Radical Approach

Background: Why did the Radical Approach emerge?

Imagine you are in the 1970s. In the world of geography, everyone is obsessed with making it look like a “hard science” — like Physics or Chemistry.
This was the era of the Quantitative Revolution and Positivism.
Geographers were busy crunching numbers, building models, and talking about “location,” “distance,” and “spatial patterns,” as if solving a mathematical puzzle.

Problem?
Society was burning outside — wars, poverty, racism, inequality — but geographers were lost in their spatial models, ignoring the real pain of people.
It felt like doctors arguing over the best thermometer design while the patient lay dying.

Thus, Radical Geography emerged as a reaction — a rebellion — against this narrow, ‘scientific’ view of geography.

Ideological Roots: From Critique to Marxism

Initially, radical geographers simply criticized the existing capitalist society.
But slowly, many of them started embracing Marxist ideas.

Key Belief:
👉 Inequality is not a mistake or a side-effect of capitalism.
👉 It is inherent — built into the very system of capitalist production.

In simple words, it’s like saying: If capitalism is a machine, then poverty and inequality are not ‘accidents’ — they are ‘products’ of that machine.

Criticism of Traditional Solutions

Now, many believed that poverty could be reduced by redistributing wealth through taxes and government policies.
But radical thinkers like Richard Peet argued:

“Just taxing the rich won’t solve deep problems.
We need to redesign the entire environment.
Dismantle large bureaucracies.
Build community control models — something closer to anarchism.”

In simple words, Peet was saying: “Don’t just apply a bandage. Perform surgery and fix the root problem!”

Focus Areas of Radical Geographers

Radical geographers didn’t just sit in classrooms theorizing; they took sides — the side of the oppressed.

They studied and raised voices against:

• Inequality (economic gaps),
• Racism (especially against Blacks and non-whites),
• Sexism (discrimination against women),
• Crime, delinquency, poverty, environmental exploitation,
• And even political issues like opposition to the Vietnam War.

Real-World Analogy:
Imagine today’s activists who talk about climate justice, gender rights, or anti-war movements — Radical geographers were playing that role inside the academic world of geography.

Trigger Events: Why was the Radical Approach Necessary?

The late 1960s were explosive:

• Cities in the West saw riots and burning.
• Students protested in universities.
• Workers rose up (Paris, 1968 worker’s uprising).
• The Vietnam War triggered massive protests.

All these events showed that Geography, as a “spatial science,” was becoming socially irrelevant — it had become hollow, like an empty shell.

Radical geographers said:
“We can’t just study maps and models when people are fighting for their rights and survival.”

Thus, they challenged traditional geography and demanded a more socially relevant discipline.

Antipode Journal: A Platform for Radical Geography

In 1969, at Clark University, USA, a group of young, passionate geographers created a journal named Antipode — subtitled “A Radical Journal of Geography.”

This journal became a voice for:

• Articles on urban poverty,
• Discrimination against women and minorities,
• Unequal access to health, education, and social amenities,
• Crime, deprivation, sexism,
• Underdevelopment, malnutrition, and resource exploitation in the Third World.

In a way, Antipode became the “social conscience” of Geography.

Summary: What was Radical Geography, in Essence?

• Radical Geography was a quest for social relevance in a world filled with contradictions and crises of capitalistic society.
• It was about bringing human pain and social injustice into the center stage of geographical studies.
• It questioned the meaning and purpose of Geography itself:
  ➔ Should geography just study space and place, or should it serve human needs and justice?

Thus, Radical Geography moved the discipline from maps to movements.

Political Context behind Radical Geography

The movement was fueled by three main contemporary political issues in the USA:

• The Vietnam War (opposing the war),
• Civil Rights Movement (especially rights of American Blacks),
• Poverty and inequality (in urban ghettos and deprived rural areas).

In the words of Richard Peet (1977):
Radical geography was largely a negative reaction to the existing, established discipline of geography as a spatial science.

Radical geographers brought new subjects — poverty, hunger, health, crime — into Human Geography, subjects which were previously ignored.

Conclusion

Thus, the Radical Approach in Geography marks a powerful shift:

• From scientific detachment ➔ to social engagement.
• From mathematical models ➔ to human struggles.
• From where things are ➔ to why they are unjust.

In this way, geography not only studied the world but started dreaming of changing it.