Human Geography, Regional Science, and the Study of Individual Behaviour

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between the highly disaggregated studies of spatial behaviour and perception, which are becoming more and more commonplace in the geographic and planning literature, and the basic tenets of the methods generally accepted within the parent disciplines of human geography and regional science. The argument is advanced that the relationship is an unfortunate one of dependence; that behavioural research in geography has accepted too easily a philosophy of science and an approach to problem formulation and hypothesis testing which is ‘handed down’ indirectly from the natural sciences; and that this limitation has effectively precluded a whole range of approaches to the study of human spatial behaviour, approaches which could be very fruitful indeed.