JIMMA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND

HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY
AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
SPECIALIZATION IN
GIS AND REMOTE SENSING (MSC)
 ASSIGNMENT PRESENTATION FOR THE COURSE
THOUGHTS AND

PHILOSOPHY IN GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL

STUDIES (GeES 511)

TITLE:
Radicalism/Critical Revolution in Geography

Instructor :
Mr. Tesfaye Debela
By Riyad Hussein
As An Introduction. . .
What Is Radical/ Critical Geography ?

Radical geography is an approach to geographic research that seeks to

understand social and spatial problems, and to advocate solutions.
Was developed in the 1970s
General objective
 To discuss Radical/ Critical Revolution in Human Geography
Specific objectives
 To identify different philosophical approach on the time of critical
revolution
 To illustrate role and philosophical stance of the critical revolution
 To describe the strength and shortcoming of the radicalism
approach or critical revolution
 To demonstrate the critics behind Marxism and Leninism approach
Statement of the problem

The followers of radical approach in geography mainly concentrated on the issues of great
social relevance like, inequality, racism, sexism, crime, delinquency, discrimination against
blacks and non-whites, females, exploitation of juveniles and environment resources and the
opposition of the Vietnam war in U.S.A. Events of the late 1960s, such as the burning of large
cities in the western world, student-unrest, worker-uprising in Paris in 1968, massive anti-
Vietnam war protest actions and radical cultural reformation exposed the social and political
irrelevance of geography as a spatial science and proved the hollowness of locational analysis.
Marx focused much of his attention on understanding capitalism rather than developing
schemes for socialist and communist societies, and would have found little to praise in those
autocratic and repressive regimes. Marxism overlooks alternative ideas that might shape
behavior.