Critical geography
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{{History of geography}}
The development of '''critical geography''' can be seen as one of the four major turning points in the history of geography (the other three being [[environmental determinism]], [[regional geography]] and [[quantitative revolution]]). Though post-positivist approaches remain important in geography the critical geography arose as a critique of [[positivism]] introduced by quantitative revolution.
Two main schools of thought emerged from human geography and one existing school ('''[[Behavioral geography|behavioural geography]]''') which made a brief comeback. Behavioural geography sought to counter the perceived tendency of quantitative geography to deal with humanity as a statistical phenomenon. It flourished briefly during the 1970s and sought to provide a greater understanding of how people perceived places and made locational decisions and sought to challenge mathematical models of society, in particular the use of [[econometrics|econometric]] techniques. But the lack of a sound theoretical base left behavioural geography open to critique as merely descriptive and amounting to little more than a listing of spatial preferences.
'''Radical geography''' emerged during the 1970s and 1980s as the inadequacies of behavioralist methods became clear. It sought to counter the [[positive science|postivist]] quantitative methods with [[normative]] techniques drawn from [[Marxism|Marxist]] theory: quantitative methods, it argued, were not useful unless alternatives or solutions were given to problems.
The final and, arguably, most successful of the three schools was '''humanistic geography''', initially formed part of behavioural geography but fundamentally disagreed with the use of quantitative methods in assessing human behaviour and thoughts in favour of [[qualitative research|qualitative]] analysis. Humanistic geography used many of the techniques that the [[humanities]] use such as source analysis and the use of text and literature to try to ‘get into the mind’ of the subject(s). Furthermore, [[Cultural geography]] revived due to humanistic geography new areas of study such as [[Feminist geography]], postmodernist and poststructuralist geography began to emerge.
==Additional Reading==
* ''Social Justice and the City'', Ira Katznelson (Foreword), David Harvey, Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 0-631-16476-6
* "[[Antipode (Journal)|Antipode]]", A Radical Journal of Geography, [[Blackwell Publishing]][http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0066-4812&site=1]
* ''ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies'' (http://www.acme-journal.org)
==See also==
* [[Geography]]
* [[History of geography]]
* [[Quantitative revolution|Quantitative Revolution]]
* [[environmental determinism|Environmental Determinism]]
* [[Regional geography|Regional Geography]]
* [[feminist geography|Feminist Geography]]
* [[behavioral geography|Behavioral Geography]]
* [[Critical geopolitics]]
{{Human geography}}
[[Category:Human geography]]
[[Category:History of geography]]
[[pt:Geografia crítica]]