`INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHT

CHAPTER ONE
1. INTRODUCTION
Misconception about what to do with geography and what geographers do is a wide spread
phenomenon. School geography may have left many with childish, poor and bad memories of
learning the names of rivers, mountains, countries, capital towns etc by rote. Such
knowledge, in fact, may serve at infancy of the knowledge of the subject, but fail to entertain
its core concept. It is still common to meet people who think that geographers:
 Must have to learn a mass of facts such as the length of rivers of the world,
 Know the population of towns all over the world,
 Are people who know how to draw maps,
 Write travel descriptions, etc
In fact, each of these opinions as to what geography and geographers are has some truth in
it, and geographers are trained and interested to study variations in phenomena from place to
place, the underpinning causes and implications on the social and physical environments.
Place names, location of towns, land use, topography… are facts for geographers and
building blocks of the subject (as time for historians), but they are not the subject in
themselves. Maps are also important tools for geographers. Writing about the definition for
the subject is much harder than one might expect as:
 Most people have vague notions about the contents of scientific geography,
 Many other disciplines have one central organizing concept, for instance:
Unlike other similar disciplines, which are having one central organizing concept,
geography has many and most of its key concepts are temporary and unstable with changing
perspectives in the changing world. Therefore, the different theories and philosophies of
geography provide a distinctive view of the nature of geography. As a result, contemporary
geography has been struggling with its identity without any clear consensus as to what
geographers are what they do or how they should study the world. This can be seen from the
various definitions given to geography:
Hartshorne ( 1959): Geography is concerned to provide accurate, orderly and rationale
description and interpretation of the variable character of the earth surface -
DESCRIPTIVE PERSPECTIVE
The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1964): Geography is the science of the earth’s surface,
form, physical features, natural and political divisions, climate, production, population etc.
taxonomic perspective
Yeates (1968): Geography can be regarded as a science concerned with the rational
development of and testing of theories that explain and predict the spatial distribution and
location of various characteristics of the surface of the earth-experiment perspective
Dunford (1981): Geography is the study of special forms and structures produced
historically and specified by mode of production-explanatory perspective
Haggett (1990): Geographers are concerned with three kinds of analysis:
 Spatial (Location): characteristics, activities and distributions
 Ecological: the relationship between humans and environment
 Regional: the combination of the first two themes in areal differentiation – analytical
perspective
Geography working group’s interim report (1990): Geography explores the relationship
between the earth and its people through the study of place, space and environment-
explorative perspective
Gale (1992): Geography for me is about how we view the world, how we see people in
places
Peet (1998): Geography is the study of relations between society and the natural
environment- relation perspective.
Geography looks at how society shapes, alters, and increasingly transforms the natural
environment, creating humanised forms from stretches of pristine nature, and then
sedimentation layers of socialisation one within the other, on top of the other until a complex
natural-social landscape results. It also looks at how nature conditions society, in some
original sense of creating the people and raw materials which social forces workup into
culture and in an on-going sense of placing limits and offering material potential for social
processes like economic development.
The aforementioned discussion revealed that the definition of geography changes as we try
to define it from the perspectives of what geographers do and what they study. Therefore, the
nature of GEOGRAPHY can be defined through a historical analysis of what geographers of
various time periods have regarded as the three primary concern of Geography:
1. Geography, like the earth sciences, is concerned with the study of the earth’s surface from
the point of view of the social sciences,
2. Geography is concerned with man’s spatial organization and his ecological relationship to
this environment,
3. Geography focuses on spatial variation in the distribution of resources and the ways in
which resources can be evenly distributed.
From these three perspectives, geography can be broadly described as: a discipline
concerned with man in his physical and socio-economic environment, description of the
earth’s surface as the world of man, study of man-environment system treating man as a
component of eco-system as well as the steward of the environment.
Geography as a discipline is concerned with three sets of questions. Geographers ask
questions such as where, what, and why. Some questions are related to the identification of
the patterns of natural and cultural features as found over the surface of the earth. These are
the questions about what while other questions are related to the distributions of the natural
and human/cultural features over the surface of the earth. These are the questions about
where? Taken together, both these questions take care of locational and distributional aspects
of the natural and cultural features. These questions provided information about what features
and where they are located. It was a very popular approach during the colonial period. These
two questions did not make geography a scientific discipline till the third question was added.
The third question is related to the explanation or the causal relationships between features
and the processes and phenomena. This aspect of geography is related to the question, why?
CHAPTER TWO
2. FOUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHTS
Writing about and describing geographical phenomenon started long before the
introduction of the subject geography to the university. It is often said that the search for
basic necessities is the source of geographical knowledge. Geography has a longer genealogy
than any other science. Geographical thinking is older than the term ‘Geography’. Even
though, it is believed that the term ‘geography’ was first used at about 300 BC by Greeks
(literally to mean ‘earth description’; ge/geo-the earth and graphe/grafien-description/to
write/to draw), geographical concepts and spoken geography (writing about and describing
geographical phenomenon) are known to have been in existence even long before the
introduction of writing. Geographical thought actually started when people begun realizing
that different places have different characteristics.
2.1. Geography in the ancient world/ Prehistoric Period (circa 1000 BC)
It is difficult to trace the development, diffusion and spread of geographical knowledge
during the prehistoric periods. In the ancient period, geography grew out of explorations,
mapping of the areas known and the speculation about the material collected. There is a
consensus that all civilizations contributed to the development of geographical concepts and
in fact geographical knowledge had been a concomitant of civilization. Before the rise of
Hellenic culture (Greek civilization beyond classical Greeks /480-404BC/), geography was
regarded as the knowledge of topographical features, mountains, rivers and places of one’s
own country and its neighbors’. Later on, maritime trade and commercial relations provided a
store of geographical information. However, from archeological evidences we know that in
the initial stage, Geography marched at a snail’s pace.
2.1.1. Pioneers of Geographic Thoughts in the Ancient World
i. Egyptians and Jews: The Egyptians and Jews (in Asia Minor along the
Mediterranean Sea) were the early influential rulers. The Old Testament contains
numerous geographical details concerning Egypt, Israel
ii. Palestine and neighboring areas: Phoenicians: Occupying Asia Minor (coastal
Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel), they contributed to the advancement of geographical
knowledge. They were the first repositories of geographical knowledge. However, their
narrow, selfish, and secretive policies prevented them from communicating to others the
information they had obtained about the distant nations and trading centers.
iii. Greeks: The pioneers of prehistoric ideas: The roots of modern geography are
traced back to the thoughts of the ancient Greeks. It is believed that Physical Geography
flourished in ancient Greece, characterized by diverse relief features and indented coast
line.Some of the major Greek contributors of Geographic Thoughts in the ancient world
were:
A. Homer (859B. C): He was greatest Greek poet-Iliad and Odyssey which described
about the Trojan War containing valuable information about Historical Geography of the
then known world. Some of his thoughts:
Earth as circular, surrounded by the Ocean river,
The sky as solid, concave surface, equal in extent to the earth, rested on tall pillars of
the Atlas,
The sun rose out of the ocean stream and again sank in to the same at its setting.
The stars follow the same course as the sun and bath every day in the waters of the
ocean,
Described four winds as coming from the four directions.
B. Thales (634 BC – 546 B.C): Thales of Miletus was Greek thinker, philosopher,
businessman and traveler. He originated several basic theorems of geometry. He was also
the first person to initiate measurement of the earth and locate things on the surface of the
earth. Visualized the earth as a disc floating in water, Water as the essence of all matter,
predicted the May 28, 585BC eclipse of the sun.
C. Anaximander (610– c. 546 B.C.) Anaximander was a pre-Socratic Greek
philosopher who lived in Miletus, a city of Ionia; Milet in modern Turkey. He was also
the disciple of Thales. He introduced the Babylonian instrument-gnomon, just like a sun
dial, a vertical pole on which varying position of the sun could be measured by the length
and direction of its shadow cast; prepared a world map to scale. Thales and Anaximander
are generally recognized as the founders of Mathematical Geography.
D. Herodotus (485-425BC): Herodotus of Halicarnassus was Greek historian. He is
regarded as the FATHER OF HISTORY. He placed / recorded historical events in
geographical settings. Herodotus was a strong supporter of the idea that ‘all history must
be treated geographically…’ His work is an example of Historical Geography. He was
well aware of some of the physical processes that transform the surface of the earth;
mainly Delta formation: the Nile Delta. He was also was the 1 st to divide the world
landmass into three continents viz. Europe, Asia & Libya (Africa); divided the interior
parts of Africa into three latitudinal zones as: The Mediterranean coast from Atlas to the
Delta of Nile- occupied partly by nomads & partly by cultivators, Land of dates: the area
of wild beasts at south of the 1st zone,True Sahara zone in the further south.
E. Plato (428-348 B.C.): He made an important contribution to the development of
geography. Plato was a great proponent of deductive reasoning, from the general to the
particular. He said that the observable phenomena on the earth’s surface represent poor
copies of ideas from which these observable phenomena had degenerated.
F. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.): He was regarded as the pioneer of inductive reasoning and
inductive approach to acquiring knowledge. The best method of building a reliable theory
was to start from the observation of facts. Aristotle recognized that observations made
through the senses can never provide explanations. Our sense, he said, can tell us that fire
is hot but cannot tell us why it is hot.
G. Eratosthenes (276-194BC): Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician, elegiac poet,
athlete, Geographer, astronomer and music theorist. He was born in Greek colony, Cyrene
(in Libya) and was the third chief librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria. He was the
first person to use the word "geography”. He invented coordinate systems for the world (a
system of latitude and longitude), which enabled him to make the first possibly accurate
map of the world. Eratosthenes was the first person to calculate the circumference of the
earth. He was also the first to calculate the tilt of the Earth's axis (also with remarkable
accuracy). He may also have accurately calculated the distance from the earth to the sun
and invented the leap year. He regarded the earth as a sphere, placed in the center of the
universe, round which the celestial spheres revolved every 24 hours. He also stated that
