Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
decision-making processes involved in past times. Human impact
was variable in space and time, and was conditioned by, amongst
other factors, people's changing perceptions of the natural
environment and technological change. Furthermore, conceptions
of nature and ideas about relationships of societies to natural
environments have themselves changed and have a history as well
as a geography.
Geography of human-environment interaction
Reciprocal interaction between the natural environment and
people is the key concept of an integrated geography. It provided
the strongest rationale for establishing geography as a separate
discipline during the 'Geographical Experiment', and continues
to provide a strong academic justifi cation for physical and human
geography remaining together in the same university department.
Two major interconnected sub-themes can be identifi ed: fi rst,
studying the complex effects of different natural environments
on societies and their activities; and second, understanding the
nature and extent of benefi cial as well as adverse human impacts
in different environments. Both sub-themes presuppose suffi cient
knowledge of the relevant physical and human geographical
patterns and processes operating in both the natural environment
and human society.
Attempts by geographers to conceptualize and theorize how
environment interacts with society have had mixed success.
The historical role of environmental determinism in the early
20th century, which portrayed environmental effects as simple,
direct, causal links between, for example, climate and human
characteristics or the decline of civilizations (Figure 16(A)),
was fundamentally fl awed. Since then, the complex, indirect,
and refl exive nature of the environmental relations of society
has been recognized and alternative, more sophisticated models
have been proposed, two of which are shown in Figure 16 - (B)
and (C).
