The call for abstracts for the 24th European Colloquium on Theoretical and Quantitative Geography (ECTQG) to be held in Tallinn (Estonia) from September 10 to 14, 2025, is open until April 15, 2025. Two Géographie-cités members – Denise Pumain and Nicolas Szende – are part of the organizing committee for session 4 “Theoretical geography and the history of geography” of the ECTQG 2025 colloquium.

Call for Abstracts

The Call for Abstracts is open until the 15th of April 2025. Submissions are welcome for any topic of interest in quantitative and theoretical geography. In addition, 6 specifically organised sessions have been accepted, which we encourage you to consider while submitting your abstract. The list of Special Sessions can be found behind this link on the conference website.

Abstracts submission takes place via the EasyChair platform: ECTQG 2025.

Each abstract should have between 400 and 800 words. A speaker must be indicated among the listed authors and there is a limit on 2 proposals as a speaker.

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Presentation of session 4 – Theoretical Geography and the History of Geography

Organisers

Clémentine Cottineau – T.U. Delft

Cyrille Genre-Granpierre – U. Avignon

Rémi Lemoy – U. Rouen

Denise Pumain – U. Paris 1

Juste Raimbault – IGN-ENSG / U. Gustave Eiffel

Nicolas Szende – U. Paris 1 / U. Lille

Isabelle Thomas – U.C. Louvain

Description

Geography needs theories to consolidate its participation in research on subjects such as cities and the environment, which are increasingly being explored by a variety of disciplines, and of course to continue its involvement in the life of society in terms of scholarly education and regional planning. Theoretical construction is essential, and ECTQG colloquia are the ideal place to discuss it without fear (without wars? (Smith, 1992)).

Contributions to the theories of geography can be found at many levels, from the (rare) grand narratives, to revisions or complementation of existing theories, clarifications or hybridizations of certain concepts, improvements in methods of measurement and integration of new data, experimentation with models and their validation… All of these reflections can be enriched by forward-looking visions, but also through collecting and synthesizing knowledge about the evolution of epistemological proposals over time, in changing technological, political and social contexts.

Following on from discussions held at ECTQG23 in Braga, this special session aims invites the participants to contribute at any of these levels to the evolution of geographical theories, for example in relation to the following questions:

  • How do geographers theorize the question of scale? After the slogan “location, location, location”  is there a new “scaling mania”? How to combine physical and virtual spatial interactions ? How are evolving individual and collective representations and conceptions of space-time processes in geography?
  • Which of geography’s “knowledge objects” are transversal to our fields of study, and can contribute to develop more theoretical production, in physical as well as in human geography?
  • Where is theoretical geography practiced? By whom? Is it a set of practices that goes beyond the disciplinary matrix of geography? Which cultural variability appears in conceptions of theory, depending on the school or region where geography is practiced ?
  • To what extent do general laws depend on extensive empirical statistical comparisons? Which contributions from data-driven modeling, AI, deep-learning, can be expected to the theoretical construction of geography as a discipline?
  • How do geographical theories interact with other domains of knowledge, in particular the production of data and empirical knowledge on one side, and the construction of models on the other?
  • Which companionship is practiced with disciplines that have a more formal conception of complex systems for handling geographical processes (e.g. spatial interactions, fractals, scaling laws, network dynamics, human mobility, etc.)? (Reggiani et al 2021).
  • Which explicit or implicit theories are mobilized in the narratives related to normative applications from geography (Cottineau et al. 2024)?

Paper submission: Authors are welcome for submitting their presentations after the colloquium to Cybergeo, European Journal of Geography.