ABSTRACT
The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the emergence of many of the current approaches to social geography. The development of these approaches arose from the debate within geography about the relationship between academic work, public policies and personal political beliefs. This 'relevance' debate within geography reflected wider social and political changes in Europe and North America in particular, the growth of 'radical' protest movements around such issues as the Vietnam war, environmental damage and pollution and critiques of the materialistic values of capitalist society (Johnston, 1979). These social and political changes also included the· resurgence of feminist politics after three decades of quiescence, and the re-establishment of the Women's Movement. During the 1970s, questions about women's inequality were both put on the political agenda and debated within many academic disciplines. In this chapter we examine the impact of feminist ideas and practice on social geography since 1970 and suggest ways in which future developments in the subject could draw on and contribute to feminist analyses. In particular, we argue that feminism challenges the very definition of what is 'social' about social geography.
