The Boundaries of Geographical Discourses: Time and Space in Social Research

Abstract

The interest in space has been a central and classic issue in studies in geography, which have organized their knowledge from different perspectives in relation to social research. Thus, on the one hand it has postulated a direct link with the natural sciences and, on the other hand, it has developed more humanistic approaches that have understood it as a social science. In this context, during the twentieth century, the issue of time has emerged as a key element for a geography whose rationality is closely associated with other branches of the human and social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology, history and philosophy. Thus, the boundaries of geographic discourse are open to new understandings of spatiality and, among them, the need emerges to deal with space from its temporal context that defines its temporal and socio-cultural significance, going beyond the discipline of geography as such. In this way, geographical hermeneutics, as well as space textuality, is projected as a link and a proposal when thinking about current geography and its various challenges in the field of social sciences and humanities, and taking up the challenge of new knowledge associated with contingency and future issues.