Challenges and opportunities for human geography: A few remarks (original) (raw)
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Editors' introduction: human geography
2012
When we were invited by Sage to identify published work in human geography that represents what is best and most distinctive about the field it seemed an impossible task (it still does) because there is such a rich volume of material to draw from. We decided to focus on Englishlanguage and to a lesser extent other European contributions, although we are acutely aware of the irony, even the imperialism, of limiting a field like human geography to knowledges rooted in only a fraction of the world. We discuss below the dangers of delimiting Geography as a European or Euro-American science, and several of our selections return to this issue again and again. If there is a much richer geography of Geography than this, there is also a much longer history than our selections might imply. Our focus on the last thirty years is not an exercise in progressivism or triumphalism which treats the present as the climactic moment in a chain of contributions that reaches back into an ever more distant and ever more imperfect past. Here too our decision was a purely pragmatic way to confine our search.
The nature of changes in human geography since the 1980s
Belgeo, 2003
This paper concerns the changes in human geographical research over the last 20 years as far as the mainstream Anglo-Saxon publications are concerned. We contend that although a lot of continuity appears through the further co-existence of the three broad approaches in geography (regional, theoretical quantitative and radical), societal and scientific changes have brought new elements into geographical practice. They can be captured with four characteristics: human geography is holographic, ethnographic, constructivist and institutionalist. The two first characteristics are metaphors of the geographical empirical science that seeks to unveil the whole within the parts and the symbolic order behind every practice. The two others are more essential and point to the fact that geography now explicitly examines the socio-spatial reality as a social product shaped by and reshaping human institutions. As a result geography has made a lot of progress. It uses more relevant concepts to engage in clarifying the problems of our time, the physical environment is reintroduced in human geography as a hybrid category and the old opposition between the idiographic and nomothetic approaches is finally transcended. However, there are limits to the postmodern constructivist stance, which imply that radical geography remains a crucial component of human geography in order to explicit problems of social justice.
Editors\u27 introduction: human geography
2012
When we were invited by Sage to identify published work in human geography that represents what is best and most distinctive about the field it seemed an impossible task (it still does) because there is such a rich volume of material to draw from. We decided to focus on Englishlanguage and to a lesser extent other European contributions, although we are acutely aware of the irony, even the imperialism, of limiting a field like human geography to knowledges rooted in only a fraction of the world. We discuss below the dangers of delimiting Geography as a European or Euro-American science, and several of our selections return to this issue again and again. If there is a much richer geography of Geography than this, there is also a much longer history than our selections might imply. Our focus on the last thirty years is not an exercise in progressivism or triumphalism which treats the present as the climactic moment in a chain of contributions that reaches back into an ever more distan...
Introduction to Human Geography
Geography is an interdisciplinary field that studies the interaction of natural and social phenomena to create the world as we know it. The course will introduce students to key concepts in human geography, such as space, place, scale and nature in order to provide a spatial understanding of social issues. We will address themes such as: 'What forces have created populations, territory and states as we know them?' ; 'How have humans transformed climates, oceans, landforms and hydrological cycles, and how have these changes created new vulnerabilites?'; 'How were spatial forms such as regions, parks, cities and neighborhoods created, and how do they affect inequalities along lines of race, class and gender'?. Through the course, students will learn how a geographical perspective can provide a powerful tool to both analyze and address key contemporary geopolitical, social and environmental issues at the local and global scale.
Advanced Seminar in Human Geography
This graduate seminar explores some of the major theoretical trends in contemporary human geography. We will investigate key debates and concepts that inform current scholarship on social, cultural, political, and economic geographies using different lenses through which to understand geographical notions of space, place, and scale. The aims of the course are, therefore, threefold: (1) to provide a solid foundation and appreciation for the diversity of contemporary perspectives in human geography; (2) to examine major thematic areas of human geographical inquiry and debate; (3) to, above all, cultivate one’s own “geographical imagination” by critically assessing current geographical scholarship while also contributing to the literature with an original piece of geographical research. The format for class sessions will be based upon group discussions of the assigned readings, where students will have the opportunity to present to the class and facilitate at least one class discussion over the course of the semester.
2016
This paper concerns the changes in human geographical research over the last 20 years as far as the mainstream Anglo-Saxon publications are concerned. We contend that although a lot of continuity appears through the further co-existence of the three broad approaches in geography (regional, theoretical quantitative and radical), societal and scientific changes have brought new elements into geographical practice. They can be captured with four characteristics: human geography is holographic, ethnographic, constructivist and institutionalist. The two first characteristics are metaphors of the geographical empirical stance that seeks to unveil the whole within the parts and the symbolic order behind everyday practice. The two others are more essential and point to the fact that geography now explicitly examines the socio-spatial reality as a social product shaped by and reshaping human institutions. As a result geography has made a lot of progress. It uses more relevant concepts to eng...
Human Geography: not ending but worlding the modern subject in new ways
Dialogues in Human Geography, 2023
This commentary engages Bodden's (2023) 'Working through our differences' to draw out how contemporary frameworks of reasoning in human geography extend the limits of 'thinkability', expanding the world, of the modern subject. In response, I offer 'Abyssal Geography', critiquing how the discipline is not ending but worlding the modern subject in new ways.
Applied aspects of human geography. A critical approach to traditionalist views
Journal of Geography, Politics and Society
Traditionally, applied aspects of human geography are mainly associated with economic geography, regional development and spatial planning. In the debate on the application potential of the discipline, a number of important problems of social, political and cultural geography, relevant to various contemporary processes on a global and regional scale, are marginalized. For this reason, the author undertakes a critical rethinking of the current debate on the applied aspects of research in human geography. A brief review of the conceptual and institutional development of applied geography in the world and in selected national schools is made. The author also distinguishes two research orientations: 1) strategic orientation – connected to studies carried out at the international, national and macro-regional spatial levels; 2) operational orientation – concerning applied studies undertook on a scale of separate municipalities, cities, neighbourhoods or even separate str...