L'evoluzione recente della geografia quantitativa; quali prospettive per la geografia?

The recent evolution of quantitative geography: which perspectives for geography? - The quantitative geography of today is profoundly different from the geography that emerged from the old quantitative revolution. Modern quantitative geography is a geography that can acknowledge its own strengths as well as its own weaknesses. By way of a long path, it has come to comprehend the relativity of spatial relationships: it has abandoned the pretense that laws are universal and that quantitative relationships – empirically derived from data measured on a portion of space – have general validity. As a result, modern quantitative geography can provide effective tools to address the questions posed by our society and environment; it can provide reliable answers, yet appreciate the limited and contingent value of those answers. Today the ubiquity of georeferenced data leads to questions that geography must confront, presenting it with an unprecedented opportunity for visibility, influence, and relevance. Modern quantitative geography can embrace this opportunity, accepting its challenges to methods, ethics, and epistemology. The quantitative geography of today is prepared to address these questions because it is not alone: on its path, it has learned to engage in a constructive dialogue with other geographies, and to take advantage of their contributions. Ultimately, georeferenced data alone cannot boost geography; the data are a sign of a changing world, one where quantitative geography is better positioned a path where quantitative geography, in concert with all other geographies, can embrace the opportunities and demands expressed by today’s world.