The sharp distinction between a world ‘out there’ (ontology) and our representations of it (epistemology) is misleading and carries a significant, yet insufficiently acknowledged, political load. One fruitful way for moving beyond this habit of thought is to understand the world and our relation with it as recursive cartographies. This metaphor conceives all things as derivative of prior relations, defines scale as contexts collapsed within a unit of analysis, and approaches reality as the interplay of legacies, rhythms, and events.  It also obliges researchers to put themselves in the map of their object of research, thus subverting the fantasy of an independent world ‘out there’, awaiting one’s inspection. This political ontoepistemology claims that any achievement comes with a loss and demonstrates the benefits of this apparently banal contention in an analysis of the discipline of geography built around three questions: ‘What is geography?’, ‘Is geography worth keeping?’, and ‘What can be done to improve geography as a knowledge producer?’ The answer to the first question is that geography is a generic name for a set of various scientific practices, loosely held together, and thus identifiable by a common and long-standing concern for the big themes of ‘space’ and ‘Earth’s complexity’, as well as by the networks generated through its having a distinct position in the academic division of labour. With this definition in mind, I then answer the second question in a positive but cautious manner, by, firstly, explaining the worthiness of traditional scientific disciplines and, secondly, questioning the usually invoked grounds for the existence of geography. The final question receives its answer in a style that unsettles some protocols of enquiry and norms of good research in geography. In the enabling space thus created, I explore a number of alternative disciplinary turns, reflexive practices, and conceptualisations that might rejuvenate geography.

• Economic Geography
• Critical Human Geographies and Critical Urban Theory
• Health, Well-being, and the Politics of Biomedical Research
• Social Theory and Philosophy of the Social Sciences

Refereed Books:

• Simandan D 2006 Marginally Modern. Psychoanalysis and the deconstruction of inadequate communities Arad, ‘Vasile Goldis’ University Press, 264 pp.
• Simandan D 2005b New Ways in Geography Timisoara, Editura Universitatii de Vest, 230 pp.
• Simandan D 2005a Pragmatic Scepticism and the Possibilities of Knowledge, Timisoara, Editura Universitatii de Vest, 256 pp.
• Simandan D *2002 The truth regimes of the past, Arad, ‘Aurel Vlaicu’ University Press, 370 pp. [*in Romanian]
  • Solomon C-tin, Coanda Sv 2003 ‘Book review. Dragos Simandan Regimurile de adevãr ale trecutului. O cercetare în istoriografia si istoria geografiei’  Analele stiintifice ale Universitatea de Stat din Moldova, Sectia Stiinþe socioumanistice, vol III, Chisinãu, pp. 479 – 498. Professor Solomon and Dr. Coanda appreciated that: ‘We have no hesitation in praising this book: on one hand, it is the most original and erudite enquiry in the history and historiography of geography in the Romanian-speaking world, on the other hand, it constitutes an exceptional reference for all those with interests in historiography, discourse analysis, and the social study of science.’
  • Bulzan, C 2004 Book Review Revista Universitara de Stiinte Sociale, I, (2), pp. 178-179. ‘Romanian geography will much benefit from this volume. It brings the promise of rearticulating our parochial practices with the broader conversation taking place among other geographical traditions. Published only two years after his vastly influential book ‘The cultural fundaments of the American model’, ‘The truth regimes of the past’ confirms and reinforces Simandan’s position as leader of the new generation in Romanian geography. This book is definitely a must-have.’
• Simandan D *2000 The cultural fundaments of the American model. A transdisciplinary approach in human geography , Cluj-Napoca, Dacia Press, 240 pp.  [*in Romanian]
  • Pacurariu Gh 2001 ‘A transdisciplinary approach in human geography. Book Review of ‘The cultural fundaments of the American model’’ Scientific and Technical Bulletin: Series: Economic Sciences & Sociology, VII, (3), pp. 89 – 91. Professor Pacurariu appreciated that: ‘This is undoubtedly the best book published in human geography after the fall of Ceausescu in 1989.’

