FRAGMENTATION AROUND A DEFENDED CORE - THE TERRITORIALITY OF GEOGRAPHY

Geography, like all other academic disciplines, is fragmented into a l arge number of specialist communities, within which research occurs an d individual careers are structured: Geography is characterized by at least four cleavages. Such fragmentation is necessary to scientific pr ogress, but threatens the discipline's status and funding within acade mia, hence the attempts to defend Geography's territory within the aca demic division of labour. Geography's situation may be more acute than that for many other disciplines, because of its multifarious external links.