the sun and the moon have independent motions of their own. His contemporaries
nicknamed him beta because he supposedly proved himself to be the second best in the
world in almost every field.
H. Hipparchus (c. 190 BC – c. 120 BC): Hipparchus was born in Turkey. He was
Greek astrologer, astronomer, geographer and mathematician of the Hellenistic period.
He discovered the precession of the equinoxes. He also calculated the length of the year;
He compiled the 1st known star catalogue. He stressed the importance of parallels of
latitudes and meridians of longitudes; made a marked development in the field of
scientific cartography. He was also the 1st to divide the circle into 360 degrees. He
pointed out that the equator was a great circle and the meridians too; the parallels get
shorter toward the poles; and each hour the earth turns 15 degree of longitudes. For the
determination of latitudes and longitudes, he invented astrolable; which was easier to
handle and more accurate than Anaximander’s gnomon. He designed orthographic and
stereographic projections. Hipparchus was the first to develop a reliable method to predict
solar eclipses.
I. Posidonius (ca. 135 BC - 51 BC): Posidonius was born at Apamaea in Syria. He was
a Greek stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher. He
believed the tide is caused by the moon. However, with wrong thought about the cause
and thinking that the moon was a mixture of air and fire, he attributed the cause of the
tides to the heat of the moon, which is hot enough to cause the water to swell but not hot
enough to evaporate it. He recorded observations on both earthquakes and volcanoes,
including accounts of the eruptions of the volcanoes in the Aeolian Islands, north of
Sicily. He also measured the Earth's circumference by reference to the position of the star
Canopus. Posidonius' method for calculating the circumference of the earth relied on the
altitude of the star Canopus.
iv) Romans: Their Contribution to Geography
1. Starbo (64 BC-20 AD): He was born in Amesia (in Turkey). He compiled the
historical and regional geography of the world. In his work of 17 volume geographica, he
explained and discussed different human and physical phenomenon such as: Cultural
differences over space, Description of world known places. Discussed government,
society, cultural development, and the significance of natural conditions. He also laid the
 foundation of chorological writing in Geography. He was the only geographer to write
about all the branches: historical, political, physical and mathematical geography.
2. Ptolemy (A.D. 90-168): He was a native of Egypt, Alexandria. He improved the work
of Eratosthenes. He also wrote the principles of divisions of latitude and longitude in to
degrees and the calculation of distances. Furthermore, he developed sound principles of
mathematical geography. He discussed map projections; made maps of the world.
However, his longitudinal measurement was full of errors due to rejecting Eratosthenes
accurate estimation.
In general, Greek and Roman Geographers in the ancient world were interested in the
detailed topographical description of places and their history which is called chorography.
They are also interested in the measurement of the earth and the production of maps. A
philosophical interest was in the relationship between humanity and the environment which
involved the belief that the earth demonstrates an order and purpose which has been designed
by a super natural power that the environment influences people and that people can only to
some extent modify their environment.
2.2. Geographic Thoughts in the Middle Age
Dark Age was a period of turmoil in Europe- the Christian west. The period of Ptolemy
marks the highest point to which geographical science ever reached. The disintegration of the
Roman Empire led to the decline in literature, science and explorations in Europe and S. W.
Asia. During this period there was no new development except copying and duplicating
what had been done. Decline of European Geography was due to political instability, lack of
communication-insecurity for travelers, wrong thinking and resistance of the religion towards
scientific inquiry about the shape and size of the earth. This, however, does not mean that
geographical knowledge at that time did not flourish in other parts of the world such as
China, India and S.E. Asia.
a) Chinese Geography-the Far East:
While European Geography declined in this period, Chinese Geography prospered to the
highest level. The vast area and huge population of China contributed to the prosperity of
Chinese Geography.
b) Arab Geographical Thought
While geography and other allied sciences faced challenges in Europe and Christian
world, it was flourishing; growing and developing in the Arab world may be due to:
 Inquisition to translate Greeks and Romans’ works,
 Islamic Brotherhood
  The pilgrimage.
 Trade and commerce, and
 Marine adventures
Arabs who were largely influenced by the Greek traditions adopted Greek ideas about the
shape and size of the earth and considered: the earth as the center of the universe, round,
revolving the seven planets (in order of their distance from the earth were: Moon, Mercury,
Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), Each planet occupied its own sphere/sky-seven
heavens.
2.2.1. Major contributors of Geographic Thoughts in the Middle Age
i. Al-Balakhi: He prepared the 1st climatic atlas of the world entitled, Kitabul-Ashkal in 921
AD.
ii. Al-Masudi
 Al-Masudi was born in Baghdad and was a geographer and historian. He also:
 Had clear conception of the sphericity of the earth;
 Was aware of cycle of erosion in physical geography;
 Described the source of Nile in Abyssinia;
 Was a known climatologist and hence gave a detailed description of the monsoon
winds
 Tried to correlate man with environment in human geography; and
 Contributed to the field of regional geography.
iii. Al-Maqdisi (945-988)
 Divided the world into 14 climatic regions;
 Recognized climatic variation not only by latitude but also by position east and
west;
 Recognized Open Ocean in the southern and most land masses in the northern
hemisphere.
iv. Al-Idrisi (1099-1180): He wrote a descriptive geography and introduced a more
sophisticated and refined world climatic zones that what the Greeks suggested (two cold
zones, two temperate zone and on torrid zone). He plotted various geographical features on
his rectangular projection world map.
v. Ibn Batuta (1304-1368): Batuta was an African origin. He Travelled as far as China and
south of the equator along the east coast disproving the claim that this part of the earth is too
hot for human habitation.
vi. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406): Khaldun was born at the Mediterranean Sea coast of N.W.
Africa. He is probably the last great Arab scholar who significantly contributed to geography.
He was interested in historical geography and wrote about the rise and fall of states in their
geographical settings.
2.3. The Age of Explorations and Discoveries (post 1200)
It is also called the Golden Age / Renaissance of Geography. During the time of
renaissance, geography was revived and major travelers of the time were used Ptolemy’s
map. This led to the new improvements in cartography, which resulted from new discoveries,
and filled the information gap between the middle age and the renaissance. In fact, man,
throughout the history, has always been a wanderer, searcher and explorer. As early as
700BC, Phoenicians searched new lands in the Mediterranean and beyond; about 470BC,
Hanno, the Carthaginian, sailed as far as Sierra Leonea; in 330 BC the Greeks sailed around
Britain and into the North Sea. In the 1st and 2nd c BC, the Romans penetrated up the Nile, as
far north as Baltic and westwards across Europe. About the same time, the Arabs were
trading far afield in the Indian Ocean, ranging from Spain to India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and
China and as far as Madagascar. The explorations and discoveries opened more vistas in
Geographical knowledge. During this period, there was tremendous interest in travelling
because of:
 Important advances in marine/naval technology and improvements in ship design,
 Accurate knowledge of absolute location,
 Navigational aids such as the compass,
The world was also experiencing a great revolution in knowledge about the nature of the
universe and the earth’s position in it. The impact of explorations and discoveries was
stronger on the art of map making. During the period of exploration many erroneous ideas
were eliminated. Some of their more famous discoveries disproved Ptolemy’s calculations
and changed the picture of the world established by him. Mercator projection was also
invented in 1569, which had helped to prepare the first globe with relatively accurate
information of the world using parallels and meridians.
In 1492 Christopher Columpus reached the New World (America), and Vasco da Gama
through the Cape of Good Hope reached India in1498. In 1520 Fernao de Magillan was the
first to reach Asia by sailing the west. Venice and Genoa were important centers of
cartographic learning (map making) because it was from these two places that Europeans
departed for voyages to the eastern Mediterranean to pick up the cargo brought by Arab ships
from the east). It should be noted that most of the cartographers of the 15 th century lived
either in Venice or in Genoa. In addition, Juan de la Cosa, in 1500 A.D, drew a map using the
observations from the first three voyages of Columbus. However, the first world map that
shows America as a separate continent (but not as part of the eastern Asia) was drawn by
Martin Waldseemuller in 1507. He also made use of the name America for the first time.
2.4. Early Period of Modern Geographical Thought
The origins of modern geography can be dated back to Western Europe in the century after
Columbus in the 16th C. The 16th century witnessed far-reaching economic, social and
political upheavals, linked directly to the expansion of European power beyond the
continent’s previously vulnerable limits. Early-modern innovations in ship building, naval
technology and navigation progressively increased the range of European travel and trade,
particularly around the new Atlantic rim. By about 1600 A.D, a new, mercantilist Atlantic
trading system was firmly established linking the emerging, capitalist nation-states of western
Europe with the seemingly unlimited resources of the American ‘New World’.
This transformed European perceptions of the wider world as well as the European self-
image. It also increased desire for both accurate geographic detail, and more solid theoretical
foundations. Knowledge’s in the natural and social sciences were treated together without
divisions or specialization. The revolutionized scientific thinking and research led to the
accumulation of knowledge. This resulted in the rise of specialized branches of knowledge,
each focusing on some particular theme, object or relationships between phenomena. The rise
of specialized systematic sciences signaled the end of the era of universal scholarship and
cosmographies in which scholars had attempted to bring together all that known about the
earth and its parts. Geography was also emerged as a separate field of study. In 1595,
collections of maps were assembled and published in atlases. The term atlas was first used by
Gerardus Mercator for his collection of maps of northern Europe. In the early period of
modern geographical thought, there were prominent thinkers who provided philosophical
foundation for the belief that the subject geography has a significant scientific contribution.
i. Bernhardus Varenius (1622-1650)
Varenius was born in a village near Hamburg in Germany. He published Geographia
Generalis in 1650. In his book, he used observations and primary measurements to present
some new ideas concerning geographic knowledge. This work continued to be a standard
geographic reference for about 100 years. He identified the two approaches to geographical
study: Special (Regional) Geography and General (Universal/systematic) Geography. The
Special Geography deals with particular places (countries and regions). Thus it is also termed
as Regional Geography. General (Universal) Geography deals with the general laws of the
subject or the nature and pattern of spatial distribution of particular item over the earth’s
surface. It is also called as systematic Geography. Therefore, he was the 1 st to lay the
foundation of the dichotomy of Regional and Systematic Geography. He further sub-divided
General Geography into three distinct branches. These include:
 Absolute-terrestrial part, which examines the form and dimensions or shape and size of
the earth, and the physical Geography of continents, seas and atmosphere.
 Relative or planetary part – concerned with earth’s relation to other stars, especially the
sun and its influence on world climate.
 The Comparative part-discusses the location of different places in relation to each other
