Novelty in science and life from the standpoint of an economic geographer

Abstract

What is new or not is a pretty old question per se, and in fact eternal in the history of mankind. The author raises it in two facets and for two worlds, the wide world of life and the narrow world of education and science, including the very narrow geographical one. As it is shown, a true novelty remains rare, and the pursuit of it is both a blessing and a scourge of the today’s world. Innovations are in demand, they are talked about a lot, but they are often imitated and replaced with fakes. They are studied by geographers in a positive context, but they are not in a negative one, as far as I can see. To me. cyclic processes lack novelty in the full sense of the word. Two examples of shifts open to the future, with an unclear outcome, are given in the article, one from the field of economics (changes in its structural types) and the other, from demography (changes in the types of reproduction and ageing). Both have their specific spatial factors and manifestations. True novelty is more valuable in science than in business practice. For Russia’s science and education, with their serious problems, this is a key factor of survival and success.