The Radical Revolution is also called the social relevance revolution or the Geography of dissent.
Rejection of mechanical quantification & addressing Social problems.
In the 1970s, there was another rejection of mechanical quantification or rejection of geography as a science of man environment relationship alone. Some of the development of the society and political environment forced a re-interpretation of the purpose and objective of geography. These events included social turmoil, unemployment, conflicts, racism, wide-scale disparities, and poverty where Americans were increasingly disillusioned with all that America stood for. It is in this social and political uncertainty that geographers were forced to reassess if geography should grow out of its academic debates and become relevant to address and solve the social problems of the society.
Wibur Zelinsky- SERGE.
As the president of the association of American Geographers (AAG), he tried to insert a new agenda for Geographers - Geography with the potential to solve and prescribe the solutions to social tensions. He started a movement called SERGE (Society for Ecological and Socially Relevant Geographers).
In this phase, the objectivity of geography was to study the man environment relationship in the context of searching causes for disparities, poverty, and conflicts in the socio-economic-political system and not in the environment (as in Environmental determinism) not in cultures (as in possibilism) and not in subjective human cognition (as in behavioral geography).
Pahl
In 1969, while studying residential 🏠 patterns, Pahl concluded that the communities and individuals are constructed and constrained from exercising their choices by political and social processes like bureaucracy, ethnic identities, economic class disparity, and historical discriminations.
Hence in the dissent phase, the appeal was a socially relevant revolution that could challenge and alter the existing economic and political system.
- The liberal reformist approach
- The Radical Geographers
The liberal reformist approach.
Slow 🐌 incremental ∆ reforms in the institutions to make institutions more responsive and sensitive to problems. They were neo-conservative liberals who believed in affirmative action, progressive taxation, corporate social responsibility, welfare based security net. They were the welfare geographers and essentially the believers of market-based capitalism in the political-economic system. They were referred to as Status-Quoist.
welfare geography was the work of DH Smith and Cox. The book of smith human geography a welfare approach. The book of Cox conflicts power and politics in the city.
the central theme of welfare geography was who gets what where and how.
- who - people living in an area divided and differentiated on some economic social criteria
- what - refers to the goods and services which are the basis of inequality
- where - the area of residence and occupation
- how - the political economic and social process that determines the hierarchy inequality and conflicts.
The Radical Geographers
Aim of the Radical Geographers
- Promoted revolutionary Socialism
- Complete replacement of unresponsive and unjust corporate capitalist state
- Replace the state with Left-Wing Movement with Socialist Ideology
Radical Geographers never officially acknowledged Marx or Communism ☭ 🚩 because of its infamousness in the US, but they were inspired by it.
William Bunge
The beginnings of radicalism can be traced back to him and his movement Society for Human Exploration in Detroit
David Harvey - Welfare Reformist
- He was originally a Welfare Reformist.
- His ideas were published in the Book Social Justice and City.
- According to him, "Slow incremental changes are futile and the only way to address social conflicts and poverty was elimination of market mechanism".
Previous years questions
- 2003: Present a critical analysis of human and welfare approaches in Human Geography.
- 2004: Distinguish between radical and welfare approaches in geographic studies.
- 2011: Welfare Approach in Human Geography.
- 2014: Discuss the contribution of geographers in the development of radical geography.
- 2015: "The welfare face of geography makes it an inter-disciplinary subject." Elaborate.
- 2018: Comment upon the contributions of D.M. Smith in outlining 'welfare' as a key focus in the geographies of social well-being.
- 2018: Elaborate upon the influence of Marxist philosophy on geographical research, outlining key themes addressed by Marxist geographers since the 1970s.
- 2018: "Welfare geography emphasizes spatial inequality and territorial justice." Comment
- with reference to the main ideas and scope of the subfield.
Main Post - Geography Optional Syllabus