- 著者
-
若林 芳樹
- 出版者
- 一般社団法人 人文地理学会
- 雑誌
- 人文地理 (ISSN:00187216)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.61, no.3, pp.266-281, 2009 (Released:2018-01-10)
- 参考文献数
- 95
- 被引用文献数
-
2
The annual review of human geographical studies in Japan published in the Japanese Journal of Human Geography (Jimbun Chiri) has included a section on perceptual and behavioral geography since 1982. Nevertheless, the editorial board of the journal decided to remove this section in 2008. There is no doubt that this decision was made because of the need to re-examine the classification of the sections in this article, and was affected by the recent reorganization of this discipline. However, it is too early to say that perceptual and behavioral geography has lost its productivity and attraction. The aim of this paper is to review the advancements in perceptual and behavioral geography in retrospect and to evaluate the prospects for research in this field in Japan in comparison with the trends in English-speaking countries.To elucidate the place of perceptual and behavioral geography in Japanese geography and the changes over the years, the author analyzed the literature in Bibliographies on Japanese Geographical Research, the fields of interest of Japanese geographers, and the change in the tone of the articles published in the annual review of the above journal. The analysis revealed that perceptual and behavioral geography in Japan has not lost its productivity and still attracts the attention of more than a few young geographers; however, the number of researchers specializing in this field remains few. As the studies in this field tend to overlap with other branches of geography, and since the polarization between perceptual and behavioral studies has not yet been reconciled, the unity of this field of research has become lost. As a result, this field is marginalized in human geography.While this trend in perceptual and behavioral geography observed in Japan is similar to that observed in UK, perceptual and behavioral geography in the USA enjoys a more optimistic outlook, since the specialty group of EPBG, which has made close connections with GIS and cartography, remains active there. After 2000, new trends in perceptual and behavioral geography have been observed in Japan. A notable one is the interdisciplinary collaboration with related fields (e. g., psychology and information science). In addition, there has been an increase in the number of studies focusing on special segments of the population, such as the disabled, foreigners, children, the elderly, and women; these studies are more concerned with specificity rather than generality, since they take into consideration the geographic context of environmental perception and spatial behavior. These studies aim at solving actual problems and are applicable to public policy and urban planning. Recently, studies on spatial cognition have also contributed significantly to GIS and cartography.