A Poststructuralist Approach to Geography's Scientific Identity

Abstract

A discipline questioning its own scientific identity is a wished attitude. As an individual often reviews his/her own past, disciplines trace the same path. Unlike the individual, the discipline questions how to approximate and reflect the reality, in what proportion finds and solves the problems, how to keep up with the scientific line drawn beforehand. Geography, like every scientific discipline, is a perspective offering viewpoints. These viewpoints become functional with the modus operandi and approaches. In this study geography was covered from the point of poststructuralist view. Poststructuralism generally stands against strict divisions and does not see the social reality as single and unchangeable. The approaches offering solutions to every ideological, economic and social issue are not taken for granted. It emphasizes the important relation between the reality and language. Considering the strict and unchangeable approaches in geography's past it is clear that poststructuralism has offered and will offer new perspectives into geography.