Applied Geography

First mentioned in the late 1800s, applied geography is a relatively recent discipline that has enjoyed controversy, acclaim, and change in its short life. Beginning as a merger of natural sciences and social sciences, applied geography has faced critics from both sides of science; however, it has also been hailed by both as having the ability to help humanity.

The term first appeared during a time when educational programs at the high school and college level were reevaluating the curriculum being taught then. Until this time, the discipline [Page 101]of geography had included only the natural sciences, such as geology and meteorology. John Scott Keltie (1890) was influential in suggesting that it is possible for the gap between natural and social sciences to be bridged through the application of geographic science to human behaviors. Most of what was written about applied geography during this time emerged from Europe. The first college to develop an applied geography program in the United States was the University of California, Berkeley, and even then it was only included as a part of an economics program. Applied geography uses geographical theory and methodology to solve problems on many topics as long as a problem has a geographical component, and therefore, the field has found a home in disciplines outside of geography.

Some 20 years after the first academic program was created, applied geography classes and research emerged throughout the country. This was partly due to a U.S. federal requirement passed in 1914. The requirement mandated that all land grant universities must disseminate research and findings on agriculture and home economics to the public and surrounding communities in a way that was helpful and easily understood. Here, a distinct shift in the importance placed on theory versus working geography was shown. For the universities to maintain their government-granted land, geography, among other disciplines, had to prove its usefulness to society.

Although the field continued to grow in popularity over time, it was not until 1965 that an official definition for the term applied geography was created. A committee of professional geographers interested in applied geography was assembled under the name Committee on Applied Geography, and the definition they created reads as follows: “The application of geographical knowledge, methods, techniques, and ways of thinking to the solution of practical problems” (Association Affairs, 1996, p. 168).

Under the impetus of job cutbacks and program cuts at universities during the 1980s, the need for a clear application of programs traditionally centered in theory became apparent yet again. Professors who once simply taught geography began redefining their curriculum in applied geography terms, such as environmentalism, to make their jobs seem less dispensable. It was during the 1980s that much of the current controversy emerged within the field, perhaps as a result of the shortage of jobs in academia during this period.

Past arguments show that applied geography was treated with some suspicion and uncertainty by academia. There was concern within the field that teaching a skills-based curriculum in addition to theory would cause a loss of prestige, a devaluation of theory, brain drain within the field, and a shortage of planning jobs. In a skills-based curriculum, students would be taught marketable skills and quantitative methodology that are not unique to geography and can be learned outside of the discipline, which would cause geography to become useless. Along with this was the fear that if students were being taught solely skills-based courses, the most successful students would try to find employment outside of academia in the hope of earning a higher salary. This trend would cause some of the best researchers, who could theoretically make great contributions to the field, to leave, thus creating a brain-drain effect.

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