Eric Sheppard

The Spaces and Times of Globalization: Place, Scale, Networks, and Positionality

Abstract Discussions of the spatiality of globalization have largely focused on place-based attributes that fix globalization locally, on globalization as the construction of scale, and on networks as a distinctive feature of contemporary globalization. By contrast, position within the global economy is frequently regarded as anachronistic in a shrinking, networked world. A critical review of how place, scale, and networks are used as metaphors for the spatiality of globalization suggests that space/time still matters. Positionality (position in relational space/time within the global economy) is conceptualized as both shaping and shaped by the trajectories of globalization and as influencing the conditions of possibility of places in a globalizing world. The wormhole is invoked as a way of describing the concrete geographies of positionality and their non-Euclidean relationship to the Earth’s surface. The inclusion of positionality challenges the simplicity of pro- and antiglobalization narratives and can change how we think about globalization and devise strategies to alter its trajectory.

Scale and geographic inquiry: nature, society and method.

List of Figures.List of Tables.List of Contributors.Preface.Introduction: Scale And Geographic Inquiry: Robert B. Mcmaster And Eric Sheppard (University Of Minnesota, University Of Minnesota).1. Fractals And Scale In Environmental Assessment And Monitoring: Nina Siu-Ngan Lam (Louisiana State University).2. Population And Environment Interactions: Spatial Considerations In Landscape Characterization And Modeling: Stephen J. Walsh, Kelley A. Crews-Meyer, Thomas W. Crawford, William F. Welsh (University Of North Carolina, University Of Texas, Gettysburg College, University Of North Carolina).3 Crossing The Divide: Linking Global And Local Scales In Human-Environment Systems: William E. Easterling And Colin Polsky (Penn State University, Harvard University).4. Independence, Contingency, And Scale Linkage In Physical Geography: Jonathan D. Phillips (University Of Kentucky).5. Embedded Scales In Biogeography: Susy S. Ziegler, Gary M. Pereira, Dwight A. Brown (All At University Of Minnesota).6. Scaled Geographies: Nature, Place, And The Contested Politics Of Scale: Erik Swyndegouw (University Of Oxford).7. Scales Of Cybergeography: Michael F. Goodchild (University Of California).8. A Long Way From Home: Domesticating The Social Production Of Scale: Sallie Marston (University Of Arizona).9. Scale Bending And The Fate Of The National: Neil Smith (City University Of New York).10. Is There A Europe Of Cities? Peter Taylor (Loughborough University).11. The Politics Of Scale And Networks Of Spatial Connectivity: Transnational Interurban Networks And Rescaling Of Political Governance In Europe: Helga Leitner (University Of Minnesota).12. Scale And Geographic Inquiry: Contrasts, Intersections, And Boundaries: Robert B. Mcmaster And Eric Sheppard (University Of Minnesota, University Of Minnesota).Index.

GIS and Society: Towards a Research Agenda

Recognition that GIS is a social technology implies that the GIS research agenda should be broadened to incorporate questions of the social imbeddedness and impact of GIS. Research into these questions can draw on the complementary skills of GIS specialists and social theorists. GIS as we know it is not the only form it could have taken, but has followed a direction of development shaped by technical and social conditions. GIS represents the world in certain ways that privilege instrumental logic over other ways of knowing. GIS can have significant consequences affecting the outcome of social problems which it is employed to solve, depending on differential access to GIS and information, and on what is defined as information. Such issues suggest a rich agenda for future research.

Quantitative Geography: Representations, Practices, and Possibilities

Representations of quantitative geography, both by practitioners and by others, have tended to associate quantification with empiricism, positivism, and the social and academic status quo. Qualitative geography, by contrast is represented as nonempiricist or postempiricist, sensitive to complexity, contextual, and capable of empowering nonmainstream academic approaches and social groups. Attempts to engage in debate between these positions rarely challenge this dualism, reproducing the representation of quantitative geography as logical positivism, and a dualism separating quantitative and qualitative geography. I argue that this dualism can be broken down, by deconstructing the underlying representation. I discuss why this representation came into existence and how it was stabilized; how close attention to the practices of quantitative geographers, and particularly to the evolution of these practices, reveals its inadequacies; and what new possibilities for quantitative practices emerge from this deconstruction. GIS, one of the recent manifestations around which representations of quantitative geography polarize, is used as a case study to illustrate these arguments. I pay particular attention to the question of the relevance of quantitative practices for an emancipatory human geography.

