Meaningful yet useless? Factors behind the retention of questionable concepts in human geography
Meaningful yet useless? Factors behind the retention of questionable concepts in human geography
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DOI：
10.1080/04353684.2017.1419071
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发表时间：
2018-01-01
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Brauer, Rene
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dymitrow, Mirek;Brauer, Rene
“农村”和“城市”的概念长期以来一直受到地理学家的批评，因为它们缺乏分析和解释力，但仍然是人文地理学概念指导的重要来源。认识到继续使用有问题的概念会无意中冒着损害沟通、误导资源和贬低社会理论的风险，“农村/城市”的现状创造了地理学进步的一个矛盾的副现象。我们从两个维度来解开这个悖论。首先，我们展示了意义和效用之间的混淆是如何使我们对问题变得不敏感的。其次，我们概述了可能导致二进制文件持久保留的 12 个超科学因素。我们最终勾勒出一个感性的模板，旨在尽量减少其不良影响。我们承认，如果不充分考虑超科学因素的影响，揭示人文地理学中“城乡”概念的退化，就无法理解。我们认为，如果我们真正想要接受科学方法的基本原理，这是唯一的出路。我们论文的主要贡献是，在关于乡村/城市“是什么”或“意味着什么”的极其丰富的概念性文献中，为乡村/城市“这个研究特别不足的维度奠定了基础。
The concepts rural' and urban' have long been criticized by geographers for their lack of analytical and explanatory power, yet have remained a vital source for conceptual guidance in human geography. Realizing that the continued use of questionable concepts inadvertently runs the risk of compromising communication, misdirecting resources and downgrading social theory, the current status of rural/urban' creates a paradoxical epiphenomenon of progress-making in geography. We disentangle this paradox in two dimensions. Firstly, we show how a conflation between meaning and utility is what renders us desensitized to the problem. Secondly, we outline 12 extra-scientific factors likely to actuate the binary's persistent retention. We finally sketch a sensuous template set out to minimize its undesired impact. We concede that the confusion surrounding rural/urban' in human geography cannot be understood unless the influence of extra-scientific factors is fully taken into account, revealing the concepts' vestigiality. This, we argue, is the only way forward if we truly want to embrace the rationale of the scientific approach. The principal contribution of our paper is laying the groundwork for this particularly underresearched dimension of rural/urban' amidst an exceptionally rich conceptual literature on what rural/urban' are' or mean'.