THE PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESS AND SOUTH AFRICAN GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

The question of how much progress has been made in any sphere of life calls for the interrogation of both the meanings and measurements of progress. This applies to discussions on ‘progress’ made by scientific disciplines. For a discipline such as geography, which stands at the confluence of philosophies of science, evaluating progress is a complex undertaking. Nevertheless, philosophies of progress could possibly highlight the ebbs and flows of the discipline. In this paper, I appropriate one of the many versions of the philosophies of progress to assess the achievements and shortcomings of South African geography over the last three decades. The paper concludes that, while the influence of mainstream geography cannot be discounted, local political environments have profound impact on the twists and turns of local geography.