ABSTRACT
In the Netherlands, human geography has traditionally been an applied, practical science. Close ties have always existed with spatial planning and regional-economic policy. With good reason, the first generation of planning specialists—in the 1960s—consisted largely of people trained as geographers. Geographers were also the so-cio-spatial engineers of the welfare state (de Pater 2001b; de Pater and de Smidt 1989).
