Nicolas Szende

Please tell us about your research project.

My doctoral work looks at the dynamics of the production of the principles and tools of quantitative geographical information analysis in the British academic field since the 1960s-70s. It is a research project that straddles the gap between the sociology of science and the history of geographical knowledge.

The availability of new techniques and datasets for the analysis of geographical information is central, in many ways, to the reorganisation of the academic field of geography and related scientific and professional fields. My work stems from a set of traditions in science studies that attempt to move away from internalist perspectives on the production and circulation of geographic information by adopting a commodity-based perspective on these elements (what funding? which instruments? what institutional support/ power relations?).

In the framework of my thesis, I investigate, for example, to which extent the production of knowledge related to spatial data science is nowadays based on the logic of spatial data entrepreneurship and platform capitalism. This is done by objectifying the range of consultancy services or collaboration with different forms of territorial governance, engineering or architecture, which are currently used by geography, architectural studies or econometrics laboratories employing spatial analysis.

Another of my questions relates to the circumstantial emergence of working tools: the role of the PASCAL and FORTRAN languages in the 1980s in British geography labs, the massive emergence of GIS in the 1990s, the coding packages used today by geographers, but also the way they deal with data sources. It is a story that requires us to call upon the theoretical references on which these scientists rely, their contacts, but also their working conditions (in a department/laboratory/research centre) in a particular context: the neoliberal United Kingdom and its teaching and research system.

Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?

I have been awarded a monthly scholarship which allows me to stay at MFO during July 2023. I am planning to conduct several interviews with researchers from SoGE (School of Geography and the Environment) and to view documents at the Oxford University Archives – which hold extremely well-classified contemporary institutional records related to geography and analogue scientific fields.  

First impressions of Oxford/the University?

Oxford is surrounded by green spaces and is a gateway to the gorgeous Cotswolds. The city also boasts a wealth of impressive libraries and, more generally, a vibrant cultural and scientific life - as well as an excellent music scene!