'Nothing includes everything': towards engaged pluralism in Anglophone economic geography

Economic geography has become increasingly fragmented into a series of intellectual solitudes that has created isolation, producing monologues rather than conversation, and raising the question of how knowledge production should proceed. Inspired by science studies and feminism, we argue for an engaged pluralist approach to economic geography based on dialogue, translation, and the creation of ‘trading zones’. We envision a determinedly anti-monist and anti-reductionist discipline that recognizes and connects a diverse range of circulating local epistemologies: a politics of difference rather than of consensus or popularity. Our model is GIS that underwent significant shifts during the last decade by practicing engaged pluralism, and creating new forms of knowledge. Similar possibilities we suggest exist for economic geography.

GIS-based Environmental Equity and Risk Assessment: Methodological Problems and Prospects

Geographic information systems increasingly have been applied in the domain of environmental risk assessment. One area of research that appears to have excellent potential is in GIS as applied to the assessment of environmental equity. This paper reviews the methodologies used in recent GIS-based environmental equity studies and their results. From this review, a framework for a more comprehensive discussion of methodological issues and challenges is provided, addressing questions of data and measurement, scale and resolution, and methods of analysis. A preliminary environmental equity analysis for the Twin Cities metropolitan region illustrates the complexity of the relationship between the methodological approaches used and the resulting assessments of environmental equity and risk. This analysis is based on multiple sources of hazardous materials, uses fine-resolution census data including site-specific institutions, includes more sophisticated measures of risk than the location of hazardous sites, and...

Introduction to the Varenius project

This paper introduces a special issue of the journal on the subject of Project Varenius, a three-year effort funded by the US National Science Foundation to advance geographical information science. Geographical information is first defined as an abstraction of primitive tuples linking geographical locations to general descriptors. Geographical concepts originate in the human mind, and are instantiated in geographical information. Geographical information technologies apply digital methods to geographical information. Finally, geographical information science is defined as the set of basic research issues arising from these technologies. Three motivations are presented for research in this area: scientific, technological, and societal. Within the project, geographical information science is structured by a three-part framework that includes cognitive, computational, and societal issues. The paper ends with an introduction to these three parts, which define the infrastructure of the project and are discuss...

URBAN PULSE—PROVINCIALIZING GLOBAL URBANISM: A MANIFESTO

“To thematize requires a project to select its objects, deploy them in a bounded field, and submit them to disciplined inquiry” (Guha, 1997, xv) Mainstream urban scholarship envisions urbanization as a global process that is best achieved via the worldwide application of the development mechanisms pioneered in the advanced capitalist countries—currently, those of neoliberal globalization. Yet the repeated failure of this vision to deliver on its promise of wealth for all and ecological sustainability compels urban scholars to rethink mainstream presumptions. By means of a ten-point manifesto, we argue that provincializing global urbanism creates space from which to challenge urban theories that treat “northern” urbanization as the norm, to incorporate the expertise and perspectives of urban majorities, and to imagine and enact alternative urban futures.

Geographies of the information society

This article presents the Varenius perspective on the societal dimensions of geographical information technologies and the geographical dimensions of information technologies in general, and puts them in the context of the research literature of the last ten years. The central themes examined are: theoretical perspectives on the societal implications of geographical information technologies; the changing significance of key geographical concepts in the information age; and societal aspects of the practical application of geographical information technologies. The relationships between these themes and three NCGIA Varenius research initiatives on geographies of the information society are summarized, and some directions for future research in this broad area are outlined.

A conceptual framework for dynamic location - allocation analysis

To date, much of the work published on the problems of plant construction has been restricted to either determining the timing of the building, or forming static location—allocation models, with little attempt to combine the spatial and temporal aspects into one solution. By construction of a taxonomic tree, this paper demonstrates that the capacity expansion and the location—allocation solutions are just the simplest instances of a whole class of models. Formulation of these various possibilities is undertaken and it is shown that a fully integrated spatio—temporal plant-construction model can be derived, at least at the theoretical level. Although the derivations are in the form of deterministic programming models, the concluding section of the paper suggests possible ways in which these might be reformulated to allow for the fact that most planning takes place in an uncertain environment.