The Radicalization of Geography

Abstract

In the early 1960s, American geography was dominated by regional descriptions, spatial science and cultural geography. The politicized atmosphere of those years pointed to the inadequacy of these approaches to address the concerns of many geographers. That dissatisfaction with the existing geography led to new research areas (poverty, Third World development) and soon to a radical change in the models of explanation that came from the Marxist theory. In the late 1980s and during the 1990s these approaches, which had come to be the dominant with geographers such as David Harvey, Neil Smith and Jim Blaut, were harshly criticized and challenged from postmodern and post-structuralist positions. In recent years, however, growing awareness of the effects of financial capitalism, neoliberal politics and the environmental crisis has led to an emergence of a new and more diverse generation of radical geographers

Keywords: radical geography, marxist theory, neoliberalism, environmental crisis.