Non-representational theories and method

This chapter explores attempts to attend to the methodological challenges non-representational theories (NRTs) present to geographic research. It focuses less on the specific methods or recording techniques that might be employed by those engaged with NRTs. The expanded onto-epistemological realm opened up by NRTs has led to a range of questions around how scholars might ‘do’ research after NRTs. NRTs have brought a whole range of new concerns into geography’s view. An initial challenge when it comes to ‘doing’ research in light of NRTs is that the pace of theoretical development that has led to geography’s onto-epistemological expansion has not necessarily been matched by expanded methodological reflection. In terms of more specific examples of what geographers have done in developing such styles of working, there are a range of examples where such challenges have been taken up and where there have been attempts to inject more creativity and playfulness into social science traditions.

Cognitive science · Epistemology · Computer Science · Critical Realism in Sociology · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology