Disciplinary chasm: questions on identification and mending

Abstract

While the fracture separating human from physical geography is not new, its pervasive presence appears to hurt scholarship even more deeply than in the past. This article formulates questions about the major factors that are responsible for the current separation, and explores realistic opportunities for fracture-healing. The identified obstacles reach beyond the effects of positivism: the paper recognizes the role of differences in the meaning and value assigned to change and time. Nonlinear theory is shown to operate far from the expectations related to positivism, in innovative, fluid ways, both in physical geography and in human geography. Notwithstanding nonlinear theory’s potential to act as a builder of bridges, the article argues that neither this, nor other methodological instruments can mend the disciplinary fracture, as long as the question of the mutual recognition of value is not openly addressed. The resulting renewal and cross-fertilization are worth the effort.

Keywords

• physical geography
• human geography
• nonlinear theory
• time
• change