TRANSACTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL THEORIES IN BEHAVIORAL GEOGRAPHY

Inadequate theoretical conceptualization of person/environment relations has characterized behavioral geography as an eclectic and incoherent subfield. Past work has failed to appreciate the person/environment unity as an entity of change. A transactional/transformational perspective is adopted in this paper as a basis for understanding the relationships between the dynamics of human behavior and the dynamics of the environment. Two conceptual models are developed which provide bases for understanding (i) different modes of person/environment transformation, and (ii) human behavior as it mediates change. The potential relevance of a transactional perspective for empirical research in behavioral geography is noted.