Conceptualizing the Region — In What Sense Relational?

摘要

目前关于如何能够概念化区域这个问题在 地理学研究者中出现了分歧， 一部分研究者坚持相对性视角，另一部分则坚持领域相关性观点。 本文认为，有两个原因碍了有益的探讨，涉及到对两者的联性的忽略。首先，两种思路是建立在不同的哲学假设上的。其次，学者 关注相关性观点在很多情况下其论点并未完全符合其哲学假设。本文认为，概念化这一任务需要建立在语境理伦相 关性存在论的基础上。%Regional Studies. Recently, the question of how to conceptualize the region seems to have created a division in geographical scholarship between those propagating the primacy of a relational view, on the one hand, and those defending the relevance of a territorial view, on the other. This paper argues that two main factors have impeded a fruitful discussion, to the extent that even some points of convergence have been neglected. First, the two strands have drawn, sometimes implicitly, on incommensurable philosophical assumptions. Second, scholars in favour of a relational view have at times made statements that do not fit well (some of) their philosophical sources of inspiration. The paper suggests the task of conceptualization is readdressed by following consistently a discourse—theoretical relational ontology.