Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Early reactions to spatial analysis
A widely held view had developed by the 1970s that although
spatial analysis had given human geography a sound scientifi c
methodology, it remained largely descriptive and had failed
to develop good theories. Many of the assumptions upon
which it rested were unrealistic and bore little or no relation
to the diversity and complexity that actually existed in the
real world.
Humanistic geography sought to reassert the importance
of people and raise them from their status as 'pale
entrepreneurial fi gures'. It introduced a new focus on
subjective values and qualitative meanings that affected
people's behaviour. It proposed the importance of the image
and the perceptions of geographical space that people
held as mental maps, shaped by their circumstances and
experiences.
Structuralism suggested that the sources of explanation
were found in the hidden structures of empowerment and
control that underlay different types of society. Marxism
was one such structural theory that related distributions of
wealth and poverty to the workings of a capitalist society.
Spatial outcomes such as areas of poverty in cities and other
underdeveloped regions could be understood in these terms.
compelling, even deterministic infl uence on human activities.
Working from this perspective, Harvey argued that the theory
had a great deal to offer geography, but had to be modifi ed and
rethought to include the fundamental concepts of place and space.
Structuralism, for example, could be used to explain divisions
within society between rich and poor, but the concentrations of
the poor in specifi c areas such as the inner city were the product
of investors who discriminated against those areas. Red-lined
