Pour une épistémologie des controverses en géographie

Abstract

The study of controversies makes it possible to develop an epistemology which associates ideas to the social dimension of scientific life. It allows actors to be more widely integrated into reflective practice. In geography, the period of structuration of classical geography at the end of the 19th century and the period of the emergence of the "new geography" in the 1970s are essential moments of controversy. We examine in this text two types of controversies : those relating to the positioning of geography between the science of nature and the science of society on the one hand, and those concerning the purposes of geography and its place in the city on the other hand.

Keywords

• Epistemology
• Controversy
• History of science
• Classical geography
• "New geography"