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Chorley attempted, for a modern generation,
to reconnect (physical) geography with the
integrative strands of natural science, and to
recapture for the subject the high ground of
ambition and application (brilliantly revived in
Stoddart, 1986). GST was the best way to
date ofrepresentingthose elusive linkages and
connections (i.e. patterns and processes) that
were fundamental to geography from
Victorian times. The systems approach trans-
ferred readily, and enduringly, to physical
geography (see Chorley and Kennedy, 1971),
but appeared overly mechanistic and control-
orientated (see, e.g., Bennett and Chorley,
1978), with the ascendancy of humanistic per-
spectives. There quickly followed a time when,
as Haggett (1990, p. 152) put it, consensus
around a common nature of areal differenti-
ation and common methodology evaporated
ashumangeography was ‘Cut-off from its
older geographical roots. .. ’ and drifted
towards the social sciences.
Aside from the overt concerns with discip-
linary definitions and coherence, the mid-to-
late twentieth century was not devoid of
important substantive scholarly, as well as
practical achievements by physical geograph-
ers. With hindsight, these also provided
important points of attachment with contem-
porary scientific and environmental agendas.
Barry and Chorley (1968), for example,
helped to keep alive synoptic climatology as
a foundational strand of physical geograph-
ical study, and their book was followed by
more technically and scientifically challen-
ging texts such as Oke’s on boundary layer
climates (1978), and Henderson-Sellers’ and
McGuffie’s (1989) early contribution to cli-
matic modelling. All of these are now con-
sidered ‘classics’ and have run into multiple
editions. With respect to climatic history,
substantiating the character and scale of nat-
ural environmental change was arguably one
of physical geography’s greatest achieve-
ments in this period. Contributions by
physical geographers remain fundamental to
the sub-discipline of Quaternary studies (see
Goudie, 1977, and its numerous editions
for review). The traditional emphasis on
human–environmental interaction was also
not forgotten, with physical geographers
and physical geography very well represented
in the landmark text,Man’s role in changing
thefaceoftheEarth(Thomas, 1956), and in
its successors such as Manners and
Mikeswell (1974) and Goudie (1981).
(Thislattervolumeoffersaveryaccessible
synthesis of the diverse geographical andnon-geographical literature in its several
newer editions.)
Another strong manifestation of physical
geography in the later twentieth century
occurred in environment and development
studies, with the fusion of political–economic
analysis and scientific–technical environmen-
tal expertise into what is now termed political
ecology. Works by Blaikie (1985) and Blaikie
and Brookfield (1987) are paradigmatic exem-
plars, and again offer enhanced valence with a
much wider (geographical) literature and
through the study of globalization, economics
and uneven development. In the USA, for
example, Butzer (2002) places concern for
environment and development at the heart of
a reinvigoration of physical geography that has
been able to shape and enact globally signifi-
cant agendas outside, as well as within aca-
demic circles. A good example of this is the
conservation and environmental move-
ment, where physical geographers have been
central in charting its origins and changing
characteristics, and in defining and populariz-
ing new directions – see, for example, the very
different perspectives offered by Grove
(1995), Pepper (1996) and Adams (2004).
Returning to a disciplinary theme, by
the 1990s, geography inhabited a post-
paradigmatic world (Abler, Marcus and
Olson, 1992) and there seemed renewed pos-
sibilities to revisit older themes and once more
to look for disciplinary coherence, if not unity.
Indeed, physical geography was itself punctu-
ated by a series of debates examining post-
positivistepistemologies(notably realism)
and henceontologicaldepth (Rhoads and
Thorne, 1996). Both it and human geography
might thus visit intellectual territory, if not
with common purpose, then jointly armed
with methodological and philosophical sophis-
tication. There are, too, signs of more aware-
ness of the role of physical geography and
physical geographers in defining and progress-
ing the discipline as a whole (Matthews and
Herbert, 2004).
Outside the discipline, there are strong
imperatives for the repositioning of academic
approaches favourable to, if not reliant upon,
physical geography. Systems approaches are
being revisited across many disciplines, with
a deeper theoretical perspective and the
enhanced vocabulary of ‘complexity studies’
(see complexity theory). Environmental
debate increasingly identifies an essential link-
age between science, ethics and sustainability,
which necessitates both mechanistic and
humanistic modes of analysis (Nordgren,Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 536 1.4.2009 3:20pmPHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY