Geographie sei, was Geographen tun: ein Blick hinter den Organisationsplan einer Disziplin

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the disciplinary architecture as being constructed by the research activities of its academics. We assert that the research fields in geography represent knowledge places, in which knowledge is continuously being created and refuted and that geographers’ activities in different research fields build the foundation of knowledge transfer within geography. Based on these assumptions this paper provides an analysis of a so far unknown picture of the internal knowledge structure of the discipline. Applying the method of social network analysis to the self-descriptions of academic geographers in the German association of geographers (VGDH) we typify four roles to the research fields in geography: legitimate giants, specialists, integrators and a residual category. The result is a picture of geography, which differs markedly from familiar normative organization charts and offers new insights about the architecture of knowledge in academic geography. We hope to inspire alternative reflections on the conception of geography as an academic discipline