ASSESSING THE ROLE OF SPATIAL ANALYSIS IN URBAN GEOGRAPHY IN THE 1960s

Abstract

Using content analysis, this study examines four leading geography journals and two regional science outlets for the number and kinds of urban geography articles published during the 1960s. Whereas the 1960s are typically portrayed as the heyday of the theoretical and quantitative revolution, a surprisingly large number of urban geography articles published during this time reflected a pre-1958 research mode. The Professional Geographer, for example, published 386 articles during the 1960s, most of which were quite short. A total of 61 of these articles, or 15.8%, were classified as urban—broadly defined. Of these urban geography articles, only 28, or 45.9%, were classified as following the spatial analysis format—that is, they were considered quantitative-theoretical. This study calls into question the dominance of spatial analysis in urban geography during the 1960s. In hindsight, however, it is evident that it was those relatively few articles following the spatial tradition that transformed pre-1970 urban geography from a weakly structured subdiscipline into a more mature and expansive field of investigation. [Key words: content analysis, spatial analysis, 1960s, urban geography.]

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