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Progress report

Crossing the qualitative-quantitative chasm I:Hybrid geographies,

the spatial turn, and volunteeredgeographic information (VGI)

Daniel Sui

The Ohio State University, USA

Dydia DeLyser

Louisiana State University, USA

Abstract

This report, the first of three, reviews methods and methodological approaches, qualitative and quantitative.In an effort to look beyond the qualitative-quantitative divide, two geographers with different methodologicalbackground andexpertise write together.This first reportreviews worksunder the broader context of hybridgeographies, the spatial turn, and the recent explosive growth of volunteered geographic information (VGI).The works reviewed seek to combine methodological approaches in creative ways, or to create other hybridresearch methods, all to address the challenging problems of our times problems that often demand synergyin methodology, holism in ontology, plurarism/open-mindedness in epistemology, and embracing diversity.

Keywords

hybrid geography, methodology, methods, mixed methods, neogeography, qualitative, quantitative, spatialturn, volunteered geographic information (VGI)

I Introduction: Beyond thequalitative-quantitative divide

With this first in a series of three reports we

begin an entirely new progress report, one set

to cover qualitative and quantitative research

methods together, along with the methodologies

that ground them and the approaches that seek to

integrate them. We write together in an effort to

bury the qualitative-quantitative divide in our

discipline (and in the social sciences and huma-

nities more broadly) and we contend that this

divide has hindered cooperation, collaboration,

and constructive engagement of diversity (Curtis

and Riva, 2010; Walker, 2010). In this first

report we focus on work that seeks to mix meth-

ods and/or methodologies, as well as on work

that seeks to transcend the differences between

methods and methodologies. This should notbe confused with single-minded advocacy for

such work as the methodological way forward.

Corresponding author:

Daniel Sui, Department of Geography, The Ohio State

University, 1036 Derby Hall, 154 North Oval Mall,

Columbus, OH 43210-1361, USA

Email: [email protected]

Progress in Human Geography36(1) 111124

The Author(s) 2012Reprints and permission:

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Future reports will highlight qualitative and

quantitative approaches that do not seek to meld

approaches, but attempt instead to carry out their

own methodological work well. Across the three

reports we seek to recognize the diversity of

approaches current in geographical scholarship,

but also to propose that we move beyond the

methodological divide that has hindered that

scholarship. Our goal is to inject tolerance, strive

for synergy, and embrace diversity in our meth-

ods and methodologies in order to address crea-

tively the complex problems of our time.

Such a broad embrace is (and long has been)

common in more introductory texts (Gomez and

Jones, 2010; Kitchin and Tate, 1999; Montello

and Sutton, 2005) and throughout the history ofgeography. Yet, though this is a vibrant time of

publication on methods and methodologies in

geography, that broad-spectrum view remains

elusive in work that seeks to engage issues of

methods at a higher level, where, with few excep-

tions (Cope and Elwood, 2009; Crampton, 2010),

recent advanced texts in geography are, perhaps

necessarily, specialized (Bivand et al., 2008;

DeLyser et al., 2010; Hay, 2010; Longley et al.,

2010; OSullivan and Unwin, 2010) even as othersplace a growing emphasis on mixed methods for

synthesis and holistic understanding (Carpenter

et al., 2009; Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2010).

On the surface, the qualitative-quantitative

divide appears as different methodological

approaches. Yet it may also reflect a much deeper

division in human intellectual endeavor and

knowledge production, akin to C.P. Snows

chasm between scientific and humanistic

knowledge (Snow, 1993). In such situations,

divides can be just that: divisive. If our research

and our discipline are to survive and remain rele-

vant, we must move beyond divisiveness. This is

not to say that we must set aside all divisions and

differences, for such diversity and debates on fun-

damental issues are productive whether for an

academic discipline or a democracy (Fineman,

2009). This can be a fruitful time for methodologi-

cal engagements that might better serve

geography as an interdisciplinary field (Baerwald,

2010). In the following section we outline the

broader context for such engagements.

II Geographys new turn tosynthesis and holism

Geography as a discipline has oscillated between

analytical and synthetic paradigms (Harvey,

1997; Turner, 1989). During the first decade of

the 21st century, along with geographers cur-

rent and recent turns to specific domains and

approaches (e.g. the critical turn, the cultural

turn, the relational turn, the computational turn,

the communicational turn, the mobilities turn,

the performative turn, etc.), one turn deservesparticular attention here: the turn to synthesis

and to holism. At least three trends over the past

10 years provide broader context for this syn-

thetic and holistic turn.

First, there are calls for a unified geography as

the new disciplinary identity (Matthews and

Herbert, 2004), for a new synthesis (Gober,

2000), and for studying our planet not bit by bit

but all at once (Clarke, forthcoming). As a con-

ceptual framework, hybrid geographies proposeto practice this new synthesis in geographic

research: Whatmore argues that it is both more

interesting and more pressing to engage in a

politics of hybridity . . . in which the stakes are

thoroughly and promiscuously distributed

through the messy attachments, skills and inten-

sities of differently embodied lives whose every-

day conduct exceeds and perverts the designs of

parliament, corporations and labour (Whatmore,

2002: 3). For Rose (2000: 364), hybrids trans-

gress and displace boundaries between binary

divisions and in so doing produce something

ontologically new; this notion is echoed by

Kwan (2004:759) who recognizes two major

divisions within geography: the partition between

physical and human geography, of nature from

society; and the separation of spatial-analytical

geographies, which attempt to create a mode of

disembodied geographical analysis, from social,

112 Progress in Human Geography 36(1)


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cultural, and political geographies. For these

scholars, hybrid geographies seek to integrate in

grounded practices elements thought to be

incompatible or conflicting. Hybrid geographies,

also sometimes known as boundary projects,

challenge existing boundaries and forge creative

connections within geographies physical and

human, critical and analytical, qualitative and

quantitative aiming to integrate perspectives

on space, place, flow, and connection.1

Second, thefirst decade of this century has wit-

nessed a spatial turn across the physical sciences,

social sciences, and humanities, with scholars

fromdifferent disciplineschallenging issues from

a spatial perspective. Space has become an inte-

grating theme across the social sciences evi-denced by emerging spatially integrated social

sciences (www.csiss.org) and scholars across

the humanities have made GIS and spatial analy-

sis integral parts of their research methodologies

(Bodenhamer et al., 2010; Fisher and Mennel,

2010; Knowles, 2008; Scholten et al., 2009; Warf

and Arias, 2008). Economist Paul Krugman was

awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for his work in eco-

nomic geography. And recent work by mathema-

ticians, physicists, computer scientists, andecologists in complex networks, visual analytics,

and spatial modeling has enhanced geographys

quantitative toolbox.

This spatial turn has not been confined to the

Ivory Tower. Policy-makers have realized the

crucial importance of space and place in under-

standing the complexity of the worlds problems,

seeking solutions to these problems that will

work well under diverse local circumstances

the World Bank (2009) framed last years world

development report entirely from a geographical

perspective, concluding that alleviating, and

eventually eliminating, poverty problems must

start with reshaping the worlds economic geo-

graphy. In the USA, the Obama White House has

urged all federal agencies to develop place-based

policies (Orszag et al, 2009).

Third, there is the merger of new means of

understanding spatial data with new ways of

creating and acquiring it. The first decade of this

century saw the rapid development of Web

2.0 technologies along with major advances in

GeoWeb and geospatial technologies, including

traditional geographic information systems

(GIS), remote sensing (RS), global positioning

systems (GPS), and location-based services

(LBS). This is an unprecedented moment in

human history: we can now know where nearly

everything, from genetic to global levels, is at all

times. These technological advances can be

brought to bear on the corresponding data ava-

lanche the vast amounts of user-generated con-

tent and volunteered geographic information

(VGI) that pours out as individuals become sen-

sors, gathering and disseminating data abouttheir environments and themselves in increasing

spatial-temporal detail.

Advances in geospatial technologies during

the past 10 years have enabled ordinary citizens

with little formal training to participate in the

production of geographic data and knowledge

through diverse forms of user-generated content

and VGI. Neogeography has emerged as a

descriptive and analytical tool for large numbers

of people outside of academia, a process cata-lyzed by digital mapping technologies and the

social-networking practices of Web 2.0 (Batty

et al., 2010). The rise of neogeography during

the past five years has contributed to the explo-

sive growth of a diverse array of geo-tagged

data, and stimulated a new mode of knowledge

production via crowdsourcing (Goodchild,

2009). Neogeography and VGI may not mean

much when viewed at the individual level, but

interesting patterns may emerge when the vast

amount of fragmented individual-level data is

aggregated and synthesized.

