the work of theorists working in both urban and economic geography in the first
decades of the 20th century may be taken as precursors of the later focus as well.
Those scholars who promoted locational analysis as a framework for geographical
study employed an array of mathematical and statistical techniques, including
multivariate analysis, probability models, and other aspects of what was later
termed “geomatics.”
Academic departments of geography in which locational analysis became promi-
nent as a philosophy of spatial inquiry pioneered the use of early computers as a
means of evaluating the patterns of spatially arranged data. This cutting edge tech-
nology solidified the claim for many university administrators and federal agencies
that locational analysis was a more scientifically based kind of geography, and at
least for a time garnered the young scholars who were the foremost practitioners
of the methodologies support in the form of grants and contracts, as well as accep-
tance in many of the leading scholarly journals. Locational analysis became the pri-
mary set of methodologies in economic and urban geography and was widely used
in the study ofpopulationdynamics,migration, and related topics.
The rise of locational analysis in American geography in the 1960s was initially
triggered by the adoption of mathematical models and approaches in several
American academic departments in the 1950s. At the University of Washington
Professor William Louis Garrison began training students in the use of quantitative
techniques in the 1950s, and by the early 1960s a host of newly minted specialists
in locational analysis had received doctorates in geography from the university.
Additional advocates came from the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State Univer-
sity, and several other institutions. Several of these dispersed to geography depart-
ments across the United States, and in many cases, began taking on their own
students. By the late 1960s research rooted in locational analysis was rapidly dis-
placing the descriptive, observational narratives that had been the rule for much
of the literature in geography for several decades. One of Garrison’s students,
Brian Berry, became one of the foremost proponents of incorporating locational
analysis into geographical research and earned the distinction of being the most
cited geographic scholar in English language publications for many years. The
1970s witnessed a backlash against what many human geographers, especially
those trained in cultural geography, saw as the overly deterministic nature of loca-
tional analysis, and a dehumanization oflandscapesand their meaning, leading to
the emergence of so-called humanistic geography. Nevertheless, locational analy-
sis remains a methodological approach that many geographers embrace when
investigating spatial phenomena, and led to the development ofGeographic
Information Systems (GIS).212 Locational Analysis