IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inrsre/v37y2014i1p78-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Walter Isard’s Evolving Sense of the Scientific in Regional Science

Author

Listed:
  • Kieran P. Donaghy

Abstract

Toward the end of his life, a shift occurred in Walter Isard’s thinking about how graduate study in regional science should proceed. This shift and its implications for the discipline itself have led me to problematize Walter’s sense of the scientific in regional science. In this article, I offer a highly stylized characterization of what Walter thought regional science should be about at various points of his life and relate the evolution of his thinking to recent work in the philosophy of science. I shall argue that Walter’s view of what made regional science a science did not change much, nor did his view of what in general regional scientists needed to study. I shall also argue that his view of what constituted adequate scholarship did change considerably, as did his views of what regional science should encompass in the way of theory and methods and what future progress in the field will entail.

Suggested Citation

  • Kieran P. Donaghy, 2014. "Walter Isard’s Evolving Sense of the Scientific in Regional Science," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 37(1), pages 78-95, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inrsre:v:37:y:2014:i:1:p:78-95
    DOI: 10.1177/0160017612457778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0160017612457778
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0160017612457778?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cartwright,Nancy, 2007. "Hunting Causes and Using Them," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521860819.
    2. Henk Folmer & Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2011. "Does Environmental Economics Produce Aeroplanes Without Engines? On the Need for an Environmental Social Science," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 48(3), pages 337-361, March.
    3. Terry L. Friesz, 2010. "Dynamic Optimization and Differential Games," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-0-387-72778-3, April.
    4. Walter hard & Blane Lewis, 1984. "James P. Bennett on Subjunctive Reasoning, Policy Analysis And Political Argument," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 8(1), pages 71-112, September.
    5. Cartwright,Nancy, 2007. "Hunting Causes and Using Them," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521677981.
    6. Henk Folmer, 2009. "Why Sociology is Better Conditioned to Explain Economic Behaviour than Economics," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 258-274, April.
    7. Vincent H. Whitney, 1957. "Potential Contributions Of Regional Science To The Field Of Sociology," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 24-28, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2013. "Why ask Why? Forward Causal Inference and Reverse Causal Questions," NBER Working Papers 19614, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Mouchart, Michel & Russo, Federica & Wunsch, Guillaume, 2011. "Inferring causal relations by modelling structures : Article de recherche," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2011007, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    3. Galbács Peter, 2021. "What did it take for Lucas to set up ‘useful’ analogue systems in monetary business cycle theory?," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 7(3), pages 61-82, September.
    4. Padró, R. & Marco, I. & Font, C. & Tello, E., 2019. "Beyond Chayanov: A sustainable agroecological farm reproductive analysis of peasant domestic units and rural communities (Sentmenat; Catalonia, 1860)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 227-239.
    5. Li, Zhengtao & Folmer, Henk & Xue, Jianhong, 2014. "To what extent does air pollution affect happiness? The case of the Jinchuan mining area, China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 88-99.
    6. Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, 2013. "Why Economics cannot Explain the Modern World," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89, pages 8-22, June.
    7. Hünermund Paul & Louw Beyers & Caspi Itamar, 2023. "Double machine learning and automated confounder selection: A cautionary tale," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    8. Magdalena Osinska, 2011. "On the Interpretation of Causality in Granger’s Sense," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 11, pages 129-140.
    9. Kieran P. Donaghy, 2022. "A Circular Economy Model of Economic Growth with Circular and Cumulative Causation and Trade," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 461-488, September.
    10. Gil, Olga, 2022. "Accountability in Artificial Intelligence," SocArXiv wckuf, Center for Open Science.
    11. Li, Sufang & Tu, Dalun & Zeng, Yan & Gong, Chenggang & Yuan, Di, 2022. "Does geopolitical risk matter in crude oil and stock markets? Evidence from disaggregated data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    12. George F. DeMartino, 2021. "The specter of irreparable ignorance: counterfactuals and causality in economics," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 253-276, July.
    13. Alrik Thiem, 2022. "Beyond the Facts: Limited Empirical Diversity and Causal Inference in Qualitative Comparative Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 51(2), pages 527-540, May.
    14. Krauss, Alexander, 2021. "Assessing the overall validity of randomised controlled trials," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112576, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Hakan Seckinelgin, 2007. "Forum 2007," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 38(6), pages 1219-1234, November.
    16. William Easterly, 2009. "Can the West Save Africa?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 373-447, June.
    17. Michael J. Zyphur & Dean C. Pierides, 2017. "Is Quantitative Research Ethical? Tools for Ethically Practicing, Evaluating, and Using Quantitative Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 1-16, June.
    18. Łukasz Hardt, 2018. "Prawa ceteris rectis w ekonomii," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 9-31.
    19. Angus Deaton, 2009. "Instruments of development: Randomization in the tropics, and the search for the elusive keys to economic development," Working Papers 1128, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    20. Pearl Judea, 2010. "An Introduction to Causal Inference," The International Journal of Biostatistics, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-62, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:inrsre:v:37:y:2014:i:1:p:78-95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.