2024/03/25 by Richard Harrison · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Geography Education and Pedagogy #Historical Geography and Geographical Thought
paper · doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2024.03.006
openalex publication_date 2024/03/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper argues for the relevance of the history and philosophy of geography and provides a personal perspective on the origins of the Working Party/Study Group/Research Group by one of its founders. Intellectually, the paper identifies the role of its history and philosophy as the construction and sanctioning of meta-narratives by which meaning is conferred on ‘geography’. Practically, the paper summarises the descriptive, normative and personal justifications for the establishment of the Working Party in 1981 in the context of Queen's University Belfast as a zone of civility exemplifying the politics of hope in a militarised, segregated and sectarian society. • The emergence of academic disciplines is a social and historiographical process. • The institutional evolution of disciplines is a function of serendipity, politics and context. • Descriptive, normative and personal factors shape discipline emergence and development. • Contemporary challenges require new modes of intellectual organising.