GEOGRAPHIES, SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND MEDIATING IMAGINATIONS: ON JUSTIFICATION OF TRANSLATION IN EX-CENTRIC HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
GEOGRAPHIES, SPATIAL CONCEPTS AND MEDIATING IMAGINATIONS: ON JUSTIFICATION OF TRANSLATION IN EX-CENTRIC HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I examine the consequences of the idea that geography is situated in social contexts. My aim is to determine the rational conditions of using conceptual resources of the central Anglophone tradition in the geographical studies of peripheral societal worlds. The problem of conceptual translation derives from three different but related assumptions: (1) geographies are social theories within other social practices, (2) geographical tradition is plural and its theories are underdetermined by the world events and objects, (3) geography matters to the practices of geographical conceptualisations. Following Donald Davidson’s theory of truth I argue that geographical translation is justified in case the different geographical communities in the same causal circumstances can openly share the belief in the truth of conceptual sentences concerning their spatial properties. Due to the lack of common external social events and objects in the communication between different societies, the paper suggests to imagine a list of simple spatial abstractions as a tool for creating common causal situation for central and peripheral geographical communities.

• Details
• Contents