Viewpoint: Exploring the Role of Geography
Abstract
The starting point for any discussion of the role of geography must be the recognition that the practice of geography varies substantially from country to country, and even within countries (as the chapters in Johnston and Claval, 1984, indicate). This indicates that there is no general agreement on a working definition for geography-its scopes and its goals. The reasons for this lack of consensus are many, and reflect both the local context within which geography has been nurtured and the projects of the individual geographers who have steered the development of their discipline (For an exposition of such differences, see Asheim, 1987). Different people in different places define geography differently, according to their socialization and, their evaluation of contemporary conditions, and they promote the interests of the discipline accordingly. Given this introductory set of remarks, it ill behooves a visitor to suggest to geographers in another place what they should be doing, and to what ends; to attempt that would be an arrogant form of cultural imperialism. Nor does it seem very profitable to present in any detail a survey of geography in the visitor's home country, since the local context that it reflects may have little relevance to the situation being addressed. As a consequence, what I want to do here is adopt a much wider brief, addressing the general issues of the goals and roles of science and setting geography within that context. From this, it should be possible to identify issues of local relevance, which allow discussion of the role of geography in its local, time- and place-specific, context.
References
Asheim, B. T. (1987) A critical evaluation: Of postwar developments in human geography in Scandinavia. Progress in Human Geography, 11: 333-353.
Brunsden, D. (1985) Geomorphology in the service of society. In R. J. Johnston (ed.) The Future of Geography, 225-257. London: Methuen.
Curry, L. (1962) Climatic change as a random series. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 52-31.
Gregory, D. and Urry, J. (eds.) (1985) Social Relations and Spatial Structures. London: Macmillan.
Haines-Young, R. and Petel, J.R. (1985) Physical Geography: Its Nature and Methods. London: Harper and Row.
Harvey, D. (1974) What kind of geography for what kind of public policy? Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, 63: 18-24.
Harvey, D. (1984) On the history, and present condition of geography: An historical materialist manifesto. The Professional Geographer, 36:1-10.
Johnston, R. J. (1986) Four fixations and the quest for unity in geography. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, NS 11:449-453.
Johnston, R. J. and Claval, P. (eds.) (1984) Geography Since the Second World War: An International Survey. London: Croom Helm.
Massey, D. (1984) Geography matters. In D. Massey and J. Allen (eds.) Geography Matters,. 1-12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pickles, J. (1985) Phenomenology, Science and Geography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sayer, A. (1984) Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach. London: Hutchinson.
Wilson, A. G. and Clarke, M. (1985) The dynamics of urban spatial structure: The progress of a research programme. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers NS 10: 427--451.
Worsley, P. (1985) Physical geography and the natural environmental sciences. In R. J. Johnston (cd.) The Future of Geography, 27-42. London: Methuen.
- The contributor(s) (authors) warrant that the entire work is original and unpublished; it is submitted only to this Journal and all text, data, figures/tables or other illustrations included in this work are completely original and unpublished, and these have not been previously published or submitted elsewhere in any form or media whatsoever.
- The contributor(s) warrant that the work contains no unlawful or libelous statements and opinions and liable materials of any kind whatsoever, does not infringe on any copyrights, intellectual property rights, personal rights or rights of any kind of others, nor contains any plagiarized, fraudulent, improperly attributed materials, instructions, procedures, information or ideas that might cause any harm, damage, injury, losses or costs of any kind to person or property.
- The contributor(s) retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- Geography Research Forum may disseminate the content of the publications and publications’ Meta data in text, image, or other print and electronic formats to providers of research databases (e.g. EBSCO, GeoBase, JSTOR) to facilitate publications' exposure.
