The extraordinary task of crafting a more ‘ordinary’ geography: Post-vanguardism and the art of not-knowing best

Abstract

This commentary responds to the provocations in Shawn Bodden’s paper Working through our differences, in which he draws on the work of the late Clive Barnett and Ordinary Language Philosophy to advocate for a more ‘ordinary’ orientation to geographical inquiry. In the interests of generating wider debate, I push Bodden to go a step further and fully embrace the extraordinary task he is asking us to take on. The consequences of his argument imply that we need to reject the vanguardist approach taken by many human geographers over the past 50 years. We need to start to embrace the art of not-knowing best. I draw attention to the resources of pragmatist philosophy to help us to think how to do this.