Geography Since the Second World War (RLE Social & Cultural Geography) (Routledge Library Editions: Social and Cultural Geography) by

Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781317907091
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2014-01-23T05:00:00+00:00

The Reality of the 1960s and 1970s

In a retrospective analysis, the high degree of polarisation of development during the years 1960–83 can be illustrated with reference to five areas within the discipline (Table 7.1), differentiated according to the scale and dynamic of development. The first area is dominated by the three major growth poles of Polish geography – geomorphology, geography of agriculture and geography of settlement. Their development displays all of the characteristics of growth poles (Kuklinski, 1972); the dynamics of innovation, multiplier effects, spread and backwash effects, and internal and external linkage mechanisms.

The second area comprises four subdisciplines which display an average level of developmental dynamism-hydrography, geography of industry, geography of transport and geography of population. The third area – containing climatology, historical geography, regional geography and cartography – is one of decline, whereas the fourth contains only biogeography, an embryonic growth pole which unfortunately has had an unchanged status throughout the period. Finally there is the pre-embryonic area represented by the geography of soils; there were strongly expressed intentions to develop this in the 1950s, but practically nothing has been done to implement those intentions.

Table 7.2 presents the essential elements of this classification. Not all elements of the discipline of geography are incorporated there, because the aim has not been a full enumeration of the characteristics of Polish geography but rather the creation of a sufficient empirical base for an analysis of the process of polarised development. The location of each subdiscipline shown in the table to a developmental category reflects value judgements which are biased by subjective and insufficient knowledge about certain segments of Polish geography. The categorisation may be challenged, and should perhaps be taken as a hypothesis that can be tested against the 50 volumes of Geographia Polonica. Nevertheless, whatever the details of the categorisation, I would strongly defend the validity of the model of polarised development, and present it as a major instrument for the interpretation of the historical and prognostic experiences of Polish geography.

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