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In this article, we seek to open up for critical debate disciplinary narratives that center the “synthesis” qualities of geographic thought. Proponents of Geography often emphasize its integrative, synthesis approach to human–environment relations to underline its value to interdisciplinary research initiatives addressing critical real-world issues such as climate change. But there are multiple styles of knowledge synthesis at work within academia and beyond, and they have contradictory ethical and epistemological effects. More specifically, synthesis is on the rise, but it is not Geography’s synthesis-as-understanding. Rather, an increasingly dominant cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary is installing a specific notion of synthesis—“synthesis-as-solution”—into universities, transforming both the production of knowledge and the institutional management and technological manifestation of that production. This cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary constrains research ethically and epistemologically to reduce knowledge to the synthesizable information flows and continuous innovation that characterize cybernetic control. In this context, non-conforming research—that is, research that disrupts or disdains such smooth synthesis—risks being labeled unprofessional, unimportant, and obsolescent and marginalized institutionally. Geographic disciplinary narratives that unreflexively celebrate synthesis thus risk producing a paradoxical future for Geography, one in which more space for different modes of knowledge production is created, but the type of difference recognized and affirmed is severely constrained. There is a pressing need for geographers to pay more attention to the practices and contexts in which we create disciplinary narratives because, like the content of our knowledge production, they can either challenge or reinforce a cybernetic sociotechnical imaginary.
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A framework for modern time geography: emphasizing diverse constraints on accessibility
Time geography is widely used by geographers as a model for understanding accessibility. Recent changes in how access is created, an increasing awareness of the need to better understand individual variability in access, and growing availability of detailed spatial and mobility data have created an opportunity to build more flexible time geography models. Our goal is to outline a research agenda for a modern time geography that allows new modes of access and a variety of data to flexibly represent the complexity of the relationship between time and access. A modern time geography is more able to nuance individual experience and creates a pathway for monitoring progress toward inclusion. We lean on the original work by Hägerstrand and the field of movement GIScience to develop both a framework and research roadmap that, if addressed, can enhance the flexibility of time geography to help ensure time geography will continue as a cornerstone of accessibility research. The proposed framework emphasizes the individual and differentiates access based on how individuals experience internal , external , and structural factors. To enhance nuanced representation of inclusion and exclusion, we propose research needs, focusing efforts on implementing flexible space–time constraints, inclusion of definitive variables, addressing mechanisms for representing and including relative variables, and addressing the need to link between individual and population scales of analysis. The accelerated digitalization of society, including availability of new forms of digital spatial data, combined with a focus on understanding how access varies across race, income, sexual identity, and physical limitations requires new consideration for how we include constraints in our studies of access. It is an exciting era for time geography and there are massive opportunities for all geographers to consider how to incorporate new realities and research priorities into time geography models, which have had a long tradition of supporting theory and implementation of accessibility research.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2043202
- PAR ID:
- 10406611
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geographical Systems
- ISSN:
- 1435-5930
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-023-00404-1
