The Dictionary of Human Geography

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relevance Concern over the relevance of

geographyhas been expressed since its foun-

dation as a discipline; for example, in the pro-

motion of geography as a practical science of

empire. Consideration of how relevance has

become a prominent word in geographical

debate at specific times shows how ‘relevance’

can act as a marker for disciplinary disputes.

In the early 1970s, economic crisis, environ-

mental resource debate and international con-

flict shaped debate on relevance, along with the

sense thatspatial sciencewas becoming too

abstract to gain purchase onpublic policy

issues (Johnston and Sidaway, 2004, Ch. 9).

At the 1974 Institute of British Geographers

conference, IBG President J.T. Coppock,

building on earlierapplied geography, out-

lined geography’s possible relevance for

governmental, planning and environmental

agendas (Coppock, 1974). Among responses

was David Harvey’s ‘What kind of geography

for what kind of public policy?’, questioning

how definitions of relevance had been shaped

by political and economic circumstances: ‘The

debate over relevance in geography was not

really about relevance (whoever heard of

irrelevant human activity?), but about whom

our research was relevant to and how it was

that research done in the name ofscience

(which was supposed to beideology-free)

was having effects that appeared somewhat

biased in favour of the status quo and in favour

of the rulingclassof the corporatestate’

(Harvey, 1974b, p. 23). Exploring contradic-

tions between policy demands and humanistic

scholarship, Harvey sought a dialectical

understanding of relevance: ‘The moral obliga-

tion of the geographer,quageographer, is to

confront the tension between thehumanistic

tradition and the pervasive needs of the corpor-

ate state directly, to raise our consciousness of

the contradiction and thereby learn how to

exploit the contradiction within the corporate

state structure itself’ (p. 24).

Relevance re-emerged as a marker for

debate in the late 1990s, prompted by concern

over geography’scultural turn, and worries

that in a period of notionally social democratic

government in the UK and the USA, geog-

raphy was missing a policy opportunity. A

1999 issue of theScottish Geographical Journal

addressed relevance in terms of recent theor-

etical debates (Scottish Geographical Journal,

1999), Michael Dear discussingpostmodern-

ismand relevance as pertinence, political com-

mitment, and policy application, while Susan

Hanson posed relevance as a feminist geo-

graphical concept, working within and across

different scales (seefeminist geographies).

Martin (2001b), however, argued that particu-

lar uses of such theory were producing an

increasingly irrelevant geography. With an

element of envy at economists’ apparent

policy influence, Martin suggested that much

contemporary economicandsocial geog-

raphy had little policy or social relevance,

due in part to the cultural turn. Martin pre-

sents a particular sense of relevance, and a

particular characterization, even caricature,

of ‘irrelevant’ and theoretically indulgent cul-

tural enquiry. The terms of debate are further

explored by Staeheli and Mitchell (2005), who

address ‘the politics of relevance’ and ‘the

social practices that condition relevance’

(p. 357) through interviews withpublic space

researchers and analysis of Association of

American Geographers publications. The pub-

lication of Staeheli and Mitchell’s article in the

AAG’s Annals underlines how relevance

debates have proceeded through institutions

representing the discipline.

Those wary ofinstrumentalismin geog-

raphy may in turn be wary of calls for rele-

vance: pertinence may pass, commitments

may wane and the relevant may become the

untopical. It is important to appreciate and

critique debates on relevance according to

the temporality of their arguments, and to

consider how geographical work not seeking

immediate impact may nevertheless achieve

different kinds of political and cultural

influence. dmat

Suggested reading

Johnston and Sidaway (2004); Staeheli and

Mitchell (2005).

religion Geographers approach the study of

religion in a number of ways, from examining

spatial patterns arising from religious influ-

ences, to the diffusionof religious beliefs

and organizations, the relationship between

religion and population, the impact of religion

on landscape and landscape on religion,

religious ecology, and the politics and poetics

of religious landscapes, community and iden-

tity (Kong, 1990, 2001a).

The relationship between religion and geog-

raphy may be traced to early Greek geograph-

ers, in their concern with cosmological models

that reflected a world view shaped by religion

(seecosmology). In the sixteenth and seven-

teenth centuries, the main preoccupation

was ‘ecclesiastical geography’, the mapping

of the spatial advance of Christianity in the

world, propelled by the desire to disseminate

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RELEVANCE