Refereed Book Chapters

• 2024 “Situated knowledge”, in B. Warf, Ed., Encyclopedia of Human Geography. New York: Springer.
• 2024 “Actor-network theory”, in B. Warf, Ed., Encyclopedia of Human Geography. New York: Springer.
• 2023 “Geographies of the future“, in B. Warf, Ed., Oxford Bibliographies in Geography. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780199874002-0257
• 2020 “Distance”, In A. Kobayashi, Ed., International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Oxford: Elsevier, 2nd edition, vol. 3, pp. 393–397, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10723-1
• 2020 “Industrialization”, In A. Kobayashi, Ed., International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Oxford: Elsevier, 2nd edition, vol. 7, pp. 255–260. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10086-1
• 2017 “Economy“, in B. Turner, ed., Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0103
• 2017 “Geography (human and urban)”, in B. Turner, ed., Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0464
• 2011 Analytical sequencing of empirical research through recursive cartographies: a case study of a Romanian village. In Markovic-Radovic M, ed, Organizational Behaviour and Culture, Berlin: VDM Verlag, chapter 5, pp. 85-117.
• 2010 The causes and consequences of egalitarian sentiments and policies. Outline of a political ecology of place. In Aslau T & Matei S, Eds., Science, Economy, Society. In memoriam Dimitrie Camenita. Arad, ‘Aurel Vlaicu’ University Press, pp. 125-152.
• 2009b Industrialization, In R Kitchin & N Thrift, Eds., International Encyclopedia of Human Geography , Oxford: Elsevier, volume 5, pp. 419-425.
• 2009a Affect and the gendered map of economic growth, chapter 2 In M Markovic & I Kyaruzi, Eds., Female Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Growth: A Case of Countries in Transition Denver, Colorado: Outskirts Press, pp. 20-46.
• 2006 Freud, Horney, and the neurotic spaces of modernity, In Matei S., Ed., Values, Education, and Multiculturality , Timisoara, Mirton Press, pp. 62-105.

