Geography: History and Concepts: A Student's Guide

What is Geography? Introduction Exploration and the cosmographic tradition A science of synthesis A modeloriented approach Local responses to global processes; deviations from the models in focus An organizational plan of geography A new synthesis? Homo geographicus Specialization and pluralismThe Foundation of Geography Geography in the ancient world Middle Ages and the Renaissance Varenius The philosopher, Immanuel Kant The `classical' period From cosmography to an institutionalized discipline Darwinism The social anarchists Geomorphology and physiography provide academic respect Environmental determinism and possibilism The French school of regional geography Landscapes and regions Regional studies in BritainGeography 1950S-1980S; 30 Years of Progress Changing job market The development of applied geography A discipline ripe for change The growth of 'spatial science' Critics of the spatial science school The achievements of spatial scienceParadigms and Revolutions Kuhn's paradigms Critics of Kuhn Induction, deduction and abduction Changing paradigms in geography? An idiographic or nomothetic science? Absolute and relative space What kind of revolution? A 'critical' revolution? Rerolution or evolution?Positivism and its Critics Positivism and critical theory The development of positivism Principles in positivism Criticisms of positivism Dialectics, Hegel and Marx; breaking down binaries Science as a force transforming society Practical consequences for research Geography and empiricism The positivism of spatial science Humanistic approaches Behavioural and welfare geography StructuralismNew Trends and Ideas Developed in the Last Decades Structuration theory Realism Agency, structures and actor-network theory Post-structuralism Post-modernism Gender and feminist geography New tools in geographical research; satellite photos and GIS To unite a vernacular and an academic definition of geography