采用内容分析的方法,对2008、2009年(Social&Cultural Geograpby)所刊载论文的资料搜集方法、分析方法、佐证材料类型进行了统计。研究发现:西方文化地理研究更倾向于定性研究的取向,强调研究者本身挖掘社会素材的能力和诠释材料的智慧和客观性。在资料搜集与展示方面,西方学者更加倾向于进行实地研究,多采用参与式观察、访谈等多种方式获取大量的资料,善用文字资料、照片等多种证据来证明研究的信度和效度。本研究希望通过西方经典文化地理文献的梳理,引起国内研究人员对定性研究取向的重视,以及对文本资料、照片等证据作为学术研究成果表达方式的重视.
Researches in human geography have three trends which are positivism thoughts, humanistic trend and structuralism trend. However, it is still uncertainty what kind of thoughts is most appropriate to a specific study. This paper attempts to take Social & Cultural Geography (SCG) as a sample to discuss the research orientation and specific methods which are most frequently utilized in Western cultural geography studies. This paper adopts content analysis method to study the 81 papers published in SCG during 2008 and 2009. In the analysis process, the authors' focus mainly on data collection methods, analytical methods and the type of supporting materials in those papers. The authors find that: in the research orientation, Western scholars of cultural geography tend to take the qualitative research orientation, emphasizing the researchers' wisdom and objectivity in excavating and interpretation of the social materials. As for the data collection and display, the Western scholars pay more attention to field research, using participant observation and interviews to obtain large amount of data and using evidence as written materials and photographs to prove the reliability and validity. In short, this paper opens a window of the Western cultural geography for the domestic geography researchers by content analyzing classic literatures in SCG, bringing in fresh air of qualitative researches and usage of the text data & photos for Chinese researches in Culture Geography.