III Recent efforts in geographicsynthesis: A step towardconsilience?

This section reviews recent efforts towards

geographic synthesis that reflect the three trends

Sui and DeLyser 113


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outlined above. All these efforts aim to move

beyond the qualitative-quantitative divide, and

a narrow view of geographical scholarship. For

each hybrid we give a synoptic overview, and

offer more detailed discussion on methods and

methodologies in representative case studies.

1 Hybridizing physical and humangeography

Although geographers following the cultural/

political ecology tradition have for decades

worked on topics that link physical and human

geography, the growth of hybrid geographies has

drawn an increasing number of human and phys-

ical geographers (who normally would practiceeither one exclusively) to cross the physical-

human divide. Neil Smith (1998) speculates on

the emergence of what he called El Nino capital-

ism both literally and metaphorically noti-

cing the striking similarities in the rhythms of

El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and capit-

alisms periodic crises, and striving to link them

in a causal chain. El Nino capitalism remains

controversial, and others dispute the extent

ENSO has affected US macroeconomicperformance. Using data for ENSO fluctuations

and the rates of US inflation and economic

growth over the 18941999 timespan, Berry and

Okulicz-Kozaryn (2008) explore whether there

has been any co-cyclicality between the two phe-

nomena and whether aperiodic ENSO shocks

have had any impact on these macroeconomic

parameters. They discerned no co-cyclicality or

aperiodic shocks, concluding that while ENSO

may briefly influence the performance of particu-

lar sectors of the economy in particular regions,

such locally important effects vanish into the

noise surrounding macroeconomic trends in an

economy as large and complex as that of the

USA (p. 625).

Leichenko et al. (2010), however, attempt to

relink the current global financial crisis to global

climate change using a double-exposure frame-

work. Their empirical results from Californias

Central Valley support the link between global

climate change, global financial crisis, and how

those are manifested from global to local levels.

Meanwhile, Gober et al. (2010a) saw that global

climate change presented an uncertain future for

urban water planners, particularly in desert areas

(like metropolitan Phoenix where they situated

their work). The potential local impacts of

large-scale processes like global climate change

were difficult for urban planers to grasp and

apply, so Gober et al. (2010b) downscaled global

climate models to the size of metro Phoenix,

applying those together with urban-runoff predic-

tions and inputting the data into WaterSim, an

integrated computer-based modeling program

that could simulate scenarios for Phoenixs waterresources based on different projected climates,

water-management policies, and water-usage

demands. The model enabled the suspension of

politicized decisions relating to global climate

change, in order to show how endangered a

resource the citys water would be under even

optimistic scenarios, while also revealing

that adaptive policies encouraging residential

conservation could lead to long-term water sus-

tainability even under the worst climate-changescenarios.

It is not only human geographers addressing in

new ways topics typically thought physical

(Campbell, 2009; Yusoff, 2009, 2011); physical

geographers have also embraced topics more tra-

ditionally human (Frazier et al., 2010; Mark et al.,

2010; Valdivia et al., 2010). The study of globa-

lization, as Clifford (2009) suggests, need not

be the exclusive domain of human geographers

or social scientists: physical geography has

always been global at heart, and globalization

must be seen historically in the global export of

western science including physical geography

that underpinned colonialresource exploitation.

Inspired by Allan Preds work (1984) on the

formation of place, Phillips (2001) highlights the

primacy of place in human impacts on the envi-

ronment, and contingency of place has been a

dominant theme in his recent publications



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(Phillips, 2009a, 2009b). In a parallel to human

geographers efforts to examine economic

impacts of global climate change, physical geo-

graphers have studied the environmental conse-

quences of the rising divorce rate. Yu and Liu

(2007) tracked carbon footprints of couples in

12 countries who married and then either

divorced, stayed married, or divorced and remar-

ried. Because divorced couples typically require

two residences, Yu and Liu found that energy

consumption, water usage, and the amount of

space occupied per person all increased dramati-

cally with divorce.

In hydrological modeling, Odoni and Lane

(2010) advocate an approach that is knowledge-

theoretic rather than data-theoretic in order tocapture the richer sources of information avail-

able to the modeler. Such sources include third-

party reports, personal recollections and diaries,

old photographs and press articles, and opinions

which have been, by convention, either excluded

from analysis, or simply added into descriptions

of model results at the point of dissemination and

consultation. This framework represents an effort

by physical geographers to embed qualitative

data as an integral part of their quantitative mod-els: as they argue, the production of scientific

knowledge comes to include not just scientists

and specialists, but also those people for whom

model predictions make a material difference

(p. 151).

