Space and Politics

Social scientists have long been concerned with power and politics and with the geographic settings in which social life occurs. But these two concerns have evolved rather separately. In sociology, economics, and political science deductive traditions of the twentieth century stressed the importance of producing generalizations that were context invariant. If geographic context was brought in to these disciplines, it was largely with respect to variations between nation and states. Of course, geography has long directed its spatial imagination across a range of contexts. However, adding a critical view of power and privilege occurred rather late in the last century (Harvey 1973).