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Geographical thought - Lecture notes 4-5
Geographical Perspectives (ENV-4010Y)
University of East Anglia
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Geographical Perspectives – module 4010-Y
Geographical thought
The Quantitative Revolution & Spatial Science
During the late 1950s and 1960s there was an increasing rejection of the ‘exceptionalism’ of regional geography in favour of systematic studies emphasising concepts and methods from the natural and (some) social sciences.
A key feature was adoption of a hypothetico-deductive method.
There was also an emphasis on the use of quantitative techniques and an underpinning positivist philosophy that there was an observable reality which could be measured and understood.
Models in Geography
The formulation and testing of models were another core element of the new approach. Models in Geography (1967) exemplified how different systematic branches of physical and human geography could share common underpinning ideas.
Example: Central Place Theory
Central place theory seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system. It hypothesises that on an isotrophic surface a hierarchy of settlements will develop on a hexagonal lattice.
“There is an ecological problem, an urban problem, an international trade problem, and yet we seem incapable of
saying anything of depth or profundity about any of them”.
-David Harvey (1973) Social Justice and the City, p. 129
Geography should expose the underlying causes of economic and social problems, particularly the ways in which capitalism uses space and produces geographical relationships e. uneven development. This is one example of structuralism – explanation can be found in the hidden forces of empowerment and control that underpin different societies.
Humanistic Geography
A reaction to the dehumanising perspectives of both spatial science and Marxism. Adopts a Phenomenological approach which puts human experience of place and landscape at the centre of geographical enquiry.
Rejects the idea of an objective reality (and researcher). Emphasises qualitative methods and that the researcher must acknowledge their role in both the process of interpretation and the production of knowledge.
Postmodernism & Poststructuralist Geographies
An important architectural and intellectual movement from the late 1980s opposed to grand theory ‘meta-narratives’ and emphasizing the diversity of human existence.
In Human Geography such thinking has been reflected in an emphasis on ‘difference’ (by age, gender, sexuality, race) and a ‘cultural turn’ focusing on the processes through which meanings and representations are produced.
“Poststructuralist geography is one which is fundamentally opposed to apparently rigid and determining structures.”
It “argues that the meaning and nature of things are produced historically and geographically rather than ‘naturally’.”
-Tim Cresswell (2013) Geographic Thought , p.
Example: The Interpretation of Maps
In the 1960s & 1970s the dominant paradigm in cartography was to regard it as:
“The science of communicating information between individuals by use of a map” (Morrison, 1976, p)’.
This was reflected in a series of attempts to develop models of the process of cartographic communication.
(e. Board, 1972)
Implicit in such models is the idea that scientific design would enable details of an objective reality to be better communicated from the map creator to viewer.
Deconstructing the Map
Geographical thought - Lecture notes 4-5
Module: Geographical Perspectives (ENV-4010Y)
University: University of East Anglia
