968- II. Rogers, Alisdair. III Sherman, Douglas Joel, 1949- G62.Q84 2005 910–dc22 2005008544 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5pt Palatino by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed and bound in India by Replika Press, Pvt. Ltd, India The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp pro- cessed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_2_toc Final Proof page v 5.7.2005 5:06pm Contents List of Contributors viii List of Figures x List of Tables xi Acknowledgements xii Introduction: Questioning Geography 1 Douglas Sherman, Alisdair Rogers and Noel Castree Part I The ‘Nature’ of Geography 7 1 Geography – Coming Apart at the Seams? 9 Ron Johnston 2 A Divided Discipline? 26 Heather Viles 3 What Difference Does Difference Make to Geography? 39 Katherine McKittrick and Linda Peake Part II Approaches in Geography 55 4 Is Geography a Science? 57 Noel Castree Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_2_toc Final Proof page vi 5.7.2005 5:06pm vi CONTENTS 5 What Kind of Science Is Physical Geography? 80 Stephan Harrison 6 Beyond Science? Human Geography, Interpretation and Critique 96 Maureen Hickey and Vicky Lawson Part III Key Debates in Geography 115 7 General/Particular 117 Tim Burt 8 Process/Form 131 Bruce L. Rhoads 9 Representation/Reality 151 Matthew Hannah 10 Meta-Theory/Many Theories 167 Michael R. Curry Part IV The Practice of Geography 187 11 Cartography and Visualization 189 Scott Orford 12 Models, Modelling, and Geography 206 David Demeritt and John Wainwright 13 Ethnography and Fieldwork 226 Steve Herbert, Jacqueline Gallagher and Garth Myers 14 Counting and Measuring: Happy Valentine’s Day 241 Danny Dorling 15 Theory and Theorizing 258 Elspeth Graham Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_2_toc Final Proof page vii 5.7.2005 5:06pm CONTENTS vii Part V The Uses of Geography 275 16 A Policy-Relevant Geography for Society? 277 Alisdair Rogers 17 Whose Geography? Education as Politics 294 Noel Castree Index 308 Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_3_posttoc Final Proof page viii 5.7.2005 5:06pm Contributors Tim Burt is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Durham Uni- versity, UK. Noel Castree is a Professor in the School of Environment and Develop- ment, Manchester University, UK. Michael Curry is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geog- raphy, UCLA, California, USA. David Demeritt is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, King’s College, University of London, UK. Danny Dorling is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Sheffield University, UK. Jacqueline Gallagher is a graduate student in the Department of Geog- raphy and Geology, Florida Atlantic University, USA. Elspeth Graham is a Reader in Geography at the School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St Andrews, UK. Matthew Hannah is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Uni- versity of Vermont, USA Stephan Harrison is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Exeter University, UK. Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_3_posttoc Final Proof page ix 5.7.2005 5:06pm CONTRIBUTORS ix Steve Herbert is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Washington University, Seattle, USA. Maureen Hickey is a graduate student in the Department of Geography, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Ron Johnston is a Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences, Bristol University, UK. Vicky Lawson is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Washing- ton University, Seattle, USA. Katherine McKittrick is a graduate student in the Women’s Studies Program at York University, Scarborough, Canada. Garth Myers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA. Scott Orford is a lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Plan- ning, Cardiff University, UK. Linda Peake is an Associate Professor in the Women’s Studies Program, York University, Scarborough, Canada. Bruce Rhoads is a Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, USA. Alisdair Rogers is a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University, UK. Douglas Sherman is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, USA. Heather Viles is a Reader in the School of Geography and the Environ- ment, Oxford University, UK. John Wainwright is a Professor in the Department of Geography, King’s College, University of London, UK. Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_3_posttoc Final Proof page x 5.7.2005 5:06pm Figures 4.1 Two routes to scientific explanation 68 7.1 The relationship between rain gauge altitude and average annual rainfall in the Northern Pennine hills, UK 121 10.1 Berry’s cube 169 10.2 Geography and other academic disciplines 170 10.3 Human geography 171 11.1 Part of Dr Snow’s map of deaths from cholera, Soho, 1854 191 11.2 [CARTOGRAPHY]3 – a graphical representation of how maps are used 195 11.3 A view of the Cartographic Data Visualizer (cdv) 198 12.1 A conceptual model of the processes involved in the greenhouse effect 209 Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_3_posttoc Final Proof page xi 5.7.2005 5:06pm Tables 1.1 Journals with most papers published by geographers in nominations for the RAE 2001 evaluation 15 3.1 Some examples of scales of difference 45 3.2 Some examples of scales of ‘inclusions’ and ‘exclusions’ 46 11.1 The relationships between visual variables and the characteristics of the features to be mapped 197 Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_3_posttoc Final Proof page xii 5.7.2005 5:06pm Acknowledgements We would like to thank the editorial and production teams at Blackwell publishers, Sarah Falkus, Jane Hotchkiss, Will Maddox, Justin Vaughan, Angela Cohen, Brian Johnson, Katherine Wheatley, Simon Alexander, and especially Kelvin Matthews for seeing the project home. Many thanks also to Susan Dunsmore for copy-editing and to Sara Hawker for proofing. We are grateful for the constructive comments from Rob Kitchin, an anonymous reviewer and our many colleagues. Finally, we wish to thank the contributors for their efforts and for being receptive to our sometimes demanding editorial interventions. The editors and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission granted to reproduce copyright material in this book: Fig. 4.1 ‘Two routes to scientific explanation’, from David Harvey, Explanation in Geography, (Edward Arnold, 1969). ß 1969 by David Harvey. Reprinted with permission of Edward Arnold. Fig. 10.1 ‘Traditional Grouping of Dimensions’, from B.J.L. Berry, An- nals of the Association of American Geographers, (Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press, 1964). Reprinted with permission of Blackwell Publishing. Fig 10.2 ‘Geography and other academic disciplines’, from O.W. Free- man and H.F. Raup, Essentials of Geography, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1949). Fig. 10.3 ‘Human Geography’, from De Blij and Murphy, Human Geography, (New York: John Wiley, 2003). Castree / Questioning Geography 1405101911_3_posttoc Final Proof page xiii 5.7.2005 5:06pm ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiii Fig. 11.1 ‘Part of Dr Snow’s map of deaths from cholera, Soho, 1854’, from the Department of Epidemiology website, UCLA. Fig. 11.2 [CARTOGRAPHY]3, from A.M. MacEachren (1994) ‘Visualiza- tion in modern cartography: setting the agenda’, in A.M. MacEachren and D.R.F. Taylor (eds), Visualization in Modern Cartography, (Oxford: Pergamon, 1994) ß 1994 with permission from Elsevier. Fig. 11.3 ‘A view of the Cartographic Data Visualizer’ appears by kind permission of Jason Dykes, City University, London. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.