新经济地理学：方法论的探讨

UNCORRECTEDPROOFPracticingNewEconomicGeographies:AMethodologicalExaminationHenryWai-chungYeungDepartmentofGeography,NationalUniversityofSingaporePracticingneweconomicgeographiesnecessarilyentailsacriticalre-evaluationofresearchmethodologiesbecauseofitsdifferentsubstantiveresearchfoci.Inthisarticle,Iexaminesomemethodologicalimplicationsoftherecentrefiguringofthe‘‘economic’’ineconomicgeography.Somekeyfeaturesofneweconomicgeographiesincludeunderstandingthesocialembeddednessofeconomicaction,mappingshiftingidentitiesofsocialactors,andexploringtheroleofmaterialanddiscursivecontextsinshapingeconomicbehavior.Iarguethatpractitionersofneweconomicgeographiescannolongerrelyexclusivelyonestablished‘‘scientific’’methodologyforempiricalresearchanddataanalysis.Instead,Iargueforaprocess-basedmethodologicalframeworkthroughwhichweemploycomplementarymethodologicalpractices(e.g.,tracingactornetworksandinsituresearch)andtriangulation,notonlytoexplorethemicrofoundationsofeconomicaction,butalsotogenerate,inareflexivemanner,theoreticalinsightsfromthemultiscalardimensionsofeconomicaction.Keywords:actornetworks,neweconomicgeographies,process-basedmethodologicalframework,reflexivity,researchpractices,triangulation.Sincethelate1980sandtheearly1990s,theoreticalandempiricaladvancesineconomicgeographyhaveincreasinglyreshapedthenatureofthesubdisciplineandconnectedittowiderdiscourseswithinthesocialsciences.Inparticular,theconceptof‘‘econom-ic’’hasbeenrefiguredsuchthatitisnolongerseenassingular,unidimensional,deterministic,andaspatial.Indeed,ThriftandOlds(1996,313)arguethatweneedto‘‘makeaspacefornewkindsofeconomicgeographythatcansupplementorevenreplacetheolderformsofeconomicgeography.’’Inthisprocessofbroadeningthedisciplineofeconomicgeography,wemustappreciatehowto‘‘contextualizeratherthantounderminetheeconomic,bylocatingitwithinthecultural,social,andpoliticalrelationsthroughwhichittakesonmeaninganddirec-tion’’(WillsandLee1997,xvii).Severalprogressreportsandliteraturereviewshavedetailedhowtheseexcitingdevelopmentssincethelate1980s—collectivelyknownas‘‘neweconomicgeographies’’1inthisarticle—havetranscendedthenormalintellectualorbitofeconomicgeographyandinfluencedempiricalresearchincorpo-rategeography(Yeung1994,2001b;McDowell1997;Schoenberger1997),politicaleconomy(Barnes1995,1998b;Scott2000),thegeographyoffinance(Leyshon1998;AminandThrift2000),andthegeographyofconsumption(Crewe2000;Jackson2002).Neweconom-icgeographersareengaginginanintellectualprojectthat,accordingtoBarnes(1996,49),‘‘abandonsanynotionofprogress,acceptsthatsubjectsaremadeandnotgiven,avoidsahomogenizingandtotalizingportrayaloftheworld,anddiscardsanyessentialistnotionsofknowledge.’’Despitethisrecentinterestcreatedbythepromiseofneweconomicgeographies,however,weseemtohavemissedacrucialpoint—themethodologicalissue.Thepracticalitiesofwhatitmeansto‘‘do’’neweconomicgeographiesarestillunclearandremainunderdeveloped.Recentphilosophicaldebatesineconomicgeographyhavemostlyfocusedonwhyweneedtorefigurethe‘‘economic’’andtobroadenittoincludeothersocial,cultural,andinstitutionalconsiderations.Stillothershavepracticedtheseneweconomicgeographieswithoutexplicitlycon-sideringtheirmethodologicalimplications.Itisclearthatpracticingneweconomicgeographiesrequiresacriticalre-evaluationofresearchmethodologiesthatgoesbeyondsimplythechoiceofresearchinstrumentsperse(e.g.,samplesurveysversuspersonalinterviews)toincludetheentireprocessofpracticingresearchitself.2Thisarticleaimstoexaminethemethodologicalimplica-tionsoftherecentrefiguringofthe‘‘economic’’ineconomicgeographyand,onthebasisoftheseimplica-tions,todevelopaprocess-basedmethodologicalframeworkforunderstandingthepracticeofneweconomicgeogra-phies.Thisprocess-basedmethodologicalframeworkisdefinedasthecreativeandcoherentdeploymentofdifferentmethodologicalpracticesasdifferent‘‘mo-ments’’3ofaresearchprocessthatissensitivetospecificresearchquestionsand/orcontexts.Theframeworkisprocess-basedbecausetheconfigurationofdifferentmethodologicalpracticesisdrivenbytheresearchprocessitself,ratherthansomepreordainedphilosophicalpositions.Itiscertainlynotjustaboutamethodo-logicalframeworkforexaminingeconomic-geographicalJournal:ANNAHDiskusedED:RameshPgnby:chrisArticle:09302011Pages:22DespatchDate:28/3/2003Q1AnnalsoftheAssociationofAmericanGeographers,93(2),2003,pp.445–466r2003byAssociationofAmericanGeographersPublishedbyBlackwellPublishing,350MainStreet,Malden,MA02148,and108CowleyRoad,Oxford,OX41JF,UK.BWUSANNA09302011.PDF28-Mar-0315:49216720Bytes22PAGESUNCORRECTEDPROOFprocesses.‘‘Methodology’’referstotheentireprocessofpracticingresearch(e.g.,positivisticandinterpretivemethodology)andmethodsasspecifictechniqueand/orinstrumentsforresearch(e.g.,samplesurveysandin-depthinterviews).Mypurposehereisneithertoconstructanewmethodologyforneweconomicgeographiesnortowriteamethodological‘‘cookbook’’onhowtopracticeneweconomicgeographies.Myfocusonlinkingsubstan-tiveresearchissuesandtheirmethodologicalimplicationsalsoprecludesthemappingofthecomplexinterrelation-shipsbetweenepistemologies(e.g.,spatial