Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Human geography is that part of social theory concerned to explain
the spatial patterns and processes that enable and constrain the
structures and actions of everyday life. It provides an account of
the ways in which complex socio-cultural, economic and political
processes act through time and space.
M. J. Dear and S. Flusty,
Spaces of Postmodernity
(2002)
This defi nition is a long way removed from older ideas of people,
settlement, and environment, but the cost is a diffuseness and
diversity of positions in which a common core of endeavour is
diffi cult to discern. Postmodern approaches emphasizing the
heterogeneity of human existence, the differences and diversity
within human populations, and a plurality of human geographies
has emerged. Among the things that many human geographers
seem, at least for the moment, to have lost along the way is the
strong empirical tradition of evidence-based research, the science
base, regional studies, and the analysis of interactions between
people and their natural environment. Eric Sheppard, a Canadian
geographer, speaks of the divergence between spatial analysis,
with its components of quantifi cation, spatial patterns, empiricist
science, and general theory, and the new social theory, with its
combinations of political economy and qualitative theorizing.
Against this background of argument and counter-argument,
can we recognize a number of distinctive strands or fi nd paths
for reconciliation? There are some summary statements that can
be made. Human geography can now safely be described as a
loose confederation of approaches and ideas that often confl ict
with one another. Some of these approaches, such as the people/
environment debate and the cartographic tradition, go back to
the earliest years of the discipline and continue to have resonance.
Others, such as spatial analysis and structuralism, had major
impacts on reshaping the direction and methodologies of the
discipline and, although now contested, retain a presence and a
strong heritage.