and the principles of navigation.
The first two branches together form the early beginning of what we collectively now call
physical geography. The last branch of geography examined distinct regions on the earth
using comparative cultural studies. Today, this area of knowledge called cultural
geography.Varenius advocated that the highest temperatures are not recorded in the
equatorial belt but along the tropics in the hot deserts. By the early 19th century there was
great demand for information and knowledge about the world for traders, those who invested
in them, and the statesmen who supported both groups. As a result, geography was practiced
and taught largely. Geographical societies were thus established in many European and North
American cities to share and disseminate information. Many of the European societies had
royal patronage and strong support from the mercantile, diplomatic, and military classes.
They collected and published information, sponsored expeditions, and held regular meetings,
at which returning explorers might present their findings or participate in debates over
technical issues such as mapping. These societies were central to the 19th-C mercantile and
imperial nations.
Geographical knowledge was important for world trade development and the competition
to colonize new lands and resources among the powerful nations in the 18 th and 19th
centuries. In this regard, governments became involved in colonial ventures, annexing land
beyond their frontiers, providing administrators and military protection, and encouraging
settlement. All such endeavors required geographical information, including accurate maps.
Increasingly, governments became directly involved in these activities, for instance, the U.S.
government’s sponsorship of major expeditions to the country’s expanding western frontier
and the establishment of national mapping agencies around the world. By the 18th century,
geography had become recognized as a discrete discipline and became part of a typical
university curriculum in Europe especially in Paris and Berlin. But this was not practical in
the United Kingdom where geography was generally taught as a sub-discipline of other
subjects.
ii. Huxley
Huxley, in 1877, published physiography and presented a new form of geography. He
analyzed and classified cause and effect at the micro-level and then applied these to the
macro-scale due to the view that the micro was part of the macro. Thus an understanding of
all the micro-scales was needed to understand the macro level. This approach emphasized the
empirical collection of data over the theoretical.
iii. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Kant was born at Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) in East Prussia (Russia). He was mainly
interested in the physical geography. His physical geography also included political,
commercial, theological and regional geography. In other words, he recognized the
importance of commercial geography, theological geography, moral geography (concerning
people’s customs and ways of life), mathematical geography (concerning Earth’s shape and
motion), and political geography. He then saw them all as being heavily influenced by the
underlying physical geography. He provided two different ways of grouping or classifying
empirical phenomena for the purpose of studying them systematically in accordance with
their: nature-logical classification position in time and space - physical classification
Logical classification lays the foundation for the systematic sciences, e.g. the study of
animals in zoology, plants in botany, rocks in geology, socio-cultural and ethnic groups in
sociology. It also distinguished between specific fields of knowledge represented by
disciplines such as physics and biology. However, physical classification gave scientific
basis for or distinguished between two general fields of knowledge: history and geography.
History is the report of phenomena that follow one another in time- machemiander
(chronological science)-narrative, while Geography is the report of phenomena beside each
other in space-nebeneinder (chorological science)-descriptive. In general, Kant thought of
three ways of organizing human knowledge, i.e. Approaches of acquiring knowledge: The
substantive approach- knowledge develops depending on the exercises or processes involved,
e.g. biology, chemistry.
 The chronological approach- on the bases of sequence of events, e.g. History.
 The chorological approach- on the bases of association and interconnection between
and among phenomena, e.g. Geography.
 The classification of knowledge presented by Kant had by now become commonly
accepted so that geography had come to occupy a definite place among the sciences as a
branch of knowledge which brings to bear a special perspective to the study of diverse
phenomena on the earth’s surface. Therefore, Kant was the 1 st who provided an early
statement of Geography as chorology. Branching of Geography, especially into physical and
human was started during this period. Thus, the period of Veranius and Kant is also known as
the ‘Classical Period of Modern Geographical Thought’. Kant was a very influential
philosopher and his belief in the intellectual importance of geography was an important
element in establishing the subject as a discipline. Since geography could not identify any
particular circle of facts as its special object of study, however it began to lose its claim as a
science.
2.5. Modern Geographical Thought
2.5.1. Changing view points in the second half of the 19th c
The nature of Geography had been changing throughout its history. The term ‘geography’
means, and has meant, different things to different people in different times and places, there
is no agreed upon consensus on what constitutes the nature and scope of geography. Prior to
the period of Berneshardus Varenuis and Kant, geography was geography, largely descriptive
in character. Kant gave a theoretical justification for geography while Humboldt and Ritter
(German) laid the scientific foundation of Geography as a branch of knowledge and are
credited as the founders of modern geography.
2.5.2. Founders of modern geographical thought
i. Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859):
Humboldt engaged in the task of collecting and analyzing data about relationships
between the spatial distribution of rocks, plants and animals. He collected data in order to be
able to identify relationships and make generalizations. He emphasized the mutual causality
among species and their physical environment: the interdependence of people, plants, and
animals with another one, with specific physical settings. In this way, he showed people, like
other species, have to adapt to their environment, and how their behaviors also affect
environment around them.
Humboldt was mainly considered as cosmographer (the study of the universe) rather than
seen as a geographer. Humboldt is mainly interested in natural sciences dealing with the
underpinning relationship between plants, animals, and human kinds with climate,
topography and altitude. Hence Humboldt’s greatest contribution was in systematic physical
geography.
ii. Karl Ritter (1779-1859):
Unlike Humboldt, Ritter was cultural geographer and was mainly concerned with human
geography. Like Immanuel Kant, Ritter’s view of the world was teleological which means
understanding events in relation to their underlying purposes designed for. Ritter started to
study the working of nature in order to understand the purpose behind its order. He regarded
the earth as an educational model for humanity, where nature had a God given purpose which
was to show humanity development. According to Ritter, the shape of continents is not
accidental but designed by God and this design and their relative location enabled them to
play the role for which they are designed by God for the development of human kind.
The major contributions of Ritter:
 Ritter declared geography to be Erdkunde or an earth science.
 He conceived geography as an empirical science rather than the one based on
deduction from rational principles (generalized law).
 He was founder of comparative method in regional geography,
 Principle of ‘unity in diversity’ in the biotic and abiotic components of habitat.
 Ritter is known for his Erdkunde, which conceptualized regional geography as
contrast to systematic geography of Humboldt.
 He also believed that the Earth was an organism made, even in its smallest details,
with divine intent, to fit the needs of man to perfection. For some, both Carl Ritter
and Alexander Humboldt are considered as classical geographers as the
 institutionalization of the discipline came much late, although they are credited as
the founders of modern geography by laying its scientific foundation as a branch of
knowledge.
2.6. Anomalous Status of Geography as a Discipline
Geography has gone through many challenges and identity crisis. Many agree that
geography holds a puzzling position within the organization of knowledge straddling both the
social and natural sciences. The focus of Geography on the study of the surface of the earth
which required focus on man as well as nature, and its status as neither a pure science nor as a
pure human or social science subject was the source of much confusion in the formative
phases of geography as the modern discipline when division of knowledge into distinct
disciplines was being concretized.
By the time geography became an established university subject in the late 19th century;
academic studies had already been divided into the natural and physical sciences on one
hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. Geography with its social and
natural constituents had to be slotted into this existing structure. Although the bridging role
between natural and social sciences seen as the unique and vital strength of geography, it is
also an impediment for the subject. The confusion regarding the place of Geography in the
context of the division of knowledge into systematic fields had continued until place-space-
time (spatio-temporal) based classification of disciplines recognized in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century. Even during the period of Ritter and Humboldt, Geography was still not
related to specific discipline. Geography remained an umbrella concept for a variety of
expeditions and other activities within the natural and social sciences, to a large extent
supported by geographical societies.
2.6.1. From cosmography to institutionalized discipline
After the death of Humboldt and Ritter in 1859 (the founders of modern geographical
thought), the progress of geography as a disciple halted as no one was replacing them as a
university chair in Geography. At this time geography was considered as a merely
subdivision of history or a subsidiary subject to history. The fact that most data provided to
university geographers came from explorers supported by the geographical societies, there
was a fear that if geography becomes an independent discipline, it may affect the relation
between the geographical societies.
During the 1850s, geography in some European countries became widespread school
subject with the aim of developing children’s power of observation. After the Franco-
Prussian war of 1870-1871, geography was considered as a tool for popularizing and
reinforcing the idea of state and nation. Following this, the first British university, geography
department was established at Oxford in 1900, but geography has got a firm footing at
Cambridge after 1908. In USA the first geography department was established in Chicago in
1903. This led to the institutionalization of geography which includes the standardization of
examinations with national standards and organizing the discipline defined as a subject area
with distinct content. Consequently, the new geography for which syllabus and reading lists
were drawn up, led to the professionalization of people calling themselves geographers.
iii. Darwin
The scientific voyages of discovery in the 18th and early 19th century had completely
revolutionized the biological sciences. In this regard, Charles Darwin’s theory, “the Origin of
Species” that was published in 1859 provided new way of scientific reasoning. Darwin theory
of evolution said that all organisms are the product of site selection, change in climate and
struggle for existence. An aspect of the evolutionary theory, of particular importance to
geography, was that it emphasized the need to study phenomena on the earth’s surface in
relation to the environment in which they were located, since only in this way could their
struggle for survival and environmental adjustment be adequately appreciated. This gave a
future justification for the methodology and perspective of geography as a science. The new
geography based mainly on some ideas of Humboldt and Ritter but also influenced by
Darwinian idea and the political milieu of the period. Consequently, some social anarchist
/radical/ geographers start to dominate in the early development of academic geography.

