Geography and State-Local Public Policy¹

Abstract

Many state and local policies on public revenue, expenditure, and regulation both shape and change the maps of settlement on the land. The making of those policies provides important organizing questions for geography. For geographers working on those questions, traditional subject groupings in the field tend to disperse reporting and inhibit interaction. Encouragement of special interest groups in the Association appears to be a step toward solution of the problem. More attention needs to be given both to the geographical structuring of public policy questions and to the importance of regions in the integration of topical studies.

Key Words:

• public policy
• geographic research

Notes

∗Editor's note: The theme of the 1984 Annual Meeting of the Association in Washington, D.C. was Geography and Public Policy. These three papers by John Borchert, Thomas Wilbanks, and Gilbert White were presented at the Meeting's opening session on April 22, 1984.