Trends in Geography. An Introductory Survey

280 Pages·1969·4.857 MB·English

by  Ronald U. Cooke and James H. Johnson (Eds.)

Trends in Geography
An Introductory Survey
Edited by
RONALD U. COOKE
LECTURER IN GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
and
JAMES H. JOHNSON
READER IN GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
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PREFACE
THIS collection of essays had its starting point in a conference for geography
teachers organized by the University of London Institute of Education and
held at University College London in the summer of 1968. It attempts to
examine some of the recent trends in geography and to suggest ways in which
these tendencies may be important for teachers and students. It has been our
aim to produce a short and inexpensive book. As a result, all our contributors
have had to accept the necessity of compressing their work into a relatively
small number of words, with the high degree of selection and generalization
which this process involves.
For the same reason it has not been possible to refer to every field of study
found in university departments of geography. The omission of a particular
topic does not mean that work in it is without value; but we have tried to
select those branches of the subject in which the interest of both research
workers and students is lively and currently growing. Some of the interests
described here represent a radical break with tradition, and at present do not
form part of many geographical studies, at least as they are taught in schools.
Others are established parts of geographical syllabuses, with trends which are
often logical developments of familiar themes.
Each contribution gives a personal view of a particular field of study. We
have thought it best not to impose a single and possibly restrictive methodo-
logical framework on our contributors, since one man's frontier of research
may be another's base-camp. Yet it will be clear to readers that some recurring
themes can be discerned through the counterpoint provided by the pre-
occupations of individual geographers. The quest for precision, the adoption of
approaches emphasizing the complex systems that surround individual geo-
graphical phenomena, the reliance on quantitative, and especially statis-
tical, techniques—all these important features emerge in chapter after chapter.
Techniques of study are changing more rapidly in modern geography than
at any previous time in the subject's history. As a result there is a great need
for a dialogue between research workers and those being admitted to the
mysteries of the subject. Teachers provide the necessary link; and it is
dangerous for the vitality and future health of geography that some teachers
find current developments either incomprehensible or unacceptable. As the
engines of research move at increasing speeds along new lines, some of the
carriages carrying teachers and students are in danger of becoming detached.
ix
χ Preface
This book attempts to help rectify such a dangerous situation by discussing
current work in as simple a manner as possible. It does not try to restate the
benefits of teaching geography in schools, nor does it seek to advance another
new frame of reference for research in geography. Rather, this book adopts
the less ambitious strategy of occupying the middle ground: it is more
concerned with the logistics of communication than with the advance of the
battle-front.
As editors we have attempted to eliminate jargon from this book. As a
result we hope that its contents will at least be comprehensible to teachers,
first-year undergraduates and intelligent sixth-formers in Britain, and their
equivalents elsewhere. The References and Further Reading sections are
designed to serve several purposes. They list important research contributions
to the literature which have set trends; they also include general and more
readily accessible references concerned with the matters under discussion. In
addition, we have tried to provide material in these sections which will enable
those who are interested to read further. The references are classified in each
section according to the subdivisions in the text; where a reference is used
several times in the same chapter it is listed only once.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to our contributors, who have not only
willingly accepted the occasional need to render their sonorous and subtle
phrases into much balder statements, but have produced drafts of their
chapters to a very tight schedule. We are also most indebted to Mr. K. Wass,
senior cartographer in the Department of Geography at University College
London, for his skilful assistance in producing the illustrations, and to our
typists, Mrs. E. Jamieson, Mrs. F. Barton, and Miss D. Parker, for the speed
and efficiency with which they have dealt with the manuscript.
University College London RONALD U. COOKE
JAMES H. JOHNSON
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE authors wish to express their thanks to the following for permission to
reproduce illustrations :
Professor E. F. Brater, University of Michigan, for Fig. 7; Professor J. Büdel,
University of Würzburg, for Fig. 3; Professor P. Haggett, University of
Bristol, for Fig. 11 ; Professor C. D. Oilier, University of Papua and New
Guinea, for Fig. 2; Professor J. D. Ovington, The Australian National
University, for Fig. 5; Professor D. M. Smith, Southern Illinois University,
for Fig. 19.
CHAPTER 1
THE COURSE OF
GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE
W. R. MEAD
THE contemporary study of geography contains two paradoxes and in them
are rooted both the problems and opportunities of the subject. The first para-
dox is that at a time which may be fairly claimed as the climax of general
interest in geography, adjustments in attitude are demanded which must
necessarily test the faith and resilience of its followers. The second paradox,
which is partly related to the first, is that an increasing unity of approach to
the subject is accompanied by an unparalleled diversification of activity
within it. The resulting shifts of emphasis produce stresses and strains. The
degree of their impact necessarily varies from area to area within the field of
study. For many, the new experiences are exhilarating; for some, they are
distressing. If the new problems that they pose are not of universal appeal,
the possible new solutions to old problems that they offer arouse considerable
attention. In the changes that are taking place new areas of research will
be opened (some on the score of methodology alone), some existing areas of
research are likely to receive a new stimulus, and other traditional lines of
investigation will be correspondingly subordinated.
