Placing ideas: genius loci, heterotopia and geography's quantitative revolution

Abstract

The paper is concerned with understanding the geography of intellectual creativity and change using as a case study the quantitative revolution in geography. First, I review briefly the sea change occurring over the last 40 years in understanding intellectual production, and made most forcefully in the literature in the sociology of scientific knowledge. I highlight three elements: the nature and persistence of intellectual breaks and ruptures; the embodiedness and material embeddedness of the intellectual process; and the centrality of networks and alliances. Secondly, I take each of these three components of intellectual production, and work them through different theories of place to illuminate the role of the geographical within each. In particular, I argue that the geography of intellectual rupture is clarified by using Michel Foucault's notion of heterotopia, that the place of intellectual embodiment and embeddedness is elucidated by Kevin Hetherington and John Law's work on materiality, and that spaces of network and alliance are enhanced by the recent writings on place by Nigel Thrift. Finally, using these three features I present an interpretive analysis of the place of geography's quantitative revolution drawing upon 36 oral histories I conducted with firstand second-generation pioneers of that movement.

The Imprecise Wanderings of a Precise Idea: The Travels of Spatial Analysis

“…In contrast, we argue that placing ideas should be the very first act in interpreting knowledge (Barnes, 2004). That is why Peter Taylor's map is so important.…”

Ethos y praxis de la revolución cuantitativa en geografía

“…El indiscutible desarrollo de la ciencia geográfi ca empieza a concretarse en fi guras tan notables como los británicos P. Haggett y R. Chorley dedicados al análisis de actividades socioeconómicas en el espacio y al desarrollo de una nueva ciencia geomorfológica; el sueco Hägerstrand y sus modelos de difusión de innovaciones; Lowry y los modelos de metrópolis; Garrison y Ullman con modelos urbanos, además de destacados geógrafos americanos de corte cuantitativista. Esta capacidad resuelta de analizar y modelizar los fenómenos espaciales se convirtió en la esencia consagrante de la revolución (Barnes 2004;Barnes 2001;Berry 1971;Burton 1963;Delgado 2003;Keylock and Dorling 2004;Taylor and Goddard 1974;Wilson 1972). Sin embargo, la condición complementaria de la excesiva cuantifi cación llevaría a este paradigma a abrumarse de técnicas estadísticas, que a veces cristalizaban en textos de estudio universitario a la manera de estériles recetarios (Keylock and Dorling 2004: 360).…”

Encountering soviet geography: oral histories of British geographical studies of the USSR and Eastern Europe 1945–1991

“…Our project finds strong methodological parallels in Trevor Barnes' use of oral history to explore the emergence of spatial science within geography in the 1950s and 1960s (Barnes 1998(Barnes , 2001(Barnes , 2002(Barnes , 2004a(Barnes , 2004b. Using interviews with thirty-six geographers alongside documentary and archival sources, Barnes has sought to understand the place of geography's quantitative revolution in terms of the geography and sociology of scientific knowledge (Barnes 2004a).…”

“…The term 'soviet geography' can act as useful shorthand, and yet can mislead in suggesting a concern only for the USSR, or a concern for geographers from the USSR, or a focus on a particular political structure. A more complex yet accurate definition of our work is that of studies by British-based geographers of the USSR and those East European countries within the 'Soviet bloc', plus Yugoslavia and Albania.Our project finds strong methodological parallels in Trevor Barnes' use of oral history to explore the emergence of spatial science within geography in the 1950s and 1960s (Barnes 1998(Barnes , 2001(Barnes , 2002(Barnes , 2004a(Barnes , 2004b. Using interviews with thirty-six geographers alongside documentary and archival sources, Barnes has sought to understand the place of geography's quantitative revolution in terms of the geography and sociology of scientific knowledge (Barnes 2004a).…”