The Landscapes of Liberty

John Rees
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John Rees: University of North Carolina at Greensboro

The Review of Regional Studies, 2001, vol. 31, issue 2, 111-120

Abstract: There seem to be two main types of presidential addresses by academics. One type focuses on the person's view of the status of his or her discipline, which I label an epistemological opinion. The second type focuses more on the individual's research interests in the places where his or her science has evolved: an experiential opinion. An excellent example of the former is Andy Isserman's (1993) presidential address to SRSA on the history and status of regional science. Along with the paper by Bailly and Coffey, Regional Science in Crisis (1994), Isserman got more than thirty scholars to reflect on the status of regional science in two volumes of the International Regional Science Review. I made my views known on this epistemological debate in the papers of RSAI (1999) and will not develop these here. I will reiterate that I see a plethora of opportunities for regional science in the future. I have chosen a more experiential approach for today's address, influenced by philosopher Michael Polanyi's powerful book, Personal Knowledge (1958), Herbert Simon's splendid autobiography, Models of My Life (1996), and by our own Bill Schaffer's 1996 presidential address at the North American meetings of our parent group, the Regional Science Association International (Schaffer 1997). When an economist talks about love and moves his audience, you know that regional scientists are made of the right stuff! Bill talked passionately about our love for the discipline and reminds us again why we gather together annually. Regional Science is personal to each one of us, the result of a personal journey that evolves in a Schurnpeterian mode of destruction and creation. As intellectuals in our research, we try to stand on the shoulders of others by critically examining received work and trying to improve upon it, resulting in academic cycles of destruction and creation.

Date: 2001
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