Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American human geography since 1945

545 Pages·2015·7 MB·English

by  Ron Johnston

Geography and Geographers
Geography and Geographers provides a survey of the major debates, key thinkers and schools of thought
in human geography in the English-speaking world, setting them within the context of economic,
social, cultural and political, as well as intellectual, changes. It focuses on the debates among
geographers regarding what their discipline should study and how that should be done, and draws
on a wide reading of the geographical literature produced during a seventy-year period characterised
by both growth in the number of academic geographers and substantial shifts in conceptions of the
discipline’s scientific rationale.
The pace and volume of change within the discipline show little sign of diminishing; this
seventh edition covers new literature and important developments over the past decade. An
insightful and reflective examination of the field from within, Geography and Geographers continues to
be the most comprehensive and up-to-date single volume overview of the field of human geography.
This seventh edition has also been extensively revised and updated to reflect developments
in the ways that geography and its history are understood and taught. Providing a thoroughly
contemporary perspective, the book maintains its standing as the essential resource for students and
researchers across the field.
Ron Johnston is Professor of Geography at the University of Bristol.
James D. Sidaway is Professor of Political Geography at the National University of Singapore.
Praise for the fifth edition of Geography and Geographers:
‘[Geography and Geographers] has probably done more to shape human geographers’ collective sense of
what geography is and has been about than any other single source.’
Murray Low, Political Geography (2004)
Praise for this edition of Geography and Geographers:
‘This new edition of Geography and Geographers is especially welcome. By providing what the
authors call “wider discussions of the contexts” within which geographical endeavour has
been located, it shows that the historical geography of geography has come of age. As a working
map of the territory, this is a superlative piece of intellectual cartography that no geographer
wanting to orientate themselves can afford to be without.’
Professor David N. Livingstone, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
‘Geography and Geographers is a living classic. It provides a compelling and subtle narrative of the
key intellectual shifts shaping contemporary geography, one that is sensitive to the range of factors
that shape academic knowledge. An invaluable resource for scholars from students to professors,
and an intellectual achievement in its own right.’
Professor Clive Barnett, Professor of Geography and Social Theory,
University of Exeter, UK
‘Tony Blair once said that the Beatles produced the “music that was the background of our
lives”. Geography and Geographers is the constant in the background of the busy and changing life of
geography. You can always count on it, and it is a comforting and reassuring presence. Like the
Beatles’ music you never tire of it, and it seems to get better with age.’
Professor Trevor Barnes, Department of Geography,
University of British Columbia, Canada
Geography and
Geographers
Anglo–American
human geography since 1945
Seventh Edition
Ron Johnston and James D. Sidaway
Seventh edition published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1979 R.J Johnston © 2016 Ron Johnston and James D. Sidaway
The right of Ron Johnston and James D. Sidaway to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
First edition published by Edward Arnold 1979
Sixth edition published by Hodder Arnold 2004
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Johnston, R. J. (Ronald John)
Geography & geographers : Anglo-American human geography since 1945 /
R.J. Johnston and J.D. Sidaway. — Seventh Edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Human geography—United States—History. 2. Human geography—Great
Britain—History. I. Sidaway, James D. II. Title. III. Title: Geography and
geographers.
GF13.J63 2016
304.2—dc23 2015027516
ISBN: 978-0-415-82737-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-340-98510-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-52305-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Joanna
by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton
For Lorna, Josh and Heather
And commemorating Jasmin Leila and Joseph Trevor
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of figures xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xxiii
1 The nature of an academic discipline 1
Academic life: the occupational structure 2
Disciplines and institutionalisation 9
The academic working environment: disciplines and the academic
division of labour 12
The external environment 26
Conclusions 35
2 Foundations 37
Geography in the modern period 38
Paradigms in the modern period 42
Historical geography 52
Geography in the early 1950s 54
Conclusions 55
3 Growth of systematic studies and the adoption of scientific method 57
The critique of regional geography 58
Schaefer’s (1953) paper and the response 59
Developments in systematic geography in the USA 64
Scientific method in human geography 76
Spread of the scientific method 83
Conclusions 98
4 Human geography as spatial science 100
Spatial variables and spatial systems 101
Spatial theory? 105
Systems 110
Spatial separatism? 121
Behavioural geography 124
Spatial (or geo-)statistics 145
Geographical Information Systems to Geographical Information Science 157
Conclusions 166
viii ConTEnTS
5 Humanistic geography 169
Humanistic geography’s antecedents in cultural and historical geography 171
Alternatives to spatial science 174
The practice of humanistic geography 186
Conclusions 194
6 Radical geography 197
Geography from the left 199
Radical trajectories 201
Structuralist Marxisms, regulation theory, localities and regions 207
Critical realism and structuration theory 219
The production of ‘nature’ 221
Radicals in debate 223
What’s left 235
Conclusions 239
7 Postmodernism, poststructuralism and postcolonialism 242
Posts- and turns 242
Postmodernism 246
Poststructuralism: power, representation and performance 257
Deconstructing maps and critical geopolitics 262
Poststructuralist geographies 265
Actor-network theory (ANT), affect and non-representational theories (NRTs) 268
Postcolonialism: decolonising human geography? 272
Conclusions 278
8 Feminist geography 281
The other half 283
Diverse strands 285
Reassessing histories of geography 288
From the geography of women to socialist feminisms 292
Feminist geographies of difference 296
Sexuality and space 300
Queering geography 302
Conclusions 304
9 Applied geography and the relevance debates 308
Disenchantment and disillusion in academic geography 310
Relevance to what and for whom? 313
Liberal contributions 319
Inequality, justice and ethics 325
Environmentalism 326
Geographers and policy 332
Changing contexts and applied geography 336
Continuing debates: grey, public and participatory geographies 340
Conclusions 344
ConTEnTS ix
10 A changing discipline? 345
Human geographers and models of disciplinary progress 346
Geography and its environment 355
Geographers and their networks 360
A structure for the discipline? 364
Human geography’s response to challenges 366
A generational model? 373
Geographies of geography? 375
Recapping: human geography as paradigms, streams or traditions? 378
An abundance of turbulence 389
And the future? 398
References 400
Author index 493
Subject index 507