POLS 2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Normal Science, Environmental Determinism
14 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY
Internalist Explanations: focused on relatively small group of professional/ academic
geographers. Write and talk in a way that’s only understood by other experts.
→Paradigms of research: Includes bigger questions, central concepts, testing and
arguing concepts, “normal science”.
Contextualist Explanations: focus on social, political, and economic contexts in which
geographers work.
→ For whom are we doing this research?
→ With what external challenges
Late 19th Century (~ 1875-1945)
- Geography is Euro American
- The field was small, male, white, and elite (wealthy)
- Environmental determinism: the idea that the physical/ natural environment
determines social, political, and economical development of states and societies
- People doubted this and thought the ideas were ridiculous
1945-1970
- Geography in North America becomes an intellectual dead end. Everything quickly
becomes useless and outdated
- In this period a lot of universities close their geography departments
- “Boring” descriptive studies of cultural patterns
1970-Today
- Geography reborn: New students, new ideas, new external concerns
- Political economy and urban issues
- Feminist, racial justice, environmental movements
- New Methods → Quantitative methods and theories
- “Big Data”: data that comes from our daily activities, millions of data points
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Internalist explanations: focused on relatively small group of professional/ academic geographers. Write and talk in a way that"s only understood by other experts. Paradigms of research: includes bigger questions, central concepts, testing and arguing concepts, normal science . Contextualist explanations: focus on social, political, and economic contexts in which geographers work. The field was small, male, white, and elite (wealthy) Environmental determinism: the idea that the physical/ natural environment determines social, political, and economical development of states and societies. People doubted this and thought the ideas were ridiculous. Geography in north america becomes an intellectual dead end. In this period a lot of universities close their geography departments. Geography reborn: new students, new ideas, new external concerns. New methods quantitative methods and theories.
