Geography on the agenda1

Abstract

The article begins by considering the recently revived debate about the ‘North–South divide’ in the UK, and argues that theoretical work in geography on questions of regional uneven developments have had little impact on its political formulation. It takes off from this to reflect on the role of ‘the academic’, on the nature of social science practice and the status of its ‘knowledge production’, and on geography's potential social roles (and current popular image). It argues that geography needs to be more confident of its own specificity, for in that lies its potential contribution. Two elements of specificity are pointed to (among many potential ones): the coexistence of physical and human geography and the significance of, and need for the reformulation of, many popular and political concepts of space.