iv. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905)

Reclus was a known French social anarchist geographer. One of his achievements was his
work with systematic geography called La Terre and his 19-volumes regional geography. As
a social geographer, Reclus reflected much his political view which he discussed social
justice and social conditions. However, a more radical view of social justice and the relation
between humanity, nature and decentralization which is clearly aimed at discouraging the use
of geographical research for exploitative and imperialistic purposes came from a close
friend of Reculs called Kropotkin.
iv. Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921)
Kropotkin believed that centralized institutions inhibit the development of a cooperative
personality, promote inequality and limit economic progress. He suggested that large city
regions should be disaggregated in to small more or less self sufficient townships within
which residential, office and recreational spaces might be integrated. Such idea was later put
in to practice by the ‘Garden City Movement’ led by Ebenezer Howard and Lewis Mumford.
The idea of decentralization, which was promoted by Kropotkin, is also an important concept
in contemporary urban and regional geography. From the middle of the 19th century up to
the contemporary period, there occurred many philosophical changes in the definition,
concepts and approaches of the discipline. The major concepts and methodologies were
developed by German, French, British, American and Soviet school of Geographies.
2.6.2. Emergence of geography as a university discipline
Whenever a new discipline establishes itself in universities, there are always problems of
identity to resolve, and the story of geography is unexceptional in this respect. Mapping in
geographical space goes back a long way in time so one basic principle of geography belongs
to the distant past. Similarly, essential geographical concepts can be found in the writings of
Greek philosophers, Roman historians, and Sumerian cartographers. Geography, with its
empirical matter-of-factness, was a discernible element of the growth of knowledge, but its
various concepts were not drawn together into an integrated subject area.
It is not until the 16th century, for example, that there is evidence of the coherent practice
of geography in British universities. This practice was contained in a variety of schemes of
study and refl ected a wealth of intellectual traditions and established disciplines. Relevant
learned societies, especially the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), offered support but
tended to be strongly focused on the historic priorities of mapmaking, discovery, and
exploration. Major changes were in the air in the 19th century. In the ‘Age of Empires’, maps
acquired new meanings and the voyages and journeys of discovery had scientifi c as well as
political interest. Many had seen Darwin’s work on evolution by natural selection as the
catalyst for studies of the geography of the natural environment. More directly, Halford
Mackinder, the fi rst Professor of Geography at Oxford, developed his ‘Geographical
Experiment’, which involved the integration of the study of society and the environment, and
the maintenance of culture and nature, under one umbrella. This defi ned geography at that
time and set the challenge of understanding the relationships between these two principal
components of the Earth’s surface.
Developments in the United Kingdom did not occur in isolation. Alexander von Humboldt
and Karl Ritter led movements towards a new geography in Germany, with the former
emphasizing the Earth-surface features that created natural landscapes and the latter arguing
for the recognition of regions in the world as the home of man. European ideas on the impact
of environment on people sparked the debate on determinism that extended to American
geographers. French geographers were strongly interested in cultural landscapes and regions
that refl ected traditions and ways of life. All of these new ways of thinking about people,
environments, and the meanings of landscapes evolved during the 19th and early 20th
centuries. They were part of the intellectual ferment that followed the new sciences and the
lateral thinking of the late Enlightenment.
The Geographical Experiment gave geography the chance to establish itself as a university
discipline. The breadth of its terms of reference was both strength and a weakness. The
strength was that it included nature and culture and their relationship, a concept no other
discipline had claimed. This breadth remains a contested topic in modern geography despite
the opportunities it presents of ever-increasing relevance. The weakness is the spread of
interest over such a wide fi eld and an ‘anything goes’ mentality. This weakness becomes
most apparent when different parts of the discipline relate to different intellectual traditions.
The touching points then become very few or non-existent. It is fair to say that most physical
geography today is evolving within the research framework of the natural and mathematical
sciences, whereas most human geography draws upon and interrelates with the traditions of
the humanities and social studies. It is possible to recognize a defi nite lacuna in which
physical and human geography interact, but for many this is a minority interest.
Geography is now a well-established university discipline. It is a common presence in
European universities and is also widely found as both undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes in most parts of the world. The International Geographical Union lists members
in 75 different countries including, for example, 27 in Japan, 14 in South Africa, 10 in China,
5 in India, 4 in Peru, and 1 each in Morocco, the Philippines, Sudan, and Tanzania. Most
departments are found in developed countries. The 2001 research assessment exercise for
institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom recorded entries from 60 institutions
comprising over 450 research-active academics. Current listings of universities and colleges
offering degree schemes in geography in the United States show 217 institutions, and there
are a further 42 in Canada. The current penchant is for mergers of geography departments
with others into schools with titles such as Earth, human, or environmental sciences/studies.
Many of these changes are fairly cosmetic, as geographical research and undergraduate
studies continue in these new units, and students wishing to study geography will easily fi nd
degree schemes that fi t their aspirations.
UNIT THREE
3. PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY IN GEOGRAPHY
Philosophy, in its simplest form, refers to theories about theory. It promotes a fundamental
and general analysis of the world and attempts to know it. As a process of knowledge,
research involves objects to be known (ontology), how to know (epistemology) and means of
acquiring information and knowledge (methodologies). Five decades ago, geography was
characterized as a theoretical endeavour. However, the recent development in geography
shows that theory has become an important tool in geography to illustrate and explain the
world around us from geographic perspectives. Theory is a set of ideas about how the world
works. It is the means by which geographers seek to describe, explain, and predict aspects of
the world. Theory is a valuable tool for understanding and engaging with the world. There are
many different opinions concerning how one should go about the tasks of thinking and
researching particular phenomena, actions, ideas and concepts based on the underpinning
philosophies.
3.1. Research Paradigms in Geography
Throughout the history of geography, geographers have brought successive images
concerning the arrangement of things on the face of the earth. The mental images and
explanations of one generation were seldom satisfactory to the succeeding generation. These
need a continued search for new and more perfect images and explanations that conform to
the contemporary scientific analysis. From its brief history, it can be understood that certain
geographical theories dominate geographic research at one time and then replaced by another
theories which led geography to pass through a successive phases of intellectual and
theoretical development. This can be described based on the different paradigms of
geography.
The concept of paradigm shift was introduced by Thomas Kuhn in his key work ‘the
structure of scientific revolution’ in 1970. For him, paradigms refer to the idea that academic
disciplines move through phases of development characterized by different assumptions
about how work should proceed. A paradigm refers here to a body of literature that shares
fundamental assumptions about what the world is like and how we should research it. More
specifically, it is also about what the key objects of analysis for geographers should be, and
the role of geography within wider society. At this juncture, it is useful to provide an outline
of some of the former and contemporary paradigms in order to show how they commit to
certain ontological and epistemological stances. Based on the above idea, Johnston identified
three separate paradigms that became dominant within academic geography in the period up
to 1950: Exploration, Environmental Determinism and Regionalism.
A. Exploration
In the initial phase, geography was considered as a description of the earth surface and
explorations. Exploration is therefore the pre-paradigmatic phase of geography where the
growth of knowledge about the globe was the principal aim of the exploration. This phase
was characterized by efforts to accumulate map information about the world implicating
geography in the wider process whereby the colonial powers sought to expand their global
reach through the accumulation of knowledge. The dominant motive of this was to
integrating knowledge acquired on voyages of discovery into coherent and logically
presented taxonomies, encyclopaedias and gazetteers. At this stage, geography was also
closely associated with cartography, so that charting the unknown lands and empty spaces
beyond the European heartland was key objective.
B. Environmental Determinism
It is a school of thought which believes that the history, culture, life style and stage of
development of a social group or a nation are exclusively or largely governed by the physical
factors of the environment. The determinists consider man as a passive agent on whom the
physical factors are used to determine the attitude and the process of decision making.
Environmental determinism, also known as climatic determinism or geographical
determinism is the view that the physical environment sets limits on the activities of man on
the environment.
The fundamental argument of the environmental determinists was that aspects of physical
geography, particularly climate, influenced the psychological mind-set of individuals, which
in turn defined the behaviour and culture of the society that those individuals formed. For
example, the tropical climate was considered to be the cause of laziness, relaxed attitudes and
promiscuity, while the frequent variability in the weather of the middle latitudes led to be
more deterministic and driven work ethics.
Environmental determinism had originated in the fifth-century. In Roman times it is, for
example, found in the work of the Greek geographer Strabo who wrote that climate is the
cause of the psychological disposition of different races. Aristotle also had explained that
inhabitants of cold climate are courageous but lack political organization and capacity to rule
their neighbours likewise the people of Asia lacks courage and so slavery is their natural state
of survival. After World War II, the philosophy of environmental determinism was severely
criticized for two reasons. Firstly, similar physical environment does not produce the same
response. Secondly, although environment influences man, man also influences the
environment and the cause-effect relations are too simple to explain.
Following this paradigm shift, Vidal de Lablache had developed the school of possibilism.
The central idea of his school of thought was life styles were responsible to the development
of geographical environments. According to him, life styles are the products and reflections
of civilization, represented the integrated result of physical, historical and social influences
surrounding man’s relation to a particular place, known as environment. Vidal tried to
explain the difference in development between groups of people living in similar
environments, and stressed that these differences are not due to the influence of physical
environment but owing to variations in attitudes, values and habits. Variations in attitudes
and values create numerous possibilities for the human communities which became the basic
philosophy of the school of possibilism.
The possibilists emphasize that it is impossible to explain the difference in human society
and the history of that society with reference to the influence of environment alone. And they
hold that man himself brings his influence to bear on that environment and changes it,
according to his preferences. According to possibilists, nature is never more than an adviser.
This school of thought propagates that there are no necessities but everywhere possibilities.
In spite of the fact that man has numerous possibilities in a given physical setting, he cannot
go against the directions laid by the physical environment, if so nature can take the revenge.
Possibilism as a school of thought believes that human society cannot fully tame nature and is
not always victorious. Possibilism is criticized by contemporary thinkers. For example,
Griffith Taylor stressed that society as a whole should make the choices, and since only an
advisory role is assigned to geographer, his function is not that interpreting Nature’s plan.

C. Regionalism
In the 17th century Varenius recognized the two main divisions of geography: general
(universal) and special (particular). General geography was concerned with the formulation
of general laws, principles and generic concepts. Gradually, all studies of systemic nature
acquired the status of systematic geography, while the special or particular studies were
described as regional geography. Regional geography deals with the whole world as a unit or
deals with particular places, countries and regions. Systematic geography was, however,
restricted to the physical geography which could be understood through natural laws. On the
contrary, special geography was primarily intended as a description of individual countries
and world regions. It was difficult to establish laws in special/regional geography because of
unpredictable nature of human beings. But it helped in the formulation of hypothesis and
structured ideas.
By the end of the 1950s geography had come increasingly to be viewed as a science
requiring the use of the scientific method like other natural sciences. Thus, it had developed
laws and theories relevant to the field of geographic study. This brought about a distinct shift
in emphasis from regional to systematic studies, i.e. a shift from areal to spatial studies; from
absolute to relative location; and areal integrations to spatial interaction and movement.
2.2. Contemporary paradigms (After 1950)
After 1950s geographers have become increasingly pre-occupied with the purpose,
direction and relevance of their discipline and increasingly dissatisfied with the theory and
practice of regional geography. Hence, in his writing, Johnston identified a ‘Quantitative
Revolution’ leading to the establishment of spatial science paradigm in the 1950s and 1960s,
a behavioural and humanistic paradigm in the 1960s and 1970s and a radical/structural
paradigm becoming dominant in the 1970s and 1980s. At the risk of stereotyping research
within geography, it is useful to provide an outline of some of the contemporary paradigms in
order to show how they commit to certain ontological and epistemological stances.
1. Spatial science/ Spatial Organization/ Paradigm
Spatial science rests on the foundational pillars of objectivity and generality in searching
for orderly causal processes. It also adopts what is said to be a realist approach to
representation. Ontologically speaking, spatial scientists maintain a strict divide between
space and time, and between space and society. In turn, both space and time are discerned as
measurable, insofar as they can be divided into increments, and these increments can be
empirically assessed by instruments such as clocks, chronometers, compasses and so on.
Within this paradigm, geography is taken to be synonymous with the term “spatial” such that
geographic inquiry becomes a matter of asking:
(1) How do objects and practices vary and/or move across the earth’s surface?
(2), why do these variations take the spatial forms that they do?
Spatial Science paradigm is also called as the quantitative revolution and/or scientific
method. The quantitative revolution was geography's attempt to redefine itself as a science, in
the wake of the revival of interest in science. In this regard, the purpose of geography was to
test general laws about the spatial arrangement of phenomena. They adopted the philosophy
of positivism from the natural sciences and turned to mathematics, especially statistics as a
way of proving hypotheses. Positivism is the philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is
knowledge that is based on actual sense of experience.
Modern science has always emphasized the importance of observational evidence as the
basis of scientific knowledge. When a scientist claims to know something, that claim can be
justified, or warranted, in terms of observation, experiment and the collection of data. Some
philosophers of science (and perhaps some scientists) think that empirical evidence is the
only valid evidence that can be used in the certification of scientific claims as knowledge.
This sort of thinking is known as empiricism. Although empiricism can take several different
forms, they all give epistemological primacy to evidence from experience; that is to say they
base a whole theory of knowledge on the unique importance of this type of evidence. The
appeal of such a view lies in the thought that we can only be sure of what we can carefully
observe.
There is more to science than the collection and checking of careful observation. Both
physicists and chemists aspire to explain things and the kinds of explanations scientists seek
are causal. In order to construct causal explanations, however, scientists develop theories
(like the theory of gravity) which describe how things are related. Embedded within scientific
theories are general laws. In the ideal case, scientific laws take the form 'All gases expand
when heated.' This is a universal statement (independent of both space and time) about the
behavior of gases that summarizes an observed regularity or constant conjunction. Scientists
rely upon laws of this sort when explaining individual events (like a gas explosion). One
philosophical problem faced by the natural sciences is the basis on which they can establish
their laws and theories as warranted knowledge. Most would appeal to the philosophies of
positivism.
The shift in the focus of geographical studies during the mid-1950s and the early 1960s
inevitably involved a major change –a revolution in the nature of geographical work. It was
clear that the new concept of geography as the science of spatial analysis of phenomena on
the earth’s surface with a pronounced commitment to theory building needed a new set of
methodologies for explanation. The important instruments for bringing about the required
change in perspectives in geographical work from regional (idiographic) to systematic
(nomothetic) were the change of geography from description to quantification. That is the
increased use of advanced mathematical and statistical techniques to test hypothesis and to
build theories. Hence, the mid-1950s changeover in the philosophy and methodology of
geography has been generally referred to as quantitative revolution or spatial science
paradigm.
Traditionally, geography was considered as the description of the earth’s surface but
through time its definition and nature had changed. Now, it is concerned in providing
accurate, orderly, and rational descriptions and interpretations of the variable character of the
earth’s surface. Geography can be regarded as a science concerned with the rational
development, and testing of theories that explain and predict the spatial distribution and
location of various characteristics on the surface of the earth. The quantitative revolution is a
radical change in geography. Thus the most obvious change brought by the quantitative
revolution is the change of the methods and techniques in geography. After this revolution,
the quantitative techniques and general system theory have been used extensively in
geography. These methods and techniques enable the geographer to do more accurately and
more quickly what he has always been trying to do. The new electronic devices have made
possible complex mathematical computations simpler than had never been attempted before.
It was after the quantitative revolution that geographers had concentrated more in practical
activities such as field studies, generating primary data, utilizing secondary data, and
applying the sampling techniques.
The quantitative techniques took place in the 1960s enabled the geographers to develop
more refined theories and models in other branches of the discipline. The quantitative
techniques and their applications in theory making are many. All the techniques are firmly
used on empirical observations and are readily verifiable. With the help of quantitative
techniques a multitude of observations can be reduced to a manageable number of factors.
This revolution was highly inspired by thinkers like W. Christaller (1933), A. Lösch (1954),
J. von Thǖnen (1826), and A. Weber (1909).
In social sciences in general and in geography in particular, statistical techniques allow the
formulation of structured ideas and theories which can be tested under assumed conditions.
The theories and models developed on the basis of empirical data however do not take into
consideration the normative questions like beliefs, emotions, attitudes, desires, hopes, and
fears and therefore, cannot be taken as the tools explaining geographical realities. In other
words, quantification was attacked for being unrealistic and bloodless, turning humans into
automata, for being too deterministic, and for ignoring the importance of subjective
experience. As a result, the heyday of logical positivism and the quantitative revolution was
short-lived.
Physical Geography and its Historical Evolution and approaches
Physical geography can be defined as the study of natural elements that constitute
landscapes. It is concerned with landforms, soils, biological elements and effects of climate
and weather. Historically, geomorphology played a crucial early role in constructing models
of landscape evolution. The aim has been to understand the complexities of landscape
forming processes, boundary conditions and change at small spatial and temporal scales and
to extrapolate this knowledge in order to explain change at the landscape scale.
Physical geography employs reductionism approach. It is an approach in understanding
the complex system that can be gained by examining the component parts of the system.
According to reductionism as an emergent Strategy, explanation is scale dependent. It means
that our best understandings follow from the examination of parts of complex systems at the
scale at which we are interested. From this, we can see that physical geography is a complex
science comprising a collection of related subjects whose methodologies and focus straddle
the range of science.
Human Geography, Interpretation and critique
The relationship between human geography and science has always been complex. Many
human geographers have identified strongly with methods and ideas of science. The
relationship between them has been marked by periods of mutual distrust and antagonism. As
the positivist argued, understanding of spatial structures through quantitative analysis and
modelling would lead to an enhanced understanding of spatial organization and human
activity. However, criticism of this approach was widespread in the 1960s and 1970s as the
assumptions of positivist approaches were considering humans as passive agents. Rejecting
this idea, many geographers began to propose alternative models of human subjectivity in an
attempt to articulate a more human- human geography. Many sociologist and geographers
started to see humans as active, creative world builder.
Table 2.1 Understanding paradigms in geography
Geographical Theoretical assumptions Data & analytic approaches Researcher–object relations
Paradigm
Spatial Space is viewed as a two- Data: Subjectivity controlled in favor of
Science: dimensional container within Census (socio- demographic, economic); field objective forms of research
“ mapping which places exist as discrete methods (tree ring width, snow - pack depth); analysis and presentation.
spatial phenomena with distinct attributes. remote sensing (vegetation cover; slope); social
relations” Variations across and interactions surveys (consumer behavior, political opinion). Researcher maintains a distance
between places are measurable, Analytic approaches: Descriptive and between her/himself and the object
usually quantifiable. multivariate statistical analysis; mathematical under study.
Each object of analysis has a series analysis; simulation; GIS overlay; survey research
of distinct characteristics, methods; behavioral modeling; carbon dating.
including its location within this
two–dimensional container.
A descriptive mapping of the
spatial locations and characteristics
of objects is the first step in
assessing causal relations.
If theory suggests a causal relation
and characteristics are found to
spatially vary in systematic ways,
then the theory has empirical

26
 support.
Humanism: Space as a two - dimensional Data: Researcher rejects the notion of
“ interpreting container is but one way of looking Archival material (diaries, local histories); oral objectivity and focuses on
places of at the world, commonly used by and other folk traditions; landscape developing an empathic
meaning ” scientists but also governments. reconstruction; place histories; individual life understanding of individual’s
In the everyday sense, place is a stories &experiences. experiences as they relate to space.
more useful concept because it Analytic approaches: Ethnographic immersion; Focus can also be on what
describes the attachment people participant observation; textual analysis; meanings imply “to me,” the
have to particular parts of the structured and unstructured interviews; culturally researcher who is charged with the
world such as their home, – specific interpretation; “thick description.” task of interpretation.
workplace, or car, but also their
neighborhood and country.
A “sense of place” differs for
each individual and changes
through time.
Specific objects are associated with
a particular “sense of place,” or
produced as a means of expressing
this sense.
Specific objects are placed within
the landscape in order to represent
particular emotions and feelings.

27
Critical Events in the world are embedded Data: In social analysis, researchers
Realism: within wider structures (e.g., Participatory observation and ethnography; assume that individuals have a
“ uncovering capitalism and patriarchy) and their interviews; field situated capacity to reflect upon
the structures casual mechanisms (e.g., worker study of context-specific causal operations. structures and mechanisms, even
and exploitation, gender division of Analytic approaches: Reflection on and though they might not have a well
mechanisms labor). interpretation of the nature of events and the -developed theoretical language
behind events For many physical processes, wider mechanisms that embed them; and the for articulating them.
” explanation is of a “necessary” causal forces (structures) from which they Even though the world exists
type: the causal powers operated emerge; in the physical sciences, researcher objectively, our capacity for
the same from one place to remains open to the possibility that causal knowing it in an objective way is
another. mechanisms are complexly, contingently, and limited by our own contingently
For social relations, the non–linearly related. situated knowledge.
mechanisms for causing change are
usually contingent, or context
specific.
Paying attention to contingent
contexts, including the different
spaces in which things happen,
requires in – depth case study.
Social structures and mechanisms
are differentiated across local and
global contexts.

28
29
 CHAPTER FOUR
1. CORE CONCEPTS IN GEOGRAPHY
Space, Place, landscape and nature are concepts of Geography that highly influenced the
definition and theories in geography.
4.1. Space
The way geographers and other scientists understand and conceptualize space has been
changing through time. Up to the 1970s space was understood as a system of organization, a
geometry of some kind within which objects are located and events occur (Curry, 1996). In
geographic term, absolute space is defined and understood through Euclidian geometry with x, y,
and Z dimension. Here for analytical purposes space is treated as an objective, empirical space;
an absolute container of objects. The essentialist view of space reduced the space to the essence
of geometry, where the dimension and the content of space understood as naturally existing or
given. This conception of space was mainly promoted by positivist and quantitative approaches.
Their attempt was to delimit general spatial laws that can be used to explain the interrelationship
between people and place, and identify the logic in patterns of human settlement and endeavour.
Latter on the absolute and essentialzed conception of space was criticized. Those who were
against this view of space, suggested that a relational view of space that focuses on the analysis
of how space is constituted and given meaning through human endeavour. According to this
view, space is not a given, neutral and passive geometry but rather is continuously produced
through socio-spatial relations. They argue that space is not essential in nature but is constructed
and produced. Space is not an objective structure, but is a social experience which is constituted
through social relations and material social practices (Massey, 1994). The notion of treating
space as socially produced is highly advocated by the work of Heneri Lefebvre (1991). He
identified three levels of specialization:
First, he identified a set of spatial practices processes, flows, and movements such as
migration through and in space that influence the where of human endeavours. In the process of
spatial organization of cities, for example, it is these spatial practices that serve to produce the
city, making and unmaking it as a functioning urban system. Secondly, he identified a set of
representation of space such as images, books films, maps etc. These serve to represent and make
sense of space .These conception of space have their own power to reproduce space, working
ideologically, to legitimate or contest particular spatial practices. Thirdly, Lefebvre identified the

30
existence of space representation. In contrast to perceived or represented space this is the space
that lived and felt by people as they weave through their everyday life. In general, space is a
highly complex term that is used and understood in a variety of ways.

Fig. . Three core concepts of geography: space, place, and environment

4.2. Place
The concept of place was generally understood merely as a gathering of people in a bounded
locale (territory). In the 1970’s geographers adopting humanistic approaches began to understand
place as a subjectively defined entity. Place has some kind of human-defined meaning attached
to it. A place meant different for different people. As a result, geographers such as Agnew (1987)
and Entrikin (1991) provided a working definition that mediated between subjective and
objective understanding of place. They argued that there is subjective and objective conception
of place that has to be accommodated in theorizing and researching geographic questions.

