Map the gap: alternative visualisations of geographic knowledge production

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to develop a new method for visualizing knowledge production which is attentive to the multiple elements embedded in research processes. In particular, we seek to problematise the representation of scholarship indicators by depicting theoretical contributions and field sites along a spectrum, rather than as discrete points, recursively and relationally constituted. The primary aim of our visualisations is to capture text and context, and codified and tacit knowledge. First, we offer a conventional representation of the location of selected dominant critical theories in Geography, arguing that current methods reinforce 'lopsided' geographies of knowledge production. Normative practices of data visualisation and representation captured in our two examples privilege certain elements centred on authorship and tend to silence the contexts informing research. Second, we borrow the term and method of chromatography, a tool used in the natural sciences but here conceived in its more literal sense of 'writing the separations'. Our 'chromatographical' representations attempt to unbundle components currently absorbed by formal indicators of knowledge production. Such counter mappings attempt to convey the relational aspect of research between countries imbricated in the propagation of exemplary critical geographic theories. We conclude with a discussion of the implications that the disaggregation of value has for scholars and their research.

Fifty years of Area: Taking stock, looking forward

“…However, the fact that the gender gap in publishing in this journal has closed should not mask wider, ongoing inequalities within the discipline or within the academy more widely that still require addressing (Maddrell et al., ). Moreover, these figures cannot afford a sense of other forms of inequality, marginalisation and othering – particularly in terms of race (Desai, ; Esson, ; Noxolo, 2017a; Tolia‐Kelly, ) and the persistence of “‘lopsided’ geographies of knowledge production” (Walker & Frimpong Boamah, ; also see Meadows et al., ) – to which we return below.…”

Towards framing the global in global development: Prospects for development geography

“…The GCRF's impact extended well beyond what was funded. The “scramble for the South” (Noxolo, 2017b) the GCRF helped to initiate did not necessarily challenge “lopsided” geographies of knowledge production (Walker & Frimpong Boamah, 2017). The GCRF appeared during a period of rapid change in UK Higher Education when the sector was shifting from a more inclusive research culture supported by Quality‐Related (QR) funds to focus on research excellence as acknowledged by competitive grant awards.…”

Making the invisible hyper-visible: Knowledge production and the gendered power nexus in critical urban studies

“…In prior research, we sought to write in absent elements currently elided in the valuation of research products (Walker and Frimpong Boamah 2017). Rather than relying on formalized indicators of authorship and scholar affiliation, we emphasized the multiple geographies involved across research processes.…”