Power of Pragmatism

Jane Wills is Professor of Geography at the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science and the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of ExeterRobert W. Lake is Professor in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and a member of the Graduate Faculties in Geography and Urban Planning at Rutgers University

'In a world in which ideological boundaries are increasingly impermeable and cross-political debates mere shouting matches, pragmatism offers not just an escape but entry into a world of mutual respect, justice, and democracy. This book is a contribution to hope at a time when despair seems unavoidable.'Robert A. Beauregard, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University'The Power of Pragmatism is so much more than just a model of pragmatist scholarship, old and new. It offers a timely message about how a living tradition of thought can embrace a world of uncertainty and competing truths without itself seeking guarantees. Genuinely multidisciplinary, the collection champions a political stance as much as a philosophical one: the pressing need to create shared, collective responses to the social, political and environmental challenges that confront us today.'John Allen, Professor Emeritus, Open University'This excellent book offers a vital approach to knowledge as a collective and participatory process of experiment and action for an unstable and complex world. A diverse set of outstanding authors contribute innovative insights on a wide range of fields including geography, politics, environmental studies, economic development and urban planning. This impressive and hugely encouraging text convincingly shows how intelligence, conversation, and collaboration can produce useful knowledge that provides ways to cope with emerging problems and threats of change.'Peter Sunley, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Southampton

• Part I: The power of pragmatism1 Introduction: The power of pragmatism – Jane Wills and Robert W. LakePart II: Key thinkers, core ideas and their application to social research2 Habits of social inquiry and reconstruction: A Deweyan vision of democracy and social research – Malcolm Cutchin3 Appreciating the situation: Dewey’s pragmatism and its implications for the spatialisation of social science – Gary Bridge4 Mead, subjectivity and urban politics – Crispian Fuller5 Rorty, conversation and the power of maps – Trevor BarnesPart III: ‘Truth’, epistemic injustice and academic practice6 Embodied inequalities: Can we go beyond epistemologies of ignorance in pragmatic knowledge projects? – Susan Saegert7 Truth and academia in times of fake news, alternative facts, and filter bubbles: A pragmatist notion of critique as mediation – Klaus Geiselhart8 Learning from experience: Pragmatism and politics in place – Alice Huff9 Reflections on an experiment in pragmatic social research and knowledge production – Liam Harney and Jane WillsPart IV: Disciplinary applications in pragmatic research10 Ecological crisis, action and pragmatic humanism – Meg Holden11 Pragmatism, anti-representational theory and local methods for critical-creative ecological action – Owain Jones12 Pragmatism and contemporary planning theory: Going beyond a communicative approach – Ihnji Jon13 Exploring possibilities for a pragmatic orientation in development studies – Alireza F. Farahani and Azadeh Hadizadeh EsfahaniPart V: Conclusion and postscript14 The quest for uncertainty: Pragmatism between rationalism and sentimentality – Robert W. Lake15 Postscript: Who’s afraid of pragmatism? – Clive Barnett