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Breaking Out:The Opportunities & Challenges of Multi-Method Research in Population Geography
No full textResearch traditions exert a powerful influence over the thinking of academic researcher;. In population geography an entrenched empiricism and a reluctance to engage in wider debates on theory and method within human geography have resulted in a degree of separate development. Such methodological complacency has, until recently, threatened to undermine population geography's role within the discipline as a whole. Thus the discussion of multi-method research designs is of particular significance because it offers population geographers an opportunity to break out from the confines of a dominant research tradition and participate with other human geographers in an important methodological debate.This paper seeks nor only to provide a critical overview of the current debate within population geography (as represented in the preceding papers in this Focus section) but also to extend that debate by raising issues of much more general concern. I argue that there Ire dangers in drawing the terms of the debate too narrowly If we are to understand the nature and potential of multi-method research, He must first pose fundamental questions about the interrelationships among methods, data, and research problems. Pragmatic views on the choice of research method are inadequate because they fail to recognise the theory-driven nature of research. Only once we have achieved a better understanding of the philosophical grounding of research strategies will the opportunities afforded by multi-method research be fully realised.</p
The past, present and future of population geography:Reflections on Glenn Trewartha's address fifty years on
No full textOn re-reading Trewartha's address 50 years after it was written, I am prompted to reflect on both the historical and geographical situatedness of his conception of a disciplinary space for population geography, as well as on my own concerns about population geography in the early twenty-first century. Trewartha's case for population geography, I suggest, reveals its cultural embeddedness within American geography of that time. However, it remains of more than historical interest since a similar case has yet to be articulated by the present generation of Anglo-American population geographers. I argue that, despite evident successes, population geography is currently facing two problems relating to its identity. The first arises from its marginalised position within human geography; and the second is associated with what might be called an 'imbalance' in the subject matter of research, where migration studies have become increasingly dominant. Both problems raise questions about the geographical credentials of population geography, and I ask what the future research agenda should be. New research frontiers appear to be re-mapping the spaces of knowledge in ways that could produce new configurations of the academy. In this context, the future of population geography seems uncertain
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