As an academic subject, geography has never claimed more adherents or
more attention than at the present time. The number of students engaged in
it (as measured by school and university examinations alone), the member-
ship of its professional societies, and the number and variety of appointments
in which geographers find outlets for their particular aptitudes, have never
been greater. The adjustments which this body of disciples is called upon to
make spring from both general and particular causes. They are general to
the extent that the course of knowledge as a whole determines the course of
its parts ; all disciplines are affected by the profound changes that have taken
place in the means of multiplying knowledge and the methods of diffusing
it. They are particular in that there are changes in the content and metho-
dology of geography that are specific, or nearly specific, to the subject.
3
4 Trends in Geography—An Introductory Survey
Geography has always had close relations with a range of cognate subjects.
In the past, links were principally with surveying, history, geology, botany,
and anthropology. When economics emerged as a university subject, a close
relationship was also struck with it. Geography in the University of London,
for example, entered the modern examination syllabus by the way of the
B.Sc. (Economics) degree. As branches of the subject began to distinguish
themselves, adjectives proliferated to describe them. The established liaisons
remain, with geography making a growing contribution to kindred disciplines
as well as gathering ideas and material from them. Simultaneously, new
associations are developing, though the resulting branches of the subject are
less frequently identified by adjectives than formerly. The statistician,
sociologist, logician, psychologist, hydrologist, engineer, architect and, of
course, planner, are all courted by the geographer—and sometimes court
him. Again it must be emphasized that the search for and fulfilment of new
relationships are not unique to the geographer. They are characteristic of
the age.
At the same time as individual geographers or schools of geographers have
been establishing these new liaisons, a common and increasingly well-identi-
fied methodology has been evolving. In part, this derives from the social
scientists; in part it is the contribution of geographers themselves. The
methodology in particular identifies the present decade as a time of change
in the accepted structure of the geographer's field of learning. Geography
as the study of the unique—the exceptionalist view—is rapidly yielding to
other approaches. It is challenged by the functional appreciation of geo-
graphical data and by the constructional approach to them. It is confronted
by the emphasis on relative rather than on absolute considerations.
The steady restructuring of much of the subject promises to yield new
systems of knowledge. Although the new systems look to the sign language of
the mathematician as unambiguous and facilitating manipulation, they have
also prompted the development of a new vocabulary. An immense variety of
new words and phrases have been and are being conceived to meet the needs
of the situation. As with most subjects, geography has accumulated its
language from many sources, but hitherto its vocabulary has been of an
essentially concrete character. The contemporary vocabulary includes an
increasing number of abstract words and phrases. They derive principally
from the social sciences (from sociology and economics in particular) ; partly
from mathematics and statistics, and to a lesser extent from the physical
sciences. Despite its scientific source, the torrent of new words and concepts
that has invaded geographical literature is curiously poetic in sound. Para-
digm and parameter, matrix and linkage, ecosystem and trend surface are of
the stuff that dreams, as well as revolutions, are made. In the midst of the
torrent, a few rock-like words resound—precision, perception, and prediction
The Course of Geographical Knowledge 5
are among them. Even these are abstract, but they have a comfortingly
familiar ring.
Above all, contemporary geography aims at precision—precision through
measurement. For some decades, geographers have been groping towards the
fuller and more effective use of statistical materials and methods. The slowly
changing approach to work in the field, the increasing refinement of map-
making from statistics, the steady realization that the graphical representa-
tion of data had its own geographical meaning—all anticipated the impulse
towards quantitative expression. The ready reckoner and slide rule yielded
to the punch-card and the data bank, the desk computer and the electronic
brain. Geography has leapt forward to employ to the full the mechanical
equipment of the mid-twentieth century, for the bulk of its raw materials
lend themselves to ready use of quantitative analytical techniques. A new
scale of operations becomes evident in the process. It is illustrated by the
Canadian Land Inventory, by Swedish experiments to establish a kilometre
grid record for the entire country, and by the pilot scheme of a similar
character initiated for East Anglia by the cartographic unit of the Royal
College of Art. A similar transformation has taken place in the pictorial
recording of geographical features. It is only a generation since extensive
large-scale airphotographic coverage began to be available and since photo-
grammetric devices transformed survey. The introduction of satellites has
given new perspectives to airphotography and, in turn, these have an im-
mediate effect upon the production and interpretation of maps (Bird and
Morrison, 1964).
The machines that the geographer has at his disposal are part servant,
part master. In order to use them he must either learn new skills or employ
the aid of technical experts. Most demanding in the battery of equipment
is the computer, which requires appropriately programmed material. Some
geographers become programmers in their own right and computer mapping
is already a distinct field of study. In addition to transforming the speed with
which information can be made available, computers may also change the
form of its availability. While the computer is an enormous aid to the
development of the subject, computerization of material for its own sake
emerges as an occupational hazard.
A further consequence of precision through measurement is that geography
inclines increasingly towards quantitative expression. This development
raises one of the academic geographer's most vexacious problems. It may
be fairly argued that an elementary knowledge of statistics and mathematics
should be a primary component in the training of the geographer. Whether
this training should take place in school or university or both remains un-
decided. In the short period it is evident that to demand more than an ele-
mentary knowledge of statistics and mathematics as a minimum requirement
6 Trends in Geography—An Introductory Survey
for entry into university might have a serious effect upon recruitment.
While it is clear that Advanced Level mathematics or statistics are a highly
desirable qualification for a potential geographer, it is equally apparent that
schools are in no position to supply the necessary teaching of them to all of
their potential social scientists and natural scientists. Furthermore, if a stu-
dent has demonstrated at school that he has an aptitude for these subjects, it
is unlikely that he will be encouraged to read geography at the university.
Against this background, it would seem that such statistical and mathe-
matical understanding as is required might best be fitted into the university
syllabus. Here, too, there are problems. Perhaps two streams of teaching might
be contemplated—an elementary stream dealt with in departments of geo-
graphy and an advanced stream provided by departments of statistics and
mathematics. One point is clear. If statistics and mathematics are added to
the list of ancillary accomplishments for geography graduates, some branches
of the subject will have to be rejected to make room for them.
The introduction of quantitative methods to geography poses more funda-
mental problems. It is unlikely that more than a small proportion of geo-
graphers will be competent to handle them. Nor are more than a handful
likely to achieve results in geographical research that will make an impact on
their mathematical and statistical colleagues. It is not inconceivable that at
some time in the future departments of geography will require a professional
mathematician or statistician in their own right—unless graduates in these
subjects can be persuaded to transfer their allegience to geography at the
research level. There are good examples of mathematicians who have
become economists—Lord Keynes was one of them.
Whether statistics or mathematics are urged, it is evident that there are
large numbers of recruits to present-day geography who lack the facility to
handle them but who are respectably literate. It need not be assumed that
all future recruits to departments of geography will wish to devote themselves
primarily to a quantitative line. It may be in the best interest of most that
they should, but the choice should be left to them. The best solution, at least
in the short term, is to offer students a variety of courses from which to choose
and at the same time to advise them how their combination of choices is likely
to open and close doors in the future. Clearly, for most postgraduate work
and in certain specific areas of employment such as planning, the new
approach with its associated skills is critical. But most geographers will not
undertake research either in the subject or in another field when they enter
employment. As long as it is realized that employment opportunity and
salary scale may be conditioned by the particular kind of geographical
training, that is enough. It is to be hoped that all students will not enter
university with this as their only motive. There will always be openings for
the geographer whose inclinations are towards literacy rather than numeracy.
The Course of Geographical Knowledge 7
Whatever choice is made by students, it will speedily become apparent
that the quantitative approach is the fashionable approach. At the same
time it will become evident that with its feet on the ground of quantitative
studies, academic geography is as competent as any of the social sciences to
concern itself with prediction. In the past, prediction was regarded as lying
outside the field of geographers. Geography, it was argued, was concerned
with reality. It looked to the detail of the present and had no concern with
the future. A generation ago, geographers would not willingly have sub-
scribed to the motto Savoir pour prévoir and such a concept as theoretical
geography would have been regarded by them as a contradiction in terms.
Yet, even at that time, some geographers were already casting horoscopes.
An example is provided by the remarkably accurate prediction made by
W. William-Olssen (1941), against the background of statistical trends, for
the growth of Stockholm.
Prediction has as its object more than the exercise of the intellect. Geo-
graphers qua geographers were slow to use their talents in an applied form.
They engaged in the collection of data, its representation and analysis, but
originally left its application to others. They were familiar with the exigencies
of space, aware of the economics of resources, and sensitive to the value of
amenities. But their studies tended to have a static rather than a dynamic
emphasis, a descriptive rather than an analytical quality. They had an
almost innate awareness of distributions on the face of the land, and some of
them were keenly aware of the changing patterns through time. What was
needed was a fuller recognition of the processes whereby the distributions
came into being, of analogues which might help to explain the processes, and
of the consequent bases to project trends and tendencies into future situations.
In a relatively short time, a small number of geographers, alert to the work of
colleagues in kindred disciplines, have begun to assemble a corpus of prece-
dent, procedure, theory, and hypothesis, which is capable of application to a
growing range of problems and situations.
Applied geography, worked out in the context of the new approach to the
subject, can be an exciting discipline, both on the score of the background
training and of the imagination that it demands. Society is in need of people
with such interests in its private as well as its public sectors. As an applied
study geography has a distinct contribution to make to management. Its
concern is with the essentials of location. Though not in general executive
its rôle is likely to be increasingly strong in those areas of decision-making
which concern themselves with aspects of distribution.
It is hardly surprising that an age which is familiar with the experiences in
Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception ( 1954) should concern itself with states of
awareness. Geographers have added perception to precision and prediction
as a third quality that they seek to cultivate. In both an artistic and scientific