Geographical knowledge, case studies and the division of labour

Though a case study is commonly viewed as a unit of analysis with some form of bounded territory, the abstraction that it represents goes beyond a specific place. After all, case studies are conventionally used to provide the empirical evidence of, or test ideas that are, by nature mobile. This methodological view of case studies masks the division of the world into different knowledge production sites and the processes by which the authenticity of knowledge is approved or disapproved. This is evident in geographical scholarships in the global North and South, and within each of these 'regions'. The South has theoretically been constructed as a 'case study' through which theories, coming mainly from the North, can be tested or verified. These practices raise the question of the place of case study research in human geography and the contribution of case studies to theory. This paper uses experiences from South Africa to argue that local researchers play an equally important role in the conceptions and use of the South as a case study lacking in theoretical contributions. Conceptually, the hegemony of Anglo-American geography and the marginalisation of geographic knowledge from the South find expression in both the North and the South, with the South participating in its own marginalisation. It concludes that South Africa, as a part of the South, offers opportunities for rethinking the artificial gap between theory and case studies at various scales. However, local geographers have not yet fully exploited these opportunities.