1.3: Paradigm Wars
- Page ID
- 212622
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Paradigm Wars – 1950-1990
The reaction to Environmental Determinism by a significant number of geographers was to turn away from scientific methods so ill-used by the Environmental Determinists. Some called for a return to the descriptive or ideographic geography of the past. Today, this type of geography is largely represented by an approach known as regional geography, and it remains the dominant version of geography taught at the K-12 level. Done well, regional geography can be an exciting and intellectually stimulating exercise capable of providing a pathway to understanding the unique dynamics within regions, why various locations on earth differ from other places, and why many places have similarities. Unfortunately, regional geography in classroom settings often degrades into a “forced march” of endless memorization of facts about far-off locations. Most K-12 school curricula and many introductory college courses fall into this trap. Students in regional style courses often learn little about why places have become unique because poorly designed curricula fail to focus student attention on the processes driving the creation or evolution of regions. The dominance of the regional approach has generated the false, but the popular perception of geography as trivia, especially in America. In Europe, geography did not fall into that trap.
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Want to know more? Check out the following links! |
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Hart, John Fraser. "The Highest Form of the Geographer's Art." -Perhaps the most famous defense of descriptive geography. |
By the 1960s, Geography Departments were facing elimination from many college campuses. As a result, many geographers began adopting legitimate scientific methodologies via spatial statistics during a period known today as the quantitative revolution, a major paradigm shift that continues to accelerate today, especially among users of Geographic Information Systems (GIS –see below). Today, most geographers seek to discover generalizable patterns, or even laws, that describe or govern society. This is the nomothetic approach. Coupled with accompanying revolutions in our ability to collect, store, manipulate and analyze spatial data, geographers today are engaged in complex, high-tech research on a wide array of pressing issues often using so-called “big data”.
Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating rapidly in the 1990s, geographers also occupied leading roles in a thrilling expansion of spatially informed theoretical approaches attempting to explain how the world works. Important, economic, political and cultural theorists emerged from among the ranks of geography departments in the UK and the US, playing important roles in an overall flowering of critical geography, during a period known as the cultural turn within geography. Many geographers today focus squarely on the complex, often subtle, mechanics that regulate the production and maintenance of knowledge itself, which is in some ways the final frontier of social science. Critical geographers work to uncover how and why societies and individuals believe what they do, and how those beliefs are manufactured, manipulated, distorted, maintained, subverted, appropriated or eliminated.
Today, geography is a very vibrant discipline offering to the uninitiated, a surprising number of avenues to understand the world, as well as multiple pathways to high-paying jobs in the public and private sectors. Geographers make a difference in the world.