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| THE PROBLEM CONSCIOUSNESS OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH AND ITS CULTIVATION IN CHINA |
| TANG Mao-lin, LU Pin, WU Xiu |
| School of Geographical Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, China |
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Abstract Academic research should be aimed at problem solving, as if it is needless to talking about it. But in fact it is not the case. With the development and far-reaching of reforming, the characteristics of marketization and pragmatism of academic research in China are becoming more and more evident after the initialization of reform, and illustrate the obvious impact of market economy on academics. Our human geography research is no exception, and the bit of idealism spirit at the beginning of reform has been completely swept out till 1990s. In general, the problem consciousness of human geography research in mainland China is very weak. Such a situation is due to the impact of market economy since reform initiated in 1979, the weakness of current graduate education, the utilitarianism-led academic evaluation system, and the general social atmosphere of not talking about problems. How to reverse the current trends and cultivate problem consciousness is of great importance. We can discuss this issue from two dimensions, the institutional components and governance of the academy, and knowledge transmission from generation to generation (teaching). As the former is concerned, it is necessary to give full academic freedom to the faculty and scholars. This may be one of the important components of external academic environment for the healthy development of academics of a country or region. As to the governance of the academy, it is necessary to dismiss the contemporary popular administration-oriented academic evaluation mode, instead by peer review-oriented model. In the course of peer review, full blenching should be carried through the whole process in order to assure the justice of the evaluation. In addition the academic information of the faculty should be open to the public. History of human geography and methodology and research design should be added to the courses.
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Received: 26 April 2011
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2011, Vol. 26 
