Quantitative revolution

Also called: Spatial organisation · Topic: Human Geography: Nature, Scope and Approaches · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Human Geography: Nature and Scope"

Meaning

The quantitative revolution is the name of the phase from the late 1950s to the late 1960s when geographers began to use computers, statistics and even laws of physics to find general laws that explain how human activities are spread across space. NCERT calls this phase spatial organisation.

It matters because it turned geography from a subject that only described places into a spatial science that could explain and predict. Its methods later grew into today's GIS.

Explanation

How it came about (cause → process → result)

• Cause: description could not explain anything.
• The earlier approaches only listed facts or described regions: exploration and description, regional analysis and areal differentiation.

• Geographers felt this gave no general rules.

• Process: numbers, tests and models.

• Geographers gathered numerical data.
• They tested their ideas with statistics.

• They built models of how places are arranged.

• Result: patterns and rules.

• Maps of spatial patterns.
• General rules about location.
• Human geography came to be called "locational analysis", "spatial analysis" or "spatial science" [5].

The trigger: Schaefer versus Hartshorne

• The old view: Hartshorne. Richard Hartshorne wrote The Nature of Geography (1939) [3].
• He held the idiographic view: each region is unique, so geography should describe single cases and not look for laws.

• This view became the main school ("orthodoxy") of American geography [2].

• The attack: Schaefer (1953). Fred K. Schaefer (Britannica calls him Kurt Schaefer) was a German-trained geographer at the University of Iowa [4][2].

• He wrote "Exceptionalism in Geography" in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers [2].
• He argued that science means explaining things, and explaining needs laws. Laws are general statements of patterns we observe again and again, showing cause and effect [2].
• In his words: "To explain the phenomena one has described means always to recognize them as instances of laws" [2].
• For geography, the main patterns to study are spatial patterns [2].

• He rejected the idea that geography is an "exception" among the sciences.

• The philosophy behind it: positivism. This is the belief that knowledge should come from data that can be observed and tested, leading to general laws.

• The shift in one line: geography moved from idiographic (each case is unique) to nomothetic (law-seeking).

Its main tools and models

Model	Thinker	What it explains
Central place theory	Walter Christaller (Germany, 1933)	The number, size and spacing of settlements, and the services they give, based on least-cost location [5]
Agricultural land-use model	J.H. von Thünen	Rings of farming around a market town, set by distance and transport cost [8]
Industrial location theory	Alfred Weber	Where a factory is placed so that transport and labour costs stay lowest
Gravity model	Borrowed from Newton's law of gravitation	Contact between two places grows with their size and falls with distance

• Distance decay: the farther apart two places are, the less contact they have.
• The von Thünen, Weber, Alonso and Christaller models are the base of location theory [8].
• Spatial diffusion (how an idea, technology or disease spreads across space over time): Torsten Hägerstrand of Sweden built a model of it in 1953.
• He was an early user of computer simulation. People were placed on a grid, and the chance of two people meeting fell with distance [7].
• Mean information field: the chance of getting news from a source. It is higher close to the source [7].
• New ideas start in the largest cities. They move down the urban hierarchy (big city → smaller towns) and out to nearby areas [6].

Why it was criticised

• It treated people like numbers.
• It assumed people always act rationally and that the land is flat and even.
• It ignored feelings, culture, poverty and power.
• Result: in the 1970s came the welfare or radical, behavioural and humanistic schools. In the 1990s came post-modernism, which questioned grand general laws.

Where it occurs

• University of Washington, Seattle (USA): an early centre of the revolution, led by William Garrison and Edward Ullman [2].
• Their students Brian Berry, William Bunge, Richard Morrill and Waldo Tobler became leaders of the "new geography" [2].

• Field observation and map reading lost their central place, and statistics became compulsory in geography degree courses [2].

• University of Iowa (USA): where Schaefer worked when he wrote his 1953 paper [4][2].

• Sweden: Hägerstrand's work on innovation diffusion. His English book was Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process (1967) [6].
• Germany: Christaller's central place theory (1933) [5].
• India: Green Revolution (from the mid-1960s). HYV (high-yielding variety) wheat and rice seeds spread first in irrigated Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, then to other areas. This is diffusion working on the ground.
• India: planning. Central place hierarchy helps planners choose growth centres and service centres. Gravity and diffusion models help plan roads, connectivity and the spread of farm technology.
• India: GIS today. GIS (computer software that stores, layers and analyses map data) grew out of this phase. It is now used for disaster mapping, land records and urban planning.

Don't confuse with

• Spatial organisation vs quantitative revolution: spatial organisation is the approach listed in NCERT Table 1.1. "Quantitative revolution" is the name of the phase when that approach ruled. It is not listed as a separate approach.
• Areal differentiation: this came in the 1930s and the inter-war period (Hartshorne, Hettner). It asked why each region is unique. The quantitative revolution looked for general laws that apply to many places.
• Regional analysis: this described every part of one region in detail, believing that knowing the parts explains the whole. The quantitative approach measured and tested patterns instead of describing them.
• Humanistic, radical and behavioural schools (1970s): these were a reaction against the quantitative revolution. They put human feelings, perception and inequality at the centre, where the quantitative approach used numbers and models.

Prelims Hooks

• NCERT order: exploration and description → regional analysis → areal differentiation → spatial organisation (quantitative revolution, late 1950s to late 1960s).
• Trap: "quantitative revolution" is the name of a phase. It is not one of the approaches in NCERT Table 1.1.
• Schaefer, "Exceptionalism in Geography" (1953), Annals of the AAG, attacked Hartshorne's idiographic view and called for laws [2].
• Early centre: University of Washington, Seattle (Garrison, Ullman) [2].
• Match the model: central places → Christaller; farming rings → von Thünen; industrial location → Weber; contact falls with distance → gravity model.
• Hägerstrand = Sweden = innovation diffusion, with the "mean information field" [6][7].

Mains Points

• From description to explanation: Hartshorne's idea that each region is unique (1939) gave way to Schaefer's call for laws (1953). This made geography a spatial science that can predict, for example where to place markets, schools and roads [2][3].
• Use in Indian planning:
• Central place hierarchy guides the planning of growth centres and service centres.
• Diffusion models explain how Green Revolution seeds spread out from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

• GIS, which grew from this phase, now supports disaster mapping, land records and urban planning.

• Limits: the approach assumes rational people and flat, even land, and it ignores culture, inequality and perception. This led to the radical, behavioural and humanistic schools of the 1970s. A good answer shows both what the approach added and where it falls short.

Related concepts

• Exploration and description
• Regional analysis
• Spatial diffusion

Read more

• Human geography through the ages: from description to spatial science