Continental philosophy has likewise become a

source of methodological reflection for physical

geographers. Using Nietzsche, Comrie (2010)

aimed to engage physical geographers and fellow

physical scientists to reconsider their roles as

scientists. Debunking the mystiqueof science and

the misconception of seeing science as indepen-

dent of people and society, Comrie showed that

science gains its power by the ways we attach

meaning to it and its findings: we should thus act

on our ability to bestow that power. Comrie chal-

lenges physical geographers to overcome their

trained tendency toward detached environmental

science and instead fashion a new physical

geography that includes meaning and action.

Mistry et al. (2009), drawing from their work on

water quality in Guyana, traced their journey as

physical geographers from top-down experts to

participatory facilitators addressing issues of

reflexivity and positionality often (mistakenly)

thought only of concern to human geography.

2 Mixing qualitative and quantitativemethods

The interdisciplinary nature of geography

(Baerwald, 2010) can foster a methodological

hybridity in the mixing of qualitative and

quantitative methods and methodologies. Recent

work features sophisticated mixed-methodsapproaches that cross the divide between

spatial-analytical and social-critical approaches

(Barker, 2009; Brown et al., 2008; Collins,

2009; Elwood, 2010; Lopez-i-Gelats et al.,

2009; Schuermans and De Maesschalcka, 2010;

Travlou et al., 2008; Tschakert, 2009; Velazquez

et al., 2009; Zulu, 2009), revealing the binary

between such approaches as pseudo rather than

real (Barnes, 2009). Critical geography need not

be qualitative and can use numbers (Schwanenand Kwan, 2009) afterall, Karl Marx used quan-

titative methods extensively. But, as Elwood

(2010) points out, thoughtful mixed-methods

research must bridge not only methodological but

also epistemological and philosophical divides.

Cherished theoretical principles may become

renegotiated: Bergman et al. (2009: 265) seek

nothing short of a methodological reinterpreta-

tion of what employing mathematical arguments

could mean within larger, postpositivist theoreti-

cal projects in critical human geography.

Mixed-methods research offers human geogra-

phers the opportunity to identify appropriate roles

for different methods (Elwood, 2010). In transport

geography this may involve exploring how con-

text affects human travel behavior. Zoliniks

(2010) multilevel, mixed-methods approach to the

criticisms of quantitative methods in transport

geography shows that quantitative modeling (at a

Sui and DeLyser 115


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single level) can complement qualitative analysis

(across multiple levels). Goetz et al. (2009) exam-

ine recent transport-oriented research in highly

cited geography journals, revealing that geogra-

phical research on transport topics is more preva-

lent and (though often influenced by civil-

engineering approaches) reflects a wider range

of epistemological and methodological

approaches than frequently assumed. They pro-

pose a critical-transport-geography research

agenda that calls for the greater integration of

qualitative analysis into predominant

quantitative-modeling approaches.

Perhaps most dramatic in mixed-methods

research in human geography is the development

of qualitative GIS (Aitken and Kwan, 2010),which, along with participatory GIS, feminist

GIS, and critical GIS, works to reconceptualize

GIS as more than only quantitative in terms of

data, analysis, and representation. Emerging in

response to critiques that characterized GIS as

rooted in positivist epistemologies and most sui-

ted for quantitative techniques associated with

the discredited spatial science (Wilson, 2009),

qualitative GIS reveals that GIS, from its incep-

tion, has been more than quantitative (Cope andElwood, 2009: 171). Using mixed/hybrid meth-

ods in representation, mode of analysis, and con-

ceptual engagement, qualitative GIS embraces

non-cartographic forms of data, qualitative anal-

ysis, and multiple modes of representation (Cope

and Elwood, 2009).

Furthermore Knigge and Cope (2006, 2009)

show how the inductive, iterative analysis prac-

tices of grounded visualization can engage scale

in GIS as both a cartographic representation and

a sociopolitical construction. Elwood (2009),

drawing from her work on grassroots GIS prac-

tices, demonstrates how cartographic representa-

tions generated in a GIS might be engaged to

produce multiple and different understandings of

neighborhood, negotiating the meanings and char-

acteristics associated with neighborhood as flex-

ible and fixed, and engaging them as both

material and imagined space. And Aitken and

Craine (2009) show how a non-representational

reading of GIS-based representations can illumi-

nate greater insights into affective and emotive

politics than more traditionally technical readings.

