Conversations with Others? Physical Geography in South Africa

Abstract

Students of physical geography do not commonly interrogate its nature and method, largely because they take the positivist approach for granted. Nor indeed has there been much consideration of how physical geography under the socio-economic, political and environmental circumstances of South Africa might influence its practice. This paper explores the identity and place of physical geography and compares the South African intellectual landscape with the situation globally. This is achieved through a brief analysis of publication patterns in The South African Geographical Journal in relation to the major international geography periodicals. It is concluded that physical geographers in South Africa, as is the case with their Anglo-American counterparts, have largely abandoned their identity as geographers per se. Instead, physical geographers increasingly present their work to a scientific audience where geographers are proportionally minor players. The hegemony of the international scientific publication industry has encouraged or even enforced the participation of physical geographers. Unlike in human geography, where there is a vibrant 'critical geography', physical geographers in South Africa have apparently failed to develop novel and fundamental theories and methods despite its remarkable, even unique, physical environmental circumstances. Nevertheless, a more integrated physical geography in South Africa has the opportunity to grapple with key environmental and socio-economic problems, including poverty, that have the potential to re-invigorate the discipline.