D P Dixon, J P Jones III

Received 6 February 1997; in revised form 20 June 1997

Abstract. This paper extends our previous efforts to (de)lineate contemporarydivisions between poststructuralist and spatial analytic, or scientific, approaches in geography. We adopt the format of a dialogue between a hypothetical spatial analyst (SA) and a poststructuralist (PS). Their exchange covers, among other items, the differing stances of these approaches to epistemology, ontology, research questions and methods, and the concept of 'context'. We also further develop the concept of the 'epistemology of the grid', which we define as the spatialization of categorical thought. We link this epistemology to two others, Cartesian perspectivalism and ocularcentrism, arguing that their realization in social practice is generative of social order.