In response to a paper by T J Barnes, published in 1998, the author accepts the same social-constructivist perspective, but argues that the structure of regression was not excessively constrained by its biometric origins. The history of regression and its use in the social sciences is examined, and the author argues that any assessment of regression in human geography must be set against this wider context.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AnselinL, 1988Spatial Econometrics: Models and Methods (Kluwer, Dordrecht)
2.
BarnesT J, 1994, “Probable writing: Derrida, deconstruction, and the quantitative revolution in human geography”Environment and Planning A261021–1040
3.
BarnesT J, 1996Logics of Dislocation: Metaphors, Models and Meanings of Economic Space (Guilford Press, New York)
4.
BarnesT J, 1998, “A history of regression: Actors, networks, machines, and numbers”Environment and Planning A30203–223
5.
BeerG, 1996Open Fields: Science in Cultural Encounter (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
ClokePPhiloCSadlerD, 1991Approaching Human Geography: An Introduction to Contemporary Theoretical Debates (Paul Chapman, London)
9.
de MarchiN, (Ed.), 1993Non-natural Social Science: Reflecting on the Enterprise of More Heat Than Light annual supplement to volume 25 of History of Political Economy (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
10.
DesrosièresA, 1990, “How to make things which hold together: Social science, statistics and the state”, in Discourses on Society: Volume XV Eds WagnerPWittrockBWhitleyR, (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht) pp 195–218
11.
DesrosièresA, 1992, “Discuter l'indiscutable: Raison statistique et espace publique”Raisons Pratiques3131–154
12.
DesrosièresA, 1993La Politique des Grands Nombres: Histoire de la Raison Statistique (Éditions la Découverte, Paris)
13.
DoE, 1996Standard Spending Assessments: Guide to Methodology 1996/97Department of the Environment, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 3EB
14.
DukeJ B, 1991The Peer Context and the Adolescent Society: Making Sense of the Context Effects Paradox unpublished PhD thesis. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (University Microfilms 91-23016)
15.
ErbringLYoungA, 1979, “Individuals and social structure: Contextual effects as endogenous feedback”Sociological Methods and Research7396–430
16.
FrechetMHalbwachsM, 1924Le Calcul des Probabilités à la Portée de Tous (Dunod, Paris)
17.
GouldP R, 1970, “Is Statistix Inferens the geographical name for a wild goose chase?”Economic Geography46540–547
18.
GrossA G, 1996The Rhetoric of Science2nd edition (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
19.
HackingI, 1990The Taming of Chance (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
20.
HalbwachsH, 1912La Théorie de l'Homme Moyen: Essai sur Quetelet et la Statistique Morale (Alcan, Paris)
21.
HarveyD, 1973Social Justice and the City (Edward Arnold, Sevenoaks, Kent)
22.
HookerR H, 1905, “On the correlation of successive observations illustrated by corn prices”Journal of the Royal Statistical Society68696–703
23.
LatourB, 1987Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
24.
LatourB, 1988The Pasteurization of France (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
25.
LazarsfeldP F, 1961, “Notes on the history of quantification in sociology—trends, sources and problems”Isis52277–333
26.
MacKenzieD A, 1981Statistics in Britain 1865–1930: The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh)
27.
MirowskiP, 1989More Heat Than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature's Economics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
28.
MorganM S, 1990The History of Econometric Ideas (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
29.
NarollR, 1965, “Gallon's problem: The logic of cross-cultural analysis”Social Research32428–451
30.
OberschallA, 1987, “The two empirical roots of social theory and the probability revolution”, in The Probabilistic Revolution. Volume 2: Ideas in the Sciences Eds KrugerLGigerenzerGMorganM S, (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) pp 103–131
31.
PorterT M, 1986The Rise of Statistical Thinking 1820–1900 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
32.
PorterT M, 1995Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
33.
RossM HHomerE, 1976, “Galton's problem in cross-national research”World Politics291–28
34.
SchweberL, 1996, “L'histoire de la statistique, laboratoire pour la théorie sociale”Revue Française de Sociologie37107–128
35.
StiglerS M, 1986The History of Statistics: The Measurement of Uncertainty Before 1900 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)
36.
StuartAKendallM G, (Eds), 1971Statistical Papers of George Udny Yule (Griffin, London)
37.
Student, 1907, “On the error of counting with a haemacytometer”Biometrika5351–360
38.
Student, 1914, “The elimination of spurious correlation due to position in time or space”Biometrika10179–180
39.
TylorE B, 1889, “On a method of investigating the development of institutions applied to the laws of marriage and descent”Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute18245–272
40.
YuleG U, 1895, “On the correlation of total pauperism with proportion of out-relief”Economic Journal5477–489
41.
YuleG U, 1897, “On the theory of correlation”Journal of the Royal Statistical Society60812–854
42.
YuleG U, 1899, “An investigation into the causes of changes in pauperism in England, chiefly during the last two intercensal decades”Journal of the Royal Statistical Society62249–295
43.
YuleG U, 1909, “Les applications de la méthode de corrélation aux statistiques sociales et économiques”Bulletin de l'Institut International de Statistique1265–277
44.
YuleG U, 1911An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics (Griffin, London)
