Bennett, David

• B.A., Ph.D. (Liverpool)
• Email Bennett, David

Biography:
My original academic interests were established early, at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1956 – 1963). When I left the RGS my interests were – in declining order of my enthusiasm – History (European, American, and French), English Literature, and Geography.

I read for my B.A. Hons in Geography at the University of Liverpool from 1963 to 1966. After a year of sampling three very different jobs – public and private sector – I returned to Liverpool in the fall of 1967 as a postgraduate student. I completed my Ph.D in behavioural geography and spatial decision-making, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, in 1972, by which time – at the age of 25 – I had emigrated from England in August 1970 to take up a one year contract as a Lecturer in the Department of Geography at Carleton University, to teach Urban Geography, and the first course at Carleton in Statistical Analysis for Geographers. In 1971 I took up an appointment at Carleton as Assistant Professor of Geography. I introduced courses in Quantitative Methods, Population Geography, Medical Geography (subsequently Health, Environment, and Society), the Geography of Social Well-Being), and Philosophy and Geography, which reflected my research interests. I supervised 35 graduate students. In 1981-82 I was President of CUASA. I was Chair of Geography 1988 – 1990, and Associate Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (2004 – 2005), and Coordinator of Directed Interdisciplinary Studies (2004 – 2007). I retired as an Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies in 2012. My current work combines my original academic interests with my later forays into philosophy.

Research Interests

• Geography of health and health care
• Geography and philosophy
• Geography and social justice

Recent Publications

Critical Rationalism (After Popper). In Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume 2, pp. 369 – 378. Oxford: Elsevier, 2009.

Positivism/Positivist Geography. In Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume 8, pp.295 – 311. Oxford: Elsevier, 2009.

“Engaging in the disablement process over space and time: narratives of persons with Multiple Sclerosis in Ottawa, Canada”, The Canadian Geographer, Volume 48, no. 2, summer 2004. Co-authored with S. Michelle Driedger (University of Ottawa), and Valorie A. Crooks (McMaster University)

“Replacing positivism in medical geography”, in Social Science and Medicine , Vol. 60, No. 12 (Special Issue: “Burning Issues: Selected Papers from the 10th. International Symposium in Medical Geography, Manchester, 2003: Edited by Robert Earickson), 2005, pp.2685-2695

Critical Rationalism (After Popper). In Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009, Volume 2, pp. 369 – 378. Oxford: Elsevier

Positivism/Positivist Geography. In Kitchin, R., Thrift, N. (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009, Volume 8, pp.295 – 311. Oxford: Elsevier