In this paper, two prominent critiques against the quantitative approach (based on spatial organization) in geography are discussed. In the first part one of the critiques “Behavioral geography” and in the second part another critique of quantitative revolution, “Humanistic geography” is studied.
Behavioral Geography:
During the late 1960’s and early 1960’s, a flaw in the quantitative revolution in geography to incorporate human’ individual action in the modeling of spatial science led the development of behavioral geography. Mechanistic and deterministic nature of quantitative models of human behavior by the positivists, focusing mainly on the economic and rational behavior of the man arose the dissatisfaction with the quantitative approach …show more content…
Late 1960s, which is considered as the emerging period of humanism in Anglo-America, a series of theories came out which criticize the knowledge system of logic-positivism. Humanistic geography is one of them. Yi-fu Tuan, Edward Relph, Anne Buttimer, David Ley, Marvyn Samuels and Nicholas Entrikin are the leaders of humanistic geography.6
This approach criticized the spatial approach by delineating that the spatial organization approach treated people as dots on a map, points in space, statistics on a graph or numbers in an equation. Humanistic geography developed due to a deep dissatisfaction with the mechanistic models of spatial science that had developed during the quantitative revolution. In fact, it was a rejection of the geometric determinism in which men and women were made to respond automatically to the dictates of universal spatial structures and abstract spatial …show more content…
Ley (1980) has characterized positivistic geography as “geography without man” and Relph (1976) characterized as “place and placenesses”. According to the critics the positivistic approach ignores the relationship between human and his environment and consider human and places as a concrete object.5
Although Kirk was the first geographer to advocate a humanistic approach in 1951, the term “humanistic geography” was used for the first time by YI-FU- TUAN in 1976. According to Tuan (1976), humanistic geography was playing a prominent role in disclosing the complexity and ambiguity of relations between people and place or man and environment. Humanistic geography developed as a criticism against positivism and quantitative revolution by giving human the central and active role to human activities. The followers of this approach believe geography as “the study of the earth as the home of
Behavioral Geography:
During the late 1960’s and early 1960’s, a flaw in the quantitative revolution in geography to incorporate human’ individual action in the modeling of spatial science led the development of behavioral geography. Mechanistic and deterministic nature of quantitative models of human behavior by the positivists, focusing mainly on the economic and rational behavior of the man arose the dissatisfaction with the quantitative approach …show more content…
Late 1960s, which is considered as the emerging period of humanism in Anglo-America, a series of theories came out which criticize the knowledge system of logic-positivism. Humanistic geography is one of them. Yi-fu Tuan, Edward Relph, Anne Buttimer, David Ley, Marvyn Samuels and Nicholas Entrikin are the leaders of humanistic geography.6
This approach criticized the spatial approach by delineating that the spatial organization approach treated people as dots on a map, points in space, statistics on a graph or numbers in an equation. Humanistic geography developed due to a deep dissatisfaction with the mechanistic models of spatial science that had developed during the quantitative revolution. In fact, it was a rejection of the geometric determinism in which men and women were made to respond automatically to the dictates of universal spatial structures and abstract spatial …show more content…
Ley (1980) has characterized positivistic geography as “geography without man” and Relph (1976) characterized as “place and placenesses”. According to the critics the positivistic approach ignores the relationship between human and his environment and consider human and places as a concrete object.5
Although Kirk was the first geographer to advocate a humanistic approach in 1951, the term “humanistic geography” was used for the first time by YI-FU- TUAN in 1976. According to Tuan (1976), humanistic geography was playing a prominent role in disclosing the complexity and ambiguity of relations between people and place or man and environment. Humanistic geography developed as a criticism against positivism and quantitative revolution by giving human the central and active role to human activities. The followers of this approach believe geography as “the study of the earth as the home of