A Question of Place: Exploring the Practice of Human Geography

The great variety of approaches employed by human geographers - behavioural, economic, environmental, social are but a few - is one of the great strengths of the discipline, supplying a richness of perspective and acting as a break on facile generalization. But it is also a weakness, for the absence of an agreed agenda or method inhabits any commonality of purpose and dissipates the advancement of understanding and knowledge. In "A Question of Place", R.J. Johnston addresses this central problem by arguing for a refocus on place. Individual and collective perceptions and experiences of place are conditioned by and themselves affect a multiplicity of social, environmental, economic and political factors. Understanding their interactions and their outcome is something for which, the author argues and shows, the theory and methodology of human geography may be well equipped. The author draws on his own and others' work to illustrate the applicability of his argument in three detailed case studies on the north and south of Britain and the United States. He shows how the experience of place in the present and in the past manifests itself through culture and territoriality in ways both consensual and conflicting. This book is addressed to a wide readership of students and practitioners of human geography, as well as to those in the social sciences more generally - where there is a growing sense of the importance of place.