Trajectories and Co-ordinates

Abstract

In a letter to me the editors of this volume wondered whether they could interest me in contributing to a volume due to appear in a new series, Critical Human Geography. They said that they wished to make sure that discussions would be firmly located in their proper intellectual and historical contexts, and since the events of the 1950s and 1960s were obviously of such strategic importance for the development of the subject, they wanted to include a collection of essays written ‘by those most closely involved, in one way or another, which would tell the story “from the inside”, as it were’. They were seeking ‘not yet another general review of the “quantitative revolution” [I perceive it instead as the ‘conceptual revolution’], but rather comments about any “decisions and difficulties” which I personally had to face’. They wished me to relate these to the events and experiences of the time.

Scientists are often enumerated, divided into categories, constructed into tables, illustrated by graphs, and pronounced upon in bulk. But it is sometimes forgotten that they are human beings.

Lord Florey, The Development of Modern Science (First David Rivett Memorial Lecture, Melbourne, 1963)

As Lord Florey has remarked, it is sometimes forgotten that scientists are human beings. Nevertheless, analysis is necessary in order to understand scientists better, so that the different kinds can be placed in positions in which they can do their best.

J. G. Crowther, Scientific Types