31
Accordingly, Agnew (1987) identified three main elements of place: Locale: Location and Sense
of place. The first two are objective but the last one is subjective.
 Locale: the setting in which social relations are constituted,
 Location: The objective geographical area encompassing the setting for social interaction
as defined by social and economic processes operating at a wider scale.
 Sense of place: The local structure of subjective feeling associated with an area.
The most influential scholar in shaping how to conceptualize place is Doreen Massey (1991,
1994 and 1997). She views places as the complex interactions and outcomes of power
geometries that operate across many spatial scales from the body to the global. To her, places are
thus constituted of and the outcome of multiple interacting social, political and economic
relation, giving rise to a myriad (very diverse) of spatialities. Places and the social relations
within them and between them then are the results of particular arrangements of power, whether
it is individual and institutional or imaginative and material. According to Massey places are
relational and contingent, experienced and understood differently by different people; they are
multiple, contested fluid and uncertain (rather than fixed territorial unit). Places are made
through power relations, which construct the rules and define boundaries. These boundaries are
both social and spatial. They define who belongs to a place and who may be excluded, as well as
the location or site of the experience. Space, on the other hand, is a more abstract concept that
bears no such meaning.
4.3. Nature
According to Raymond Williams, nature is the most complex term in the language. Castree
(2000) argues that the complexity can be tackled through understanding nature in three ways:
 Nature as the essence of something,
 Areas unaltered by human actions, and
 The physical world in its entirety including humans.
However, other scholars question both the essentialzed notion of nature and the separation
between nature and humanity. According to them, nature is a social construction and instrument
of social power (meaning employed politically). Barnes and Gregory (1996), argue that there is
nothing natural about nature at all. They highlighted how nature is produced and reproduced by
humans blurring the dualism between culture and nature, and technology, for example, through
farming practices, wildlife television programmes, genetic engineering, biotechnology and

32
medical science. The technocratic view of nature suggests that nature can be easily manipulated
to be dominated exploited or modified by human intervention.
4.4. Landscape
It is derived from the German word called landschaft (Landshape). The term has a territorial
meaning for German geographers and however in modern English it is simply understood as the
scenery of an area or the appearance of an area. It refers to what can be seen from a certain
vantage point, such as the countryside or a city skyline. Unlike place, which involves human
interaction within it, landscape situates humans outside of it. The term landscape is proposed to
denote the unit concept of geography, to characterize the peculiarly geographic association of
facts. Therefore, landscape may be defined as an area made up of a distinct association of forms,
both physical and cultural. Every landscape has individuality as well as relation to other
landscape, and the same is true of the forms of that make it up. No valley is quite similar to any
other valley; No city is the exact replica of some other city.
Landscape can be classified as physical and cultural landscape. The area prior to the
introduction of man’s activity is presented by one body of morphologic facts. The forms that
man has introduced are another set. We may call the former, with reference to man, the original,
natural landscape. In its entity, it is no longer exists in many parts of the world but its
reconstruction and understanding is the first part of formal morphology. The works of man
express themselves in the cultural landscape. The cultural landscape is then subject to change
either by development of culture or by a replacement of cultures. There are four major
approaches used to study landscape: Chronology, Ecology, Morphology and Regionalization.
1. Landscape Chronology: It concerns with the specific scientific work of reconstructing
former landscape types. It also includes the type of geographical study of how each culture
uses a region in its own particular way.
2. Landscape Ecology: The term landscape ecology is a bit confused with human ecology. In
German, the term is clearly defined emphasising on how to integrate the study of humanity
and nature from natural science perspectives.
3. Landscape Morphology: As a regional geography, landscape morphology was well
developed in Germany. It is the study of the visible phenomena on the earth both natural and
cultural.

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4. Regionalization: Regionalization refers to the process of dividing the earth’s surface into
either homogenous or functional areas varying size. Geddes, one of the promoter of
regionalization, introduced the term regional survey which is instrumental for gathering
information input for regional planning.

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 CHAPTERFIVE
5. HOW GEOGRAPHERS WORK?
5.1. Geography’s Key Methods and Skills
Throughout its history, geography has built a reputation as an empirical discipline and the
practice of applied geography continues to have considerable resonance. In many ways, these
qualities were inevitable. Geography started with maps as the products of exploration, discovery,
and the careful recording of data, and these have been the essential tools for a wide range of
human enterprises. Geography developed with the compilation of inventories of regions and
places, the basic building-blocks for much of our knowledge of the Earth’s surface. The so-called
‘comparative method’, which involved comparison of the different combinations of factors
affecting different places on the Earth’s surface, was often the first step to achieving a deeper
understanding.
It was a short step to roles as managers of space, place, and environment. Classification and
mapping of landforms, climate, biota, and soils provided, and in many respects still provide, a
geographical basis not only for scientific understanding of natural environmental change and
human impacts, but also for the applied fields of resource exploitation and conservation and the
mitigation of human effects.
The geographer as teacher informs children and adults of the nature of the world in which
they live; of its natural order and cultural diversity. These are useful skills, but how do we
identify them and trace their development in modern geography? As with most things, some
have endured whilst others have diminished in significance. Perhaps more importantly, very new
skills have emerged and sit within the domain of geography.
A. Fieldwork
Fieldwork is a useful initial skill to identify. It is still widely practised as a research tool and
taught in the geography curriculum as an essential component of the discipline. Its origins lie in
the exploration tradition: as intrepid explorers pushed their way through jungles, crossed deserts,
and bridged rivers, and indeed navigated the world, they were practising and developing
fieldwork skills. They were gathering information at first hand, observing landscapes and peoples
as they saw them, classifying landforms and biotic species, and measuring coastlines and the
elevations of mountains. As they probed into previously unknown lands and places, they had

35
several roles. Predominantly they were West Europeans with visions of discovery, wealth, and
colonies,

in mind and these were to affect the reports they submitted and the policies that evolved from
them; but they were also the practitioners of fieldwork. As they brought back information about
distant lands and places, and the peoples and cultures that occupied them, they were building up
pictures of the world. Those pictures would be refined over time but were disseminated over a
wide population. One of the by-products of fieldwork was the map, the unique geographical
depiction of the Earth’s surface and its characteristics, but that is a theme worthy of separate
consideration.
Geo-morphologists meticulously studied the landforms produced by the major forces at work
on the Earth’s surface, particularly those involving flowing water, ice, and wind. Hydrologists
focused on the dynamics of rivers and their impact on landscape, whilst bio-geographers
examined the great vegetation formations of the Earth and the plant communities of which they
are formed. Fieldwork in physical geography often involved measurement of things such as slope
angles, water velocity, or soil properties, and the dating of surface materials, all sampled
according to carefully thought-out research designs. This fieldwork produced a mass of data and
several analytical outcomes, often geared to testing specific hypotheses. Measurements led to

36
knowledge and understanding of current rates of operation of surface processes, such as erosion
and deposition, and to quantitative reconstructions of environmental change.
The field study was supplemented by several types of laboratory analyses on samples of
sediments and shells; the former including Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating,
which established the timescale.
B. Maps and Graphicacy
The cartographic tradition led to the nurturing of another geographical skill, which has been
labelled ‘graphicacy’ (in contrast to literacy and numeracy). Mapmaking is a specialized
profession, but generations of geography students have been taught the principles and
applications of cartography to a high level of competence. Field sketches offer another example.
A physical feature such as a hanging valley or system of meanders can be clearly captured by
field sketches, as can field patterns or urban plans. Much of the data used by geographers,
whether it is climatic, vegetational, or hydrological, or involves population migrations or retail
provision, can be expressed graphically as maps, charts, or other forms of visual-spatial
representation.
The central role of the map has encouraged some instruction in the science of map
projections, the ways in which they are constructed and the properties that they possess.
Graphical skills are important in both research and education and have great value in portraying
the discipline of geography and its qualities. The emergence of mental maps introduced a
qualitative dimension to what had always been a scientific technique. Humanistic geographers
were interested in the maps that people carried in their heads.
Others were prompted to review their maps both in terms of their methods of construction and
meanings. They continued properly to celebrate maps and the important roles that they played
but were increasingly sensitive to the dangers of their iniquities, to their tendencies to enforce
and encode, to the political economies in which they were embedded, and their seductive
qualities. Recently observers have questioned the power of maps as not merely representing
places but as creating them. In this view maps precede the real and their creative capacity has to
be recognized. Thus, the significance of what maps leave out or conceal may be as important as
what they include.
Another dimension of the importance of maps to geography is their continued relevance in the
information age, especially in relation to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Maps are an

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explicit expression of the concept of geographical space and can be seen as a specifically
geographical contribution to the range of methods available for understanding the world.
C. Numeracy
The ‘quantitative revolution’ in geography required the discipline to adopt an explicitly
scientific approach, including numerical and statistical methods, and mathematical modelling, so
‘numeracy’ became another necessary skill. Its immediate impact was greatest on human
geography as physical geographers were already using these methods. A new lexicon
encompassing the language of statistics and its array of techniques entered geography as a whole.
Terms such as random sampling, correlation, regression, tests of statistical significance,
probability, multivariate analysis, and simulation became part both of research and
undergraduate teaching. Correlation and regression are procedures to measure the strength and
form, respectively, of the relationships between two or more sets of variables. Significance tests
measure the confidence that can be placed in those relationships. Multivariate methods enable the
analysis of many variables or factor simultaneously – an appropriate approach for many complex
geographical data sets. Simulation is often linked to probability and is a set of techniques capable
of extrapolating or projecting future trends.
This revolution forced new thinking in the discipline and a shift away from qualitative
description, case studies, and the unique or idiographic, to quantitative measurements,
representative samples, and nomothetic theory with its ability to generalize and predict.
Geographers embraced this new approach and its associated set of analytical skills with varying
levels of expertise. At one end of the spectrum were the dedicated and innovative researchers
capable of interaction with statisticians, computer programmers, and mathematicians; at the other
were the mass of students and practitioners’ more-or-less competent at basic levels of statistical
analysis and the management of data sets.
An interesting demonstration of how numeracy in general, and multivariate analysis in
particular, enables long-standing geographical problems to be tackled in innovative ways is
provided by an investigation of the factors affecting deforestation on Pacific islands by Barry
Rolett and Jared Diamond in 2004. They asked the question why, prior to European colonization,
some Pacific island societies, such as those of Easter Island and Mangareva, inadvertently
contributed to their own collapse by causing massive deforestation, while other islands retained
forest cover and survived. Undoubtedly both different cultural responses of peoples and different

38
susceptibilities of environments were involved. However, a comparative, multivariate analysis of
nine environmental variables measured on 69 islands enabled a clear picture of which
environmental factors predisposed towards deforestation and, ultimately, societal collapse rather
than forest replacement and sustainability.
The introduction of quantitative methods into geography as a generic skill had many
repercussions. The development of numerical models was particularly important. In physical
geography, it allowed the development of process models that had a much stronger scientific
basis than descriptive models such as the Davisian cycle of erosion. In human geography, the
models had been distinctly sparse but the models of city structure and growth were worthy of
that description, though they were derived from outside geography.
It is probably true to say that only a minority of human geographers currently retain an
interest in numerical analysis but this state of affairs has its critics. For example: Geography is
losing its way precisely because so many if its practitioners have retreated from the quest of
creating robust, defensible generalisations about spatial patterns and processes.
D. Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
GIS science is a major modern skill of the discipline of geography. It has developed with
increasing diversity into various forms of sophisticated mapping combined with quantitative
spatial analysis. GIS data comprise digital representations of phenomena found on the Earth’s
surface. These may be landforms, field boundaries, vegetation types, buildings, or a host of other
features that can be referenced to geographical coordinates. Once this data has been collected,
GIS software, such as MAPINFO, allows a range of analyses and interpretations. GIS science
has a well-defined and developing set of scientific principles, practices, and theories, and the
methodology has proved to have very considerable application. Global sales of GIS facilities and
services exceed $7 billion and find markets throughout public services such as local government
and the police and in many private sector areas such as financial services and retailing. GIS
applications are problem centred and address long-standing research questions in geography such
as urban growth and land-use change as well as newer challenges such as crime profiling, where
many police forces routinely add a location code to criminal events such as burglaries or
homicides as a first step towards forms of GIS analysis.
GIS is one half of a duality of which Earth Observation (EO), an alternative term for satellite
remote sensing, is the other partner. EO comprises a set of instruments or sensors, their carriers,