Refereed Journal Articles

• 2024 The academic left, human geography, and the rise of authoritarianism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, vol. 106, issue 2, pp. 175-195, https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2023.2168560 (co-authored with C. Rinner and V. Capurri)
• 2022 Social groups and the computational conundrums of delays, proximity, and loyalty, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 45, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X21001205
• 2022 Thinking geographically about how people become wiser: an analysis of the spatial dislocations and intercultural encounters of international migrants, Social Sciences & Humanities Open. vol. 6, issue 1, no. 100288, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100288 (co-authored with S.K. Kutor and A. Raileanu)
• 2021 Social capital, population health, and the gendered statistics of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. SSM-Population Health. Vol. 16, Open Access, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100971
• 2021 International migration, cross-cultural interaction, and the development of personal wisdom. Migration Studies, vol. 9, issue 3, pp. 490-513, https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnz049 (co-authored with S.K. Kutor and A. Raileanu)
• 2020 Being surprised and surprising ourselves: a geography of personal and social change, Progress in Human Geography , vol. 44, issue 1. pp. 99-118. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518810431
• 2019 Levels of analysis and problems of evidential support in the study of asymmetric conflict. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol.42, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19000682
• 2019 Beyond Haraway? Addressing constructive criticisms to the ‘four epistemic gaps’ interpretation of positionality and situated knowledges, Dialogues in Human Geography, vol. 9(2), issue (2), pp. 166-170; https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820619850272
• 2019 Revisiting positionality and the thesis of situated knowledge, Dialogues in Human Geography, vol. 9, issue (2), pp. 129-149, anchor article, https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820619850013
• 2019 Competition, delays, and coevolution in markets and politics, Geoforum, 98, pp. 15-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.09.014
• 2019 Iterative lagged asymmetric responses in strategic management and long-range planning, Time & Society, vol. 28, issue (4), pp. 1363-1381; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X17752652
• 2018 Wisdom and foresight in Chinese thought: sensing the immediate future, Journal of Futures Studies, 22(3), pp. 35-50, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.2018.22(3).00A35
• 2018 Rethinking the health consequences of social class and social mobility, Social Science & Medicine, vol. 200, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.037
• 2018 Competition, contingency, and destabilization in urban assemblages and actor-networks, Urban Geography, 39(5), pp. 655-666, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2017.1382307
• 2017 Demonic Geographies, Area, vol 49(4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12339
• 2017 Wisdom and the path-dependent politics of biomedical research Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 49, issue 4, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932016000638
• 2017 Considering neoliberalism, contempt, and allostatic load in the social dynamics of tuberculosis, Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 49, issue 4, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021932016000614
• 2016 Proximity, subjectivity, and space: rethinking distance in human geography, Geoforum vol. 75 (2016) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.07.018
• 2015 A polymorphic approach to policy analysis: a case study of Ontario’s Ethanol in Gasoline Regulation, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, vol. 97(1), pp. 31-45, (co-authored with Kirby Calvert).
• 2014 Omitted variables in the geographical treatment of well-being and happiness, Geography Journal, open access, vol. 2014, pp. 1-5.
• 2013b Learning wisdom through geographical dislocations, The Professional Geographer 65(3), pp. 390-395.
• 2013a Introduction: Learning as a geographical process, The Professional Geographer 65(3), pp. 363-368.
• 2012c The logical status of applied geographical reasoning, The Geographical Journal [RGS-IBG] 178(1), pp. 9-12.
• 2012b Options for moving beyond the canonical model of regional path-dependence, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36(1), pp. 172-178.
• 2012a Rethinking the conceptual foundations of evolutionary economic geography: introduction to a debate, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 36(1), pp. 156-157.
• 2011f The wise stance in human geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 36(2), pp. 188-192.
• 2011e Is engaged pluralism the best way ahead for economic geography? Progress in Human Geography 35(4), pp. 568-572.
• 2011d Kinds of environments: a framework for reflecting on the possible contours of a better world, The Canadian Geographer 55(3), pp. 383-386.
• 2011c Making sense of place through multiple memory systems, New Zealand Geographer 67(1), pp. 21-24.
• 2011b On time, place, and happiness, New Zealand Geographer 67(1), pp. 6-15 [featured article, with a commentary from psychologist Stephen Hill].
• 2011a Error, quality, and applied geography: an editorial on process, Applied Geography 31(2), pp. 780-783.
• 2010e Beware of Contingency, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28(3), pp. 388–396.
• 2010d Cognitive microfoundations for the economics of nonrival goods, Economic Analysis 43(3-4), pp. 87-96.
• 2010c Roads to perdition in the knowledge-economy, Environment and Planning A 42(7), pp. 1519-1520.
• 2010b Energy, space, and society: a reassessment of the changing landscape of energy production, distribution, and use, Journal of Economics and Business Research XVI(1), pp. 13-37. [co-authored with Kirby Calvert]
• 2010a On how much one can take: relocating exploitation and exclusion within the broader framework of allostatic load theory, Health & Place 16(6), pp. 1291-1293.
• 2009b Entrenched patterns of hot cognition may explain stubborn attributes of the economic landscape, Journal of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Education. 3-4: pp. 1-21.
• 2009a Intelligence and Environmental Complexity, Philobiblon. Theme Issue: The Environment vol. XIV, pp. 13-44.
• 2008  A geographical theory of exceptional human performance: economic and policy implications from the standpoint of consequentialist ethics, Romanian Journal of Business Ethics 2(1), pp 19-45.
• 2007 An evolutionary geography of environmental and social justice, Studia Ambientum I (1-2), pp. 90-107.
• 2004c Poverty, resource management, and the cultural politics of industrialization in Central Europe: the case of the Romanian Carpathians, Romanian Review of Political Science  and International Relations I (2), pp. 45-60.
• 2004b Neoliberalizing human resources: the case of a marginal trade union, Akademos I (2), pp. 7-26.
• 2004a Economy versus culture? Refiguring the domains of the social, Sc. Techn. Bul: Social and Humanistic Sciences, X, (5), pp. 44-55.
• 2002e On what it takes to be a good geographer, Area, 34(3), pp. 284 – 293.
• 2002d Environmental harmony? Questioning reactionary loci in the scriptural economy of wholesome space, Scientific and Technical Bulletin: Series Social and Humanistic Sciences, VIII, (2), pp. 5 – 24.
• 2002c The neoliberal turn in Norwegian energy policy, Annals of ‘Aurel Vlaicu’ University. Series Economics pp. 409 – 417.
• 2002b Social explanation and the praxis of science, Annals of ‘Aurel Vlaicu’ University. Series Economics pp. 418 – 433 [first author; second author Simandan M].
• 2002a Feminist standpoint theory – a critique, Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Seria Geographia, XLVII, (1), pp. 129 – 136.
• 2001d Political economy, political ecology, and the recursive cartographies of the city. Some ontological and methodological excavations, Scientific and Technical Bulletin: Series Social and Humanistic Sciences, VII, (1), pp. 61 – 87.
• 2001c Collapsing contexts into polymorphous chorologies of (more than economic) change. A case study in the performance of scale through the urban environment, Scientific and Technical Bulletin: Series Economic Sciences & Sociology, VII, (4 ), pp. 55 – 86.
• 2001b In-depth interviewing. A perspectival realist approach, Annals of the State University of Moldavia Series ‘Social – Humanistic Sciences’, (2), pp. 43 – 48 [first author; second author Simandan M].
• 2001a Globalization, socio-economic inequality, and the changing relationship between higher education and the labour market, Scientific and Technical Bulletin: Series Economic Sciences & Sociology, VII, (3), pp. 48- 60.
• *2000c The geopolitical venture and the problem of the viability of the American model, Romanian Journal of Political Geography, II, (1), pp. 69 – 90 [*in Romanian].
• 2000b Directions of research in the theory of geography, Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Seria Geographia XLV, (2), pp. 199 – 201.
• 2000a For a structural theory of geography, Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai Seria Geographia XLV, (1), pp. 29 – 36.