3 Archival ethnography

Ann Laura Stoler (2009) urges a move away

from treating the archives as an extractive exer-

cise (p. 47), advocating applying ethnographic

sensibilities to archival research. This shift, from

archive as source to archive as subject (p. 44)

is not entirely new (Darnton, 1984; Ginzburg,

1982), but this hybrid form of research has been

forwarded by a number of geographers. As

Ogborn (2009: 18) advises, We can examinearchives . . . [by] asking ourselves what forms

of communication are they? both when they

were created, and in communicating between

past and present. Lorimer and Philo (2009) do

just that in their endeavor to allow more disor-

der into the archive through their investigation

of the haphazardly kept and collected archive

of their own geography department. They point

out that the researcher needs to be suspicious

of the apparent order, and instead seek outcracks in the facade because a disorderly

archive need not yield a disordered account, nor

must an ordered archive yield an orderly one:

the most conventionally ordered accounts . . .

may also be the ones that miss what is most

important (Lorimer and Philo, 2009: 229, 250).

Lambert (2009) employs an ethno-historical

approach, identifying blanks within the written

record to understand the identities and histories

of enslaved witnesses and excavate their knowl-

edge from colonial archival traces (p.48), demon-

strating how even the unsaid can become

evidence (p. 58). Others, like Cameron and Mat-

less (2010), also found things thought not acces-

sible in archives. Studying an ecological field

course in the UK, they showed how even ignor-

ance itself (in this case the ignorance of local agri-

cultural practices that course participants had

mistaken for natural processes)mustbe achieved



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and sustained and how this ongoing operation

can be revealed in the archives.

Neither must non-humans be left from the

archives, though their tracks can be difficult to

trace. Lorimer and Whatmore (2009) draw on

emerging techniques in embodied re-enac-

tive historical geography in their study of ele-

phants and an elephant hunter in 19th-century

Ceylon: scrutinizing the hunters published

works, journals, and sketches; examining the

hunters clothing, equipment and rifle crushed

by an elephant; and conducting fieldwork at the

sites of Sri Lanka hunts, re-reading key texts in

situ as a partial means to understand the archives

from a more-than-human perspective. Nor must

the archive be understood as merely a textualrealm. For Ogborn suggests understanding a

world of practice as simultaneously a world of

communication (rather, perhaps, than represen-

tation) can provide a way forward for historical

geographers to explore practices without simply

turning our backs on what we have learned about

the world through texts (Ogborn, 2009:19). So

too must the understanding of archival practices

extend to those doing archival research. Bailey

et al. (2009) detail the backstage productionof their work in a Methodist archive, writing a

group-autoethnography-in-an-archive because

research methods and reportage cannot be

abstracted from the practices and experiences

of the researchers. Similar to Mistry et al.

(2009) above, they encourage the development

of an enlivened geography in which practitioners

acknowledge their voices (Bailey et al.,

2009:265, 258, 266).

4 Activism, applied geography, andacademia

Community engagement, either in the form of

Participatory Action Research (PAR) (Reason

and Bradbury, 2007), or applied geography

(Pacione, 1999), draws on strong traditions in

the social sciences and humanities, and involves

different hybridizations of research, pedagogy,

participation, political action, and caring. Geo-

graphers working in this area, like the Automo-

mous Geographies Collective (2010), reject the

false distinction between academia and wider

society, seeking instead ways to research and

engage collectively, in part by recognizing the

emancipatory potential of education, research

and publications (pp. 245, 263). Evans et al.

(2009) advocate a fusion of methods across sub-

fields previously thought unconnected, arguing

that such linkages can be usefulparticularlyin col-

laborative, community-based work, where they

can help recognize indigenous peoples as the

authors, not objects, of knowledge (see also Jazeel

and McFarlane, 2010). And Gibson-Graham

and Roelvink (2009: 343) advocate a hybridresearch collective of human and non-human

actants to stimulate world-changing processes.

Part of the challenge, as Askins (2009) points

out, is that although our research, teaching,

learning, and activism are shaped by emotions,

this is often under-acknowledged. She urges

academics to make time and space for emotions

in every stage of research. But emotions, accord-

ing to Brown and Pickerill (2009) are linked to

the very sustainability of activism, for activismis sustained through emotional engagements and

emotional reflexivity. The meanings and prac-

tices of emotional reflexivity must be examined

by researchers in the context of the different

spaces of activism, for spaces themselves may

hinder or enable emotional reflexivity in acti-

vism. Such awareness, they argue, can be a first

step to sustainability of activism.

