What is
geography?
Geography
is the study of places and the complex relationships between people and their
environments. Geographers explore the physical properties of Earth’s surface
and the human societies spread across it. They investigate how human culture
interacts with the natural environment, examining the impact of locations and
places on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why
they are there, and how they develop and change over time.
Significance
of geography
The
topics included within the broad field of geography are diverse. That very
diversity, however, emphasizes the reality that all geographers – whatever
their particular topical or regional interests – are united by the similar
questions they ask and the common set of basic concepts they employ to consider
their answers. Of either a physical or cultural phenomenon, they will inquire:
What is it? Where is it? How did it come to be what and where is it? Where is
it with other physical or cultural realities that affect it or are affected by
it? How is it part of a functioning whole? How does its location affect
people’s lives and the content of the area in which it is found?
These
and similar questions are rooted in geography’s concern with earth space and
are derived from enduring central themes in geography. In answering them,
geographers draw upon a common store of concepts, terms, and methods of study
that together form the basic structure and vocabulary of geography. Geographers
believe that recognizing spatial patterns is the essential starting point for
understanding how people live on and shape the earth’s surface.
Geography
as a discipline
Geography
stands as one of the oldest earth sciences, dating back to the works of early
Greek scholars. Coined by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes in the third century
B.C., the term 'geography' literally means the description of Earth’s surfaces.
Over time, geography has evolved from a descriptive science to an analytical
one. Today, it is not only concerned with descriptions but also with analysis
and prediction. The discipline explores the intricate connections between
physical and human phenomena, shaping our understanding of the world.
Developments
in the study of geography
Classical Geography
-
The earliest records illustrate the interests of
scholars in understanding the physical domain of the earth by making maps and
astronomical measurements. The Greeks are given the credit of being the
earliest geographers, prominent among them is Eratosthenes.
Medieval Geography
-
In the medieval era (5th to 15th century), geography
was a vibrant discipline where scholars explored the known world. Monks and
intellectuals went beyond mapping landscapes to delve into celestial
cartography, blending geography with cosmic exploration. Mappa Mundi, intricate
world maps, reflected both real and imagined lands. Inspired by travelers'
tales, scholars expanded their perceptions of the world, weaving captivating
narratives. Integrated with theology and philosophy, medieval geography's
legacy endures in surviving maps and manuscripts, offering insights into the
era's intricate knowledge.
Pre-Modern Geography
-
This period starting from the middle of the 15th
century and continuing with the 18th early provides us with enormous information
about the physical and cultural nature of the world through the travels and
explorations of early geographers. The early seventeenth century witnessed the
beginnings of a new scientific geography. Christopher Columbus and Vasco de
Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, and Thomas Cook were important explorers and travelers
among those. Varenius, Kant, Humboldt, and Ritter led the geographers of this
period. They contributed to the development of cartography discovering new
lands, and developing geography into a scientific discipline.
Modern Period Geography
-
Ritter and Humboldt are frequently referred to as the
founders of modern geography. Generally, the latter half of the 19th century is
considered a period of modern geography. The first modern geographer in a true
sense was Ratzel who built the structure of modern geography on the foundations
laid down by classical geographers.
21st Century Geography
-
In the 21st century, geography has transformed into a
dynamic discipline. Utilizing advanced technology like GIS and satellite
imagery, geographers navigate a globalized world. Beyond traditional
cartography, the focus extends to human geography, exploring migration,
urbanization, and cultural dynamics. Environmental concerns, including climate change,
emphasize the interconnectedness of human activities and the Earth. Geographers
now leverage cutting-edge technology and interdisciplinary approaches, shaping
our understanding of the intricate web that defines our modern world.
Geographic
perspective
Geographic
perspective refers to a distinctive way of viewing and understanding the world
around us. It involves analyzing events, processes, and phenomena by
considering their spatial relationships and connections. Geographers, equipped
with this perspective, examine how location, scale, space, and place influence
various aspects of human life and the environment. It goes beyond merely
describing locations; instead, it seeks to unravel the spatial patterns and
interactions that shape our world. This perspective is crucial in comprehending
the complexities of global issues, as it allows for a nuanced understanding of
how geographical factors impact societies, cultures, and the natural
environment.
The
geographic perspective motivates such questions as:
1.
Why is a particular phenomenon found in some places
but not others?
2.
What does the spatial distribution of vegetation or
homeless people or language traits tell us about how physical and human
processes work?
3.
How do phenomena found in the same place influence one
another, and how do phenomena found at different places influence one another?
4.
How do processes that operate at one geographic scale
affect processes at other scales?
5.
What is the importance of location for efforts to
effect (or avoid) political, social, economic, or environmental change?
Like
other academic disciplines, geography has a well-developed set of perspectives:
1.
Geography's way of looking at the world through the lenses of place, space, and scale.
2.
Geography's domains of synthesis: environmental-societal dynamics relating human action to the physical
environment, environmental dynamics linking physical systems, and
human-societal dynamics linking economic, social, and political systems.
3. Spatial representation using visual, verbal, mathematical, digital, and cognitive approaches.
Image taken from: National Academies Press, Washington DC
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/4913/chapter/5
The matrix of geographic perspectives. Geography's
ways of looking at the world—through its focus on place and scale (horizontal
axis)—cuts across its three domains of synthesis: human-societal dynamics,
environmental dynamics, and environmental-societal dynamics (vertical axis).
Spatial representation, the third dimension of the matrix, underpins and
sometimes drives research in other branches of geography.
The term synthesis, as used in this report, refers to
how geographers often attempt to transcend the boundaries traditionally
separating the various natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities
disciplines to provide a broad-ranging analysis of selected phenomena. Such
research benefits not only from bringing into one analysis ideas that are often
treated separately in other disciplines but also from critically examining the
disjuncture and contradictions among how different disciplines examine identical
phenomena.
Approaches
in geographic studies
Systemic Approach
-
A study of a specific natural or human phenomenon that
gives rise to certain spatial patterns and structures on the earth's surface is
called a systematic study. Ordinarily, systematic geography is divided into
four main branches.
1.
Physical geography (atmosphere, hydrosphere,
lithosphere, and biosphere)
2.
Biogeography (including environmental geography)
3.
Human geography ((culture, population, social,
economic, and political aspects)
4.
Geographical methods and techniques (GIS, GPS, and
remote sensing)
Regional Geography
-
Unlike systematic geography, regional geography starts
with the spatial imprints of one or all the systematic geographic processes
discernible as regions of different sizes. Regions could be based on a single
factor like relief, rainfall, vegetation, or per capita income. They could also
be multifactor regions formed by the association of two or more factors.
Administrative units like, states, districts, and tehsils also can be treated
as regions. The main sub-branches of regional geography are:
1.
Regional studies
2.
Regional analysis
3.
Regional development
4. Regional planning including areas and community planning
Image taken from: Nature of Geography as a Discipline by National Institute of Open Schooling https://www.nios.ac.in/media/documents/316courseE/ch1.pdf |
Geography
serves as a unique integrating discipline that harmonizes diverse elements of
the natural and social sciences. By examining spatial relationships,
geographers connect physical landscapes with human activities, fostering a
holistic understanding of our world. This integration becomes evident in areas
like human geography, where societal dynamics intersect with environmental
factors, leading to comprehensive insights into global challenges. Furthermore,
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) facilitate the integration of data, enabling
a unified analysis of complex phenomena. Geography's interdisciplinary nature
acts as a bridge, fostering collaboration between various fields and offering a
synthesized perspective crucial for addressing the interconnected issues facing
our planet.
Image is taken from: Unit
1-Geography as a Discipline by David Ross https://www.academia.edu/43000617/GEOGRAPHY_AS_A_DISCIPLINE_UNIT_I |
Geography
as spatial science
At its
core, geography is concerned with understanding the spatial relationships and
patterns that exist on the Earth's surface. It examines how features and
phenomena are organized, distributed, and interconnected within space. By
analyzing these spatial patterns, geographers gain insights into various
processes and interactions that shape our world.
Spatial
Sciences can be roughly understood as any discipline dealing with the analysis
and visualization of our lived environment. They encompass specific
"spatial" disciplines such as geography, GIS (geographic information
systems), cartography, urban planning, and architecture. They also overlap with
any discipline that is trying to critically approach how individuals interact
with their environment, such as sociology, philosophy, psychology, social work,
religious studies, communication studies, journalism, history, and many others.
Five
Fundamental Themes in Geography
1.
Location
2.
Place
3.
Human-Environment Interaction
4.
Movement
5.
Regions
Place, Location,
Direction, and Distance
Place,
location, direction, and distance are everyday ways of assessing the space
around us and identifying our position with other things and places of
interest. They are also essential in understanding the process of spatial
interaction that figures so importantly in the study of both physical and human
geography.
Place - Geographers describe a place
as “... the human and natural phenomena that give a location its unique
character ...”
Physical Characteristics – Includes
a description of such things as mountains, rivers, beaches, topography,
climate, and animal and plant life of a place. If a place is described as hot,
sandy, fertile, or forested, these terms all paint a picture of the location's
physical characteristics. A topographical map is one tool used to illustrate
the physical characteristics of a location.
