“Doing” Critical Geographies with Numbers

Abstract

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.

Las críticas a la geografía cuantitativa tienen una larga historia en nuestra disciplina. Desde las primeras manifestaciones de la geografía marxista, el advenimiento de nuevas tradiciones teóricas ha estado acompañado de continuas y a veces vigorosas críticas al análisis espacial. En este artículo introductorio a la segunda sección focal sobre geografías cuantitativas críticas, discutimos la exactitud de algunos de los reparos acerca del uso o usos que se da al análisis espacial, y acerca de las presunciones filosóficas que sustentan las geografías cuantitativas. Argüimos que el análisis espacial y las geografías críticas no tienen por qué considerarse como mutuamente excluyentes—aunque con esto no se quiera significar que los números y las geografías críticas estén enteramente a gusto los unos con las otras. Nuestra sugerencia es que las geografías críticas no pueden prescindir de los números y de visualizaciones basadas en información numérica. Tenemos la esperanza de que los artículos reunidos aquí inspirarán a los geógrafos a involucrarse con números y estadísticas para enfrentar la desigualdad e imaginar futuros alternativos.

Key Words:

• critical geographies
• quantitative geography
• quantitative methods
• spatial analysis

关键词:

• 批判地理学
• 定量地理学
• 定量方法
• 空间分析

Palabras clave:

• geografías cŕiticas
• geografía cuantitativa
• métodos cuantitativos
• análisis espacial

TIM SCHWANEN is Research Fellow in Transport and Geography at the Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, and Lecturer in Urban Geography at the Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University. E-mail: [email protected]. His current research interests include research methodologies, geographies of mobilities, geographies of aging and old age, time geography, and information and communication technologies.

MEI-PO KWAN is Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include research method; geographies of health; geographies of gender, race, and religion; information and communication technologies; GIS; and feminist perspectives on geospatial technologies.

Notes

¹ The alignment of GIS with quantification has been challenged in the literature (e.g., Pavlovskaya 2006) and recent studies have also shown that GIS can play a role in qualitative research (e.g., Kwan and Ding 2008). GIS is nonetheless grouped together here with enumeration, modeling, and mathematics because very similar criticisms have been leveled at all these methods.

² We use this term positivism reluctantly, not only because it covers a wide range of different philosophies but also because it helps to produce the presumed antagonism between the analytical and the critical (Schuurman and Pratt 2002).