Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
included a session on metropolitan spatial injustice,
and other action-oriented papers on 'place utility,
social obsolescence and qualitative housing
change', 'crime rates as territorial social
indicators', and 'environmental stress and
maladaptive behaviour'. The 'relevance debate'
was also taken up by geographers in the UK
(Chisholm 1971; Prince 1971; Smith 1971;
Dickenson and Clarke 1972; Berry 1972).
One result was that while the pre-war
consideration of land-use issues, including urban
sprawl, countryside conservation, land use and
resource management, continued to attract
attention, these were displaced from centre stage
by questions relating to the geography of poverty
and hunger (Morrill andWohlenberg 1971), crime
(Harries 1974), health care (Shannon and Dever
1974), ethnic segregation (Rose 1971), education
(Kirby 1979) and the allocation of public goods
(Cox 1973).
While most applied (human) geographers were
agreed on the important issues, the social relevance
'movement' was far from united over the question
of the best route towards a solution. For some,
action within the existing structure of society was
preferred, whereas others advocated a more radical
approach aimed at a fundamental restructuring of
the social order. The liberal approach essentially
represented a continuation of the philosophy that
underlay much of the applied geography and land-
use planning of the inter-war and immediate post-
war periods. Work on social issues in the liberal
tradition included the mapping of spatial
variations in quality of life (Knox 1975) as an input
to planning and as a means of monitoring the
distributional effects of social policies. Other
researchers were more willing to embrace the
radical alternatives to liberal formulations. The
argument in favour of a Marxist approach was
presented by Folke (1972), who considered that
geography and the other social sciences are 'highly
sophisticated, technique-oriented, but largely
descriptive disciplines with little relevance for the
solution of acute and seemingly chronic social
problems… theory has reflected the values and
interests of the ruling class' (p. 13). The Marxist
critique of capitalism was also a critique of
empirical positivist science and, understandably,
applied physical geographers found the relevance
debate largely irrelevant to the conduct of their
research. While we acknowledge the profound and
largely beneficial influence of the relevance debate
on applied human geography, this does not
amount to castigation of applied physical
geographers or spatial scientists for a failure to
adopt the same precepts. As we have seen, there is
more than a single type of science, more than a
single route towards knowledge and
enlightenment, and all modes of analysis have the
capacity to contribute to the applied geographer's
goal of addressing real-world problems.
The development of applied geography has
been accompanied by debate over the relative
merits of pure and applied research. Critics such
as Cooper (1966) and more recently Kenzer
(1989) warned against the application of
geographical methods as a threat to the intellectual
development of the discipline. Conversely,
Applebaum (1966) took the view that 'geography
as a discipline has something useful to contribute
to man's struggle for a better and more abundant
life. Geographers should stand up and be counted
among the advocates and doers in this struggle' (p.
198). In similar vein, Abler (1993) considered that
'too many geographers still preoccupy themselves
with what geography is; too few concern
themselves with what they can do for the societies
that pay their keep' (p. 225). There is no reason
why an individual researcher cannot maintain a
presence in both pure and applied research. The
eminent American geographer C.Sauer was both
a 'scholar' who conducted research on agricultural
origins and dispersals and an 'applied geographer'
who developed a land classification system for the
state of Michigan. The terms 'pure' and 'applied'
are best seen as the ends of a continuum rather
than unrelated polar opposites.
APPLIED GEOGRAPHY: PROSPECTIVE
The practical value of the applied geographical
approach has been demonstrated in the foregoing
discussion of the principles and practice of applied
