Human agency and human geography
Abstract
This commentary discusses the prospectus for a humanistic geography provided by the contributors to D. Ley, M. Samuels (eds) Humanistic geography: prospects and problems. The resurgence of a humanist tradition in geography has drawn its impetus in part from la géographie humaine of Vidal de la Blache, and an examination of the connections between the two conceptions shows a common concern with the efficacy of human agency within an essential ‘boundedness’ of practical life. A series of parallel developments within ‘Marxian humanism’ (and in particular the work of E.P. Thompson) is used to suggest that a scientific explication of the relations between agency and structure can be attained through the deployment of a concept of structuration. But this will also require a concept of determination capable of incorporating ‘economy’ and ‘culture’ within a single system of concepts, which presages a critical return to the traditional materialism of la géographie humaine.