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From the Inside Looking out and the Outside Looking in: Whatever Happened to ‘Behavioural Geography’?
Author(s) -
ARGENT N.M.,
WALMSLEY D.J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geographical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.695
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-5871
pISSN - 1745-5863
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2009.00571.x
Subject(s) - human geography , mainstream , critical geography , time geography , cultural geography , variety (cybernetics) , strategic geography , historical geography , social geography , social science , music geography , geography , five themes of geography , sociology , development geography , economic geography , environmental ethics , political science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
As part of the Institute of Australian Geographers' Millennium Project, this article examines the shift of behavioural geography from a cutting edge sub‐discipline to a branch of enquiry that is now much less prominent in mainstream human geography, especially in Australia. Through an exploration of the rationale for behavioural geography, a brief outline of the nature of the work that was done, and a consideration of the critiques of behavioural geography, the paper argues that behavioural geography enriched the discipline in several ways: it was instrumental in encouraging geographers to consider the epistemological foundations of the discipline; it fostered consideration of a variety of philosophical and methodological positions; and it highlighted the need to consider interrelationships between individuals, groups, society and environment thereby bringing into prominence the ways in which shared environmental meanings are contested and negotiated. Behavioural geography might be a term that is used much less than it once was and behaviourally‐orientated research might increasingly find expression in interdisciplinary outlets rather than in mainstream geography journals but contemporary geography is heir to the endeavours of behavioural geography.