Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
context of their intellectual socialization' (Johnston 1983a:4). See Table 1.1 for
categorisations of the main approaches to the geography of tourism and recreation. Grano
(1981) developed a model of external influences and internal change in geography that
provides a valuable framework within which to examine the geography of tourism and
recreation (Figure 1.2). The figure is divided into three interrelated areas:
knowledge the content of the geography of tourism and recreation studies
action tourism and recreation research within the context of research praxis
culture academics and students within the context of the research community and the
wider society.
KNOWLEDGE
The Dictionary of Human Geography (Johnston et al. 1986) defines geography as 'The
study of the earth's surface as the space within which the human population lives'
(Haggett 1986:175). Such a concise definition is deceptively simple, and conceals the
changing and contested nature of academic geography and, consequently, the geography
of tourism and recreation. The development of geography as an academic discipline and
its ability to provide specialist educational contributions to knowledge can be dated to the
1870s when geography departments were established in Germany (P.J.Taylor 1985).
Similar developments were closely followed in the UK and the USA, although the main
growth of the discipline came in the twentieth century. James (1972) argued that the
establishment of specialised programmes of training marked the evolution of geography
from the classical age as it entered the contemporary period. Freeman's (1961) A
Hundred Years of Geography identified six principal trends within geography. These
were:
• The encyclopaedic trend where new information about the world was collated for the
rulers, mercantile classes and residents of western Europe and North America.
• The educational trend where an academic discipline began to establish its need to
generate knowledge, determine relevance and ensure its own reproduction to derive its
future. The development of geographical work in schools, colleges and universities
characterised this trend.
• The colonial tradition in the early decades of the twentieth century characterised by a
concern with the environment. In the UK, the focus on empire, and its spatial and
political organisation from a metropolitan hub, made extensive use of geographical
skills.
• The generalising trend describes the use to which data are put generated through the
encyclopaedic and colonial tradition. The methods used to interpret these data formed
the basis of the early paradigms of the discipline's development.
• The political trend was indicative of the way in which contemporary uses of
geographical expertise were used for political purposes (e.g. the redrawing of the map
of Europe after the First World War).
• The specialisation trend was the natural corollary of the expansion of knowledge in
geography and the inability of one person to be an expert in every field. The expansion
of more rigorous research training required geographers to specialise.
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