Abstract
fertility and mortality to others who increasingly identify themselves as ‘epidemiologists’ or ‘medical geographers’. Another area of tension is the place of social theory in population geography. According to Rachel Silvey, population geographers have shied away from engaging in developments in social theory that have transformed human geography in recent decades. Whereas Silvey would like to see a more critical population geography emerge, David Plane prefers population geographers to continue to maintain a distance from the ‘recent bloody battlegrounds of epistemological debate’ in other areas of geography. The divergent opinions on the place of social theory closely connect with issues of methodology. Rachel Silvey notes that population geography to date is a positivist, secondary data-driven enterprise. Both she and Dennis Conway would like to see population geographers embrace a wider range of methodologies – qualitative, ethnographic and others – that allow the articulation of different sorts of questions. At the same time, it is clear from David Plane’s commentary that we are now seeing groundbreaking changes in the manner in which population data is being generated and reported by the US Census Bureau. The explosion in population data, accompanied by advances in GIS technologies, provides enormous opportunities for population geographers to have a voice in public policy. Ultimately, these commentaries make it clear that that contemporary population geography is not immune from the forces that are transforming geography at large. These forces are increasingly challenging us to rethink the content and boundaries of population geography. Yet it is precisely these tensions that contain the seeds of growth and vibrancy of population geography in the next 50 years. Nurturing this diversity while keeping sight of Trewartha’s vision for population geography may represent the challenge ahead for population geography. POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE Popul. Space Place 10, 309 (2004) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/psp.335
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