The Dictionary of Human Geography

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quadrat analysis Amethodofpoint pat-

tern analysiswidely used inecology, particu-

larly in the analysis of plant distributions and

adopted for geographical use. A rectangular

mesh is laid across an area and the distribution

of points in each rectangle counted. That distri-

bution can be modelled using a variety of

procedures to assess whether it: conforms to

what would occur under a random allocation

process; is significantly clustered in some

portion of the space; or is more regular than

random.central place theory,forexample,

predicts that the distribution of settlements in a

rural area would fall into the third of those

categories, whereas theories ofagglomeration

suggest that industrial plants should be signifi-

cantly clustered. (cf.categorical data analy-

sis;poisson regression). Quadrat analysis can

generatelocal statistics, but artificial bound-

aries imposed around the study region at the

limits of each quadrat affect their utility: a more

sophisticated approach, taking a more continu-

ousdefinitionofspace,isgeographically

weighted regression. rj

Suggested reading

Getis and Boots (1978); O’Sullivan and Unwin

(2002).

quadtree A procedure for compressing the

file size of geographical data sets that works by

splitting a study region into four quadrants –

as with the division of a rectangular area into

four smaller rectangles – and then recursively

splitting the quadrats until each is homoge-

neous on defined variables of interest that

it contains. Quadtrees are also used ingeo-

graphic information systems to index

phenomena within an area – such as points,

lines and areas – according to their spatial

location. The approach assumesspatial auto-

correlationin data sets and allows them –

especially those in arasterformat – to be

efficiently sorted, explored and disseminated

(e.g. over the Internet). rj

Suggested reading

Wise (2002).

qualitative methods Guidelines to frame

research questions, assess what counts as

authoritative evidence and knowledge, and

collect interpretable data, and distinguished

fromquantitative methods. The discipline

ofgeographyhas a long tradition of qualita-

tive methods, and it has been argued that the

prioritizing of quantitative methods, associ-

ated with thequantitative revolutionof

the 1950s and 1960s, was an aberration within

the discipline’s history (Winchester, 2000).

Explicit calls for qualitative methods came in

the late 1970s fromhumanistic geograph-

ers, in reaction to what was perceived as the

economic determinism, one-dimensionality

and objectification of social life withinspatial

science(Ley and Samuels, 1978). There were

(at least) two methodological strands tohu-

manistic geography: an historical andher-

meneutic understanding of the production

and meaning of landscape, and another

withinsocial geography that drew upon

phenomenologyandsymbolic interaction-

ism, and sought to understand social worlds

from insiders’ perspectives, often throughpar-

ticipant observation or ethnography

(Limb and Dwyer, 2001). Through the

1980s,feminist geographiestook up and

expanded humanist geographers’ concerns to

acknowledge and examine thevalues, politics

andethicsunderlying all social research, and

the need to understand and document the

plurality of coexisting and divergent social

worlds in all of their affective intensity and

complexity. Feminists have been particularly

concerned to think through implications of the

positionality of the researcher and re-

searched, the workings ofpowerwithin the

research process and the responsibility of

using research to create social change. The

influence of post-colonialism and post-

structuralismhas furthered these preoccu-

pations. Qualitative methods are now

common and seen as appropriate in all sub-

disciplines of geography, includingeconomic

geography, migration studies, political

geographyandhealth geography.

By the 1990s ‘a frightening array of philo-

sophical, conceptual and theoretical terms

[were] embedded in the qualitative research

literature’, and neat links betweenphilosophy,

theory and method were being ‘unpicked’

(Smith, S.J., 2001, pp. 23–4). Nonetheless,

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_Q Final Proof page 603 31.3.2009 7:14pm Compositor Name: ARaju