A Re-Evaluation of GeopoliticsAuthor(s): David LivingstoneSource: Area, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), p. 72Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20002278 .

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72 Annual Conference

current state of disunity may or may not be more than skin deep, but this is an issue that cannot be avoided at the present time and is certainly worthy of further debate.

Elspeth Graham University of St Andrews

A re-evaluation of geopolitics The History and Philosophy of Geography Study Group devoted two modules to reassessing geopolitical thought in Germany and France. John Paterson (Leicester) opened the pro ceedings by asking precisely what it was that geographers had objected to about the geo politicians. Neither their aims, nor their methods, nor their arguments were, of themselves, the subject of criticism. Rather the locus of discontent lay in the fact that geopolitics was a Zweckwissenschaft-a purposeful science. And surely herein lies a deep irony, Paterson con cluded, for today's contempt is reserved for the geography that does not subserve policy ends, that is not in fact 'purposeful'. Robert McVeigh (Ulster-Jordanstown) then turned our attention to the philosophical origins of Geopolitik, focusing particularly on the career of Karl Haushofer. Urging that Haushofer came to co-operate with the Nazis through a historical accident-his friendship with Rudolf Hess-McVeigh went on to argue that the summary dismissal of his work by political geographers-buttressed by the unsubstantiated claim that it was pseudoscientific-was ultimately unjust.

Mark Bassin (Wisconsin-Madison) began the second module by examining the tensions between race and space in German geopolitics. Taking the political geography of Ratzel as his point of departure, he urged that the deterministic cast of Ratzelian geography-perpetuated in geopolitics-led to a rejection of the genetic racism championed by the pan-Germanic nationalists. In this scenario the environmental determinists, conventionally the subject of ridi cule, emerge as heroes. In the final paper Geoffrey Parker (Birmingham) took up the theme of 'French geopolitical thought and the European ideal'. In France, geopolitical thinking took two different forms-one seeing France as an autonomous great power, the other emphasising its wider European context. Tracing the changing fortunes of these two strands of thought and their concomitant foreign policies, he concluded that the lineage of the European community

may be traced back to the thinking of French geographers in the early part of the century.

David Livingstone The Queen's University of Belfast

Research in dockland redevelopment: postgraduate forum The session began with the view that dockland redevelopment in Britain is the physical outcome of wider structural changes in the economy. Three detailed case studies currently being researched by postgraduates were then reported.

Andy Church (QMC) started by assessing unemployment and the value of local employment initiatives as practiced by the London Docklands Development Corporation. Jeff Mesie (SAUS, Bristol) then went on to see how a new urban image is being created to sell Bristol City

Docks to new users. Thirdly, lain Tweedale (Town Planning, UWIST) looked at the effects of redevelopment on the existing multi-racial community in Cardiff docklands with a slant towards the targeting of inner city aid.

Discussion on access to data and research techniques illustrated the variety of approaches open to postgraduates and although the specific research topics in themselves were quite

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