在西方经济地理学宽泛的文化转向浪潮中文化因素从"常量"转而成为"变量",文化等非经济因素对经济活动的影响及它们之间的相互作用已成为新的研究焦点。在此过程中,新经济地理学家解释世界的理论不再强调镜射世界的能力,不再将"无视角视界"作为隐喻的蓝图,反而强调将自身置于作者地位的重要性,承认科学家的背景和它能影响其所知的及其诉说的内容,即"有视角视界"。后现代主义解释学认为科学家是以感兴趣的方式以社会环境限制的方式参与知识的理解、创造过程,新经济地理学受其影响强调探讨,认为理论一直是处于争论的状态,一直是处于探讨过程中的。新经济地理学不主张提出客观唯一的叙事,也难以做到,这也正是其兴起的重要原因。
The history of western economic geography in the past 60 years is characterized by many twists and turns of substantive focus and sudden changes of theoretical mood. Since the mid-1990 s, with the reassessment to the content, concepts and approaches of western economic geography, cultural turn has become a new direction to the academic study of western economic geography. This paper introduces briefly cultural turn in western economic geography, and analyses the causes and characteristics of this turn. The culture has changed from constant considered in the past to variable considered at present in the cultural turn that has taken place in economic geography, the turn to culture destabilizes what is conventionally regarded as 'the economic', cultural determinants of the economic and interaction between the culture and the economy has attracted many scholars' attention. Before the cultural turn, economic geographers of the quantitative revolution think that knowledge that mirrors the world is genuine; knowledge that does not is spurious. New economic geographers propose the theories which not include the ability to mirror the world, shun disembodied vision as a metaphorical blueprint, stress the importance of situating oneself as an author, the recognition that who you are and have been affects what you know and tell others. New economic geographies influenced by hermeneutics of postmodernism are interested in keeping the conversation going. The method has changed from positivism in the past to humanism at present in the cultural turn that has taken place in economic geography.