THEORY AND ESSENTIALISM IN MARXIST GEOGRAPHY

Many Marxist geographers are involved in the current attempt within human geography to create nonessentialist forms of social explanation. This project has been carried forward with great, though uneven, success. I argue that the concept of ‘theory’ is an area of our discourse where essentialism tenaciously persists. I explore some essentialist meanings of ‘theory’ in Marxist geography and offer a nonessentialist alternative meaning, embedded within an explicitly nonessentialist Marxism.     

HISTORY AND RELIGION IN THE MODERN AGE

This essay seeks to clarify the relationship between history and religion in the modern age. It proceeds in three steps. First, it draws attention to the radical asymmetry between first‐person and third‐person statements that Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations rescued from the metaphysical exile to which it had been condemned by Descartes's definition of the self as a thing. Second, it argues that religion is designed to alleviate the peculiarly human kind of suffering arising from this asymmetry. Third, it maintains that history relies on the same means as religion in order to achieve the same results. The turn to historical evidence performed by historians and their readers is more than just a path to knowledge. It is a religious ritual designed to make participants at home in their natural and social environments. Quite like the ritual representation of the death and resurrection of Christ in the Mass, the historical representation of the past underwrites the faith in human liberty and the hope in redemption from suffering. It helps human beings to find their bearings in the modern age without having to go to pre‐industrial churches and pray in old agrarian ways. History does not conflict with the historical religions merely because it reveals them to have been founded on beliefs that cannot be supported by the evidence. History conflicts with the historical religions because it is a rival religion.     

STALINISM AND GEOGRAPHY

Impacts of Stalinist repression on geographic thought and practice in the USSR are described. These include the persecution and untimely deaths of a number of geographers, the abandonment of certain lines of research, the shift in emphasis from political and economic to physical geography, and the simplification, elimination, or falsification of theoretical paradigms. Translated by Elliott B. Urdang, Providence, RI 02906 from: Territorial'naya organizatsiya obshchestva i problemy mezhnatsional'nykh otnosheniy: Materialy k IX s'yezdu Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR. Leningrad: Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo SSSR, 1990, pp. 60-61.     

STRUCTURE AND AGENCY: CONTESTED CONCEPTS IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

The concepts of ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ have been of central significance to geographic research. This paper focuses on recent debates in critical social geography, and the contributions of Marxist, feminist, and postmodern perspectives to rethinking the structure-agency question. Significant changes in conceptualizing structure and agency are outlined, from early work in Marxist geography to current efforts to grapple with postmodern culture and identity. The paper demonstrates that critical geographic approaches to structure and agency have become more inclusive and nuanced, as researchers have addressed challenges posed by critiques and new perspectives. It concludes by considering the significance of place, space, and social difference in mediating processes of social change and thus in concrete explanations of how the ‘dialectical dance’ of structure and agency unfolds within particular locales. Les concepts de «structure» et d' «action» ont une importance capitate dans les recherches en géographie. Cet article porte sur les débats qui ont récemment eu cours dans le domaine de la géographie sociale critique et sur les contributions apportées par les tenants des points de vue marxiste, féministe et postmoderne dans la reconceptualisation du rapport entre la structure et faction. On y mentionne les importants changements qui ont eu lieu dans le domaine de la conceptualisation des structures et des actions, des premiers travaux effectués en géographie marxiste jusqu'aux récents efforts dé-ployés pour mieux saisir la culture et I'identité postmoderne. Ce texte démontre que dans le domaine de la géographie critique, on voit la structure et faction d'une manière plus englobante et plus nuancée à mesure que les chercheurs se sont penchés sur les défis soulevés par les critiques et les nouvelles perspectives. Nous finissons par évaluer la place qu'occupent I'endroit, I'espace et la différence sociale dans la médiation des processus du changement social - et ainsi dans les explications concrètes des variations de la « danse dialectique » de structure et de faction dans des milieux particuliers.     

西方新区域地理学的发展及其对我国区域经济地理研究的启示

近20年来,西方区域地理学发生了巨大变化。从80年代开始,出现了一种新的区域地理学。与传统区域地理学相比,新区域地理学倾向于结构主义、现实主义和后现代主义的哲学思维。强调区域的个性,强调人的能力及角色与社会结构在区域特性的形成与发展的作用。新区域地理学的核心概念是“地方”、“行为主体”、“体系”。在具体的区域研究中,它不仅注重当地的人及其它因素的重要性,也很重视“人”的各种行为背景,并且也重视来自“体系”的外部大环境的影响。本认为,新区域地理学的研究观点和方法对我国区域经济地理的研究具有启示意义,并主张在我国的区域研究中,应从对“地”的关注转向对“人”及“人地关系”的关注,发展中国的新区域地理学。     

社会地理学社会-文化转型的内涵与研究前沿方向

根据国外名学的观点与权威献,论述社会地理学社会—化转型的学科内涵,重点探讨了“新”社会地理学的理念、研究的主体内容与前沿方向。全从社会—化转型的角度认定“新”人地理学是一门探索性的社会科学,它的社会—化空间性为其他社会科学挖掘其学科内涵拓展了思路,并为它们指引空间延伸的方向与内容。第二,探索性地总结了“新”社会地理学主体研究内容、结构及其目标。即“社会空闻结构”的综合理念及其进展。第三,探讨了新社会地理学与其他“新”人地理学分支学科交叉研究的前沿方向,及其相关的较为成熟的学科内容及其研究框架。全揭示学科边沿性越来越模糊的新社会地理学的基础原理是人地理学其它分支学科分析与探讨问题的理念基础。     

PHILOSOPHY AND GEOGRAPHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: A REPLY

So far as I can make out, Sitwell's comment on my essay says little that is relevant to its content. In fact he goes so far as to declare that my essay can in large part be ignored, presumably for purposes of gaining an understanding, or getting at the essence, of Margarita Bowen's book. I assume that Sitwell is writing a book review, more or less of the conventional sort, since he remarks that he is undertaking 'a review of the type May chose not to write.' I do not pretend for one moment that what I wrote is a book review. Perhaps it should not even have been called a 'review essay.' But Sitwell is not unaware of this, since he remarks that my 'essay is almost bound to be taken as a review,' which he regards as 'unfortunate.' Despite the fact that the tasks we have each undertaken are substantially different, and hence that our respective papers have little in common, I nevertheless think a few comments are in order.     

PHILOSOPHY AND GEOGRAPHY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: A COMMENT

At the end of his review essay occasioned by 'the appearance of Margarita Bowen's Empiricism and Geographical Thought: From Francis Bacon to Alexander von Humboldt ,' J. A. May wrote: I think