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were crucial, since they provided the training and foundations for the next generation of
geographers who were to begin to nurture the recreation-tourism continuum as a
legitimate research focus. But one consequence of geography's development in the 1950s
and 1960s and the rise of a more 'applied' focus was the increasing move towards narrow
specialisation which appears to have reached its natural peak in the 1990s. Johnston
(1991) outlines an increasing tension within geography in the 1960s and 1970s over the
focus of the discipline, which in part transcended the debate over radical approaches (see
Harvey 1974). The basic tension related to how geographers should contribute their skills
to the solution of societal problems. This questioned the philosophical basis of
geography—who should the geographer benefit with an applied focus?
Both British and American geography conferences in the 1970s saw an increasing
debate and awareness of the value of geographers contributing to public policy. Coppock
(1974) felt that policy-makers were unaware of the contribution geographers could make
to policy-making. But critics questioned the value of advising governments which were
the paymasters and already constrained in what geographers could undertake research on.
Harvey (1974) raised the vital issue of 'what kind of geography for what kind of public
policy?', arguing that individuals involved in policy-making were motivated by
personal ambition, disciplinary imperialism, social necessity and moral
obligation at the level of the whole discipline, on the other hand,
geography had been co-opted, through the Universities, by the growing
corporate state, and geographers had been given some illusion of power
within a decision-making process designed to maintain the status quo.
(Johnston 1991:198)
Indeed, Pacione's (1999a) defence of applied geography reiterates many of the inherent
conflicts and problems which the 'purists' in human geography raise, in that
Applied geography is concerned with the application of geographical
knowledge and skills to the resolution of real-world social, economic and
environmental problems. The underlying philosophy of relevance of
usefulness and problem-orientated goals of applied geography have
generated critical opposition from other 'non-applied' members of the
geographical community. Particular criticism of the applied geography
approach has emanated from Marxist and, more recently, postmodern
theorists who reflect the potential of applied geography to address the
major problems confronting people and places in the contemporary world.
(Pacione 1999a:1)
The emergence of the 'new cultural geography' highlights the increasing tensions within
the discipline where 'the idea of applied geography or useful research is a chaotic concept
which does not fit with the recent “cultural turn” in social geography or the postmodern
theorising of recent years' (Pacione 1999a:3). In fact, Pacione claimed that it was a
matter of individual conscience as to what individual geographers study. What is clear is
that some research is more 'useful' than other forms, and the application to tourism and
recreation phenomenon is certainly a case in point. Although the 'concept of “useful
