現代 人文地理學의 思期

Abstract

Contemporary human geography has no single disciplinary matrix at the present time, there-fore, and has not had one during the period since 1950. Rather there have been several competing for a stable position, if not dominance, both within the discipline and beyond. Each matrix has its own branches with their particular exemplas and their leader who chart progress and seek influence over the whole discipline. Until the 1950s the regional concept and a regional approach dominated the endeavours of

researchers and teachers. But then, a new type of work was initiated by geographers who were distressed by the lack of true intellectual demands characterizing much research during the preceding decades. This was the positivist movement with its multiple origins in the United States. Over a decade or so, spatial science progressed in the manner described by Kuhnian 'normal science,' sharpening its tools, testing

and revising its theories, and extending its substantive sphere of influence. A significant challenge to its status as orthodoxy came in the mid-1960s with a behaviourist approach that criticized what were seen as weaknesses in the axiomatic underpinnings of its theories. This challenge was met by incorporation and

further modification of spatial-science theories, and the paradigm was only slightly deflected.