Postqualitative geographies

Abstract

This essay examines recent literature that advocates for a postqualitative approach to research in the social sciences and humanities. Exploring across disciplinary boundaries, this essay interrogates parallel developments in the field of education, much of which are informed by non-representational theories in geography as well as current trends within the discipline to advance postphenomenological and posthumanist methodologies. As a starting point, the on-going contribution of qualitative methods to human geography is acknowledged alongside a questioning of their currency in the light of posthumanism. The extreme position—that ‘conventional’ qualitative methods are based on an outmoded view of the human subject and should, therefore, be discarded—is evaluated before presenting a ‘softer’ version of postqualitative inquiry which re-thinks the subject and troubles method, rather than rejecting it outright. The essay continues by focussing on work within and beyond human geography that aims to advance a ‘post-’ sensibility in relation to method—one that does not eschew method itself but rather the kind of proceduralism that qualitative methods often entail—and concludes by considering the practical implications of postqualitative approaches for human geography.