Another avenue for activist work seeks to link

activism and involvement explicitly with peda-

gogy (see Boyer, 1990), drawing students into

academic and community practice. Mountz

et al. (2008) linked their course with a local

community-service center, allowing research

questions and class projects to emerge organi-

cally through dialog, and only then askingto col-

laborate with organizations whose work

resonated with the themes that had emerged, and

thus laying a framework for meaning

Sui and DeLyser 117


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makingoutside the classroom (p. 228). Course

evaluations, community partners, and presenta-

tion attendees all responded positively to theproj-

ects, yet the time and energy commitments of the

course proved overwhelming for many even

while it also became a defining part of. . .

[their]

lives (pp. 233, 235). Despite the challenges, inte-

grating Participatory Action Research withteach-

ing, as Pain (2009) points out, links theory to

practice, and enables conceptual and methodolo-

gical learning to be situated both in and out of the

classroom (see the symposium on this topic:

Cope, 2009; Elwood, 2009; Kindon and Elwood,

2009; Moss, 2009).

5 Mashing up paleo- and neogeography

The explosive growth of volunteered geographic

information (VGI) has precipitated a possible

new divide the so-called neogeography versus

paleogeography (Sieber et al., 2009; Sui, 2009a).

If neogeographers are those with little or no for-

mal geographic training who contribute geo-

graphic information on a voluntary basis using

the technologies loosely known as Web 2.0,

then, by implication, professional geographersare paleogeographers. While this division is

used only loosely and sometimes sarcastically,

it has been on the increase.

Many forms of synthesis in the context of

VGI applications can be described as mashups

(the term, borrowed from the music industry,

originally referred to a composition created by

blending two or more songs). In the context of

Web-based applications, a mashup may have

multiple meanings (Sui, 2009b). At the func-

tional/service level, a mashup may be a Web

page or application that combines data or func-

tionality from two or more external sources to

create a new service. In terms of content, a

mashup can be a digital media file containing a

combination of text, maps, audio, video, and ani-

mation, which recombines and modifies existing

digital works to create a derivative work. The

term implies easy, fast integration, frequently

using open APIs (Application Programming

Interface) and data sources to produce some-

thing new. A growing number of companies,

including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Map-

Quest have developed products and services that

enable their users to develop their own APIs for

this purpose, and millions of Web users have

developed creative applications. But a mashup

is more than a technical advance its signifi-

cance lies in its promotion of a new habit of

mind towards synthesis and hybridity.

Mashing up neo- and paleogeography has

opened new avenues. Liu and Palen (2010) pre-

sented a qualitative analysis of the design and

creation of crisis-map mashups to describe emer-

gent neogeographic practices in emergency man-agement and disaster relief. They analyzed the

circumstances that led to mashup creation, data

selection, and design choices vis-a-vis spatial

and temporal information representation. Using

Ushahidi and New Orleans repopulation maps

as case studies, they further discussed the impli-

cations of emergent neogeographic practices to

illustrate benefits gained by merging profes-

sional/paleo and participatory/neo geotechnolo-

gies for crisis mapping, and the opportunitiesprovided by the blending of the two for improve-

ment of geographic and cartographic literacy.

Zook et al. (2010) document the role of mash-

ing up neo- and paleogeographic information in

the Haiti relief effort. They focused on four

mashup efforts in particular: CrisisCamp Haiti,

OpenStreetMap, Ushahidi, and GeoCommons.

Both Liu and Palen, and Zook et al. found such

mashups via online mapping sites a key means

through which individuals could make a tangible

difference in the work of relief and aid agencies

without being physically present in Haiti.

Goodchild and Glennon (2010) use forest-fire

mapping as a case to examine the potential for

VGI in time-critical scenarios, further demonstrat-

ing the power of crowdsourced online mapping.

