"Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers

Criticisms of quantitative geography have a long history in our discipline. Since the emergence of early Marxist geography, the advent of new theoretical traditions has been accompanied by sustained and sometimes vigorous critiques of spatial analysis. In this introductory article to the second focu...

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Main Authors: Schwanen, T, Kwan, M
Format: Journal article
Published: Routledge 2009
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author Schwanen, T
Kwan, M
author_facet Schwanen, T
Kwan, M
author_sort Schwanen, T
collection OXFORD
description Criticisms of quantitative geography have a long history in our discipline. Since the emergence of early Marxist geography, the advent of new theoretical traditions has been accompanied by sustained and sometimes vigorous critiques of spatial analysis. In this introductory article to the second focus section on critical quantitative geographies, we discuss the accuracy of some of the criticisms about the use(s) to which spatial analysis is put and about the philosophical presumptions underpinning quantitative geographies. We argue that spatial analysis and critical geographies should not be considered mutually exclusive of one another—although this does not mean that numbers and critical geographies are entirely comfortable with one another. We suggest that critical geographies cannot dispense with numbers and visualizations based on numerical information. We hope that the articles collected here will inspire geographers to engage with numbers and statistics to challenge inequality and imagine alternative futures.
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spelling oxford-uuid:2962f303-4339-46a4-8a36-8d39473bb8b12022-03-26T12:18:46Z"Doing" Critical Geographies with NumbersJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2962f303-4339-46a4-8a36-8d39473bb8b1Transport Studies UnitRoutledge2009Schwanen, TKwan, MCriticisms of quantitative geography have a long history in our discipline. Since the emergence of early Marxist geography, the advent of new theoretical traditions has been accompanied by sustained and sometimes vigorous critiques of spatial analysis. In this introductory article to the second focus section on critical quantitative geographies, we discuss the accuracy of some of the criticisms about the use(s) to which spatial analysis is put and about the philosophical presumptions underpinning quantitative geographies. We argue that spatial analysis and critical geographies should not be considered mutually exclusive of one another—although this does not mean that numbers and critical geographies are entirely comfortable with one another. We suggest that critical geographies cannot dispense with numbers and visualizations based on numerical information. We hope that the articles collected here will inspire geographers to engage with numbers and statistics to challenge inequality and imagine alternative futures.
spellingShingle Schwanen, T
Kwan, M
"Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers
title "Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers
title_full "Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers
title_fullStr "Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers
title_full_unstemmed "Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers
title_short "Doing" Critical Geographies with Numbers
title_sort doing critical geographies with numbers
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