Approaches to human geography - Stuart Aitken

Approaches to Human Geography is the essential student primer on theory and practice in human geography. It is a systematic review of the key ideas and debates informing post-war geography, explaining how those ideas work in practice. In three sections, the text provides:

A comprehensive contexualising essay: Introducing Philosophies, People and Practices

Philosophies: written by the principal proponents, easily comprehensible accounts of: Positivistic Geographies; Humanism; Feminist Geographies; Marxism; Structuration Theory; Behavioral Geography; Realism; Post Structuralist Theories; Actor-Network Theory; and Post Colonialism

People: prominent geographers explain events that formed their ways of knowing; the section offers situated accounts of theory and practice by, for example: David Ley; Linda McDowell; and David Harvey

Practices: applied accounts of Quantification, Evidence and Positivism; Geographic Information Systems; Humanism; Geography, Political Activism, and Marxism; the Production of Feminist Geographies; Poststructuralist Theory; Environmental Inquiry in a Postcolonial World; Contested Geographies

Student Exercises and Glossary

Avoiding jargon - while attentive to the rigor and complexity of the ideas that underlie geographic knowledge - the text is written for students who have not met philosophical or theoretical approaches before. This is a beginning guide to geographic research and practice.

Comprehensive and accessible, it will be the core text for courses on Approaches to Human Geography; Philosophy and Geography; and the History of Geography; and a key resource for students beginning research projects.