User-generated content (UGC) and VGI in

particular are also increasingly becoming an

important data source, often mashed up with



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more traditional sources for geographic

research. Cidell (2010) reported the use of con-

tent clouds (summarizing the contents of a doc-

ument by depicting the words that appear most

often in larger, darker type within the cloud) as

a method of exploratory qualitative data analysis

using primarily online information. When uti-

lized as a form of qualitative GIS, content clouds

provide a powerful way to summarize and com-

pare information from different places on a sin-

gle issue. Using Dell Computers customer blog

(direct2Dell), which reveals communicative

behavior directed both at seeking objective

information and locating subjective experiences,

Poon and Cheong (2009) show how blog data

can be used to examine complex intersubjectiv-ity in economic geography. Other economic

geographers have used blog data to examine

agglomeration effects and the dominance of

major metropolitan areas as information hubs

(Jones et al., 2010; Mould and Joel, 2010).

OLoughlin et al. (2010) have utilized data from

WikiLeaks and the Afghan war to reveal micro-

geographies, conflict diffusion, and clusters of

violence in Afghanistan. Adding to the literature

using geospatial technologies in human-rightsmonitoring (AAAS, 2010), Madden and Ross

(2009) have mashed up multiple sources of

online and offline interviews and personal

narratives to illuminate patterns of genocide,

human rights abuses, and atrocities in northern

Uganda.

IV Conclusions

This report has reviewed broad trends that, from

a methodological perspective, could have trans-

formative effects on the practice of human geo-

graphy. Although they embrace divergent

approaches and methodologies to address com-

plex issues, they also converge around a (re)turn

to synthesis and holism in their aims. Hybridiz-

ing, remixing, and mashing up conceptual fra-

meworks, data sources, and modes of analysis

as these works do may provide a means to cross

the methodological, epistemological, and

philosophical chasms that have divided human

geography. And, while the most common

hybrids involve combining the statistical analy-

sis of population data with interviews of a

smaller number of people, or supplementing GIS

with qualitative data, we have endeavored to

show some of the breadth in hybrid methods

used by geographers there are others we have

not discussed, such as collaboration between

geographers and artists (Ahlqvist et al., 2010;

Askins and Pain, forthcoming; Nabulime and

McEwan, forthcoming). It is nevertheless true

that a worrisome percentage of the works we

searched for this report do not describe the meth-

ods and methodologies employed whetherhybrid or not. Even so, the application and suc-

cess of these hybrid geographies and mixed-

methods approaches demonstrates that what

were once perceived as methodological, episte-

mological, and philosophical chasms not only

can be, but have been, bridged.

More than 30 years ago, Feyerabend (1975:

305306) argued that everywhere science is

enriched by unscientific methods and unscien-

tific results, and that the very divisionbetween science and non-science was detri-

mental for true understanding. Consistent with

Fayerabends embrace of all methods, Wolch

(2003) advocated radical openness itself as a

method. Radical open-mindedness, coupled

with an engaged pluralist approach as out-

lined by Barnes and Sheppard (2010) can

be a fruitful way forward.

Mixing methods, as done by those whose

work we have cited here, is but one way of

engaging the multiple voices present in the

sites and communities where our research is

placed. All methods simultaneously enable and

disable, and mixing methods is not the only

way to approach methodological challenges.

Nor would we wish to undermine the com-

plexities and challenges in adopting a syn-

thetic/holistic approach in research. As Wyly

(2009) has noted:

Sui and DeLyser 119


10/15

how can we ever find the time to master the dizzying

array of traditions and techniques required to create

truly hybrid geographies, without giving up the

depth that comes with specialization in social theory

or spatial econometrics or feminist ethnography or

participant observation or policy analysis or the listgoes on? (Wyly, 2009: 319)

Institutional culture may discourage transdisci-

plinary research (Wainwright, 2010), and yet,

as Turner (1989) argued, single-minded syn-

thetic approaches do not necessarily serve the

discipline well. Instead, balanced specialist-

synthesis approaches adapted to each new

situation may be the most successful methodolo-

gical framework. Our future reports will examine

methods, new and old, that seek to engage eitherqualitative or quantitative approaches, striving to

do them each well and meld them creatively

wherever and whenever needed.

Note

1. Effortstoward hybridityhave been supported at the fund-

ing level as well. The US National Research Council

(NRC, 2010) identified a transdisciplinary areathey term

the geographical sciences with a deliberate plural

because of the diverse theoretical and methodological

framework scholars in different areas follow in theirgeographical practices; and the US National Science

Foundation established a new program funding projects

focused on coupling natural and human system dynamics

(http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id

13681); such mandates accelerate synthetic efforts and

practices of hybrid geographies.

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