Discuss two of the main influences in the
development of human geography this century.
Nick Drake
26th October, 1999
Two of the main influences on human geography during the 20th century are the new theories and studies brought through Regional Geography, and the shift in thought and study of geography through neo-classicism.
During the twentieth century, as mentioned above, many geographers chose to explain how and why regions develop. Previously, throughout the history of geography, geographers were concentrating study on the identification of geographical sub-divisions, such as: Social Geography, Physical Geography, Regional Geography etc.
There is one man that initially founded the ideas, and is now regarded as the ‘father’ of Regional Geography; Vidal de la Blanche. He studies focused around the idea of humans and nature interacting together which he alikened to a ‘snail & shell’. He did not however theorise about his ideas. He instead learned from the area in which he was studying and how this area had such a diverse number of human and nature situations there were. His ideas, which did not rely on any quantitative findings, were called Possibilism because it provided many possible ways for humans and nature to interact.
Criticisms of Vidal de la Blanche’s, Possibilism approach is that, it does not take into consideration urban and industrial living and is weak on social and economic analysis.
Rural areas however were very accurately depicted through de la Blanche’s methods.
Similar to de la Blanche’s Possibilism approach, a Geographer in the USA called Hartsthorne, believed that geography links with many other sciences. Hartsthorne’s ideas were around from the late thirties to the early fifties. His methods of research, similar to de la Blanche, were based around quantitative methods, which drew much criticism from other regional geographers whose work and research revolved around qualitative research.
Also during the 1920’s and 30’s, another method of analysis became popular. This was similar to Possibilism although it valued freedom, and there was no human influence on the results collected. Results were completely neutral and painted a fair picture of an environment without any bias. It’s main theme was that ‘verification of data through falsification hypothesis’. For instance if you cannot falsify a hypothesis then it is true, for instance if your hypothesis states that all bee’s can fly, then until you find a bee that doesn’t fly, your hypothesis is correct.
During the 50’s-70’s, there was a paradigm shift to quantitative techniques of research that threatened the future of Regional Geography.
This shift lead to cities, towns, settlement and many other aspects of geography being analysed through quantitative methods. This meant that geographical study would lead to either a straightforward mathematical answer to a problem; or a process in geography would be identified, studied then an equation like sequence of events would be predicted. However due to the dynamic nature of geography, nothing can ever be accurately predicted or there is not always going to be a physical number to represent every possible problem of human geography.
There were many important paradigms in geography which have shaped the development of human geography through the twentieth century, these include:
Environmental determinism – Semple, Huntington and Taylor were the three main geographers involved in this process of thinking.
They attempted to explain how the physical environment around them could be moulded by humans, and that nature itself did not have the ability control or contain this invasion from human development and involvement in the environment.
Nature did have an effect on humans but this was only through limiting spread due to physical conditions, for instance a river valley cannot be inhabited the entire distance due to a variety of factors including: climate, relief, soils etc.
These geographers also attempted to show the effect on humans of migration.
Two additional geographers, Ratzel and Lebensraum (circa 1930’s), identified features such as racial ideology. They believed in ‘the survival of the fittest’
Ratzel also worked in areas of regional geography and worked with the idea that areas of study were territories as opposed to regions thought by de la Blanche.
The ideas of both Ratzel and de la Blanche combine to give us ideas of each region being unique, and the fusing process between ‘man & nature’ is different in each location. Their studies focused on rural areas which left the urban studies to others.
Critical analysis of their work would identify two main problems:
During the seventies an approach called Radical Geography appeared. This method of thought was concentrated around the idea of conceptual superficiality of using models. Harvey the pioneer, also claimed how irrelevant current issues were in geography and that geography should be based around more relevant issues. Harvey believed that at the present time, geography was not sufficiently addressing urban and social issues. Focus should also have been placed on global environmental problems.
Also during the 1970’s, there was a further shift to an idea called Humanism. This method focused upon the ideas of man having full control on the environment in which they live in, called a human agency. After the 1970’s, the was greater usage of locational models, or descriptions of spatial variation of economic activity.
During the 1970’s, there was a dissatisfaction with the positivist approach. There was also a growing Marxist critique of capitalism. A shift towards the political economy by Harvey, Massey and Smith. The approach to study was very critical, theoretical and politically orientated.
During the 1980’s, there was a loss of momentum in this Marxism approach. There was the emergence of post-structural and post-modernist philosophies. Along with developments in the nature of capitalism. There was also the political and economic collapse of Eastern Europe.
During the late 1980’s, geographers attempted to provide a theoretical outline to the interconnections between economies and geography. Economies are social constructs (the way it is because the social side of man has influenced it) – Harvey’s influence.
In the early 1990’s, there was a new wave of economic geography, with recognition of social bases of economic geography:
At the start of the twentieth century, geographers collected, collated then analysed their findings using quantitative methods. At the end of the century however, geographers are using more qualitative methods of research, and this is how the study of human geography has changed throughout the twentieth century.
Word count: 1,120
Bibliography
My lecture notes
Sheets handed out through various lectures