地理学发展的战略方向探讨

《了解正在变化的星球：地理科学的战略方向》是美国国家研究理事会最新的一部颇富创建性和前瞻性的研究报告,反映了地理学发展的集成研究战略方向.尽管受其任务和受众的影响,报告话语表现出过度重视技术和工具,但其提出的建设地理科学这一议题切中了当前地理学发展的战略方向,也在技术和工具这个“任务”方面尝试相应的建构工作,相伴的重要工作是给出了地理科学未来10 年的11 个优先研究领域.报告后来的评论则重新发掘并弥补了该报告的某些不足,说明了该报告“深度”的一面,尤其是地理科学的方法论问题.与该报告及其评论相比,中国建设地理科学的主张具有如下特点：① 学科体系庞大、层次分明、范畴严密;② “学科”与“任务”明显平衡;③ 有系统论和整体论的方法论;④ 初步显现深远的、连锁的影响.《了解正在变化的星球》及其评论,以及中国地理科学建设表明--跨学科的地理科学是地理学发展的战略方向：① 地理学正走向或走入集成研究的“大科学”阶段;② “学科”与“任务”平衡是地理学自身发展及应对了解正在变化的星球的必然要求;③ 未来地理科学建设应当是具有科学人文主义的学科体系、方法论、技术和工具的“三元”结构.

The strategic directions for geography

Understanding the Changing Planet: Strategic Directions for the Geographical Sciences (UCP), prepared by the U.S. National Research Council's (NRC) ad hoc Committee on the strategic directions for geographical sciences in the next decade, is an original and agenda-setting document that speaks to transdisciplinary Geographical Sciences in order to get a better understanding of our rapidly changing planet. But for NRC's decision to devote some of the ‘precious space’ in the report to relatively uncontroversial matters, and UCP was written for the audience which includes people who have little sense of what a geographical ‘take’ on issues and problems means, as a result the role of technologies and tools is likely to be dominant. The most important contribution of UCP lies in the point of progress of geography in modern times, putting forward the question of Geographical Sciences, and successfully constructing it with the aid of technologies and tools. Another contribution of UCP is the proposed eleven strategic directions for the emerging transdisciplinary field of Geographical Sciences in the next decade. Just a few months later, The Professional Geographer, in a Focus Section, invites five geographers to evaluate UCP briefly, followed by a response from Alexander Murphy on behalf of the NRC Committee, and this focus section initiates a new conversation among geographers about the future of geography. These comments about UCP rediscover and make up the defects of UCP, especially much attention is paid to the methodology of Geographical Sciences. This paper discusses the progress of Geographical Sciences in Chinese Mainland. It illustrates that Chinese Geographical Sciences: (1) are a more complex disciplinary system, well arranged and have a strict category; (2) are balanced in ‘discipline’ and ‘task’; (3) develop some effective methodologies; (4) have showed some far-reaching, concatenate influence. Through reading UCP, the comments and response, and the progress of Chinese Geographical Sciences the paper comes to three conclusions. (1) Geography is just at a crossroad, geographers should take some effective measures to promote it. (2) The balance of ‘discipline’ and ‘task’ is the key to the future of Chinese geography. (3) Geographical Sciences should be constructed by disciplinary system, methodology, technologies and tools, and all these three dimensions should be scientifically humanism-based on scientific spirit and directed by humanism.