An analysis of the evolution of the contribution of Urban Geography to studies of the city

Abstract

As part of the exercises undertaken to mark the XXth Anniversary of the publication of CIUDAD Y TERRITORIO, this paper reviews those other contributions to this as have dealt with City Geography. Notwithstanding the theorical ups and downs so proper to the period which first led to a rejection of culturally traditional urban thinking in favour of more analytic and radical approaches and then back to where they had begun, the studies that were in fact published in the magazine show both soundness and a documental and thematic research capacity that underscore that they were in the main born of original studies and thus have added scientifically to this branch of what can justly be called Geography. Of these, those touching upon Madrid and its setting and world stand out in a two-fold way: those that deal with structure, morphology and its services and those others that concern themselves withh its metropolitan environments and worlds. Both varieties tic in with all that is most recent in geograpical research, this being again historicist in its methodology, text-based and quick to natural processes even though they be urban. Though they are this, they still in no way lessen the impact of geographical considerations in the field of urbanistic practice.