Concept:
During the post-1970s period, human geography underwent significant philosophical diversification in reaction to quantitative and mechanistic spatial models.
Scholars sought deeper explanations for persistent socioeconomic disparities, leading to the rise of three prominent contemporary schools of thought.
These three schools include the Welfare or Humanistic school, the Radical school, and the Behavioural school.
Step 1: Understanding the Radical School of Thought:
The Radical School of Thought emerged strongly in the early 1970s to address structural inequalities, deprivation, and social injustice.
This intellectual movement explicitly employed Marxian social and economic theory to explain the root causes of poverty, unequal resource allocation, and social marginalization.
Marxian geographical analysis posits that spatial inequalities and environmental degradations are inherent contradictions of the capitalist mode of production.
Step 2: Examination of Alternative Schools:
The Positivist School of Thought relied on empirical observation, quantitative methods, and value-free geometric models of spatial science.
The Humanistic School placed central emphasis on human agency, subjective lived experience, consciousness, and sense of place.
The Behavioural School focused on individual psychological processes, cognitive mapping, and perceived space rather than structural economic power.
Final Answer:
Therefore, the Marxian theory was applied by the Radical School of Thought to explain social inequality.