Geopiracy : Oaxaca, militant empiricism, and geographical thought
Geopiracy is a study of the 'Bowman expeditions'-a project through which geographers, with funding from the US Army, are mapping the 'human terrain' of foreign lands. Wainwright offers a critique of human geography today that draws on contemporary social theory to raise unsettling questions about the nature of geography's disciplinary formation. Why have geographers remained so quiet about the resurgence of military funding for geographical research? Joel Wainwright argues that the underlying problem stems from our epistemic commitment to empiricism. Much as some would like to deny it, many geographers are executing their own 'expeditions' in the spirit of Isaiah Bowman, the early twentieth-century geographer who shaped the discipline's empiricist epistemology while helping the US to build its empire (and from whom the Expeditions take their name). Geopiracy delivers a critique of the 'Bowman expeditions'-a project through which geographers, with funding from the US Army, are mapping the 'human terrain' of foreign lands. Since the beginning of the controversy surrounding the Bowman expeditions, the discipline of geography has been rocked by debates concerning research methods, the military, and the effects of geospatial technologies on everyday life. Although the 'Oaxaca controversy' has fomented intense discussions, the questions it raises are far from resolved. Geopiracy offers a postcolonial critique of human geography today-one that draws on contemporary social theory to raise unsettling questions about the nature of geography's disciplinary formation
1 online resource (126 pages) : 2 black and white, halftones, 1
9781137301758, 9781137301734, 9781283717489, 1137301759, 1137301732, 1283717484
818226586
Print version:
Cover; Half-Title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Content; List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Letters from Oaxaca; 2. Geographers Respond: I; 3. Geographers Respond: II; 4. Geography Counterinsurgent; 5. From Geopiracy to Planetarity; 6. Eight Theses on Geopiracy; References; Index
Joel Wainwright is a human geographer who teaches political economy and social theory at Ohio State University. He has published 32 research articles and book chapters on diverse topics. His first book, entitled Decolonizing Development: Colonial Power and the Maya, won the Blaut award in 2010 and has been assigned and taught at more than ten research universities
Electronic book text
Letters from Oaxaca Geographers Respond: I Geographers Respond: II Geography Counterinsurgent From Geopiracy to Planetarity Eight Theses on Geopiracy