Der raumwirtschaftliche Ansatz: der Aufstieg einer steuerungsorientierten, normativ geprägten Expertenkultur

Abstract. In early summer 1980, radical geography students rallied around the slogan „Geografe nüme schlafe!“ („Geographers, stop sleeping!“) to take part in the radical youth movement that shook the city of Zurich at that time. In turn, these activist students brought these struggles back into the university and the geography department, where they confronted the professorate with their demands for a new curriculum. This paper argues that the antagonistic Stimmung, in which these struggles took place, produced a radical „thought style“ that flourished in a specific constellation of „thought events“: a prominent theory seminar in 1980, the AK WissKri, a network of radical geography students, the „Geoscope“ journal and, finally, a number of diploma theses on feminist, urban and historical geography. In these thought events, a radical geography materialized outside and beyond the mainstream of German language geography. Building on archival material and narrative interviews, this paper documents these student initiatives for a radical geography, and illustrates the precarious conditions of possibility of radical geography, in Zurich, and beyond.

Section: Stimmungen Lesenunclassified

„Geografe, nüme schlafe!“: Radikale Geographie in Zürich (1980–1990)

Korf¹,

Bernhard²,

Fässler³

et al. 2021

Revolution ohne Kiel und ohne Revolution – Die quantitativ-theoretische Geographie in Erlangen

Paulus¹

2017

Abstract. This article aims at expanding the predominant narrative of a Quantitative Revolution in German-speaking geography, to develop a more complex and multifaceted perspective on this chapter of the discipline's history. For this purpose, I take a closer look at the institute of geography in Erlangen. Eugen Wirth, the long-term chair holder in Erlangen, argued that here, in contrast to the majority of other institutes, the implementation of quantitative methods started in 1932, when Walter Christaller submitted his thesis: Central Places in Southern Germany. According to Wirth a dissertation supervised by him in 1969 was a further step towards the use of quantitative methods. I argue that Wirth made a significant contribution to the debate on quantitative theoretical geography in Germany with his textbook Theoretical Geography published in 1979, although the book was subsequently criticised and strongly rejected by Bartels and others as a conservative embrace. By examining this local negotiation process, I develop one of many narratives, that stand opposed to a unified account with which the general assembly of geographers in 1969 and Bartels' Geographie des Menschen uniquely motivated the abandonment of the concept of Länderkunde.

Jenseits von Kiel: Zu einer Wissenschaftsgeschichte der quantitativ-theoretischen Wende in der deutschsprachigen Geographie

Michel¹,

Paulus²

2018

Abstract. This editorial provides a theoretical and contextual framework for the themed issue “Raum. Gesetze. Daten.”. The article calls for a broader historiographic analysis of the quantitative-theoretical turn in German-speaking geography. We propose a research agenda that aims at writing a history of science beyond monumental history and classical intellectual history, that focuses on the messiness of history and takes the historicity of systems of thought into account. The endeavour is part of a growing interest in the history of science in the context of the cold war, cybernetic thinking and post-Fordist capitalism.