Refereed Papers in Conference Proceedings

• 2010 ‘Prospects for the economic geographies of renewable energy’ In Matei S. (ed.) Theoretical and Practical Approaches in Economics Arad: “Aurel Vlaicu” University Press, pp. 35-49 [co-authored with Kirby Calvert]
• 2008 ‘Theoretical note on the explanatory failure of Paul Romer’s (1990) “Endogenous Technological Change”‘Theoretical Developments in Contemporary Economics Timisoara: Mirton Publishing House, pp. 243-259.
• 2006 ‘The g factor and the geographical law of place-induced cognitive emergence’ In Economic Science in a Knowledge Society, Proceedings of the International Conference ‘Research and Education in the Innovation Era’ , Timisoara: Mirton Publishing House, pp. 80-90.
• 2002e ‘The governmentalization of nature: a political ecology of hydropower in Norway and Romania’ Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium of the Multidisciplinary Research Association from Western Romania, pp. 949-956, Timisoara.
• 2002d ‘Economic and environmental perspectives on the deregulation of the Norwegian energy market’, 1991 – 2002 Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium of the Multidisciplinary Research Association from Western Romania, pp. 957-965, Timisoara.
• 2002c ‘Framing capitalist dynamics: overdetermination or complexity theory?’ Proceedings of the 10th Scientific Conference with International Participation, ‘Constantin Brancusi’ University, Faculty of Economics, Targu – Jiu, Section 5, pp. 251 – 256.
• 2002b ‘Rosia Montana: the economic and environmental dilemmas of gold mining’, Proceedings of the 10th Scientific Conference with International Participation, ‘Constantin Brancusi’ University, Faculty of Economics, Targu – Jiu, Section 5, pp. 229 – 234.
• 2002a ‘Some unwelcome interruptions: on structural adjustment policies, trade unionism, and the working of the state’, Proceedings of the 10th Scientific Conference with International Participation, ‘Constantin Brancusi’ University, Faculty of Economics, Targu – Jiu, Section 5, pp. 211 – 216.
• 2001d ‘Global environmental change and its local and regional geographies in Romania’ Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium of the Multidisciplinary Research Association from Western Romania, Timisoara, pp. 565 – 572.
• 2001c ‘‘Transformed nature’ and the geography of food consumption in Romania’ Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium of the Multidisciplinary Research Association from Western Romania, Timisoara, pp. 573 – 582.
• 2001b ‘Governmentality, neoliberal constraints and everyday anxieties: a political ecology of tuberculosis in Orastie and the adjacent rural areas, 1989 – 2001’ Proceedings of Section 7 ‘Social Sciences and the Humanities’ of The National Session of Scientific Papers,Targu-Jiu, 24 -25 November, pp. 259 – 264.
• 2001a ‘Embedding flexible modes: two case studies in the geography of non-standard forms of employment’ Proceedings of Section 2 ‘Management, marketing, commerce’ of The National Session of Scientific Papers,Targu-Jiu, 24 -25 November, pp. 169 – 174.

Recent Talks and Interviews

REBALANCE Talk with Dragos Simandan
22 April 2021

Ninety-minute talk with interviewer Andreu Ulied, as part of the Rebalance Talks: Online conversations with visionary thinkers from the social sciences and humanities, mobility experts, stakeholders and European policy decision-makers on the topic of New Mobility Cultures and Policies. Dragos Simandan discusses his recent research, as well as the broader context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• GEOG 5P01 Theoretical Approaches to the Critical Examination of Geographical Issues (MA in Geography)
• GEOG 5V10 Advanced Topics in Labour Geographies
• GEOG 4P95 Directed Readings I
• GEOG 4P75 Resources and Social Movements (research seminar)
• GEOG 4P77 Advanced Topics in Labour Geographies (research seminar)
• ***GEOG 4P50 Critical Analysis of Urban and Economic Geographies (research seminar) (2016-2017, Winter Term)
• GEOG 3P57 Human Geography Field Trip
• ***GEOG 3P50 Resource Management: Discourses, Policies, and Ethics (2016-2017, Fall Term)
• GEOG 3P76 Geographies of Energy
• GEOG 3P79/INTL 3P79 Nature, Development, and the Politics of Knowledge
• ***GEOG 2P21 Introduction to Research Design and Methodology (2016-2017, Fall Term)
• ***GEOG 2P13 Resource and Environmental Geographies (2018-2019, Winter Term)
• GEOG 2Q96 Environmental Problems and Development

SENANU KWASI KUTOR, 2018 – 2019. Major Research Paper “Wisdom and cross-cultural interaction: a geographical perspective”. Partly funded by SSHRC Insight Grant (PI & supervisor: Simandan)

ALESSANDRA RIZZI, 2016 -ongoing. Major Research Paper “Energy efficient buildings: moving towards a carbon neutral Canada” (supervisor: Simandan)

ALEXANDRU RAILEANU, 2015 – 2017. Major Research Paper “Wisdom and international migration: a case study of the Romanian community in Ontario”. Partly funded by SSHRC Insight Grant (PI & supervisor: Simandan)

SARAH MANN, 2014-2016. MA Thesis “A non-representational conceptualization of troubling student disclosures to online and/or contingent university instructors”. Funded by SSHRC (supervisor: Simandan)

MERT COSKAN, 2010-2013. MA Thesis “Illegal Aliens and The Inconspicuous Geographies of US Immigration and Border Policing within 100 miles of the US-Canada Border” (supervisor: Simandan). Mert began his PhD in Geography at Carleton University in the Fall of 2014.

HEATHER WHIPPLE, 2010 – 2013. (part-time). Major Research Paper “Extraterestrial human geographies” (supervisor: Simandan). Heather now works as Librarian at Brock University.

LISA COMBE, 2008 – 2011 (part-time). Major Research Paper “A gendered economic geography of real estate entrepreneurship in Niagara, Ontario” (supervisor: Simandan). Lisa is the recipient of Brock’s Distinguished Graduate Student Award.

KIRBY CALVERT, 2007 – 2009. MA Thesis “Scale, net-workings and uncertainty: an examination of environmental policy making in Ontario” (supervisor: Simandan). Kirby went on and did his PhD at Queen’s University (2009-2013), then worked as tenure-track assistant professor of energy policy in the Geography Department of Pennsyslvania State University (2013-2015), and, most recently, moved back to Canada, as tenure-track assistant professor in the Geography Department of Guelph University (July 2015-ongoing).