DISSENTING FROM SPATIAL-ANALYSIS

Spatial analysis is nor characterized by any single innovation in geog raphy, but by a coalescence of several pre-existing ideas in a conjunc ture of knowledge production that became particularly attractive in th e historical and geographical context of postwar industrial society. A n influential group dissented from this conjuncture, engaging in an ex tensive critique of spatial analysis and eventually developing an alte rnative, social theoretical approach in the 1970s and 1980s. Differenc es and similarities between spatial analysts and these dissidents can be seen in their views on science and explanation, and in their incorp oration of space into geographic theory-differences that seem less sig nificant today in the light of shifting positions and recent debates. Spatial analysis and its dissidents still differ quite fundamentally, however, in their theories of society.