In this first section, we include several readings that represent early articulations of what has come to be called
the "normative" turn within the discipline. This phrase has taken on various meaning over time, but here we take
it to signify several inter-related dimensions. First, and foremost, it means that (for those who take the critiques of
the normative turn seriously), geographical scholarship must be concerned not only with description and explanation
of what the world is, but must equally be concerned with questions of what the world should be. Second, it has
meant, and continues to mean, coming to grips with such questions as what is scholarship, who is authorized to
produce it, under what circumstances, and for what purposes? This normative turn consisted of both a negative
critique of existing responses to such questions within geography (and in academia more generally), and a positive
critique that offered alternative questions, methods, and purposes. Not surprisingly, these critiques engendered
intense struggles and debates within the discipline, and have been quite influential in shaping its subsequent
trajectory.