Human geography

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Human geography, is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earth's surface.

Scope

It encompasses human, political, cultural, social, and economic aspects of social sciences. While the major focus of human geography is not the physical landscape of the Earth (see physical geography) it is not possible to discuss human geography without going into the physical landscape on which human activities are being played out, and environmental geography is emerging as an important link between the two. Human geography is methodologically diverse using both qualitative methods and quantitative methods, including case studies, survey research, statistical analysis, and model building among others.

Fields of human geography

The main fields of study in human geography focus around the core of:

• Cultural geography
• Subfields include: Children's geographies, Animal Geographies, Language geography & Religion geography
• Development geography
• Economic geography
• Subfields include Marketing geography
• Health geography
• Historical geography
• Subfields include Time geography
• Political geography
• Subfields include Electoral geography, Geopolitics, Strategic geography & Military geography
• Population geography
• Social geography
• Urban geography
• Tourism geography
• Subfields include Transportation geography

Within each of the subfields various philosophical approach can be used in research therefore an urban geographer could be a Marxist urban geographer or a Feminist Urban geographer etc. Such approaches are:

• Behavioral geography
• Critical geography
• Feminist geography
• Marxist geography
• Non-representational theory

List of notable Human Geographers

• Carl Ritter (1779 – 1859) - Considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern geography and first chair in geography at the University of Berlin. Also noted for his use of organic analogy in his works.
• Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845 - 1918) - Founder of the French School of Geopolitics and possiblism.
• Sir Halford John Mackinder (1861 – 1947) - Author of The Geographical Pivot of History and developer of Heartland Theory, co-founder of London School of Economics along with the Geographical Association.
• Carl O. Sauer (1889 – 1975) - Critic of Environmental determinism and proponent of Cultural ecology.
• Walter Christaller (1893 – 1969) - Economic geographer and developer of Central Place Theory.
• Richard Hartshorne (1899 – 1992) - Scholar in the history and philosophy of geography.
• Torsten Hägerstrand (1916 - 2004) - Critic of the quantitative revolution and regional science and a noted figure in critical geography.
• Waldo R. Tobler (born 1930) - Developer of the First law of geography.
• David Harvey (born 1935) - world's most cited academic geographer and winner of the Vautrin Lud International Prize. Also noted for his work in critical geography and on a critique of global capitalism.
• Edward Soja (born 1941) - Noted for his work on regional development, planning and governance along with coining the terms Synekism and Postmetropolis.
• Doreen Massey (born 1944) - Key scholar in the space and places of globalisation and its pluralities.
• Allen J Scott (born 1938) Winner of Vautrin Lud Prize in 2003. Numerous books and papers on economic and urban geography. Known for his work on regional development, new industrial spaces, agglomeration theory, global city-regions, and the cultural economy.
• Nigel Thrift (born 1949) - Developer of Non-representational theory.
• Gillian Rose (born 1962) - Most famous for her critique: Feminism & Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge (1993) which was one of the first moves towards a development of feminist geography

Further reading

• Cloke, Paul J.; et al Introducing Human Geographies. Hodder Arnold, London.
• Daniels, Peter; et al An Introduction to Human Geography. Prentice-Hall, London.
• Johnston, R.J. The Dictionary of Human Geography. Blackwell Publishers, London.
• Flowerdew, Robin; Martin, David Methods in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a Research Project. Prentice-Hall, London.
• Johnston, R.J Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World. Blackwell Publishers, London.
• Cloke, Paul J.; et al Envisioning Human Geographies. Hodder Arnold, London.
• Blij, Harm J.De; et al Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts. John Wiley and Sons, London.
• Crang, Mike; Thrift, Nigel Thinking Space. Routledge , London.

AP Human Geography

Advanced Placement Human Geography is a class that teaches the fundamentals of this subject matter.

External links

• CommonCensus Map Project - Drawing a human-geographic map of the United States based on votes from its website

References

• de Blij, H.J.; Alexander B. Murphy (2000). Culture, Society, and Space. 7th edition, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-44107-4.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday February 28, 2008 at 16:03:48 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation