Human Geography: Nature and Scope

Human Geography

Nature and Scope

Human Geography

• “Human geography is the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and earth’s surface”. Ratzel

• “Human geography is the study of “the Changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth.” Ellen C. Semple

• “Conception resulting from a more synthetic knowledge of the physical laws governing our earth and of the relations between the living beings which inhabit it”.

Paul Vidal de la Blache

Nature of human geography

Human geography studies the inter-relationship between the physical environment and socio cultural environment created by human beings through mutual interaction with each other.

 Geography is ‘the study of the earth as home of humans’.

 Its nature is interdisciplinary and integrative. Geography looks at the earth’s surface from two different but interrelated perspectives, known as systematic and regional.

 Accordingly, it has two broad branches: systematic geography and regional geography. Human geography is a branch of systematic geography.

 It studies the locational and distributional aspects of cultural phenomena, resulting from ever changing human-nature interaction.

Naturalization of humans/ environmental determinism:

According to this approach—

Man is the slave of his environment.

All activities of man are determined by the environment in which he lives

Humans were not free and they adapted according to the nature.

It considers man as passive agent, whose attitude, decision making is influenced by physical environment.

Man listened to nature & was afraid of its fury and worshipped it.

Supporters: Hippocrates, Aristotle, Humboldt, Ratzel & semple.

Humanization of nature/ possibilism:

Humans are free to choose/decide. Nature did not control him.

The nature provided/offered opportunities/possibilities for humans to exploit it for their benefits.

Natural environment is inert and man is seen as an active force.

It’s the technology, attitude, habits which influenced its action not the nature.

With socio-cultural development humans develop better and more efficient technology. Man creates possibilities with the resources obtained from the environment .slowly nature gets humanized.

Supporters: Vidal de la blache, febvre.

Neo-determinism/ scientific determinism:

Griffith Taylor introduced another concept which reflects a middle path between the two ideas of environmental determinism and possibilism known as neo-determinism or stop and go determinism. it states-

Neither is there a condition of absolute necessity (environmental determinism) nor is there a condition of absolute freedom (possibilism)

Nature has provided possibilities & scope of development but also put limits on it.

Humans can conquer nature by obeying it.

Examples of metaphors used to describe the physical &human phenomena.

1. 'Face' of the earth.

2.' eye'of the storm.

3.' mouth' of the river.

4.' snout' of the glacier.

5.' neck' of the isthmus.

6. 'profile' of the soil.

7. Regions, villages, towns have been described as 'organism'.

8. Network of roads, railways &waterways are described as 'arteries of circulation'.

period	approaches	Broad features
Colonial period	Exploration & description.	Imperial & trade interests prompted the discovery & exploration of new areas.
Colonial period	Regional analysis	Elaborate description of all aspects of a region was undertaken. The idea was that all the regions were part of a whole.
1930s through the inter-war period	Areal differentiation	The focus was on identifying the uniqueness of any region & understanding how & why it was different from others.
Late 1950s to the late 1960s	Spatial organization	Marked by the use of computers & sophisticated statistical tools. Laws of physics, were often applied to map & analyze human phenomena .this phase was called quantitative revolution.
1970s	Emergence of humanistic, radical & behavioural schools	Welfare/humanistic school- concerned with different aspects of social well-being of people like housing, health &education.  Radical- employed Marxian theory to explain basic cause of poverty, deprivation & social inequality. Behavioural-great emphasis on lived experience.
1990s	Post-modernism in geography	Grand generalization & the applicability of universal theories to explain the human conditions were questioned.

		Human geography & sister discipline of social sciences
Fields of human geography	Sub-fields		Interface with sister disciplines of social sciences
Social geography	----- Behavioural geography Geog. Of social well-being. Geog. Of leisure. Cultural geog. Gender geog. Historical geog. Medical geog.		Social sciences-sociology Psychology Welfare geography. Sociology. Anthropology. Sociology, anthropology, women”s studies. History. Epidemiology.
Urban geography	----		Urban studies & planning.
Political geography	----- Electoral geography Military geography.		Political science Psephology Military science
Population geography	------		demography
Settlement geography	-------		Urban/rural planning
Economic geography	-------- Geography of resources Geography of agricultural Geography of industries Geography of marketing Geography of tourism Geography of international trade		Economics Resource geography Agricultural sciences Industrial economics Business studies,economics,commerce Tourism & travel management International trade