Editorial: The man who predicted Trump: Trying out Richard Rorty’s neopragmatism in economic geography

Abstract

The editorial argues that economic geography should try out and contribute to the neopragmatist ideas of the late American philosopher, Richard Rorty. His work deliberately shunned upper-case P philosophy. Instead, Rorty conceived his philosophy as therapeutic, geared towards redressing various philosophical misconceptions in a given approach such as found in economic geography. The editorial first discusses how Rortyian therapy might help economic geography. But second, the editorial then suggests economic geography could help Rorty. Towards the end of his life, Rorty drew on neopragmatism to make political interventions within American public life. He became increasingly worried about the potential rise of authoritarianism, which he believed was a result of the economic geographical effects of globalization on the working class. While Rorty’s concern about the rise of authoritarianism was prescient, his analysis of globalization and its effects on the Global Northern, the editorial suggests, requires further economic geographical refinement and elaboration.