2. THE PUBLIC RELEVANCE OF HISTORICAL STUDIES: A REPLY TO DIRK MOSES

I am grateful to Dirk Moses for taking the time to study my work so assiduously and to comment on it so perspicuously. His essay is eminently well‐informed and even‐handed, and I have little to add to or correct of his characterization of my many, long on‐going, and admittedly flawed attempts to deconstruct modern historical discourse. He understands me well enough and I think that I understand his objections to my position(s). We do not disagree on matters of fact, I think, but we have different notions about the nature of historical discourse and the uses to which historical knowledge can properly be put.     

THE END OF AMERICA: THE BEGINNING OF CANADA -A REPLY TO THE COMMENTARY

I presented 'The End of America: The Beginning of Canada' as a speculative piece of geographical interpretation. Judging by the length of the foregoing commentary and the number of written responses I have personally received, it is evident that my speculations have aroused considerable interest. I welcome the opportunity to clarify my argument. Rather than replying point by point to all the issues raised in the commentary, I will focus my remarks on what I take to be the central objection.     

THE END OF AMERICA: THE BEGINNING OF CANADA -A REPLY TO THE RESPONSE

The author of the foregoing response provides some welcome factual clarification but seems to misunderstand the broader issues raised by the article. Here I will respond briefly to each of the author's major questions.     

REPLY TO THE SOVIET REVIEW OF RADICAL GEOGRAPHY

A Norwegian geographer and Deputy Head of the International Northern Sea Route Programme (INSROP) Secretariat surveys past, present, and potential future Northern Sea Route (NSR) cargo flows. The route's economic potential and importance, both as an international transit route and as a transport corridor to and from the Russian Arctic regions, are discussed. An overview of the main NSR infrastructure components (icebreakers, ice-class cargo vessels, ports) also is made, with estimates of future capacity. Based on the survey of future cargo potential, future infrastructure requirements are calculated and compared with estimated capacity in order to identify possible future bottlenecks for NSR operations. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: L90, O18, R40. 1 figure, 4 tables, 76 references.     

面向国家未来的中国人文地理学研究方向的思考

中国人文地理学经过近半个多世纪的复兴与发展,对国家经济社会发展做出了重大贡献。在新的时代背景下,中国人文地理学的发展仍要继续围绕人地关系地域系统这一核心,树立人地和谐的科学发展观,进一步深化人地关系理论及研究方法,把人地关系的研究向纵深层次推进,发展面向国家战略需求和实践应用的人文地理学,构建完善的中国特色人文地理学学科体系。突出新的实践形式,把全球化与本土化、全国化与地方化、工业化与城市化、一体化与同城化、中心化与空心化、信息化与可视化、生态化与低碳化、科学化与现代化作为中国人文地理学未来研究的8大方向。在人文地理学科建设过程中,敢于挑战经典理论,尤其是西方传统的经典理论,敢于直面现实,学会向权力讲授真理,敢于当科学勇士,倡导科学精神,不可变成官场的奴隶。     

A REPLY TO J.A. SYBESMA IRONSIDE

S ilence is the correct response to an unflattering critical commentary that does not misrepresent one's views. But for a commentary that seems to have sprung from a complete misreading of the text, one can only reply loudly and at length. I will deal with the criticisms levelled by Professor Ironside in order of occurrence.     

BACK TO THE FUTURE: POSTNARRATIVIST HISTORIOGRAPHY AND ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Jouni‐Matti Kuukkanen has written an important book. It directly confronts a key theoretical dilemma that has shadowed debate in historiography for several decades: histories cannot be written without using some narrative structure or other, but epistemological evaluation cannot be applied to narratives qua narrative. Thus, if empirical inquiry takes the form of a history, then it cannot be rationally evaluable, and if rationally evaluable, empirical inquiry cannot be in the form of a history. Kuukkanen's book both directly confronts and proposes a strategy for surmounting this tired and tiresome theoretical barrier. Kuukkanen deserves great credit for attempting to reshape a long‐stalled debate in a way that enables the theoretical options to be imagined anew. Yet his structuring of the oppositional tendencies engenders some ongoing problems regarding how to understand the philosophical stakes and options. This review argues that achieving Kuukkanen's postnarrativist future requires going back to past epistemic concerns discarded because they were tied to conceptions of logic and explanation that could not be reconciled with narrative form. Kuukkanen practices postnarrativism but still preaches a prenarrativist conception of logic. To reach his promised future, to actually overcome the dilemma that he rightly seeks to transcend, one must actually have the courage of Kuukkanen's pragmatist convictions.     

COAGULATING CATEGORIES: A REPLY TO RESPONSES

… ideologies of race define both white and black peoples, just as gender ideologies define both women and men. Thus, while ‘experience’ is an enabling focus in the classroom, unless it is explicitly understood as historical, contingent, and the result of interpretation, it can coagulate into frozen, binary, psychologistic positions (Mohanty, 1990: 195).