Abstract

Drawing upon critical realism and the literature on theorising in social sciences, this article contributes to the understanding of theorising in economic geography by highlighting the role of context throughout the theory development process. By critically reviewing two key concepts in economic geography—related variety and knowledge bases—from a critical realist theory development perspective, scholars’ sensitivity to local context through the whole theorising process is examined. We argue that the particular strength of economic geography with regard to advancing theory lies in the continuous application of concepts and theories (that is, generalities) within new contexts (that is, confrontation with new particularities).

中文翻译：

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上下文敏感性和经济地理（重新）理论

摘要

借助批判现实主义和有关社会科学理论的文献，本文通过强调上下文在整个理论发展过程中的作用，有助于对经济地理理论的理解。通过从批判的现实主义理论发展的角度批判性地回顾了经济地理学中的两个关键概念，即相关的多样性和知识库，从而考察了学者在整个理论化过程中对当地情况的敏感性。我们认为，经济地理学在发展理论方面的特殊优势在于概念和理论（即一般性）在新的语境（即与新的特殊性的对抗）中的不断应用。