Humanistic geography: a half-century

This piece introduces a theme section designed to celebrate – and to reflect upon – a half-century of the important approach to thought and inquiry in (and beyond) academic geography known as ‘humanistic geography’. Publications in 1976, 50 years past, announced the arrival of this approach, notably Yi-Fu Tuan’s article with ‘Humanistic Geography’ as its title, and so regarding 2026 as the approach’s ‘half-century’ birthday does seem appropriate. The present piece elaborates on this claim, indicating something of how humanistic geography might be understood, sympathetically and more critically, in this half-century year. It concludes by introducing the articles that follow in the theme section.