Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Within this pattern of paradigm change, many of the so-called
systematic (or adjectival) geographies have persisted and
fl ourished. Human geography became organized around such
systematic themes as historical geography, urban geography,
economic geography, political geography, and population
geography, both for purposes of delivering the undergraduate
curriculum and in order to bring together academics with shared
research interests. These divisions with their descriptors are
often retained but have tended either (1) to subdivide further
into more specialized areas, or (2) to form new groupings that
work on the interstices and overlaps between the systematic
geographies (Figure 12).
The most recent innovations, such as postmodernism and
critical theory, have produced the diversity that now typifi es
the discipline. On the one hand, they have prompted powerful
intellectual debate; on the other, they have shown little interest in
either the traditions of human geography or different approaches.
The 'cultural turn'
A useful exemplar of the ebbs and fl ows in human geography since
the 1980s is the so-called 'cultural turn'. It has become a major
force for change, particularly in the United Kingdom and some
other parts of the English-speaking world. The term 'cultural turn'
has been used to describe a fundamental shift in approaches to the
study of cultural geography (see box). This, however, has not been
the limits of its infl uence as it has impacted on many branches of
human geography, such as economic and political geography, and
has subjected their objects of study to a greater consideration of
cultural and historical specifi city. The essence of the cultural turn,
then, is that it suggests that large swathes of human geography
must be recast in a similar mould. This is by no means a generally
accepted position, and in many parts of the world, including
the United States, the cultural turn has been much more muted
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