Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Conditions of Living - Reality, Reflections,
Comparisons and Prospects
Milan Jerábek
10.1 Subjective Perception and Real Landscape
Geography, being a science that reflects on and respects both a holistic approach and
a hierarchical system of classification, takes up a specific position in studies of local
and regional developments. Besides standard approaches, so-called
soft methods
,
usually used in sociology, have been gaining more importance. Not only do they
enable scientists to verify data obtained through more traditional methods, but such
sift methods also complement our objective knowledge with subjective data and
self-reflection.
The development of a region or a locality is based, among other things, upon what
active approaches the permanent population of the area has adopted. Kollár (2000)
says that approaches, beliefs, values and the importance attached to the environment
affect the emotional state of an individual as well as their ideas, which both modify
their complex behaviour. It is exactly the perception of what is currently going on,
no matter whether gained through personal experience or by media that constitutes
a significant factor in the development of a community and society in general.
When designing suitable empirical enquiries, geographers can focus their ques-
tionnaires on the following groups of questions (Jurczek & Günter, 1994, p. 1):
“What are the effects of changes in general conditions? Which areas (in regional
development, of society or community) are affected the most and the least? What
development opportunities or threats have to be taken into account in a particular
locality or region? How do various target groups perceive the ongoing changes?”
The Ústí Region, or more specifically its coal-mining core area, is well known to
the public as a territory which is industrially used in an intensive way, suffering from
pollution and to a large extent also from considerable social problems. This state of
affairs has stimulated, among other things, the profound scientific interest of various
researchers and institutions. Naturally, the local university is no exception and, due
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