39
aircraft or satellites, and the data processing techniques that can be used to gather information
about the Earth’s surface from a distant location. EO provides an important source of data for
GIS and working in tandem they have permeated a large number of now taken-for-granted
applications in the real world. Satellite navigation in cars is one example of everyday use as is
the increasing popularity of Google Earth (the accessible set of satellite images available on the
internet). At more demanding scientific levels, the technology is ideally placed to monitor
environmental change globally, over large areas or in remote locations. Climatic change, the
diminution of glaciers and sea ice in the Polar Regions, the spread of desertification in sub-
Saharan Africa, soil degradation in the American Mid-West, and the clearance of tropical
rainforests in the Amazon Basin provide spectacular and important applications of this type.
E. Literacy
Perhaps the final skill expected of geographers is ‘literacy’. That assumption has always been
there and was present in the trilogy of ‘books, benches, and boots’ that used to be embedded in
the minds of all geography undergraduates. As ‘benches’ emphasized laboratory work, practical
classes, and cartographic and statistical skills, and ‘boots’ hammered home the importance of
fieldwork and the ‘field’ in general, so ‘books’ drew students back to the fundamental need to
master the literature of their subject and be able themselves to write it. Literacy of course is
fundamental to all academic disciplines and has no claims to be counted as a special skill of
geographers. Similarly, numeracy is widely used in social sciences such as economics and
psychology. What has changed in recent years, and is clearly linked with the rise of the new
cultural geography, is that geographers, especially human geographers, have been drawn into and
are expected to be familiar with areas of literature beyond their former experience.
To some extent, this is to be expected as the research frontiers push forward, but with the new
cultural geography new dimensions have been reached. Critical theory, postmodernism, and
post-structuralism have drawn geographers into the literature of philosophy per se, well beyond
the philosophy of science. This has to be a positive trend but begs the question of the amount of
literature geographers can get their heads around? Do they expand into a wider field or retain
their focused, disciplinary niche? David Harvey is sceptical about the continual importing of new
thinkers, theorists, and theories into ‘the grand parade of external interlocutors as to what
geography might and should be about’.

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 There are additional skills to be derived from these trends. The new literature is shared with a
burgeoning field of cultural and media studies; modern society looks for skills and awareness in
these areas and many of the study themes have strong communality. The works of Jean
Baudrillard, who writes powerfully about imagery and the ways in which landscape and society
can be ‘read’ from the ‘texts’ that are portrayed through the likes of posters and billboards, and
Ferdinand de Saussure and Jacques Derrida, who focus on signs, icons, and the study of
semiotics, provide examples of ‘imports’ from French intellectuals. Growing interest in
discourse analysis and non-representational theory (see box in Chapter 3) adds new dimensions.
The new ‘subjects’ for interpretation include film, works of art, music, dance, and theatre, all
of which carry messages about the societies in which we live. Dance and theatre are diverse
throughout the world, but carry messages about the cultural settings from which they emerged;
music such as the ‘blues’ emerged from very particular backgrounds. All of this literature and
‘directions’ for study add to the skills of human geographers, or at least increase their awareness
of the diverse sources of information and theories that exist. Whereas physical geographers have
less need to access this increasingly diverse literature, there is growing awareness of its
significance, particularly among those involved in collaborative projects affected region.
5.2. Applied Geography
Applied geography proclaims the importance of the empirical tradition and its relevance to
problems of the real world. In some areas of human geography in particular, this tradition and the
theme of applied geography has been discarded or at least relegated to a less prominent position.
Yet applied geography as a term brings together these many skills that we have identified and
explored: and offers the opportunity for practical relevance. Furthermore, it is not really an
option to concentrate on either theory development or applications: there are synergies between
them. As a practice it would be discarded at our peril, and in reality it continues to make
significant contributions.
Applied geography involves the utilization of acquired skills and knowledge to address
problems and issues of the real world. It can take several forms:
 As input to policy-making and the setting of research agendas. It important to engage
with international research agencies and development practice, and this engagement is
made through governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with far-
reaching consequences on research and influence on policy. There are opportunities not

41
 just to respond to externally defined agendas but to help shape them in the first place. The
ability to form research agendas is considerably enhanced if geographers are members of
key committees in both the public and private domains. Roles as advisors to government
and lead roles on front-line working parties are especially influential.
 As parts of an interdisciplinary team to tackle major global or regional problems.
Increasingly governments are becoming aware of the need to turn to science to
understand and tackle issues such as global warming and environmental change.
Geographers need to obtain presence on these major projects and there is ample evidence
for success in this context.
 As a specific contract or consultancy to address and offer solutions to a current issue.
There is a long record of one-off projects whereby geographers have been commissioned
to undertake specific tasks of evidence-based research. These are sometimes supported by
Funding Councils but also by the private sector. Studies of retail change, whether it be
store locations, market definitions, or consumer behaviour, offers one example. Optimal
location projects might involve airports, marinas, hospitals, and a range of public utilities.
These types of applied geography often do not push at the research frontiers but have
practical value.
 As a by-product of research that may have some other conceptual purposes but from
which practical applications emerge. This is the most common source of applied
geography and the most diverse. So-called ‘blue skies’ research (with no direct
applications foreseen in advance) may stimulate an interest in an evidence-based side-line
that may later yield applications. The thrust in human geography towards discourse
analysis and nonrepresentational theory is at times obscure but its main purpose is to
achieve a better understanding of the societies in which we live. Historical geography
examines the past in a variety of ways that often, intentionally or unintentionally, throws
light on contemporary issues.

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 CHAPTER SIX
6. GEOGRAPHY’S FUETURE AND PERESENT
Early explorers, mapmakers, and regional geographers from the last century, and even
quantitative and Marxist geographers of the late 20th century, would find much that was
unfamiliar in the modern practice of geography. Certainly, many core values remain but the
manner of their study would bemuse, and some of the new additions to human geography in
particular would defy, their imaginations. In many ways, of course, that is to be expected. All
disciplines move forward in time and change in the process.
6.1. Some Modern Faces of Geography
Geography has many modern faces, some of them surprising and unexpected. This final
chapter begins with vignettes that exemplify some of these. Two examples are taken from human
geography and two from physical geography. Geographies of crime lend themselves to
interpretation by the different approaches in geography. A spatial analysis approach, for
example, would map and correlate; a Marxist would be more interested in the ways in which the
unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities creates crime in the first place; a behavioural
geographer might study the decision-making process a burglar follows or the mental maps he or
she holds of the target city. A postmodern approach would question the discourse of a criminal
justice system that labels an act as deviant in the first place; crime is a social definition.
Geography also has practical value in coping with crime. Most police forces are using GIS and
create maps of offences and crime scenes. Forensic psychologists have used basic techniques
such as centrographic analysis, which generalizes upon sites at which offences occur, to profile
the locations where serial offenders may be found. This is one modern face of geography where
both old and new methods and intellectual traditions have been applied to a fresh and different
subject area.
Geographical meanings in literature and film a second vignette can be used to demonstrate the
changing meanings that underpin the subject matter of human geography. There are well-known
attempts to employ fictional literature as a means of gaining insight into the places where their
novels were set. Postmodernism opens up a more critical view that applies not just to literature
but also to narrative history. The essential argument is that all ‘facts’ are not real but must be
seen relative to the writer and the values that he or she holds.

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 There has also been an interest in film as a means of interpreting society and place, but in this
example a British geographer, David Clarke, closely interweaves his interpretation with an
interest in critical theory.
The images used in the film explore the contrasts between the familiarity of the old city fabric,
the strangeness of the past, and the newness of present-day experience. Time travel is used as a
narrative device against which the plot unfolds. The City of the Future is presented as an
adventure story, but its journey into history is an attempt to recuperate the past in an effort to
redeem the future. The City of the Future rests on the belief that the solution to preventing the
crisis over the loss of a future may be found in the past. The time traveller fails in his search for
Peters and the mission is unfulfilled: The City of the Future concludes that the world from which
we want to escape is that in which we are most involved and the mission to de-create or
reconstruct the real or what actually happened is doomed to failure.
The film explores the intentionality of the film-maker and his view of the world. It engages
with critical theory as it explores the pervading influence of romanticism. The defining quality of
romanticism is seen as its assertion that being should yield itself to meaning. Yet the error of
Romanticism is its belief that the human subject can form its own identity when in fact it is
formed by the Other (or those who observe his or her activities). The subject cannot dominate the
gaze of the Other; it is subservient to that. This vignette illustrates the widening engagement of
some human geographers with literature ranging from Lacanian psychoanalysis to critiques of
modernism. At the same time, it addresses the nature of urban landscapes and the people who
occupy them.
Many of the new approaches to human geography have more general aims and seek to
question previous interpretations. Sarah Whatmore describes her research in this field as focusing
on the relations between people and the living world, and the spatial habits of thought that
inform the ways in which these relations are imagined and practised in the conduct of science,
governance, and everyday life.
Geo-ecological studies on glacier forelands Glacier forelands are the recently deglaciated
zones in front of retreating glaciers. Since attaining their maximum extension of the ‘Little Ice
Age’, most glaciers have been generally retreating for several centuries, exposing new land that
has begun to evolve. These special places provide physical geographers and others with an
opportunity to investigate the development of vegetation, soils, landforms, and other aspects of

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the landscape. Glacier forelands can be viewed as field laboratories in which a ‘natural
experiment’ is unfolding: close to the glacier, the landscape is freshly exposed and devoid of life;
farther away, it has been exposed for longer, plants are colonizing, soils are developing, and
slopes are more stable.
Like other types of experiment, glacier forelands present a situation where at least some of the
complexities of nature are simplified. The geo-ecosystem is relatively simple, its history of
development is short, the spatial scale of the landscape is manageable, and, most importantly, the
age of the terrain is known or can be dated. This last aspect is particularly important and has led
to the chronosequence concept: the idea that distance from the glacier front represents the age
and hence the stage of development of the landscape. In other words, space can be
Hybridregarded as a substitute for time in the glacier-foreland landscape. This enables the study
of the changing landscape over at least centuries, an otherwise impossibly long period of time to
directly observe or monitor change. Precise dates of deglacierization of the land surface permit
the inference of precise rates of change in the landscape.
By investigating patterns within and between forelands, the rates and trajectories of vegetation
succession through time have been related to local habitats and regional environmental
conditions. The simple notion of a single pathway of succession towards a stable (‘climax’) state
has been refuted, with diverging pathways leading to different mature states controlled by
environmental gradients such as altitude, moisture, length of snow-lie, and frost disturbance of
soils. These results amount to a geo-ecological theory of succession that has applications in the
field of land reclamation and rehabilitation. Universal solutions to the damage that human
activities inflict on geo-ecosystems are unlikely: different, or at least modified, solutions are
necessary depending on geographical considerations, such as the particular environment and
position in the landscape.
The uniquely geographical contribution has been threefold. First, a geographical perspective
has led to thorough knowledge of the nature and extent of spatial variation on the glacier
foreland. Second, this has led to a more realistic chronosequence concept: distance from the
glacier and terrain age are not the only variables to be considered in explaining these landscapes.
Third, the geo-ecological approach includes a holistic appreciation of the interactions between
physical and biological processes in the development of the various landscape elements. Similar
contributions have been made by zoogeographers, soil geographers, and geomorphologists to

