Advancing Human Geography at the <i>Commencement du Siècle</i>^*

Abstract

Human geography today exhibits unprecedented vitality and diversity. This survey first charts some major lines of research in the field in light of the ascendancy of critical theory, political economy, and poststructuralist thought, including feminism, the cultural turn, consumption, urban geography, and globalization. Next, it focuses on several “cutting‐edge” issues, such as race, postcolonialism, the social construction of nature, representations of space, and cyberspace. Finally, the article turns an eye toward the future, offering comments on the discipline's likely trajectories with regard to the blurring of traditional dualisms, methodological integration, and the lacunae of public policy and geographic education.