ABSTRACT
The thrust of applied research has played a critical part in the formation of this new base. It is thus highly pertinent to take up in this chapter, if only briefly, the interrelated questions of quantification, relevance and utility. The necessity for a 'paradigm shift' in geography as a whole away from the view that the core of the discipline is framed by spatial geometry. William Bunge, in his Theoretical Geography, introduced the concept of structuring geographical data in terms of their elementary geometrical properties of point, line, flow, zone and surface. The knowledge and experience of the analyst is crucial for applied research even though it is of course not value-free. The critical and logical attack on a problem is combined by the analyst with a subjective assessment of facts, judgements about the significance of inaccuracies, errors and the means by which data have been obtained, and in human geography phenomenological understanding of the social situation.