45
knowledge and understanding of topics such as insect succession, soil development, rock
weathering rates, the development of periglacial patterned ground, and moraine-ridge formation
by the glaciers themselves.
The geography of global warming of the many new topics to be taken on board by physical
geography in recent years, global warming has undoubtedly had the most far-reaching effects on
what geographers do. The latest report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) concluded that global mean surface temperature rose by about 0.76 degrees Centigrade
over the last 100 years and, if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations double, a further rise of
about 3.0 (likely range 2.0 to 4.5) degrees Centigrade can be expected to follow. Past
uncertainties about the rate and underlying human cause of this global rise in temperature have
now been largely removed. It is likely worldwide impacts on natural environments and on people
are much clearer, and there is increasing support, for example from the Stern Report, for an
economic case for taking action to reduce carbon emissions. Furthermore, it is also clear that a
global response is required to this global environmental problem.
Why are physical geographers in particular taking an interest, and how do they contribute to
solving this environmental problem? The answer is that global warming has many geographical
aspects. These can be illustrated with reference to several different dimensions of the global
warming problem: namely, detection, prediction, impacts, and mitigation.
Detection of the problem in the first place requires measurements of air temperature taken
from many parts of the world. Similarly, geographical variations in temperature over the Earth’s
land surfaces and over the oceans must be taken into account in calculating accurate estimates of
globally averaged temperatures and to refine our knowledge of the rate of global warming. The
term ‘global warming’ also tends to hide the fact that different parts of the globe behave
differently. In the polar regions, for example, the warming trend has been greater than elsewhere;
and according to recent estimates, Arctic warming over the next century may be double the
global average.
Physical geographers play an important role in testing the General Circulation Models
(GCMs) that simulate the Earth’s climate system and predict the likely course of future climate.
While few geographers have the physical and mathematical skills to design GCMs, they are
widely involved in the multidisciplinary effort to test these models using our knowledge of past
climates. Because GCMs are predicting the future, they cannot be tested by conventional

46
observation and experiment: but they can be tested by seeing whether they are able to predict
what has already happened. This is why reconstructions of past climates by physical geographers
and others are so important. Such palaeo-climatic reconstructions are made using evidence from
many different sources (such as ice cores, peat bogs, lake sediments, and tree rings) collected
from many different environments. The accuracy with which the models can predict palaeo-
climates that differ from present-day climates provides a measure of the confidence we can have
in their ability to predict future climatic conditions.
The impacts of global warming also vary in different parts of the world. Natural
environmental systems differ in their sensitivity to rising temperatures, as do human systems. An
example of a highly sensitive natural system is provided by the African Sahel, where relatively
small changes in annual or seasonal temperature can greatly influence moisture availability,
vegetation growth, and dependent cropping and grazing economies. Regions with lower
temperatures and/or more frequent rains provide a starting point that is less vulnerable to
drought. A very different example is provided by the impact of rising temperatures on the glacial
and periglacial environments in the European Alps. There, warming has led to rapidly
diminishing glaciers, an increase in the frequency of debris flows following the thawing of the
underlying permafrost, and concern for the long-term viability of the hydro-electric power
installations that utilize summer meltwater. In the Arctic, additional implications include the
extent of pack ice, polar bear survival, and the future of cold-water fisheries.
Finally, a one-fits-all solution is unlikely to apply to mitigation of the effects of global
warming on people. Societies differ in their vulnerabilities, and human geographers are well
placed to investigate these. Some societies are more able than others to adapt to changing
environmental conditions or will choose to respond differently. In general, people in the poorest
countries are more vulnerable than those in rich countries and are also less able to adopt
expensive technological solutions. This is a different aspect of mitigation from seeking to reduce
the rate of global warming or taking global action to prevent the rise in global temperatures
exceeding an upper limit, both of which may require different policies for developed and
developing countries.
6.2. Present Geography’s Strengths
The discipline has a significant number of strengths and opportunities that in many ways are
increasing. There has never been a greater need for geographical knowledge and understanding.

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Whether it is in relation to local or global environmental problems, or local or international
conflicts, this is everywhere apparent. The general level of geographical literacy, or graphicacy,
with its emphasis on visual-spatial skills, needs to be raised for wealth creation, for preserving
and enhancing the quality of life, for ensuring sustainability of the Earth and its peoples, for
responsible citizenship, and for leadership at local, national, and international levels. This
presents not only research opportunities, but also educational opportunities in preparing people
to meet the physical and human challenges of an ever more crowded, unequal world with an ever
more competitive global economy. Never has the phrase ‘geography matters’ had more
resonance than in the present day.
The breadth of the discipline of geography is a major source of strength. Physical geographers
contribute knowledge and understanding as natural environmental scientists, while human
geographers play distinctive and important roles as social scientists and as social and cultural
theorists. Alongside this, those who work on the integrated themes of regional, historical,
human–environment interaction, global change, or landscape geography continue the holistic
traditions of geography and exemplify its bridging role. In terms of research, therefore, the
specialist contributions of physical and human geographers are complemented by the concerns of
the integrated geographers with the broader questions and with synthesis. Students of geography
at university and school pupils benefit considerably from this broad remit. Geography is of
immense personal educational value, preparing flexible graduates with the breadth of knowledge
and the wide-ranging skills – numeracy, literacy, and graphicacy – necessary for a wide variety
of careers.
The core geographical concepts of space, place, and environment are more relevant than ever
to understanding the world. Geography now possesses a much greater knowledge base and a
better-developed battery of methods, including its own specialist geographical techniques
associated with maps, EO, and GIS, than at any previous time in its history. Neither the
complexity of the Earth’s surface nor the short history of the discipline can be regarded as the
weaknesses they once were. Geography is now well prepared to perform its mission.
Environmental concerns present geography with obvious opportunities. First, there are the
opportunities associated with the need to understand the biophysical environment itself. Past,
present and future patterns, processes, and changes in the biophysical environment need to be
reconstructed, measured, monitored, modelled, mapped, and predicted by physical geographers.

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Second, there are parallel opportunities for human geographers to explore the economic,
political, social, and cultural dimensions of the human environment and of human environmental
change. But there are even greater opportunities for integrated geographers, who focus on two-
way interactions between the biophysical environment and people, including, amongst other
topics, the perception and mitigation of natural hazards, pollution, and disease; land degradation
and restoration; the exploitation and sustainability of resources; the conservation and
preservation of biodiversity, geo-diversity, and heritage; and the human dimensions of local,
regional, and global environmental change.
There are parallel opportunities associated with the core concepts of space and place.
Technical advances in describing, monitoring, and analysing spatial variation over the Earth’s
surface by EO and GIS have matured to the extent that the focus of attention is increasingly able
to turn towards the scientific principles, modelling, and theory, rather than the techniques
themselves. This is part of the ‘modernization of geography’, with major implications for both its
intellectual development and its applications. At the other end of the spectrum of geographical
interests, the many profoundly different ways of interpreting and theorizing about place present
geography with multiple new opportunities.
Some have suggested that the trend to globalization is signalling the end of traditional
geography. They would say that because a world dominated by global-scale processes might
seem to diminish the importance of our traditional interest in local and regional considerations.
In physical geography, global processes, such as climate change and the carbon cycle, include
the impact of ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions on global warming are increasingly setting the research
agenda. Similarly, rapid communication, corporate business, and international agencies are
leading to a new global human geography. However, a major thrust in contemporary human
geography has been to question the power of universal processes and to focus on differences,
diversity, and the plurality of ways in which people react to and initiate change. There are
opportunities opening up from both ‘physical’ and ‘human’ globalization in relation to the
interplay between scales ranging from the local to the global. The local impacts of global change
and the global impact of local events are intimately related. Whether these relate to global
warming, a tsunami, terrorism, or a financial crash, they illustrate the continuing importance and
relevance of space, place, and environment in the changing world.

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6.3. Present Geography’s Weaknesses
With such an array of strengths and opportunities, in pure and applied research and in
education, it is tempting to say that geography has never had it so good! However, the situation
is not as optimistic as it would appear at first sight. Some of the parallel weaknesses and threats
are hinted in relation to the environmental theme:
Geography took its eye off the environmental ball for the first half of the twentieth century,
and then got caught on the hop. Environmental concern in the 1970s found Geography
fragmented, unprepared and perhaps unwilling to take a leadership role. Although geographers in
Britain and elsewhere have explored a range of environmental themes since then, today ‘the
environment’ is everywhere but nowhere in geographical research. The resulting work has been
lively and varied, but in the end somewhat shapeless while other disciplines have become
increasingly interested in environmental topics and new integrated ‘environmental’ sciences of
global change, Earth-systems analysis, sustainability science, and the like have been emerging.
Similar weaknesses or threats can be identified in relation to geography’s other core concerns of
space and place: though geographers have also made important contributions by taking the
opportunity to work cooperatively with these other disciplines.
The nature and importance of geography are not well understood. The differences between
physical and human geography and the shared core of concepts can be confusing, and the
bridging role of geography between the sciences and the humanities may be contested. Its
breadth has led to the accusation that it is a ‘Jack-of-all-trades, master of none’. It has an image
problem as well as an identity problem. Geographical research is not always recognized as such.
As a critic once remarked, geographers immerse themselves in issues of science and critical
theory but, to the general public, geography is all about maps. Understanding of geography
outside the discipline often extends no further than the colloquial. Geography also has a much
less visible presence in the media than does history or archaeology, for example. Such
misunderstandings lead to geography being undervalued not only by the general public but also
those in authority within education, academia, industry, and government. Even within the
discipline, there is sometimes a lack of communication and understanding between physical and
human geographers, or a lack of mutual support regarding the integrity of geography as a whole.

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6.4. A Manifesto for Future Geography
Geography, at the beginning of the 21st century, has indeed spread its net wide. On the one
hand, there are the cores unifying concepts and skills that remain important to the discipline as a
whole; on the other, there are the tensions between the sub-disciplines within which specialities
have multiplied apace. The contrast with geography as it was practised from the later 19th to
mid-20th centuries is very clear and leads to the question: Where does geography stand now as a
unified discipline?
6.5. The future of geography

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 The key question for the future is: how should geography focus and organize itself in order to
maximize its strengths, make the most of its opportunities, and fulfil its potential? Core areas of
geography are those where one or more of the core concepts and methods of the discipline form
an important component of research or study, whereas peripheral areas are only loosely
connected to the core. Beyond the periphery, geography merges with interdisciplinary fields and
other disciplines, each of which has its own definable core. All boundaries between zones are
shown as broken lines to indicate they are permeable to the flow of ideas, rather than barriers
between the different areas of the diagram.

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