BETWEEN POLITICAL ECONOMY AND POSTMODERNISM

A review article on a book by R. Peet & N. Thrift (Eds), New Models in Geography (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989 [see listing in IRPS No. 67]). While the original Models in Geography (1967 [no further publication information provided]) was strongly entrenched in positivist epistemology & firmly committed to quantitative analysis of empirical data, the goal of New Models in Geography is to summarize alternative perspectives that have emerged in human geography as a critique of the 1960s/1970s romance with spatial geography. Focusing primarily on research in English-speaking countries, several themes emerge: the ability of an orthodox Marxist framework to account for contemporary developments; social implications of the qualitative change in contemporary capitalism; the theoretical poverty of spatial theory; & the power relationship between social structures & individual agents. 4 References. M. Maguire