ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the concern for the regional is entirely appropriate if the objective of social theory is to understand the contemporary world but that the trick is to place this concern within the wider context of social affairs. This chapter argues that regional geography is not the missing link in social theory which finally makes sense of and justifies the geographical project. Accepting the social significance of space should not necessarily imply the elevation of regional geography to a position of primacy in social science. This is despite the fact that regional geography certainly enables an understanding of the relations between space and society and, in the process, sensitizes social and material thought to the kaleidoscopic nuances of cultural distinction and dynamics. The argument which is presented here is that the relationship between regional geography, theory, ideology, and practice is rather more down to earth.