Human Characteristics – includes
the human-designed cultural features of a place. These features include land
use, architectural styles, forms of livelihood, religious practices, political
systems, common foods, local folklore, means of transportation, and methods of
communication. For example, a location could be described as a technologically
advanced French-speaking democracy with a Catholic majority.
Location - is
defined as "the position in space" of something. Latitude and
longitude are a convenient way to locate something's position.
Absolute location - is its
exact place on Earth, often given in terms of latitude and longitude.
Relative location - is a
description of how a place is related to other places.
Direction - is used
to determine where things are with other things. Cardinal directions are
probably the most important directions in geography: north, south, east, and
west.
Absolute direction -
relative to a fixed frame of reference and always points in the same direction,
regardless of their location. Directions like north/south and east/west are
examples of absolute direction.
Relative direction - in
relationship to an object’s current location and orientation. For example, if a
person is facing north, west is to their left and east is to their right.
Directions such as left/right, forward/backward, and up/down are relative to an
object’s current orientation.
Distance - is
measured along the surface of the earth. Generally, between points which are
measured by geographical coordinates in terms of latitude and longitude.
Absolute distance – is
measured in a standard unit of length
Relative Distance - is a
measure of the social, cultural, and economic relatedness or connectivity
between places.
Physical
and Cultural Attributes
All
places have individual physical and cultural attributes distinguishing them
from other places and giving them character, potential, and meaning.
Geographers are concerned with identifying and analyzing the details of those
attributes, and particularly with recognizing the interrelationship between
physical and cultural components of an area: human-environment interference.
The
physical characteristics of a place are such natural aspects as its climate,
soil, water supplies, mineral resources, terrain features, and the like. These
natural landscape attributes provide the setting within which human action
occurs. They help shape but do not dictate how people live. The resource base,
for example, is physically determined, though how resources are perceived and
utilized is culturally conditioned.
Environmental
circumstances directly affect agricultural potential and reliability;
indirectly, they may affect such matters as employment patterns, trade flows,
population distributions, national diets, and so on. The physical environment
simultaneously presents advantages and disadvantages with which humans must
deal.
Every
human activity leaves its imprint on the Earth’s soil, water, vegetation,
animal life, and other resources, as well as on the atmosphere common to all Earth
space. The visible imprint of that human activity is called the cultural
landscape. It, too, exists at different scales and at different levels of visibility.
The
physical and human characteristics of places are the keys to understanding both
simple and complex interactions and interconnections between people and the
environments they occupy and modify. Those interactions and modifications are
not static or permanent but are subject to continual change.
Regions
A
region is a basic unit of study in geography—a unit of space characterized by a
feature such as a common government, language, political situation, or
landform. Geographers use the regional unit to map features of particular
interest, and data can be compared between regions to help understand trends,
identify patterns, or assist in explaining a particular phenomenon. Regions are
traditionally defined by internal characteristics that provide a sense of
place.
Formal or Uniform region - A formal region, also known as a uniform or homogeneous region, is a
geographical area characterized by a specific set of uniform attributes or
features. These attributes can be physical, cultural, or economic, and they
create a distinct identity for the region. What defines a formal region is the
consistency in these characteristics within the designated boundaries. Unlike
other types of regions, formal regions exhibit clear and measurable patterns, making
them easily identifiable on maps. Examples include political entities like
countries or states, where legal and administrative boundaries align with
uniform characteristics such as language, government structure, or economic
systems. The concept of formal regions aids geographers in categorizing and
understanding the diverse patterns that shape the Earth's surface.
Functional or Nodal region - A functional region, also known as a nodal or operational region, is a
geographical area defined by the intricate interactions and connections that
occur within it. Unlike formal regions with fixed boundaries, a functional
region's coherence is based on the flow of a particular function, service, or
influence that radiates from a central point. This central hub, often termed a
node, serves as the focal point for the region's purpose. The influence weakens
as you move away from the center, creating a gradient of interaction. Examples
include transportation networks, where a central hub like an airport
facilitates the efficient movement of people and goods, or economic regions
centered around a key industry. Functional regions emphasize the dynamic
relationships and interdependencies that shape spatial patterns on the Earth's
surface.
Perceptual or vernacular or popular regions - A perceptual region, also known as a vernacular or cultural region, is a
geographical area that exists in the minds of people based on their shared
perceptions, feelings, and attitudes. Unlike formal regions with precise
boundaries or functional regions centered around specific activities,
perceptual regions are shaped by the subjective beliefs and cultural
understanding of the people within them. These regions are often defined by a
sense of place or identity rather than objective criteria. For example, people
might perceive certain areas as the "South" or "the
Midwest" in the United States, and these designations are influenced by
cultural, historical, or even linguistic factors. Perceptual regions highlight
the diversity of human perspectives and the importance of cultural influences
in shaping our understanding of space and place.