The critical revolution led to the development of a range of new approaches in Geography, including Radical geography, Humanistic geography, welfare geography, feminist geography, postcolonial geography, and cultural geography.
These approaches emphasised the importance of subjectivity, reflexivity, and situated knowledge in understanding spatial phenomena, and rejected the idea that there was a single objective truth about the world.
The critical revolution also led to a re-evaluation of the role of the geographer in society. Critical geographers argued that geographers had a responsibility to engage with social and political issues, and to use their expertise to challenge inequalities and injustices in society.
Important critical geographers or critics of the quantitative approach are:
Dudley Stamp, 1966, Minshul, 1970, Broek, 1965, David Harvey,Unlike humanistic geography Behavioural geography emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a reaction to an increasing disillusionment of the quantitative revolution in geography and more precisely the concept of ' economic man’.
While sharing some similarities with the positivist approach of the quantitative revolution (focused on developing alternative theories of human spatial behaviours), behavioural geography also drew on ideas from psychology, sociology, and anthropology to develop a more nuanced understanding of human behaviour and spatial decision-making based on cognition. It treats man as a responder to stimuli.
Behavioural geography gives importance of human individual and group behaviours while taking spatial decisions by complex cognitive processes based on the information they have gathered by their experiences.
Characteristics:
In the light of critical revolution in geography, the basic characteristics of behavioural geography can be described as follows:
Focus on human behaviour: Behavioural geography places a strong emphasis on understanding the ways in which humans behave in and interact with their environment. This includes studying decision-making processes, cognitive mapping, and the ways in which environmental cues influence behaviour.
It treats man as a respondent to stimuli. It seeks to identify how different individuals respond to a particular stimulus and also how the same individual responds to the same stimulus in different situations.
Alternative to the theory of Economic men: The aim in behavioural Geography has been to derive alternative theories to the theory based on economic man. Main focus of behavioural geography is to theorise the spatial decisions of human individuals and groups based on complex cognitive processes at different situations. It also considers the differences in the response of individuals in similar as well as in different situations.
Use of quantitative methods: While behavioural geography is critical of the simplistic models and assumptions of the quantitative revolution, it still places a strong emphasis on the use of quantitative methods and building up theory. These methods are used to analyse patterns of behaviour, identify underlying factors that influence decision-making, and develop predictive models.
Interdisciplinary approach: Behavioural geography draws on ideas and methods from a range of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics. This interdisciplinary approach allows researchers to develop a more holistic understanding of the complex interplay between human behaviour and the environment.
Emphasis on practical applications: Behavioural geography is often driven by a desire to develop practical solutions to real-world problems. This includes developing strategies to encourage more sustainable behaviour, designing urban spaces that are more conducive to positive behaviour, and identifying ways to improve decision-making in complex environments.
Proponents: The geographers who emphasised on behaviouralism are:
Kates, 1962 was the major proponent of the behaviouristic approach. He worked on the floodplain management and observed the decisions taken by the floodplain dwellers. He said that the way men view the ranks and opportunities of their uncertain environment play a significant role in their decisions. He made four assumptions:
Men are rational while making decisions. Decisions are made on a rational basis but in relation to the environment as it is perceived by the decision maker.
Men make choices. Some decisions regarding the environment may also be habitual but such behaviour usually develops only after a series of conscious choices.
Choices are made on the basis of knowledge. In very rare cases, people can make a decision by bringing together all the relevant information he has and most often he is unable to assimilate and use all that information together.
Information is evaluated to predetermined criteria. In habitual practice, people make choices based on criteria done before.
J. Wolpert, 1964 while studying farmer’s spatial behaviour argued that farm populations didn’t achieve profit maximisation because they are spatial satisfiers and not economic men.
He also worked on migration patterns and found that some migrations can’t be analysed by gravity rules of the spatial scientists.
Another important aspect of the behavioural geography is the concept of mental map, which refers to the image of places, mentally stored by individuals and interpretations by them. It is not only the amalgamation of information about space but also the feelings about the place and resources.
Pred, 1969 used behavioural matrix to provide a framework in which people’s locational decision makings can be analysed. People change their location decisions based on their position in the matrix (more precise and logical decisions as position moves towards down right).
D. Harvey, 1969 criticised the behavioural matrix due to its oversimplification of the complex in nature of human behaviour.
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