Redescribing Horizontal Geographies

The first book in the series provides the concept of a theoretical redefinition of 'horizontal geographies'. These denote the spatial syntheses as undertaken in various disciplines, whether as regional studies, area studies, new regional geography, and many more. The basis of the redescription is philosophical neopragmatism, which has occasionally been taken up in the spatial sciences, but has never been differentiated into a theory-driven empirical research program. This development of the research program guides the present book.

Philosophical neopragmatism, especially as conceptualized by Richard Rorty, focuses in particular on contingency of society, self, and language, which also allows spatial syntheses to be understood not as 'images of reality' but as contingent proposals for redescribing spaces. As a result of the complexity of spatial processes, their horizontal geographic study requires a triangulation of theories, methods, researcher perspectives, data, and the involvement of people without expert special knowledge. To highlight the contingency of the spatial syntheses, the presentation of the results - -here especially graphic and cartographic - -resorts to the attitude of irony. Regarding the six levels of trigangulation, neopragmatism acts as a meta-theoretical orientation framework.

Against the background of the complexity of spatial developments on the one hand and to operationalize Rorty's principle of private self-creation and public solidarity on the other hand, Ralf Dahrendorf's concept of life chances is drawn upon. Especially in the differentiation of this concept made in this book, it serves on the one hand for an understanding access of the (also spatial) expression of options and ligatures,, and on the other hand it offers a normative framework for the evaluation of socio-spatial developments. The reference to neopragmatic studies on spatial syntheses conducted to date and evaluated in this book shows the potential of the approach elaborated here in conceptual detail for the first time.

Dr. Dr. Olaf Kühne is a professor at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany. Previously, he was a professor in the Faculty of Landscape Architecture at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences and Endowed Professor for Sustainable Development at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken. He also worked in various ministries and was, among other things, head of the department of regional planning and head of the staff unit for demographic development.

With a doctorate in geography and sociology, his research focuses on landscape theory and the theoretical justification of regional geography on the one hand, and on theory-guided empirical research on questions of social acceptance of landscape changes and innovative forms of cartographic representation on the other.