“大数据”热潮下人文地理学研究的再思考

doi:10.11821/dlyj201505001

摘要/Abstract

摘要：

伴随着移动通信技术的快速发展以及定位应用程序的普及,带有地理空间信息的数据成为“大数据”中的重要部分,为人文地理学研究的发展提供了新的机遇,也契合了人文地理学“计量转向”与“社会转向”的发展规律,以及人文地理学人本主义的发展趋势。但同时,人文地理学者也面临着数据决定论、数据分析方法准备不足以及数据自身缺陷所带来的危机与挑战。在“大数据”热潮下,无论是定量研究还是定性研究,“大数据”还是“小数据”的研究,都应当给予同样的重视,数据规模与数据的采集、分析和阐述并无很大的关联。并且,还需要警惕由于数据垄断可能带来研究的“数字鸿沟”,并呼吁人文地理学研究在研究方法与内容等方面与其他学科进行更多的跨学科合作。

关键词: 大数据, 人文地理, 机遇, 危机, 挑战

Abstract:

The rapid development of information and communication technologies and the wide use of smart devices in people′s daily life have generated a large amount of data-the big data. The information exploration has not only greatly influenced our life, work and thinking, but also presented a new paradigm of social science research, that is, from data-scarce to data-rich study, from static to dynamic analysis, from relatively simple hypothesis and model to comprehensive simulations and theory. Especially these big data with spatial information brings opportunities for human geography. Big data meets geography’s quantitative revolution and social transition and should not be overlooked, since it provides a large amount of timely and detailed data of human behavior. In the meantime, geographers also face risks and challenges. Firstly, geographers require careful rethinking with respect to the philosophy of science and consideration on the important distinction between data and knowledge. Data never speak for themselves and require contextual knowledge with respect to analysis and interpretation. Secondly, it is hard to say that geographers have well underprepared for big data. Geographers have long been used to the traditional statistical methods which are designed with regard to data-scarce science. New methods of handling and analyzing data sets that consist of millions or billions of observations are urgently needed. Thirdly, despite the emerging data deluge, there are a number of ethical and security challenges in working with these data. How to define the scale and boundary of data is also a challenge, since the data are growing all the time. Then this paper points out that emphasis should be equally placed on quantitative and qualitative research and small-data and big-data research. Geographers should pay attention to the "digital divide" since access to big data is limited, and geographers should cooperate with scholars in other academic fields.

Key words: big data, human geography, opportunities, risks, challenges

甄峰, 王波. “大数据”热潮下人文地理学研究的再思考[J]. 地理研究, 2015, 34(5): 803-811.

Feng ZHEN, Bo WANG. Rethinking human geography in the age of big data[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2015, 34(5): 803-811.

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