Commentary: Historical and Critical Physical Geography

Abstract

Th ere is a half-century-long habit of calling for closer integration of physical and human geography. 1 Geography's initial hallmark as a fi eld may have been integrated analysis, but that is broadly assumed to no longer be the case. For many in the fi eld this is an intellectual loss. It is also an institutional risk, as the rationale for housing physical and social scientists in the same department erodes when they pursue disconnected intellectual agendas.Critical physical geography (CPG) is one of several ongoing eff orts to bridge that gap (as in work on land-cover change, and on socioecological systems). CPG is based on "careful integrative work that addresses crucial geoscientifi c questions while taking seriously the power relations, economic systems, and socio-cultural and philosophical presumptions upon which modern society has been built. " 2 To conduct such integrative work, CPG research is based on three core intellectual tenets: