Working Both Sides of the Street: Academic and Business

Abstract

During the past ten years the applied side of geography has come to occupy an increasing amount of the discipline’s attention. Stimulated by a decline in academic job opportunities, applied geography has become an attractive alternative to university teaching and research. As with any developing field of inquiry, its form, shape, structure, and direction are not well defined. Some suggest that applied geography applies geographical techniques to the solution of practical problems (Frazier and Henry 1978, p. 4). Others, not in disagreement, add a social dimension to the definition, indicating a need to evaluate human welfare (Frazier 1982, p. 13). To some, applied geography centers on ends rather than means, emphasizing results rather than methodology (Sant 1982, p. 1). A less restricted view considers that applied geography is the use of geographical knowledge as an aid to making choices (Briggs 1981, pp. 1–8). As expected, there is a divergence of views on how to define applied geography. Two underlying factors, however, appear common to all definitions of applied geography: it takes place outside the university, and it deals with real world problems.