Qualitative Change In Human Geography

Other Titles of Interest CLARKE, J. I. Population Geography, 2nd Edition CLARKE, J. I. Population Geography and the Developing Countries CLOUT, H. D. The Geography of Post-war France CLOUT, H. D. Rural Geography COOKE, R. U. 8- JOHNSON, J. H. Trends in Geography COPPOCK, J. T. Second Homes: Curse or Blessing? COPPOCK, J. T. &• SEWELL, W. R. D. Spatial Dimensions of Public Policy DENNIS, R. & CLOUT, H. D. A Social Geography of England and Wales DEWDNEY, J. C. A Geography of the Soviet Union, 3rd Edition HAMILTON, F. E. I. Proceedings of the First British-Soviet Geographical Seminar JOHNSON, J. H. Urban Geography, 2nd Edition MclNTOSH, I. G. & MARSHALL, C. B. The Face of Scotland, 3rd Edition O'CONNOR, A. M. The Geography of Tropical African Development, 2nd Edition SUNDERLAND, E. Elements of Human and Social Geography TREWARTHA, G. T. The More Developed Realm A Related Journal REGIONAL STUDIES Journal of the Regional Studies Association Editor: PROFESSOR J. B. GODDARD, University of (Free specimen copy available on request) Newcast/e-upon-Tyne QUALITATIVE CHANGE IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Edited by S. S. DUNCAN The London School of Economics & Political Science PERGAMON PRESS Oxford ■ New York • Toronto • Sydney ■ Paris • Frankfurt U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford 0 X 3 OBW, England U.S.A. Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523, U.S.A. CANADA Pergamon of Canada, Suite 104, 150 Consumers Road, Willowdale, Ontario M2J 1P9, Canada AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 544, Potts Point, N.S.W. 2011, Australia FRANCE Pergamon Press SARL, 24 rue des Ecoles, 75240 Paris, Cedex 05, France FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Pergamon Press GmbH, 6242 Kronberg-Taunus, Hammerweg 6, Federal Republic of Germany Copyright © 1979 Pergamon Press Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Qualitative change in human geography. 1. Anthropo-geography I. Duncan, S S 909 GF41 80-49925 ISBN 0-08-025222-2 First published 1979 as a special issue of the journal Geoforum, Volume 10, Number 1 and supplied to subscribers as part of their subscription. Reissued 1981 Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter Geoforum, Vol. 10, pp.1-4,1979. Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. Qualitative Change in Human Geography — An Introduction S.S. DUNCAN, *London, U.K. concern of 'radical geography' is with the interaction between social structures and social change (which include spatial form and change) as people create and transform their relationships, and thus create and transform space. Unlike quantitative geography, people are seen as active social agents, who nevertheless act in and under specific social forms and structures which have been produced in the past. The concern lies with social theory rather than with deterministic, asocial explanations where space remains independent of people. Social analysis replaces spatial analysis. Change in Geography The context of this issue of Geoforum is the current disarray of geography with the decay of quantitative geography as the dominant mode of explanation. Declining interest in quantitative geography has gone hand in hand with a realisation of its inability to solve empirical or explanatory problems. It is just this di