Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
have little relevance not only for the older approaches but also for
physical geography as practised today.
Noel Castree, a British geographer, captures the sense of concerns
about this change, which are widely held: 'In little over a decade,
explanatory and moral solidities have melted into air, only to be
replaced by a plethora of alternative philosophies, theories and
techniques.' The claim that the new cultural geography extends
throughout the whole of human geography as a modifying and
redefi ning force can be overstated. It can also be argued that new
cultural geographers fall into the fallacy of assuming that social
constructions have more substance and causal infl uence than may
be the case. Finally, the cultural turn has introduced new subject
areas, categories, and lenses through which the world can be seen.
Issues such as racism, feminism, and sexuality have gained new
footholds in human geography and this has undoubtedly been one
of the positive impacts.
Introducing new issues: redefi ning others
The emergence of issues such as racism, feminism, and sexuality
as key areas for study in human geography can be linked to the
focus on meanings and values that underlie places and activities
that was so strongly promoted in the new cultural geography.
Additionally, their emergence is a reminder that human
geography was not working in a vacuum and that similar trends
were being experienced across a range of disciplines, particularly
in the social sciences. We use the word 'emergence' but in some
ways this is misleading. Social geographers, for example, have an
established research interest in ethnic segregation and the ways
it changes over time. Similarly, there are studies of the elderly
in the city that long pre-date new cultural approaches. Analyses
of old people in an American city described them as 'prisoners
of space' whose perceived life space was limited to home, to
immediate neighbourhood, and to remembered places from the
distant past.
