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Flashcards in Glossary Deck (10)
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1
Q

Empiricism

A

A philosophy that privileges experience of the outside world as the basis for knowledge and method

  • Associated with the scientific method = scientific theories and hypotheses are verifiable only against empirical data observed through the senses
  • Contrasts to philosophies that favour internal mental processes and intuition.
2
Q

Epistemology

A

the philosophical study of knowledge and how it is defined, asking how it is possible to know the world
- Different theories have been present throughout the history of Geography = model of knowledge as innate and discoverable through observation and generalisation, and a model of knowledge as the subjective product of discourses and power relations that are naturalised over time.

3
Q

Feminism

A

a political movement that seeks to identify and dismantle gender inequality at all scales, and to expose and challenge the ways in which social exclusion, marginality and violence are naturalised and sustained through assumptions of gender differentiation.

4
Q

Marxism

A

a body of political theories associated with the work of Karl Marx, whose ideas have been developed and taken forward in varying ways. Most often associated with an analysis of the economic and class structures that shape history as a succession of modes of production, and with a critical political economy of capitalism focusing on its contradictions and crises.

5
Q

Ontology

A

the philosophical study and description of ‘being’, asking what can be said to exist in the world. Ontology considers the interaction between the world as it is, and ideas about how the world is as it is. Ontology explores the assumptions we mark of reality that are required to understand the world.

6
Q

Phenomenology

A

a philosophical and methodological approach attuned to human subjectivity. Phenomenology focuses on everyday practices, human agency and social and environmental connections between people and places, as a means to critique abstract notions of people and place as following laws or patterns of movement and activity. By contrast, phenomenology foregrounds the meaning given to objects and places by their relations with human actors.

7
Q

Positivism

A

a philosophy that claims the primacy of scientific knowledge over any other form of knowledge. Positivism emphasises the importance of observation and measurement as the foundation for all knowledge, it focuses on verification and falsification as determining knowledge and truth claims, and is suspicious of theories that consider the non-observable.

8
Q

Post-structuralism

A

a philosophical movement countering the perceived essentialisms and assumptions of structuralism. Post-structuralism challenges foundational ideas of identity and difference to argue that all identities are formed in relations that are constantly changing, it considers power to be located throughout social relations and not simply residing with the ‘powerful’, and is suspicious of any claims to objectivity and to binaries of nature/culture.

9
Q

Social construction

A

an epistemological claim that the social context of an individual constructs the reality they know, rather than being an independent material world. Social constructivism argues that knowledge is always relative to its social setting and is constantly changing to reflect that setting and the subjective views of those asking the questions. For social constructivists, no form of knowledge escapes the influence of its social setting, so scientific knowledge is constructed through the techniques and forms of reasoning used by scientists to express their ideas. The social world of the scientist constructs that knowledge, rather than it being objectively observed.

10
Q

Structuralism

A

an epistemological approach that seeks to expose the enduring and underlying structures behind events and practices. Often associated with linguistic theories, structuralism has been influential in Geography predominantly through strands of structural Marxism that highlight the class and power relations that underpin capitalist society as explaining social actions and processes.