The Dictionary of Human Geography

locational analysis, which he termedregional
science(although it was longer on theory and
shorter on geometry than Haggett’s version).
Both Haggett’s and Isard’s accounts of
locational analysis enjoyed considerable suc-
cess within human geography for a period,
but their star waned from the 1970s for
reasons both internal and external to the
discipline (see quantitative revolution).
During the 1990s, however, the baton of loca-
tional analysis was passed to the economists in
the form of a New Economic Geography
(Fujita, Krugman and Venables, 1999). Un-
surprisingly, it was more theoretical and
mathematical, less empirical and geometrical,
than in its previous version, but the basic
mission was unaltered: to represent and ana-
lyse economic geographical distributions, and
interactions, at all scales using exact, formal
techniques and vocabularies.
The tie that binds locational analysis over
its more than 150-year history is a conviction
that the secrets of location are to be revealed
by a ruthless pursuit of rational enquiry and
methods, which takes its most perfect form
in the logical structure and techniques of
mathematics including geometry. The spe-
cifics of the location question vary – from
point-to-point interaction to the composition
of regional networks and surfaces – but the
universal rationalist method is constant,
thereby ensuring certainty, progress, and
truth (so its protagonists claim). In contrast,
Barnes (2003) argues that it is not as clear-cut:
as withsciencemore generally, or any other
form of knowledge, the historical and

geographical circumstances of the locational

analysts intrude and inevitably corrupt their

supposedly pure rationality (cf.local know-

ledge). This does not detract from the

achievements of locational analysis, but it

casts them in a different light. For it requires

an understanding of the peculiar historical

and geographical context of their production,

an emphasis ironically quite different from

the one offered by locational analysts

themselves. tb

Suggested reading

Barnes (2003).

logical empiricism Sometimes used as a

synonym forlogical positivism, but more

often used to mark the post-Second World

War Anglo-American movement inphiloso-

phythat built upon and extended it (drawing

on earlier strands ofpositivismandempiri-

cism). Committed to empirical verifiability

and logic, the original logical positivists were

sceptical of theory, because it was neither facts

nor operations of logic. Such scepticism could

not be sustained in the face of the massive

explosion (sometimes literal) of war and

postwarsciencedefined by theoretical con-

struction and empirical testing. Something

had to give. In this case, ‘empiricism’ was

substituted for the troubling term ‘positivism’

(and the root cause of the scepticism). Those

working under the banner of logical empiri-

cism were some of the pre-war logical positiv-

ists who had immigrated to the United States

and there revised their position, such as

Locational analysis Stages in the analysis of nodal regional systems: (a) interaction: (b) networks: (c) nodes:

(d) hierarchies: (e) surface: (f) diffusion(Haggett et al., 1977)

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LOGICAL EMPIRICISM