THE 1960's: A DECADE OF PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH AND INSTRUCTION

ABSTRACT

The emergence of geography as an abstract, theoretical science appears to have been the most overriding development in geographic research during the 1960's. Attention has focused on the spatial organization of economic, social, physical, political and urban processes, and on how outcomes generated by these processes are evidenced at given times and in particular places. Special attention has been placed on the spatial aspects of social processes, giving rise to a new social geography. Problems related to environmental perception and control have also been researched. Accompanying these developments has been a widespread acceptance of the need for more geographically-oriented quantitative methods for use in model building. Continued progress has been made in the observation and handling of data, computer programming, and the application of remote sensing to geographic problems. All of these developments have had impacts on the teaching of geography, especially at the high school and undergraduate college levels through projects sponsored by the Association of American Geographers.

Notes

1 Address given by the Past President of the Association of American Geographers at its 65th Annual Meeting, Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 13, 1969.

2 E. A. Ackerman, Geography as a Fundamental Research Discivline. Research PaDer Number 53 ., (Chicago: Department of Geography, the University of Chicago, 1958), pp. 28 ff.

3 SAckerman, op. cit., footnote 2, p. 30.

4 W. Bunge, Theoretical Geography, Lund Studies in Geography, Ser. C., General and Mathematical Geography No. 1 (Lund, Sweden: Gleerup, 1962). The publication of this monograph had a great impact on the development of geography as a theoretical-deductive science during the 1960's. A large number of articles can be cited to support this statement. The reader is referred to the professional journals in geography and closely related discipline to note the great increase over previous decades in articles dealing abqtractly with the spatial structure and relations of natural and cultural phenomena and with the analysis of the spatial aspects of human behavior. Special attention should also be called to the forthcoming report of the Special Panel on Geography, Behavioral and Social Sciences Survey Committee, National Academy of Science-Social Science Research Council, chaired by Edward J. Taaffe. The author of this paper had the privilege of reading this report, and permission of the chairman to quote from it.

5 For a brief, but thorough, overview of the several approaches that have evolved relative to the broad subject of location analysis, see L. J. King, “Approaches to Location Analysis: An Overview,”The East Lakes Geographer, Vol. 2 (1966), pp. 1 16; see also, G. Olsson, Distance and Human Interaction: A Review and Bibliography, Bibliography Series, No. 2 (Philadelphia: Regional Science Research Institute, 1965); and R. H. T. Smith, E. J. Taaffe, and L. J. King, Readings in Economic Geography (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1967). Attention should also be called to P. Haggett, Locational Analysis in Human Geography (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966). The reader might find it of interest to review the “revolution” in geography during the 1950's and 1960's with T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).

6 R. Brown, Explanation in Social Science (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1963), see especially pp. 165–93.

7 P. La Valle. H. McConnell. and R. C. Brown, “Certain Aspects of the Expansion of Quantitative Methodology in American Geography,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 57 (1967), pp. 423 36.

8 I. Burton, “The Quantitative Revolution and Theoretical Geography,”The Canadian Geographer, Vol. 7 (1963), pp. 151 62, reprinted in B. J. L. Berry and D. F. Marble, Spatial Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968), pp. 13–23.

9 Berry and Marble, op. cit., footnote 8; and L. J. King, Statistical Analysis in Geography (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969). Other textbooks published in foreign countries, especially in Britain, have been made available during the 1960's.

10 R. L. Ackoff, Scientific Method, Optimizing Applied Research Decisions (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1962), pp. 108 ff.; I. S. Lowry, “A Short Course in Model Design,”Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 31 (1965), pp. 158 66; J. G. Kemeny and J. L. Snell, Mathematical Models in the Social Sciences (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1962); L. J. King, op. cit., footnote 8; and R. J. Chorley and P. Haggett (Eds.), Models in Geography (London: Methuen and Co., 1967). The last reference is a most significant contribution to the development of modeling in geographic research.

11 T. Hagerstrand, “On the Monte Carlo Simulation of Diffusion,”Archives Europeenes De Sociologie, Vol. 6 (1965), pp. 43 67; L. S. Bowden, Diffusion of the Decision to Irrigate: Simulation of the Spread of a New Resource Management Practice the Colorado Northern High Plains, Research Paper 97 (Chicago: Department of Geography, University of Chicago, 1965).

12 Ackoff, op. cit., footnote 10, pp 346–63. See also L. Curry, “The Random Spatial Econoinv, In Exploration in Settlement Theory,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol 54 (1964), pp. 138 36, and M. F. Dacey, “Modified Poisson Probability Law for Point Pattern More Regular Than Rmdom,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 54 (1964), pp. 559 65.

13 The Science of Geography, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Geogiaphy, Earth Sciences Division (Washington, D. C.: National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1965).

14 J. Lancaster, “Geographers and Remote Sensing,”Journal of Geography, Vol. 67 (1968), pp. 301 10.

15 Criteria here suggested by Robcrt Wittick, graduate student, Department of Geography, The university of Iowa.

16 See especially L. Brown, Diffusion Dynanlics, Lund Studies in Geography, Ser. B., Human Geography No. 29 (Lund, Sweden: University of Lund, 1968), and Diffusion Processes and Location, Bibliography Series, No. 4, (Philadelphia: Regional Science Research Institute, 19G8); T. Hagerstrand, “Aspects of the Spatial Structure of Social Coniinunication and the Diffusion of Information,”Papers of the Regional Science Association, Vol. 16, (1966), pp. 27 42;R. Morrill and F. R. Pitts, “Marriage, Migration, and the Mean Information Field,”Annuls, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 57 (1967), pp. 401 22; E. M. Rogers, Bibliography of Research on the Diffusion of lnnovations (East Lansing, Michigan: Department of Communication, Michiigan State University, 1964); and R. L. Morrill, Rligration and the Spread and Grouth of Urban Settlement, Lund Studies in Geography, Ser. B., Humau Geography, No. 26 (Lund, Sweden: University of Lund, 1965).

17 J. Wolpert, “The Basis for Stability of Interregional Transactions,”Geographical Analysis, Vol. 1 (1969), pp. 152 80.

18 B. J. L. Berry and A. Pred, Central Place Studies, A Bibliography of Theory and Applications (Philadelphia: Regional Science Research Institute, 2nd edition, 1965).

19 For example,G. F. White, “Contribution of Geographical Analysis to River Basin Development,”Geographical Journal, Vol. 129 (1963), pp. 412 36, and “Formation and Role of Public Attitudes,” in H. Jarrett (Ed.), Enuironmenlal Quality in A Growing Economy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, for Resources for the Future, Inc., 1966), pp. 105–28.

20 For example, see R. W. Kates, Hazard and Choice Perception in Flood Plain Managcment, Research Paper 78 (Chicago: Department of Geography, University of Chicago, 1962); T. F. Saaiinen, Preception of the Drought Hazard on the Great Plains, Research Paper No. 106 (Chicago: Department of Geography, University of Chicago, 1966); D. Lowenthal (Ed.), Environmental Perception and Behauior, Research Paper No. 109 (Chicago: Department of Geography, University of Chicago, 1966); I. Buiton and R. W. Kates, Readings in Resource Management and Consemation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965).

21 F. E. Horton and D. R. Reynolds, “An Investigation of Individual Action Spacey: A Progress Report,”Ptoceedings, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 1 (1969), pp. 70 75; and P. R. Could, “On Mental Maps,”Michigan Intcr-University Community of Mathematical Geographers, Discussion Paper. No. 6 (Ann Arbor: Department of Geography, University of Michigan, 1966).

22 Among the first to suggest noneconomic hypotheses to explain the spatial aspects of human behavior was J. Wolpert, “The Decision Process in Spatial Content,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 54 (1964), pp. 537 58. There is also G. Olsson and S. Gale, “Spatial Theory and Human Behavior,”Papers of the Regional Science Association, Vol. 21 (1968), pp. 229 42.

23 H. H. Barrows, “Geography as Human Ecology,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 13 (1922), pp. 1 14.

24 See especially, D. R. Deskins, Jr., “Geographical Literature on the American Negro, 1949–1968: A Bibliography,”The Professional Geographer, Vol. 21 (1969), pp. 145 49.

25 A. Buttimer (Sister Mary Annette, 0. P.), “Geography: Social Geography,”International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: The Macmillan Company and the Free Press, 1968), pp. 134–45.

26 A. Buttimer (Sister Mary Annette, 0. P.), “Social Space in Interdisciplinary Perspective,”The Geographical Reuiew, Vol. 59 (1969), pp. 417 26.

27 For a more complete discussion of the application of geography to careers in many fields see P. E. James and L. Kennamer (Eds.), Geography as a Professional Field, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bulletin 1966, No. 10 (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1966).

28 E. N. Thomas and J. L. Schofer, Toward the Development of a More Responsine Urban and Transportation System Models (Evanston, Illinois: Research Report, The Transportation Center, Northwestern University, 1967), p. 5 ff.; E. A. Ackerman, “Where is a Research Frontier?”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 53 (1963), pp. 409 10.

29 For example, see B. J. L. Berry, “Approaches to Regional Analysis: A Synthesis,”Annals, Association of American Geographers, Vol. 54 (1964), pp. 2 10; and J. D. Nystuen and M. F. Dacey, “A Graph Theory Interprctation of Nodal Regions,”Papers and Proceedings of the Regional Science Association, Vol. 7 (1961), pp. 29 42.

30 N. Helburn, “The Educational Objectives of High School Geography,”Journal of Geography, Vol. 67 (1968), pp. 274 81; see also, B. A. Johnson, “The Use of Theoretical Models in Geography Teaching,”Journal of Geography, Vol. 67 (1968), pp. 237 40.

31 J. L. Lounsbury, “College Geography in the United States,”Journal of Geography, Vol. 67 (1968), pp. 282 87.

32 A. Meinherg, “Criteria for Scientific Choice,”Minerua, Vol. 1 (1963), pp. 159 71;W. L. Garrison, “Values of Regional Science,”Papers of The Regional Science Association, Vol. 13 (1964), pp. 7 11.