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J Geograph Syst (2004) 6:36DOI: 10.1007/s10109-003-0119-7Sergio J. Rey1;21Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA(e-mail: [email protected])2Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, University of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign, USAOn the tail end of what Allen Scott (2000) has termed the great half-century
of progress in spatial analysis, it seems appropriate to take a retrospective
look at the intersection between regional science and human geography. This
issue of the Journal of Geographical Systems brings together a collection of
distinguished human geographers to examine this intersection by means of
the theme: Walter Isards impact on research in human geography. Their
contributions cover a broad selection of subelds from human geography
including spatial analysis, economic geography, integrated modeling, transportation geography, input-output analysis, and spatial interaction modeling, among others.Within human geography the stature of regional science is an often
debated topic. Far from generating creative tensions and more extensive
cross-fertilization between the wider eld of human geography and regional
science, these debates have primarily served to entrench individual scholars
into well-known camps. This might be taken to reect dimly on the future of
regional science. I would argue that such an interpretation would be wrong
for several reasons. As my colleague Arthur Getis has noted, some of the
most highly celebrated human geographers have been long-time members of
the regional science community. Moreover, the interdisciplinary spirit in that
community has been an enduring strength that predates a current emphasis
on multidisciplinary research in the social sciences as well as across the
physical and social sciences. Finally, the importance of an analytical
approach to space in the social sciences has recently been acknowledged
through the establishment of the Center for Spatially Integrated Social
Sciences (Goodchild et al. 2000). Here again, regional science through the
leadership of Walter Isard, has long championed this focus.At rst glance, honoring Walter Isard through a series of scholarly reviews
of the impacts he has had upon dierent areas of human geography appeared
to be a relatively straightforward proposition to both myself and the authors.
However, as the contributions were being developed, a common theme began
to emerge suggesting that Isards inuence on human geographic research has
been profound, yet challenging to chronicle. A full accounting has required
a mixture of comprehensive reviews of methodological developments inWalter Isards...