
A excerpt on the social physics school by English human geographer Ron Johnston, whose leaders are Americans sociophysicist John Q. Stewart and geographer William Warntz. [1]

A excerpt on the social physics school by English human geographer Ron Johnston, whose leaders are Americans sociophysicist John Q. Stewart and geographer William Warntz. [1]

In schools, social physics school is a term, according to English human geography historian Ron Johnston’s classification scheme, that defines one of the four main schools of quantitative geography in the USA, whose leader is American sociophysicist John Q. Stewart, whose 1945 "exotic chapter" on population potentials initiated the school, along with the earlier work of sociologist Henry Carry, at the University of Pennsylvania, who pioneered theories on demographic gravity in the 19th century, and geographer William Warntz who together with Stewart developed physics based theories about population potentials. [1] The following 1947 quote by Stewart is frequently quoted in discussions of the social physics school:

“There is no longer an excuse to ignore the fact that human beings, on average and at least in certain circumstances, obey mathematical rules resembling in a general way some of the primitive ‘laws’ of physics.”

The term "social physics school" seems to be specific to human geography works, used in a specific way, it seems, in regards to theories on population potentials and demographic gravity theories; the terms "social physics", and the related: social mechanics, sociophysics, human physics, etc., are more general terms.

Note
This article, started on 19 Sep 2013, was the 3,000th article of Hmolpedia (see: progress report).

See also
● Princeton Department of Social Physics

References
1. (a) Johnston, Ron J. (1997). Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American Human Geography Since 1945 (pgs. 62-73). London: Arnold.
(b) Ron Johnston (geographer) – Wikipedia.
2. (a) Phillips, Martin. (2005). “Philosophical Arguments in Human Geography”, in: Contested Worlds: An Introduction to Human Geography (editor: Martin Phillips) (§2, pgs. 13-86; social physics school, pg. 18). Ashgate Publishing.
(b) Holt-Jensen, Arild. (2009). Geography: History and Concepts (social physics + John Q. Stewart, pg. 87). Sage.

Further reading
● Panchamukhi, Vadiraj R. (1978). Trade Policies of India (§: Social Physics School, pgs. 9-12). Concept Publishing Company.
● Robinson, Vaughan. (1996). Geography and Migration (“social physics” school, pg. 18). Edward Elgar Publishing.
● Phillips, Martin. (2005). “Philosophical Arguments in Human Geography”, in: Contested Worlds: An Introduction to Human Geography (editor: Martin Phillips) (§2, pgs. 13-86; social physics school, pg. 18). Ashgate Publishing.

External links
● Gravity model in Geography (Dutch → English) – Wikipedia.