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Early Approaches to Human Geography

Early Approaches to Human Geography. Introduction Martin Phillips Behavioural and Humanistic Geographies Ontology Epistemology Positivism Ontology – phenomena to be explained as 'instances of laws ' (Schaeffer, 1953)

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Early Approaches to Human Geography

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  1. Early Approaches to Human Geography Introduction Martin Phillips Behavioural and Humanistic Geographies Ontology Epistemology Positivism Ontology – phenomena to be explained as 'instances of laws' (Schaeffer, 1953) Epistemology – scientific method – systematic/objective observation

  2. Behavioural Geography • Ontology of Behavioural Geography • Epistemology of Behavioural Geography

  3. Behavioural Geography • Ontology of Behavioural Geography even from within the ranks of the spatial scientists a measure of unease quickly began to emerge about the ability of their cherished 'laws' and 'models' (notably their borrowings from Christaller, Von Thünen and Weber) to account adequately for observed patterns of location and movement within society (Cloke, 1991, p. 66-67). Human geographers began to question the concept of economic rationality

  4. Criticisms of economic rationality models • Was 'profit maximisation' universal ? E.g. Wolpert (1964) • People satificers as well as optimisers • Was it ever possible ? Wolpert (1964) - rationality always 'bounded' • by peoples' decision making ability • variations in environmental knowledge

  5. Criticisms of economic rationality models • Was 'profit maximisation' universal ? E.g. Wolpert (1964) - study of farm productivity in Sweden • People were making sub-optimal decisions • People satificers as well as optimisers • Was it ever possible ? Wolpert (1964) - rationality always 'bounded' • by peoples' decision making ability • variations in environmental knowledge

  6. Criticisms of economic rationality models 'perfect knowledge and a perfect ability to utilise such information in a rational fashion, economic man maximises returns and minimizes costs' (Blakemore 1981: 96) • Who has perfect knowledge? • Knoweldge restricted by geography • Spatially delimited knowledges • Cognitive/mental maps (Downs and Stea 1973, Gould and White, 1974) • Perceptual fields (Potter, 1976, 1977, 1979) • Behavioural environments (Boal and Livingstone)

  7. Behavioural geographies Golledge et al (1972) identify 5 areas of behavioural geography research • Decision making and locational choice • Information diffusion and innovation • Search and learning • Voting behaviour • Hazard perception and mental maps

  8. Epistemology • Continuation of positivism? • See Couclelis and Golledge 1983; Golledge and Counclelis 1984; Golledge and Rushton 1984; Golledge and Stimson 1987 • Non-positivist ? • See Burton (1963), Brookfield (1969) and Mercer and Powell (1972)

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