Alexander Standish
University College London, United Kingdom
This article engages with and aims to advance the debate about Decolonizing geography, examining its approach to knowledge and its implications for the discipline. Decolonizers draw heavily upon social constructivist and historically-rooted notions of knowledge which emphasize its embeddedness in power relations. While shedding light on the social and political conditions under which knowledge is produced is valuable, its context-dependent view of knowledge limits its scope to account for disciplinary knowledge. Taking a particularistic epistemology which conflates knowledge with experience is insufficient to explain the historical evolution of theoretical and disciplinary frameworks. Denying the potential for and even the desirability of context-independent (theoretical) knowledge Decolonizing geography can be read as post-disciplinary and post-universal, potentially denying that geography can offer all students, regardless of their background, access to powerful knowledge and insights. Here, social realism is proposed as an alternative approach to knowledge which accounts for both the social context of knowledge production and its distinctive epistemic qualities. An epistemological framework for geography is examined which demonstrates the relationship between propositional (conceptual), contextual and procedural knowledge, and why all three are essential for the student of geography.
[1] Jazeel, T. Mainstreaming geography’s decolonial imperative. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2017, 42: 334-337.
[2] Rudolph, S., Sriprakash, S. and Gerrard, J. Knowledge and racial violence: the shine and shadow of “powerful knowledge”, Ethics and Education, 2018.DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2018.1428719
[3] Jazeel, T. 2017: 335.
[4] Ibid: 334.
[5] Legg, S. Decolonialism. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2017, 42: 345-348.
[6] Radcliffe, S. Decolonizing geographical knowledges. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2017, 42: 329-333.
[7] Radcliffe, S. 2017: 329.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Moore, R. Sociology of Knowledge and Education. Continuum, London, 2009: 17.
[10] Noxolo, P. Introduction: Decolonizing geographical knowledge in a colonised and re-colonising postcolonial world. Area, 2017, 49(3): 317-319.
[11] Baldwin, A. Decolonizing geographical knowledges: the incommensurable, the university and democracy. Area, 2017, 49(3): 329-331.
[12] Malik, K. Man, Beast and Zombie: What science can and cannot tell us about human nature. Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, London, 2000.
[13] Butcher, J. Questioning the epistemology of Decolonize: the case of geography. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 2018, 7 (11): 12-24.
[14] Negal, J. Knowledge: A very short introduction Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014.
[15] Derry, J. Vygotsky: Philosophy and Education Wiley Blackwell, London, 2013.
[16] Alexander, J. Fin de Siècle Thoery: Relativism, Reduction and the Problem of Reason Verso, London, 1995.
[17] Brandom, R. Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000.
[18] Billen, M. Geodynamics: Double dip. Nature: Geoscience, 2015:https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2431
[19] Williams, B. Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2002/2010.
[20] Negal, J. 2014: 8.
[21] Young, M. Bringing Knowledge Back In: From social constructivism to social realism in the sociology of education. Routledge, London. 2008: 4.
[22] Negal, J. 2014: 9.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Young, M. 2008: 25.
[25] Ibid: 5.
[26] Rudolph, S., Sriprakash, S. and Gerrard, J. 2018.
[27] Moore, R. 2009: 19.
[28] Young, M. and Muller, J. Curriculum and the Specialization of Knowledge: Studies in the sociology of education. Routledge, London, 2016.
[29] Maton, K. and Moore, R.(eds) Social Realism, Knowledge and the Sociology of Education Continuum, London.2009: 9.
[30] Moore, R. 2009: 124.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Young, M. 2008.
[33] Lloyd, G. Disciplines in the Making: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Elites, Learning and Innovation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009.
[34] Burke, P. What is the History of Knowledge? Polity, Cambridge, 2016.
[35] Lloyd, G. 2009.
[36] Ziauddin Alavi, S.M. Arab Geography in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries. Aligarh Muslim University Press, Aligarh, 1965.
[37] Derickson, K. Urban geography II: urban geography in the age of Ferguson. Progress in Human Geography, 2017, 41: 230-44.
[38] Pulido, L. Reflections on a white discipline. Professional Geographer, 2002, 54: 42-9.
[39] Wheelahan, L. Why Knowledge Matters in Curriculum. Routledge, London, 2010.
[40] Cassirer, E. The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, vol. 4: The Metaphysics of Symbolic Forms. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996[1923].
[41] Young, M. and Muller, J. 2016: 30.
[42] Hartshorne, R. The Nature of Geography: A Critical Survey of Current Thought in Light of the Past. Association of American Geographers, Lancaster, PA,1939.
[43] Matthews, J. and Herbert, D. Geography: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008.
[44] Standish, A. Geography in Standish, A. & Sehgal Cuthbert, A. (eds.) What Should Schools Teach? Disciplines, Subjects and the Pursuit of Truth. UCL IOE Press, London. 2017: 88-103.
[45] Holt-Jensen, A. Geography: History and Concepts – A Student’s Guide (4th edition). Sage, London, 2009.
[46] Brandom, R. 2000.
[47] Bernstein, B. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique (revised edition). Rowham & Littlefield, Oxford, 2000.
[48] Moore, R. 2009.
[49] Furedi, F. What’s Happened to the University? A Sociological Exploration of its Infantilisation. Routledge, Abingdon. 2017: 77.
[50] Ibid.
[51] Ibid.
[52] Polyani, M. The republic of science. Minerva, 1962, 1: 54-73.
[53] Moore, R. 2009.
[54] Cresswell, T. Geographic Thought: A Critical Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester. 2013: 58.
[55] Radcliffe, S. 2017: 329.
[56] Winch, C. Curriculum design and epistemic ascent. Journal of Philosophy of Education. 2013, 47(1): 128-146.
[57] Hartshorne, R. The concept of geography as a science of space, from Kant and Humboldt to Hettner. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1958, 48(2): 97-108.
[58] Bernstein, B. Vertical and horizontal discourse: an essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1999, 20(2): 157-73.
[59] Slater, F. Learning Through Geography. Heinemann, London. 1982: 3.
[60] Gilbert, A. The new regional geography in English and French-speaking countries. Progress in Human Geography,1988, 12(2): 208-228.
[61] Gersmehl, P. Teaching Geography (2nd edition). Guildford Press, New York, 2008.
[62] Hartshorne, R. 1939: 468.
[63] Furedi, F. 2017.
[64] Young, M. and Muller, J. 2016.
[65] Kronman, A. Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities have Given up on the Meaning of Life. Yale University Press, New Haven, MA, 2007.
[66] Meyer, J. and Land, R. Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: linkages to ways of thinking and practicing within the disciplines. Enhancing Teaching Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project, Occasional Report 4. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh,2003.
[67] Lambert, D. GeoCapabilities. Presentation given at the Geography Teacher Educators Conference, University of Plymouth, UK, 2017.
[68] Maude, A. What might powerful geographical knowledge look like? Geography, 2016, 101(2): 70-76.
[69] Wheelahan, L. 2010: 107.
[70] Rata, E. The Politics of Knowledge in Education Routledge, London, 2012.
[71] Furedi, F. 2017: 68.
[72] Ibid: 85.
Copyright © 2019 Alexander Standish
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
