The State of the Art

Abstract

A look at the geographical literature over recent years will show you, perhaps to your surprise, that the prophecies of doom for regional geography have been discredited. Regional geography is not dying. On the contrary, there are signs of new growth. A glance at the papers quoted in the 1984 April-June issues of Current Geographical Publications reveals that between 38% and 49% of the listed publications have been classified as regional. Of course, classification depends on the method used, and perhaps in other bibliographical reviews the percentages would be different. Nevertheless, these figures evidence a renewed interest in regional geography. This state of the art contradicts the attitude of the ruling geographical establishment, by which I mean the University departments, where regional geography is nearly ignored.

Geography remains in a state of methodological turmoil… Geographers have reduced not only where they study and what they specialise in studying, but also how they study, to its furthest elementary fragments. The situation is becoming untenable.

Martin J. Haigh, 1985, p.201