Development of human geography
Human geography is the study of the spatial patterns and interactions between human societies and the physical environment. It is a diverse field that encompasses a wide range of topics, including economic geography, political geography, cultural geography, and urban geography.
The development of human geography can be traced back to ancient civilisations, such as the Greeks and Romans, who made early observations about the spatial organisation of human societies. However, it was not until the 19th century that human geography began to emerge as a distinct discipline.
One of the early pioneers of modern human geography was Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist and explorer who conducted extensive research on the geography of Latin America in the early 1800s. Humboldt's work was influential in laying the foundation for modern physical geography and the study of human-environment interactions. Karl Ritter was contemporary to Humboldt, made considerable contribution to the field of human environment relations.
Another key figure in the development of human geography was Friedrich Ratzel, a German geographer who emphasised the importance of geography in shaping human societies. Ratzel's ideas helped to establish the concept of the nation-state and the idea that human societies were shaped by their physical environment. He wrote books ‘Anthropogeography’ in several volumes.
Vidal de LaBlache, a French geographer also made valuable contributions to develop human geography. He popularised possibilism in studying human environment relations and gave the idea of region in the name of ‘pays’ in France. Elswarth Huntington, E. C. Semeple tried to analyse the human activities and their lives in terms of environmental factors and popularised determinism in human geography.
In the early 20th century, human geography continued to evolve, with the emergence of new subfields such as urban geography and cultural geography. The Chicago School of urban sociology, led by figures such as Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, focused on the social and spatial dynamics of urban areas and helped to establish urban geography as a distinct subfield.
During the mid-20th century, quantitative methods such as statistical analysis and computer modeling began to be applied to human geography, leading to the emergence of new subfields such as spatial analysis and geographic information systems (GIS). These methods enabled geographers to analyse complex spatial patterns and interactions in greater detail, and helped to establish human geography as a rigorous scientific discipline. As reactions to quantitative approach in geography, behavioural geography, humanistic geography, radical geography were developed by groups of critical thinkers.
In recent decades, human geography has continued to evolve and expand, with the emergence of new subfields such as welfare geography, feminist geography, critical geography, and postcolonial geography. These subfields have brought attention to issues such as power, identity, and social justice in the study of human-environment interactions.
Overall, the development of human geography has been shaped by a diverse range of perspectives and approaches, reflecting the complex and dynamic nature of human societies and their relationship to the physical environment.
Though human geography has a very long history, it got increasing importance in the 18th and 19th centuries. Michael Chisholm in the year 1975 identified the evolution of human geography in three phases:
- Ancient phase of human geography (upto 1800 AD)
- Renaissance phase of Human geography (1800 AD- 1950 AD)
- Modern phase of human geography (After 1950 AD)
Ancient phase of human geography (upto 1800 AD)
The view that there is a close relationship between man and his physical environment was emphasised by Greek and Roman scholars. Herodotus, Aristotle, Strabo are some of the ancient scholars who contributed to human geography.
Herodotus, Aristotle attributed the progress of certain nations to their favourable environmental conditions.
Strabo and his contemporary Roman geographers attempted to explain the effect of Geo ecological features on the life and levels of progress of people.
Arabian geographers in mediaeval period.Attempted to illustrate the relationship between physical environment and cultural characteristics of races.
In this time, human geography was basically descriptive and encyclopaedic in nature. Description of the relationship between the observed environment and human civilization.
Renaissance phase of Human geography (1800 AD- 1950 AD)
Idea that the environment controls the course of human action was revived in the countries of Western Europe during the Renaissance.
The Royal Geographical Society was developed in the year 1830 in Britain where research, exploration and observation about human societies around the world started.
In America George Parkins March wrote a book in 1847 “Man and nature” where he described the role of human beings in natural activities.
Human geography received important trends during the latter part of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19 century, when Alexander von Humboldt and Karl Ritter stressed on the relationship between social groups and their natural environment.
It became more popular after the publication of Origin of species by Charles Darwin in 1959.
Frederick Ratzel, known as the founder of modern human geography, in his pioneer work anthropogeography, defined human geography as the “synthetic study of the relationship between human societies and the earth’s surface.”
In the educational institutions of Masidons of America study of economic geography was started and the application of Politics, Economics and history started in geography.
In France, “Regional Studies School'' was developed where human geography was studied from a regional perspective. Vidal De LaBlache was one of the famous geographers in this school. He stated that “human geography offers a new conception of the inter relationship between earth and men… a more synthetic knowledge of the physical laws governing our earth and of the relations between the living being which inhibit it.” Here men were treated as both active and passive agents.
Semple and Huntington studied man-environment relationships in a deterministic way.
After the 1930s human geography was divided into two branches, cultural geography and economic geography. Later political geography, social geography, statistical geography and medical geography was developed in the broad domain of human geography.
Modern phase of human geography (After 1950 AD)
After the 1950s geography witnessed a quantitative revolution. Quantitative analysis was introduced in human geography also.
Spatial analysis, locational analysis, behavioural analysis gained more importance in human geography.
Generalisation and building of theories and laws governing the development of spatial structure and processes started.
At the same time radical approach and humanistic approach and welfare approaches also developed in human geography.
In the modern phase of human geography, the broad subfields of human geography are cultural geography, economic geography, historical geography, political geography, regional geography, social geography, urban geography, medical geography, geography of administration and geography of gender.
Human geography in this phase is made up of three closely linked components:
The spatial analysis of the human population, i.e., its numbers, its demographic characteristics as spread over the earth surface.
The ecological analysis of the relations between the human population, so defined and its environment, i.e., the human biosphere system and,
The regional synthesis, which combines the first two themes in areal differentiation of the earth surface.
Use of scale in spatial analysis started. Macro scale is used in the analysis of human activities over a large area And micro scale is used in the locational analysis of persons and groups.
Recent trends of human geography
In the recent past several trends have been observed in human geography. These are:
- New themes of research (Now, human geographers do research on many new themes that are closely linked with sociology, psychology, medical science. Social pathology, Social psychology, Gender sensitisation, Woman hygiene and sanitation in relation to society, Use of contraceptives and public opinion, Community oriented demography, media study e.g. social media social geography etc.)
- Use of statistical hypotheses and models for generalisation (Statistical analyses, Hypothesis testing, models and law of physics, ecology, economics are used by the human geographers to explain human phenomena and landscape.)
- Inclusion of new themes (Many new themes are added in human geography. Instant interlinkage, anarchy, Racism, Existentialism, Colonialism etc.)
- Use of modern technology like computers
- Problem solving trends (Current trends in human geography towards the solution of problems faced by people in different parts of the world through direct observation Combining knowledge from different disciplines like economics, sociology, anthropology etc.)
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