ABSTRACT
Cultural geographers have, over time, allied themselves with a number of qualitative methods, and most notably in-depth interviews and ethnographic 'procedures'. There are few commentators who would want to deny that the cultural turn in the social sciences and humanities – including in human geography has paid enormous intellectual dividends. More than this, it has simply made things a lot more interesting. At best, cultural work has become an 'anything goes' eclecticism with no sense of political project; at worst, an illustration of Oscar Wilde's aphorism that 'modern morality consists in accepting the standards of one's age'. Whilst ostensibly pursuing political goals, there is an increasing gap between political mission and cultural practice – there is plenty of hype but no action.
