aaag-theory-building
Use when building the conceptual contribution of an Annals of the American Association of Geographers manuscript — turning a finding into a geographic argument grounded in geographic theory (place, scale, space-time, environment-society, spatial process). Sharpens the argument; it does not run analyses.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill aaag-theory-building --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Theory Building (aaag-theory-building) An Annals paper is judged on the **geographic argument**, not only the result. The contribution must do conceptual work with geography's own apparatus — space, place, scale, region, territory, landscape, environment-society relations, spatial process — and be portable enough that other geographers can use it. ## When to trigger - Moving from "we found X" to "X means Y for how geographers understand Z" - A reviewer said the paper is "descriptive," "atheoretical," or "a case study without a concept" - Deciding which geographic concept the argument advances or revises ## Build the argument with a geographic concept Pick the concept the paper actually moves and make it load-bearing: - **Scale** — the result holds/changes across scales; the argument is about cross-scale processes or the MAUP, not a single resolution. - **Place / region** — what is specific vs. generalizable about the setting; what the case is a *case of*. - **Space-time / spatial process** — diffusion, dependence, clustering, mobility as the mechanism, not a backdrop. - **Environment-society** — the coupling itself is the object; neither side is mere context. - **Spatial data / r
- When to trigger
- Build the argument with a geographic concept
- Theory across the four areas (judged on its own terms)
- The portability test (Annals-specific)
- From observation to claim
- Worked micro-example (illustrative)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the aaag-theory-building skill do?
Use when building the conceptual contribution of an Annals of the American Association of Geographers manuscript — turning a finding into a geographic argument grounded in geographic theory (place, scale, space-time, environment-society, spatial process). Sharpens the argument; it does not run analyses.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill aaag-theory-building --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.