Rethinking 'causality' in quantitative human geography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5696392 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jing Zhang (0000-0002-6431-9286, University of Bristol, corresponding author), Levi John Wolf (0000-0003-0274-599X, University of Bristol) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geography Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-8198 • E-ISSN: 1749-8198 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/gec3.12743 |
| OpenAlex | W4392883185 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 58 |
Causality is at the core of much contemporary discussion in social sciences, philosophy, and computer science-from the establishment of basic definitions of causality to developing methods for causal inference, this discussion is increasingly finding voice within geographical literature. However, geographers have long discussed (and differed) about the role "causality" plays in our work. We present a history of contemporary definitions of causality arising from philosophy and examine how these intellectual currents interact with past and present geographical thinking about causal relations. In particular, we focus on how new thinking about counterfactual causality can help re-route inquiry around a well-known impasse: law-based causality in geography. In other words, while different perspectives around "laws" of geography exist, we argue that it is more productive to put aside these differences and find common ground in counterfactual causal thinking. To demonstrate, we outline new kinds of scholarship enabled by counterfactual causality and contemporary challenges that counterfactual causality faces in spatial analysis. Throughout, we refer interested readers to contemporary work on spatial causal inference and methods useful for scholars interested in analysing causal relationships in geographical systems
Economic geography · Geography · Human geography · demographic modeling and climate adaptation · Spatial and Panel Data Analysis · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
What is a Law of Nature?
Causation
Strategic Positivism∗
On the First Law of Geography
Local Forms of Spatial Analysis
Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized studies.
Explanation in geography
Spatial Causality
Waiting on the train”
Geographic information science II
Freedom from the tyranny of neighbourhood
Geography, science and post-positivist modes of explanation
The spatial structure debate in spatial interaction modeling
Causal counterfactuals are not interventionist counterfactuals
Mechanisms, Causes, and the Layered Model of the World
Cause and Effect in Human Geography
Unlawful Relations and Verbal Inflation
A Paper Related to Everything but More Related to Local Things
Tobler's First Law of Geography
Doing Justice to the Law
The Validity and Usefulness of Laws in Geographic Information Science and Geography
Tobler's First Law and Spatial Analysis
Explanation, Prediction, and Meaning Variance
Why context should not count
Big Data, social physics, and spatial analysis
Taking stock of regularity theories of causation
Spatiotemporal Heterogeneities in the Causal Effects of Mobility Intervention Policies during the Covid-19 Outbreak
Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (Maihda) within an intersectional framework
A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region
The Narrow Notion of Realism in Human Geography
Reacting to Ground Truth
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |