COURSE TITLE:

EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL
THOUGHTS
COURSE CODE: GEO1102
HOURS TAUGHT: 3 hrs per week
PREREQUISITES: None

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course covers the pre history of geography, modern geographical thought, schools of
thought, contemporary movements in geography, and the systems paradigms and models in
geography. The dichotomy between determinism and possibilism are also Included.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
1) Explain the main sources of data for physical and Human geography
2) Account for the historical and intellectual development of Geographical thought
3) Explain the foundations of Modern Geography.
4) Explain the contemporary trends in Geography

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

 Distinguish between the specialized branches of research Geography.
 State main sources of data for physical and human geography
 Apretiate the prehistory of geography and the pioneers of geographical Ideas

COURSE CONTENT
Prehistory of geography and the pioneers of geographical Ideas
 Phoenician, Greeks, Arabs, Romans and Chinese.
Modern Geographical Thought and the founders
 Alexander Von Humboldt (1790-1859)
  Carl Ritter (1779-1859)
 Charles Robert Darwin’s (1809-1882)
Schools of Geography
 German School of Geography
 French School of Geography
 American School of Geography
 Soviet School of Geography
 British School of Geography
Quantitative Revolution, paradigms, models, system-analysis and regional concept of
geography
Contemporary movements of Geography
Radicalism .Marxism
Behaviouralism .Pragmatism
Humanism .Existentialism
Functionalism .Idealism
Realism

MODE OF DELIVERY
 Lectures
 Reading assignments
 Practical assignments
 Field trips
 Documentaries

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS / EQUIPMENT

 Whiteboard and markers
 Flip charts
 LCD projects
 CDs, DVDs and Tapes

COURSE ASSESSMENT
  Continuous assessments tests 20%
 Group and individual project (course work) 20%
 End of Semester Examination 60%

READING MATERIALS
Audrey,N.C.(2003). The penguin Dictionary of Geography (3rd ed.).London :penguin Group.
Johnston R.J, Gregory, D, and Smith D.M.(eds).(1986). The Dictionary of Human Geography
.oxford: Black well.
Majid,h(2000). Evolution of Geographical thought(4th ed). New Delhi : Rawat publications.
GEOGRAPHY:
HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHIC STUDY
Geography was first systematically studied by the ancient Greeks, who also developed a philosophy of
geography; Thales of Miletus, Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Aristotle, Strabo, and Ptolemy made major
contributions to geography. The Roman contribution to geography was in the exploration and mapping of
previously unknown lands. Greek geographic learning was maintained and enhanced by the Arabs during
the Middle Ages. Arab geographers, among whom Idrisi, Ibn Battutah, and Ibn Khaldun are prominent,
traveled extensively for the purpose of increasing their knowledge of the world. The journeys of
Marco Polo in the latter part of the Middle Ages began the revival of geographic interest outside the Muslim
world.
With the Renaissance in Europe came the desire to explore unknown parts of the world that led to the
voyages of exploration and to the great discoveries. However, it was mercantile interest rather than a
genuine search for knowledge that spurred these endeavors. The 16th and 17th cent. reintroduced sound
theoretical geography in the form of textbooks (the Geographia generalis of Bernhardus Varenius) and
maps (Gerardus Mercator's world map). In the 18th cent. geography began to achieve recognition as a
discipline and was taught for the first time at the university level.
The modern period of geography began toward the end of the 18th cent. with the works of Alexander
von Humboldt and Karl Ritter. Thenceforth two principal methods of approach to geography can be
distinguished: the systematic, following Humboldt, and the regional, following Ritter. Of the national schools
of geography that developed, the German and the French schools were the most influential. The German
school, which dealt mainly with physical geography, developed a scientific and analytical style of writing.
The French school became known for its descriptive regional monographs presented in a lucid and flowing
manner; human and historical geography were its forte. Although emphasis has shifted several times
between the approaches and viewpoints, their interdependence is recognized by all geographers.
Since the end of World War II, geography, like other disciplines, has experienced the explosion of
knowledge brought on by the new tools of modern technology for the acquisition and manipulation of data;
these include aerial photography, remote sensors (including infrared and satellite photography), and the
computer (for quantitative analysis and mapping). The quantitative method of geographical research has
gained much ground since the 1950s, Edward Ullman and William Garrison of the United States and Peter
Haggett of Great Britain being leading exponents.
Important contributions to the advancement of geography and to the development of geographic concepts
have been made by Ferdinand von Richthofen, Albrecht Penck, Friedrich Ratzel, Alfred Hettner,
Karl Haushofer, and Walter Christaller in Germany; Paul Vidal de la Blache, Jean Brunhes, Conrad Malte-
Brun, Elisée Reclus, and Emmanuel de Martonne in France; and William Morris Davis, Isaiah Bowman,
Ellen Churchill Semple, Carl O. Sauer, Albert Brigham, and Richard Hartshorne in the United States. Today
geography is studied by governmental agencies and in many of the world's universities. Research is
stimulated by such noted geographic institutions as the Royal Geographical Society (1830, Great Britain),
the American Geographical Society (1852, United States), and the Société de Geographie (1821, France).

How Do We Write a History of Geography?

Histories of geography appeared early in the life of academic geography as part of the search for
disciplinary identity and status when the subject was professionalized within the international university
sector in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. New accounts of the history of geographical thought
and practice appear at regular intervals, often focusing on a particular country's tradition. Historians of
geographical inquiry employ the insights of historiography to analyze and evaluate different histories of
geography, and the approach taken to the history of geography reflects the way(s) in which geography as a
subject is seen, interpreted, and represented.

Nineteenth and early twentieth century accounts of the history of discipline, often emphasized geography's
lineage to the work of European classical scholars and/or focused on the history of exploration; others
celebrated anniversaries of foundations (notably of geographical societies). However, these accounts have
been criticized for being too internalist and more ‘critical’ approaches to historiography were called for in the
1970s and 1980s, particularly for histories of what happened within geography to be placed in the context
of wider external factors. This externalist approach, as the name implies, stresses the explanatory role of
external factors framing the practice of geographical inquiry at a given time and place.

These external factors include: ideas from beyond academia, including natural science, religion, politics,
and circulating ideologies; they also include what can be classified as socioeconomic and cultural factors,
in both their materialist expression such as through war or capitalist processes, and the impact of related
discourses such as prevailing views on class, race, gender, for example, on geographical inquiry. In recent
years this externalist-contextual approach has dominated work on the history of geography and in turn has
resulted in what are described as revisionist histories, which use novel data and/or perspectives to shed
new light on the nature and practice of geography, revising previous received histories.

An important way in which historians of the discipline differ is in identifying the impetus for change within
geographical inquiry. Those working from an internalist model tend to see changes emanating from forces
within the discipline or wider academia, tracing the exchange of ideas and methods through publications,
field work, conferences, and other intellectual networks.

Christian Geography
H. Aay, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
‘God's Fingerprints’: Geography and Natural Theology
During the more than 2000-year history of geography in the West, natural theology has been the main type
of Christian geography. Natural theology looks to the creation as a second source of revelation about the
nature and attributes of God. From the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, geographical writings were
very commonly cast into a natural theology frame.

Military Geographies
R. Woodward, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
Two definitions of military geography are presented, which approach the issue of academic engagement
with military institutions in rather different ways. A brief history of geography's engagement with militarism
and military activities is given, showing the long-standing connections between the two.

Subjectivity
J.P. Sharp, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
Subjectivity is the claim that perception emerges from a subject's point of view. Subjectivity is usually
opposed to objectivity, where knowledge is seen to be independent of the subject who is producing it. In
most of geography's history, subjectivity has meant understanding the role of various social locations (such
as class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality) on the construction of the individual's relationship with the world,
which shapes his or her knowledge and understanding of the world

Critical Geography
U. Best, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
National/International Critical Traditions
Critical geography in almost all of the aspects considered above is not ‘new’, but there have been critical
perspectives and critical thinkers (and practitioners) in geography from the start of the academic discipline
in the nineteenth century. Since the late 1960s, for example, radical geography in North America and the
UK has tried to draw attention to Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842–1921) as a radical political figure in
the history of geography, highlighting his political significance as well as some of his concepts for a better
society.

Mobility
P. Merriman, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
Geography, Fixity, and Mobility
Geography – a term whose etymology can be traced through Greek, Latin, and subsequently French – is
often defined as Earth-writing. When I talk to friends who have a limited knowledge of academic geography,
they frequently suggest that geography is about physical landscapes, maps, or places.

Postcolonialism/Postcolonial Geographies
C. McEwan, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2009
Postcolonial Geographies
In addition to its potential in development studies (including development geographies), postcolonialism is
beginning to have significant impacts in human geography more broadly. Postcolonial theory demonstrates
how the production of Western knowledge forms is inseparable from the exercise of Western power,
attempts to loosen the power of Western knowledge, and reasserts the value of alternative experiences
and ways of knowing.

Development geography is arguably one part of the discipline that has not abandoned area studies in favor
of a view from nowhere and is thus perhaps more attuned to a postcolonial sensibility. However, recent
years have seen a productive engagement across the discipline with postcolonialism. Some economic
geographers are beginning to explore diverse forms of economy and to ‘theorize back from’ the South.
Attempts are being made to ‘de-colonize’ and provincialize urban geographies by challenging Eurocentric
classification systems that rank ‘world cities’ and ignore diverse urbanisms around the world
(Robinson's Ordinary Cities is one such example). Urban and cultural geographers are exploring how the
imperial experience helped shape and continues to shape the economic, social, political, and cultural
landscapes of the imperial powers themselves, not just those places they colonized (for example,
Jacobs’ Edge of Empire).

Geographers are also becoming more attuned to the ethical dimensions of postcolonialism. Feminist and
development geographers have been particularly inspired by Spivak's writings on ethical relationships
between researcher and researched, developing participatory methodologies that negate some of the
inequalities in power relationships and creating spaces in which the researched are able to speak for
themselves.

History of geography
The history of geography includes many histories of geography which have differed over time and between
different cultural and political groups. In more recent developments, geography has become a distinct
academic discipline. 'Geography' derives from the Greek γεωγραφία – geographia,[1] literally "Earth-writing",
that is, description or writing about the Earth. The first person to use the
word geographia was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). However, there is evidence for recognizable practices
of geography, such as cartography (map-making), prior to the use of the term.

Egypt
The known world of Ancient Egypt saw the Nile as the centre, and the world as based upon "the" river.
Various oases were known to the east and west, and were considered locations of various gods (e.g. Siwa,
for Amon)12 . To the South lay the Kushitic region, known as far as the 4th cataract. Punt was a region
south along the shores of the Red Sea. Various Asiatic peoples were known as Retenu, Kanaan, Que,
Harranu, or Khatti (Hittites). At various times especially in the Late Bronze Age Egyptians had diplomatic
and trade relationships with Babylonia and Elam. The Mediterranean was called "the Great Green" and was
believed to be part of a world encircling ocean. Europe was unknown although may have become part of
the Egyptian world view in Phoenician times. To the west of Asia lay the realms of Keftiu, possibly Crete,
and Mycenae (thought to be part of a chain of islands, that joined Cyprus, Crete, Sicily and later
perhaps Sardinia, Corsica and the Balarics to Africa).[2]
Babylon
The oldest known world maps date back to ancient Babylon from the 9th century BC.[3] The best
known Babylonian world map, however, is the Imago Mundi of 600 BC.[4] The map as reconstructed
by Eckhard Unger shows Babylon on the Euphrates, surrounded by a circular landmass
showing Assyria, Urartu[5] and several cities, in turn surrounded by a "bitter river" (Oceanus), with seven
islands arranged around it so as to form a seven-pointed star. The accompanying text mentions seven
outer regions beyond the encircling ocean. The descriptions of five of them have survived. [6]
In contrast to the Imago Mundi, an earlier Babylonian world map dating back to the 9th century BC depicted
Babylon as being further north from the center of the world, though it is not certain what that center was
supposed to represent.[3]

Greco-Roman world
The ancient Greeks view Homer as the founder of geography.[7] His works the Iliad and the Odyssey are
works of literature, but both contain a great deal of geographical information. Homer describes a circular
world ringed by a single massive ocean. The works show that the Greeks by the 8th century BC had
considerable knowledge of the geography of the eastern Mediterranean. The poems contain a large
number of place names and descriptions, but for many of these it is uncertain what real location, if any, is
actually being referred to.
Thales of Miletus is one of the first known philosophers known to have wondered about the shape of the
world. He proposed that the world was based on water, and that all things grew out of it. He also laid down
many of the astronomical and mathematical rules that would allow geography to be studied scientifically.
His successor Anaximander is the first person known to have attempted to create a scale map of the known
world and to have introduced the gnomon to Ancient Greece.
Hecataeus of Miletus initiated a different form of geography, avoiding the mathematical calculations of
Thales and Anaximander he learnt about the world by gathering previous works and speaking to the sailors
who came through the busy port of Miletus. From these accounts he wrote a detailed prose account of what
was known of the world. A similar work, and one that mostly survives today, is Herodotus' Histories. While
primarily a work of history, the book contains a wealth of geographic descriptions covering much of the
known world. Egypt, Scythia, Persia, and Asia Minor are all described, [8] including a mention of India. [9] The
description of Africa as a whole are contentious, [10] with Herodotus describing the land surrounded by a sea.

Hellenistic period
These theories clashed with the evidence of explorers, however, Hanno the Navigator had traveled as far
south as Sierra Leone, and Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II of Africa is related by Herodotus and others as
having commissioned a successful circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors. While they were
sailing west around the Southern tip of Africa, it was found that the sun was to their right (the north). This is
thought to have been a key trigger in the realization that the earth is spherical, in the classical world.
In the 4th century BC the Greek explorer Pytheas traveled through northeast Europe, and circled the British
Isles. He found that the region was considerably more habitable than theory expected, but his discoveries
were largely dismissed by his contemporaries because of this. Conquerors also carried out exploration, for
example, Caesar's invasions of Britain and Germany, expeditions/invasions sent by Augustus to Arabia
Felix and Ethiopia (Res Gestae 26), and perhaps the greatest Ancient Greek explorer of all, Alexander the
Great, who deliberately set out to learn more about the east through his military expeditions and so took a
large number of geographers and writers with his army who recorded their observations as they moved
east.
The ancient Greeks divided the world into three continents, Europe, Asia, and  Libya (Africa).
The Hellespont formed the border between Europe and Asia. The border between Asia and Libya was
generally considered to be the Nile river, but some geographers, such as Herodotus objected to this.
Herodotus argued that there was no difference between the people on the east and west sides of the Nile,
and that the Red Sea was a better border. The relatively narrow habitable band was considered to run from
the Atlantic Ocean in the west to an unknown sea somewhere east of India in the east. The southern
portion of Africa was unknown, as was the northern portion of Europe and Asia, so it was believed that they
were circled by a sea. These areas were generally considered uninhabitable.
The size of the Earth was an important question to the Ancient Greeks. Eratosthenes calculated the Earth's
circumference with great precision.[14] Since the distance from the Atlantic to India was roughly known, this
raised the important question of what was in the vast region east of Asia and to the west of Europe.  Crates
of Mallus proposed that there were in fact four inhabitable land masses, two in each hemisphere. In Rome
a large globe was created depicting this world. Posidonius set out to get a measurement, but his number
actually was considerably smaller than the real one, yet it became accepted that the eastern part of Asia
was not a huge distance from Europe.

Roman period
While the works of almost all earlier geographers have been lost, many of them are partially known through
quotations found in Strabo (64/63 BC – ca. AD 24). Strabo's seventeen volume work of geography is
almost completely extant, and is one of the most important sources of information on classical geography.
Strabo accepted the narrow band of habitation theory, and rejected the accounts of Hanno and Pytheas as
fables. None of Strabo's maps survive, but his detailed descriptions give a clear picture of the status of
geographical knowledge of the time. 
It was the Romans who made far more extensive practical use of geography and maps. The Roman
transportation system, consisting of 55,000 miles of roads, could not have been designed without the use of
geographical systems of measurement and triangulation. The cursus publicus, a department of the Roman
government devoted to transportation, employed full-time gromatici (surveyors). The surveyors’ job was to
gather topographical information and then to determine the straightest possible route where a road might
be built. Instruments and principles used included sun dials for determining direction, theodolites for
measuring horizontal angles, [15] and triangulation without which the creation of perfectly straight stretches,
some as long as 35 miles, would have been impossible. During the Greco-Roman era, those who
performed geographical work could be divided into four categories: [16]

 Land surveyors determined the exact dimensions of a particular area such as a field, dividing the
land into plots for distribution, or laying out the streets in a town.
 Cartographical surveyors made maps, involving finding latitudes, longitudes and elevations.
 Military surveyors were called upon to determine such information as the width of a river an army
would need to cross.
 Engineering surveyors investigated terrain in order to prepare the way for roads, canals,
aqueducts, tunnels and mines.
Around AD 400 a scroll map called the Peutinger Table was made of the known world, featuring the Roman
road network. Besides the Roman Empire which at that time spanned from Britain to the Middle East and
Africa, the map includes India, Sri Lanka and China. Cities are demarcated using hundreds of symbols. It
measures 1.12 ft high and 22.15 ft long. The tools and principles of geography used by the Romans would
be closely followed with little practical improvement for the next 700 years. [17]

India
A vast corpus of Indian texts embraced the study of geography. The Vedas and Puranas contain elaborate
descriptions of rivers and mountains and treat the relationship between physical and human elements.
[18]
 According to religious scholar Diana Eck, a notable feature of geography in India is its interweaving with
Hindu mythology,[19]
No matter where one goes in India, one will find a landscape in which mountains, rivers, forests, and
villages are elaborately linked to the stories and gods of Indian culture. Every place in this vast country has
its story; and conversely, every story of Hindu myth and legend has its place.

Ancient period
The geographers of ancient India put forward theories regarding the origin of the earth. They theorized that
the earth was formed by the solidification of gaseous matter and that the earth's crust is composed of hard
rocks (sila), clay (bhumih) and sand (asma). [20] Theories were also propounded to explain earthquakes
(bhukamp) and it was assumed that earth, air and water combined to cause earthquakes.
The Arthashastra, a compendium by Kautilya (also known as Chanakya) contains a range of geographical
and statistical information about the various regions of India. [18] The composers of the Puranas divided the
known world into seven continents of dwipas, Jambu Dwipa, Krauncha Dwipa, Kusha Dwipa, Plaksha
Dwipa, Pushkara Dwipa, Shaka Dwipa and Shalmali Dwipa. Descriptions were provided for the climate and
geography of each of the dwipas.[20]

Early Medieval period

The Vishnudharmottara Purana (compiled between 300 and 350 AD) contains six chapters on physical and
human geography. The locational attributes of peoples and places, and various seasons are the topics of
these chapters.[18] Varahamihira's Brihat-Samhita gave a thorough treatment of planetary movements,
rainfall, clouds and the formation of water. [20] The mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata gave a precise
estimate of the earth's circumference in his treatise Āryabhaṭīya.[18] Aryabhata accurately calculated the
Earth's circumference as 24,835 miles, which was only 0.2% smaller than the actual value of 24,902 miles.

Late Medieval period

The Mughal chronicles Tuzuk-i-Jehangiri, Ain-i-Akbari and Dastur-ul-aml contain detailed geographical
narratives.[18] These were based on the earlier geographical works of India and the advances made by
medieval Muslim geographers, particularly the work of Alberuni.

China
In China, the earliest known geographical Chinese writing dates back to the 5th century BC, during the
beginning of the Warring States period (481 BC – 221 BC).[22] This work was the Yu Gong ('Tribute of Yu')
chapter of the Shu Jing or Book of Documents, which describes the traditional nine provinces of ancient
China, their kinds of soil, their characteristic products and economic goods, their tributary goods, their
trades and vocations, their state revenues and agricultural systems, and the various rivers and lakes listed
and placed accordingly.[22] The nine provinces at the time of this geographical work were relatively small in
size compared to those of modern China with the book's descriptions pertaining to areas of the  Yellow
River, the lower valleys of the Yangtze and the plain between them as well as the Shandong peninsula and
to the west the most northern parts of the Wei and Han Rivers along with the southern parts of modern-
day Shanxi province.[22]
In this ancient geographical treatise, which would greatly influence later Chinese geographers and
cartographers, the Chinese used the mythological figure of Yu the Great to describe the known earth (of the
Chinese). Apart from the appearance of Yu, however, the work was devoid of magic, fantasy, Chinese
folklore, or legend.[23] Although the Chinese geographical writing in the time of Herodotus and Strabo were of
lesser quality and contained less systematic approach, this would change from the 3rd century onwards, as
Chinese methods of documenting geography became more complex than those found in Europe, a state of
affairs that would persist until the 13th century. [24]

Middle Ages
Byzantine Empire and Syria
After the fall of the western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, ruled from Constantinople and
known as the Byzantine Empire, continued to thrive and produced several noteworthy
geographers. Stephanus of Byzantium (6th century) was a grammarian at Constantinople and authored the
important geographical dictionary Ethnica. This work is of enormous value, providing well-referenced
geographical and other information about ancient Greece.
The geographer Hierocles (6th century) authored the Synecdemus (prior to AD 535) in which he provides a
table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists the cities in each. The Synecdemus and
the Ethnica were the principal sources of Constantine VII's work on the Themes or divisions of Byzantium,
and are the primary sources we have today on political geography of the sixth-century East.
George of Cyprus is known for his Descriptio orbis Romani (Description of the Roman world) , written in the
decade 600–610.[36] Beginning with Italy and progressing counterclockwise including Africa, Egypt and
the western Middle East, George lists cities, towns, fortresses and administrative divisions of the Byzantine
or Eastern Roman Empire.

Islamic world
In the latter 7th century, adherents of the new religion of Islam surged northward out of Arabia taking over
lands in which Jews, Byzantine Christians and Persian Zoroastrians had been established for centuries.
There, carefully preserved in the monasteries and libraries, they discovered the Greek classics which
included great works of geography by Egyptian Ptolemy's Almagest and Geography, along with the
geographical wisdom of the Chinese and the great accomplishments of the Roman Empire. The Arabs,
who spoke only Arabic, employed Christians and Jews to translate these and many other manuscripts into
Arabic.
The primary geographical scholarship of this era occurred in Persia, today's Iran, in the great learning
center the House of Wisdom at Baghdad, today's Iraq. Early caliphs did not follow orthodoxy and so they
encouraged scholarship.. Under their rule, native non-Arabs served as mawali or dhimmi and most
geographers in this period were Syrian (Byzantine) or Persian, i.e. of
either Zoroastrian or Christian background
Persians who wrote on geography or created maps during the Middle Ages included:

 Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber or Jabir) (721– c. 815) Wrote extensively on many subjects, expanded on
the wisdom of the Greek classics and engaged in experimentation in natural science. It is unclear
whether he was Persian or Syrian
 Al-Khwārizmī (780–850) wrote The Image of the Earth (Kitab surat al-ard), in which he used
the Geography (Ptolemy) of Ptolemy but improved upon his values for the Mediterranean Sea, Asia,
and Africa.
 Ibn Khurdadhbih (820–912) authored a book of administrative geography Book of the Routes and
Provinces (Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik), which is the earliest surviving Arabic work of its kind. He
made the first quadratic scheme map of four sectors.
Further details about some of these are given below:
In the early 10th century, Abū Zayd al-Balkhī, a Persian originally from Balkh, founded the "Balkhī school"
of terrestrial mapping in Baghdad. The geographers of this school also wrote extensively of the peoples,
products, and customs of areas in the Muslim world, with little interest in the non-Muslim realms. [49] Suhrāb,
a late 10th-century Persian geographer, accompanied a book of geographical coordinates with instructions
for making a rectangular world map, with equirectangular projection or cylindrical equidistant projection. [49] In
the early 11th century, Avicenna hypothesized on the geological causes of mountains in The Book of
Healing (1027).

In mathematical geography, Persian Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, around 1025, was the first to describe a polar
equi-azimuthal equidistant projection of the celestial sphere.[50] He was also regarded as the most skilled
when it came to mapping cities and measuring the distances between them, which he did for many cities in
the Middle East and western Indian subcontinent. He combined astronomical readings and mathematical
equations to record degrees of latitude and longitude and to measure the heights of mountains and depths
of valleys, recorded in The Chronology of the Ancient Nations . He discussed human geography and
the planetary habitability of the Earth, suggesting that roughly a quarter of the Earth's surface is habitable
by humans. He solved a complex geodesic equation in order to accurately compute
the Earth's circumference.[51] His estimate of 6,339.9 km for the Earth radius was only 16.8 km less than the
modern value of 6,356.7 km.
By the early 12th century the Normans had overthrown the Arabs in Sicily. Palermo had become a
crossroads for travelers and traders from many nations and the Norman King Roger II, having great interest
in geography, commissioned the creation of a book and map that would compile all this wealth of
geographical information. Researchers were sent out and the collection of data took 15 years. [52] Al-Idrisi,
one of few Arabs who had ever been to France and England as well as Spain, Central Asia and
Constantinople, was employed to create the book from this mass of data. Utilizing the information inherited
from the classical geographers, he created one of the most accurate maps of the world to date, the  Tabula
Rogeriana (1154). The map, written in Arabic, shows the Eurasian continent in its entirety and the northern
part of Africa.
An adherent of environmental determinism was the medieval Afro-Arab writer al-Jahiz (776–869), who
explained how the environment can determine the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of a certain
community. He used his early theory of evolution to explain the origins of different human skin colors,
particularly black skin, which he believed to be the result of the environment. He cited a stony region of
black basalt in the northern Najd as evidence for his theory.[53]

Medieval Europe
During the Early Middle Ages, geographical knowledge in Europe regressed (though it is a popular
misconception that they thought the world was flat), and the simple T and O map became the standard
depiction of the world.
The trips of Venetian explorer Marco Polo throughout Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the
Christian Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration
during the 15th and 16th centuries opened up new horizons and stimulated geographic writings.
The Mongols also had wide-ranging knowledge of the geography of Europe and Asia, based in their
governance and ruling of much of this area and used this information for the undertaking of large military
expeditions. The evidence for this is found in historical resources such as The Secret History of Mongols
and other Persian chronicles written in 13th and 14th centuries. For example, during the rule of the Great
Yuan Dynasty a world map was created and is currently kept in South Korea. See also:  Maps of the Yuan
Dynasty
During the 15th century, Henry the Navigator of Portugal supported explorations of the African coast and
became a leader in the promotion of geographic studies. Among the most notable accounts of voyages and
discoveries published during the 16th century were those by Giambattista Ramusio in Venice, by Richard
Hakluyt in England, and by Theodore de Bry in what is now Belgium.

19th century
By the 18th century, geography had become recognized as a discrete discipline and became part of a
typical university curriculum in Europe (especially Paris and Berlin), although not in the United Kingdom
where geography was generally taught as a sub-discipline of other subjects.
A holistic view of geography and nature can be seen in the work by the 19th-century polymath Alexander
von Humboldt.[57] One of the great works of this time was Humboldt's Kosmos: a sketch of a physical
description of the Universe , the first volume of which was published in German in 1845. Such was the
power of this work that Dr Mary Somerville, of Cambridge University intended to scrap publication of her
own Physical Geography on reading Kosmos. Von Humboldt himself persuaded her to publish (after the
publisher sent him a copy).
In 1877, Thomas Henry Huxley published his Physiography with the philosophy of universality presented as
an integrated approach in the study of the natural environment. The philosophy of universality in geography
was not a new one but can be seen as evolving from the works of Alexander von Humboldt and Immanuel
Kant. The publication of Huxley physiography presented a new form of geography that analysed and
classified cause and effect at the micro-level and then applied these to the macro-scale (due to the view
that the micro was part of the macro and thus an understanding of all the micro-scales was need to
understand the macro level). This approach emphasized the empirical collection of data over the
theoretical. The same approach was also used by Halford John Mackinder in 1887. However, the
integration of the Geosphere, Atmosphere and Biosphere under physiography was soon over taken by
Davisian geomorphology.
Over the past two centuries the quantity of knowledge and the number of tools has exploded. There are
strong links between geography and the sciences of geology and botany, as well
as economics, sociology and demographics.
The Royal Geographical Society was founded in England in 1830, although the United Kingdom did not get
its first full Chair of geography until 1917. The first real geographical intellect to emerge in United Kingdom
geography was Halford John Mackinder, appointed reader at Oxford University in 1887.
The National Geographic Society was founded in the United States in 1888 and began publication of
the National Geographic magazine which became and continues to be a great popularizer of geographic
information. The society has long supported geographic research and education.
20th century
In the West during the second half of the 19th and the 20th century, the discipline of geography went
through four major phases: environmental determinism, regional geography, the quantitative revolution, and
critical geography.

Environmental determinism
Environmental determinism is the theory that a people's physical, mental and moral habits are directly due
to the influence of their natural environment. Prominent environmental determinists included Carl
Ritter, Ellen Churchill Semple, and Ellsworth Huntington. Popular hypotheses[ included "heat makes
inhabitants of the tropics lazy" and "frequent changes in barometric pressure make inhabitants of temperate
latitudes more intellectually agile." [ Environmental determinist geographers attempted to make the study of
such influences scientific. Around the 1930s, this school of thought was widely repudiated as lacking any
basis and being prone to (often bigoted) generalizations. [ Environmental determinism remains an
embarrassment to many contemporary geographers, and leads to skepticism among many of them of
claims of environmental influence on culture (such as the theories of Jared Diamond).[

Regional geography
Regional geography was coined by a group of geographers known as possibilists and represented a
reaffirmation that the proper topic of geography was study of places (regions). Regional geographers
focused on the collection of descriptive information about places, as well as the proper methods for dividing
the earth up into regions. Well-known names from these period are Alfred Hettner in Germany and Paul
Vidal de la Blache in France. The philosophical basis of this field in United States was laid out by Richard
Hartshorne, who defined geography as a study of areal differentiation, which later led to criticism of this
approach as overly descriptive and unscientific.
However, the concept of a Regional geography model focused on Area Studies has remained incredibly
popular amongst students of geography, while less so amongst scholars who are proponents of Critical
Geography and reject a Regional geography paradigm. It can be argued that Regional Geography, which
during its heyday in the 1970s through early 1990s made substantive contributions to students' and
readers' understanding of foreign cultures and the real world effects of the delineation of borders, is due for
a revival in academia as well as in popular nonfiction.

The quantitative revolution

The quantitative revolution in geography began in the 1950s. Geographers formulated geographical
theories and subjected the theories to empirical tests, usually using statistical
methods (especially hypothesis testing). This quantitative revolution laid the groundwork for the
development of geographic information systems.[citation needed] Well-known geographers from this period are Fred
K. Schaefer, Waldo Tobler, William Garrison, Peter Haggett, Richard J. Chorley, William Bunge, Edward
Augustus Ackerman and Torsten Hägerstrand.

Critical geography
Main article: Critical geography
Though positivist approaches remain important in geography, critical geography arose as a critique of
positivism. The first strain of critical geography to emerge was humanistic geography. Drawing on the
philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology, humanistic geographers (such as Yi-Fu Tuan) focused
on people's sense of, and relationship with, places. [58] More influential was Marxist geography, which applied
the social theories of Karl Marx and his followers to geographic phenomena. David Harvey and Richard
Peet are well-known Marxist geographers. Feminist geography is, as the name suggests, the use of ideas
from feminism in geographic contexts. The most recent strain of critical geography is postmodernist
geography, which employs the ideas of postmodernist and poststructuralist theorists to explore the social
construction of spatial relations.

CONTEMPORARY MOVEMENTS OF GEOGRAPHY

 Radicalism

 Marxism
  Behaviouralism

 Pragmatism

 Humanism

 Existentialism

 Functionalism

 Idealism

 Realism

RADICALISM IN GEOGRAPHY:
Salient Feature and Objectives

The radical approach in geography developed in 1970s as a reaction to ‘quantitative

revolution’ and positivism which tried to make geography as a spatial science, with
great emphasis on location analysis.

It began as a critique within the contemporary liberal capitalistic society but later
coalesced around a belief in the power of Marxian analysis. According to
radicalists, inequality is inherent in the capitalist mode of production.
Redistribution of income through taxation policies will not solve the problems of
poverty, according to Peet, alternative, environment designs, with removal of
central bureaucracies and their replacement by anarchistic models of community
control are needed, and geographers should work towards their creation.

The followers of radical approach in geography mainly concentrated on the issues

of great social relevance like, inequality, racism, sexism, crime, delinquency,
discrimination against blacks and non-whites, females, exploitation of juveniles and
environment resources and the opposition of the Vietnam war in U.S.A. Events of
the late 1960s, such as the burning of large cities in the western world, student-
unrest, worker-uprising in Paris in 1968, massive anti-Vietnam war protest actions
and radical cultural reformation exposed the social and political irrelevance of
geography as a spatial science and proved the hollowness of locational analysis.
It was in this background that the radicalized students and junior faculty members
challenged the traditional geography (geography as spatial science) and they
started publishing articles with more ‘socially relevant’ geographic topics in the
professional journals.

The young radical geographers published papersin Antipode dealing with urban
poverty, discrimination against women, coloured people and minority groups, unequal
access to social amenities, crimes, deprivation, permissiveness and sexism. They
also published articles on underdevelopment, poverty, malnutrition, and
unemployment and resource misuse in the Third World countries. Thus, the
radicalists took the side of the oppressed, advocating their causes and pressing
for fundamental social change.

The salient features and objectives of radical geography were:

a. To expose the issues of inequality, deprivation, discrimination, health, exploitation, crime and
environmental degradation in the capitalist countries.
b. To highlight the weaknesses of the positivism and quantitative revolution in geography this emphasized
on geography as a ‘spatial science’ with a thrust on locational analysis.
c. To bring a cultural revolution to eradicate permissiveness, sexism and discrimination against females.
d. To remove regional inequalities.
e. Radicalists opposed political centralization and economic concentration. Contrary to multinationals,
they favored small- scale self sufficient social units, living in greater harmony with their natural
surroundings.
f. They were against imperialism, nationalism, national chauvinism and racism.
g. They opposed the idea of the superiority of the white and the west.
h. According to radicalists the man and environment relationship may be understood through history. In
other words, the mode of production in any society determines the economic relation among its people.
i. One of the objectives of the radicalists was to explain not only what is happening but also to prescribe
revolutionary changes and solution to the social problems.
j. To develop a more just, equal, tension free, peaceful and enjoyable society.

BEHAVIOURALISM IN GEOGRAPHY:

Behaviouralism: It’s Objectives, Salient Features and Historical Perspective!

Dissatisfaction with the models and theories developed by the positivists, using
the statistical techniques which were based on the ‘economic rationality’ of man led
to the development of behavioural approach in geography.

It was increasingly realized by the geographers that the models propounded and
tested with the help of quantitative techniques, provided poor descriptions of
geographic reality and man and environment relationship. Consequently, progress
towards the development of geographical theory was painfully slow and its
predictive powers were weak.

Theories such as Central Place Theory, based on statistical and mathematical

techniques, were found inadequate to explain the spatial organization of society.
The economic rationality of decision-making was also criticized as it does not
explain the behaviour of floodplain dweller, who does not leave his place despite
the risk of flood.

It was a psychological turn in human geography which emphasized the role of

cognitive (subjective) and decision-making variables as mediating the relationship
between environment and spatial behaviour. The axiom of ‘economic person’ who
always tries to maximize his profit was challenged by Wolpert. In an important
paper, Wolpert (1964) showed that, for a sample of Swedish farmers, optimal
farming practices were not attainable. He concluded that the farmers were not
optimizers but, in Simon’s term, satisficers.

The objectives of behavioural approach were:

1. To develop models for humanity which were alternative to the spatial location
theories developed through quantitative revolution;
2. To define the cognitive (subjective) environment this determines the decision-
making process of man;
3. To unfold the spatial dimensions of psychological and social theories of human
decision-making and behaviour;
4. To explain the spatial dimensions of psychological, social and other theories of
human decision-making and behaviour;
5. To change in emphasis from aggregate populations to the disaggregate scale of
individuals and small groups;
6. To search for methods other than the mathematical and statistical that could
uncover the latent structure in data and decision-making;
7. To emphasize on procession rather than structural explanations of human
activity and physical environment;
8. To generate primary data about human behaviour and not to rely heavily on the
published data; and
9. To adopt an interdisciplinary approach for theory-building and problem-solving.

The fundamental arguments of the behavioural geography to achieve these

objectives are that:
 People have environmental images;
 Those images can be identified accurately by researchers; and
 There is a strong relationship between environmental image and actual
behaviour or the decision-making process of man.

The behavioural approach in geography was introduced in the 1960s. Its origin can
be traced to the frustration that was widely felt with normative and mechanistic
models developed with the help of quantitative techniques.

These normative and mechanistic models are mainly based on such unreal
behavioural postulates as ‘rational economic man’ and isotropic earth surface. In
normative models, there are always several assumptions, and generally the centre
of attention is a set of omniscient (having infinite knowledge) fully rational actors
(men) operating freely in a competitive manner on isotropic plane (homogeneous
land surface).

Many normative models are thus grossly unrealistic as they ignore the complexities
of real world situations and instead concentrate on idealized behavioural postulate
such as rational economic man. People behave rationally, but within constraints—the
cultures in which they have been socialized to make decisions.

Behavioural geography banks heavily on ‘behaviouralism’. Behaviouralism is an

important approach adopted mainly by psychologists and philosophers to analyze
the man-environment relationship. The behaviouristic approach is largely inductive,
aiming to build general statements out of observations of ongoing processes. The
essence of behavioural approach in geography lies in the fact that the way in which
people behave is mediated by their understanding of the environment in which they
live or by the environment itself with which they are confronted.
In behavioural geography, an explanation for man-environment problem is founded
upon the premise that environmental cognition and behaviour are intimately
related. In other words, behavioural approach has taken the view that a deeper
understanding of man-environment interaction can be achieved by looking at the
various psychological processes through which man comes to know environment in
which he lives, and by examining the way in which these processes influence the
nature of resultant behaviour.

HUMANISM IN GEOGRAPHY:
Methodology and Themes in Humanistic Geography!
Humanistic geography developed due to a deep dissatisfaction with the mechanistic
models of spatial science that had developed during the quantitative revolution.

The cultural and historical geographers attacked the positivism from the early
1970s. In fact, it was a rejection of the geometric determinism in which men and
women were made to respond automatically to the dictates of universal spatial
structures and abstract spatial laws. The followers of spatial science (positivists)
treated people as dots on a map, data on a graph, and number in an equation.

It was at the same time a claim for a human geography with the human being at its
very centre, a people’s geography, about the real people and for the people’ to
develop human being for all.

One of the first geographers to attract a wide audience with his advocacy of a
humanistic approach was Kirk (1951). But, it was Tuan (1976) who argued for
humanistic geography. The term ‘humanistic geography’ was used for the first time
by Yi-Fu-Tuan in 1976. The focus of humanistic geography is on people and their
condition. For Tuan, humanistic geography was a perspective that disclosed the
complexity and ambiguity of relations between people and place (man and
environment).

Humanistic geography gives central and active role to human awareness and human
agency, human consciousness and human creativity. It is an attempt at
understanding meaning, value and the human significance of life events. In the
humanistic strand, the intent has been to understand and recognize the dignity and
humanity of the individual.

Humanists explain and interpret man and space relationship mainly with historical
approach. Humanism does not treat humans as machines. It is a subjective
approach which aims at verstehn, at an understanding of man in his environment.
Humanism is a conviction that men and women can best improve the circumstances
of their lives by thinking and acting for themselves, and especially by exercising
their capacity for reason (Ralph, 1981).

As stated above, humanism in geography developed as a criticism against positivism

and quantitative revolution in geography. The basic objection of humanists against
quantitative revolution is that its tools and assumptions do not adequately explain
human world and human issues, especially those relating to social institutions,
attitudes, morals, customs, traditions and aesthetics.

Humanistic geographers propose that reasoning in humanistic geography should

conserve contact with the world of everyday experience and recognize, if not
celebrate, the human potential for creativity. The followers of this approach
consider geography as “the study of the earth as the home of man”.

Humanistic geography is thus not an earth science in its ultimate aim. It belongs to
the humanities and the social sciences to the extent that they all share the hope
of providing an accurate picture of the human world. In humanities the scholars
gain insight into the human world by focusing what man does supremely well in the
arts and logical thought. In fact, in humanities, knowledge of human world is
acquired by examining social institutions. These institutions can be viewed both as
example of human inventiveness and as forces limiting the free activity of
individuals.

Humanistic geography achieves an understanding of the human world by studying

people’s relation with nature, their geographical behaviour as well as their feelings
and ideas in regard to space and place.

The methodology of humanists is characterized with:

 A self-conscious drive to connect with that special body of knowledge,
reflection and substance about human experience and human expression, about
what it means to be a human being on this earth, namely, the humanities.
 Its methods are essentially those of literary criticism, aesthetics and art
history. It is essentially based on hermeneutics (the theory of interpretation
and clarification of meanings).
 Its interest is the recovery of place and the iconography (the description and
interpretation of landscape to disclose their symbolic meanings), of landscape.
 It lays emphasis on participant observation, interviewing, focus groups
discussion, filmed approaches and logical inferences, rather than statistical and
quantitative techniques for establishing correlation between people and place
(environment).
 It is a philosophy which seeks to disclose the world as it shows before
scientific inquiry, as that which is pre-given and presupposed by the sciences.
 Humanists argue that ‘objectification’ is never the simple exercise which
conventional forms of science assume them to be.
Themes in Humanistic Geography:
Scientific approaches like positivism, empiricism, and quantification tend to
minimize the role of human awareness and knowledge. Humanistic geography, by
contrast, especially tries to understand how geographical activities and phenomena
reveal the quality of human awareness. Humanistic geography does not consider
human being as an ‘economic man. The propounder of humanistic geography (Tuan)
explored five themes of general interest to geographers, namely: (i) geographical
knowledge (personal geographies), (ii) territory and place, (iii) crowding and privacy,
(iv) livelihood and economics, and (v) religion.
Geographical Knowledge (Personal Geographies):

Man is the superior form of life and has special capacity for thought and
reflection. The primary task of humanistic geographers, therefore, is the study of
articulated ideas (geographical knowledge). In general, broadly conceived
knowledge of geography is necessary to biological survival. All animals must have it,
and even the migratory birds have a mental map.

Territory and Place:

Territory and place is also an important animal instinct. Some species of animals,
like honeybee, tiger, lion, etc., defend their living space against intruders. They
behave as they regard certain areas as their own; they appear to have a sense of
territory. Human attitudes and attachment to territory and to place bear a clear
resemblance to those of other animals. All animals, including human beings, occupy
and use space.

A song-bird, perched high on a tree, is able to survey the entire area that it takes
to be its own. Contrary to this mammal living close to the ground cannot survey a
whole area. Their whole territory is not bounded space but a network of paths and
places. Similarly, the food hunters and gatherers generally do not envisage the
boundary of their territory. Territory for them is therefore not circumscribed
area, but essentially a network of paths and places. By comparison the shifting
cultivators and settled cultivators tend to have a strong sense of property and of
the bounded space (territory).

Crowding and privacy:

Crowding of a place leads to physical and psychological stress. It has been
observed that the behaviour of animals at a crowded place becomes abnormal.
Same is the case with man. Culture, social institutions and infrastructures,
however, help in reducing these stresses. For example, people in crowded Hong
Kong are no more prone to crime than people living in relatively spacious American,
European and Australian cities. Contrary to this, in the Kalahari Desert, the
Bushmen are crowded by choice, and biological indicators of stress are absent
despite the high density at places where water is available.

Similarly, privacy and solitude also affect the thinking process and decision-making
of a person regarding space. In solitude a person creates his own world. All people
need privacy; the degree and kind may vary. Crowded conditions make it difficult to
escape the human gaze, and thereby a developed sense of self. In solitude a person
creates his own world; safe from another’s gaze he seems to sustain the existence
of all that he sees.

Livelihood and Economics:

Man sustains himself by doing some economic and social activities. All human
activities appear to be economic and functional in the sense that they support the
social system outside of which people cannot live. Whether it is worship of the
sacred cow or ritual human sacrifice, they may be shown to have important
economic consequences, and hence they are not beyond the economic rationale.

While working for his livelihood, man differentiates between life-sustaining and
life-destroying activities. Production of armaments, for example, is an economic
activity that provides a livelihood for many workers, but its contribution to the
survival of the species is in doubt. All people and professional planners plan their
economic activities according to their knowledge and technology. To what extent
do planners make use of economic theory and facts in reaching the decision? How
good are the results? Such questions need to be asked by the humanistic
geographers.

Religion:
Religion is present at varying degree in all cultures. It appears to be a universal
trait. In religion human beings are clearly distinguished from other animals.

Religion (Latin religare) means to bind again, i.e., to bind oneself strongly to a set
of beliefs, faith, or ethic. More broadly speaking, the religious person is one who
seeks coherence and meaning in his world, and a religious culture is one that has a
clearly structured world-view. Since everybody tries to understand cosmos in his
own way, everybody is religious. In other words, if religion is broadly defined as
the impulse for coherence and meaning, then all human beings are religious. In fact,
at individual level, Albert Einstein also was a religious person. The strength of the
impulse varies enormously from culture to culture and from person to person.

Historical Perspective:
Although humanism in geography is traced back to Vidal de Lablache’s writings, its
real beginning is attributed to the Kantian philosophy. Kant asserted:
History differs from geography only in consideration of time and space. The
former (history) is a report of phenomena that follow one another and has
reference to time. The latter (geography) is report of phenomena beside each
other in space. History is a narrative, geography a description.
Geography and history fill up the entire circumference of our perception:
geography that of space, history that of time.

This approach has, however, been criticized on more than one grounds as
below.
 A general criticism of humanistic geography is that the investigator can never
know for sure weather one has actually succeeded in providing true explanation.
Undoubtedly, one can never know with certainty that a humanistic explanation is
true; the same objection may be raised to positivists, quantitative and
theoretical approaches. The theoretical physicist can never be certain of his
theories. In fact, the history of natural science is largely a history of
abandoned theories. Yet progress has been made, because with the failure of
old theories, new more powerful ones have emerged.

 The second criticism of humanistic geography is that on methodological grounds

it separates physical geography from human geography. In physical geography,
the scientific techniques can be applied for theory and models building and
hypotheses testing as it mainly deals with non-living objects. Contrary to this, in
human geography, such quantitative techniques may not give the authentic and
reliable results as the behaviour of man varies in space and time. The dichotomy
of physical geography and human geography is thus harmful for the growth and
development of the discipline. This dualism has eroded the geographical core of
the subject—the unity of the subject.

 In humanistic geography which is largely based on participant observation, it is

difficult to develop theory, abstraction, generalization and spatial geometry.
 Thus, it has no sound and valid methodological base as it involves more
subjective than objective research.

 There is insignificant emphasis on applied research. For example, it does not

give emphasis on applied research or policy related to the location of industry,
locational analysis of land use and crop intensity. The indifference towards
applied research may destroy the base of the subject. The potential dangers
are greater because other disciplines have been more effective at academic
imperialism than geography. For example, applied research on the economics of
location (economic geography) is in danger of being consumed within economics;
research on climatic variability might be swallowed by atmospheric physics;
research on slope and soil might be absorbed by engineering soil mechanics, and
so on.
 Humanistic geography does not offer a viable alternative to, nor a pre-
supposition less basis for, scientific geography. Rather, the humanist approach
is best understood as a form of criticism (Entrikin, 1976).

 Humanist approach is ‘methodologically obscure’. The goals of understanding

man’s meaningful experience seem to lead to a situation in which any method is
acceptable. It is not a practical philosophy as it involves thinking rather than
practical activity. Its methodology is eclectic and sources of interpretation are
numerous and therefore it becomes difficult to ascertain the reality.

 Most of the criticisms of humanistic geography are, however, ill-founded. Is it

not a fact that all history is the history of human thought? The geographical
reality of a place or region may be appreciably understood through participant
observation and social interaction, by giving central and active role to human
awareness, and human agency.

FUNCTIONALISM:
Functionalism: Major ways and Basic Principles!
The definition of functionalism has varied over time and across disciplines.
The word ‘function’, which is the key ingredient to functionalism, has been
interpreted in the following five major ways:
 It refers to a public gathering for a specific ceremonial purpose.
 In political science, it refers to the duties associated with a job that involves
the exercise of authority.
 In mathematical sense, it refers to the relationship between a variable and
another.
 In sociology and biology, it refers to the process which contributes to the
maintenance of organism.
 In geography, it is synonymous with occupation.

The diversity of definitions of function has resulted in diversity of meanings of

functionalism within a discipline and in the various social sciences. It is, however, a
viewpoint that investigates functional linkages with emphasis on the goals, the
needs and links between role and actor. In simple words, functionalism is concerned
with functions (occupations) and the analysis of the functions of a society. It is a
perspective which views the world as a set of differentiated and interdependent
systems, whose collective actions are instances of repeatable and predictable
regularities in which form and function can be assumed to be related, and which
explains these form-function relations in terms of their role in maintaining the
continuity of the systems.

The basic principles of functionalism are as under:

 Societies should be examined holistically in an interrelated system framework.
 Causation is reciprocal and, in many instances, multiple.
 Social systems are generally in a state of equilibrium.
 The functionalists are less interested in the history of a society, but more
concerned with social interaction.
 The functionalists attempt to find the interrelationships between the
compounds of social structure.
Functional approach in geographical research can be seen in the writings of French
scholars like Jean Brunhes and his contemporaries.

The French scholars of the late 19th and early 20th century argued that culture is
an indivisible wholeness. ‘Region’ was considered as a functional unit—an ‘organism’
which was more than the sum of its parts.

At present, functionalism is very popular in geography, Bombay, Tatanagar and

Gulmarg can be explained in terms of their functions—as a chief port, an iron-steel
manufacturing centre, and a centre of tourism, respectively. Moreover, smaller
towns can be explained in terms of their function in a central place hierarchy. Each
town has two types of functions, i.e., manifest and latent. For example,
manufacturing of iron and steel is the manifest function of Tatanagar but the
latent function is the exchange of ideas and social meeting of people with each
other. Thus, a place may be explained in terms of its manifest and latent functions.

Functionalism has been criticized on both conceptual and methodological

grounds.
Functionalism conceives the geographical realities as states of equilibrium (a status
quo) and the assumption of total social (spatial or global) integration on the
methodological or logical grounds. The basic criticism is that of teleology.

Critics of functionalism, on conceptual grounds, contend that their preoccupation

with society as a system does not allow functionalists to study or focus on such
contemporary problems as poverty, war, disease and racism. Functionalism has been
accused of advocating social control rather than social change. It has a ‘static bias’
and, therefore, is incapable of accounting for social change.

Another criticism is that many functional explanations are structural in nature, i.e.,
the explanation of an observed pattern does not make reference to the underlying
motives or processes; it is largely in terms of subsystem interrelationships.
Moreover, there is an absence of definitional clarity.
On logical and methodological grounds, one of the major criticisms against
functionalism is that of teleological explanation. Teleological explanation explains a
given situation “not by reference of causes which ‘bring about’ the event in
question, but by reference to ends which determine its course” For example;
vultures were created by nature in order to get rid of corpses. In this example,
the implication is that vultures are indispensable for the specific function they
perform.

There are alternatives that would equally fulfil these functions. The functions of
vulture can be efficiently performed by others such as foxes, lions and men. This is
known as the ‘principle of functional substitutability’. The substitute, however,
must be from the same ecosystem otherwise it would affect changes in the
ecosystem and may damage it. For example, the introduction of snowmobiles and
firearms in the life of the Eskimos has resulted in upsetting the delicate ecological
balance between Eskimos and the Arctic wildlife.

The above discussion reveals that functionalism has six interrelated concepts
which are used by geographers:
 functions,
 functional substitutability,
 goals,
 pattern maintenance, self- regulation status quo,
 adaptation, and
 Integration.

In geography, underlying the notion of functional region is the assumption that the
region functions as a unit in order to maintain the existing intense inter-subsystem
and intra-subsystem interaction that is essential for meeting a need or needs.
REALISM IN GEOGRAPHY
Importance of Realism in Geography!
Realism is the view that reality exists independent of the mind; it is not mind-
dependent.

It is antithetical in many respects to idealism. Gibson suggests realism as a viable

alternative explanation to idealism. The basic philosophy of realism is that facts
speak for themselves and explanation is logical and inductive. Realism advocates
the use of theories and models in geographical explanation. It is very close to the
objective philosophy of positivism but has different methodology of explanation.

Historically, realism by the Platonic-Socratic thought was used in opposition to

nominalism” for the doctrine that universal and abstract entities have real
objective existence. At present, it is, however, used in opposition to idealism. In
contrast to other philosophies of science such as naturalism, positivism, and
idealism, realism is based on the doctrine that human science is an empirically-
based rational enterprise which explains observable regularities by describing the
hidden, but ‘real’ structures that casually generate them.

In his theory of ideas, Plato asserted that the forms we see, touch, taste and
smell in time and space do not exist and are not knowable with our senses. A
particular phenomenon is only appearance which shall disappear in due course of
time. For example, a specific mountain like the Himalayas does not exist, it will be
worn down to the ocean floor over geological time. Contrary to this, the general and
universal term ‘mountain’ is rigid and fixed. Just opposite to it, the nominalists,
notably, Aristotelians denied the existence of an ideal mountain. For the early
nominalists ‘mountain’ was a mere term. What is real is a particular mountain that
we can all see and touch.

The battle between the realists and nominalists over the existence of abstract
entities of problematic entities, carried over the medieval period. During the
medieval period, the Platonic-Socratic thought came to be known as scholastic
realism. The main proponent of scholastic realism was John Scot.
In his essay “On the Division of Nature”, he reasoned that the divisions of the
physical world all signify something hidden. In themselves they are not real. The
cyclic process of the physical world—seasonal and astrological cycles for instance—
all proved for Scot the existence of a divine order, a harmony and a law. They
proved that in the ordinary sense world is not real.

In the 19th century, ‘realism’ took the shape of ‘direct’ or ‘naive’ realism which was
a polemic against idealism. Cook Wilson was the founder of ‘naive realism’. He and
his pupils denied the existence of any problematic or abstract entity—a denial
which of course runs counter to Plato. For direct realist:

This direct naive realism has had a sustaining influence on geography, especially on
commercial and military geography, since the Victorian period. For the naive or
common-sense geographers, the mind grasps the world in a simple effortless
process, something we do all the time.

Geographical facts of observed phenomena and changes within them can be

objectively established and any question of unseen entities, problematic, abstract
forms or subjective impressions is irrelevant. With due precautions, by simple
common-sense, we can know the reality of a place, as the topography looks, as the
soil feels, as the water tastes, etc. The objectives of ‘naive realism’ are common to
those social reform to or national surveys. Stamp, with this objective, conducted
the land use survey of Britain and suggested significant changes in the utilization
of land.

It gave more job opportunities and greater respectability to geographers. The

sixties can be called as a period of extreme of naive realism, which has also been
termed as a phase of ‘quantitative revolution’ in geography. This revolution was
based mainly on a move toward philosophical ‘positivism’.
MARXIST GEOGRAPHY:
Notes on Marxist Geography and its Objectives

Marxist geography is a perspective within ‘historical materialism’ which is centrally

concerned with the ways in which the production of space, place, and landscape is
implicated in the reproduction of specific ‘social formations’.

It developed against capitalism. The historical materialism of Marx is based on

dialectic—the perpetual resolution of opposition (rich and poor, developed and
undeveloped, abundance and scarcity etc.), in which each resolution produces its
own contradiction. Its main concern is uneven development, social justice and
regional inequalities as a result of division and exploitation of labour resources and
environment, through surplus value. Marxist geography insists on value-free inquiry.
In other words, it does not give any importance to social values (a set of beliefs
and ideas, e.g., religion, which inform our assessments of worthiness). Marxist
geography discloses “social processes which originate spatial appearance” and which
in turn “forms an input into the continuing social process.” It presumes that ‘space’
and ‘society’ interact.

Marxism is a form of realism, which seeks to relate the empirical world of

appearances to a set of infrastructural determinants— economic processes.
Marxism and Marxist geography attempted to provide “a powerful theoretical and
political base for resistance” to the dominance of the capitalist imperatives on
individual action. Its goal is based on Marx’s humanism. He argued that people are
alienated by the capitalist system; in particular the proletariat is exploited and has
its human dignity removed through the process of selling its labour. To restore this
dignity and to give individuals full control over self and destiny, capitalism must be
overthrown and replaced by communism.

The argument is that truly human relationships can be achieved only when everyone
can take responsibility for the conditions of their own lives and when there is
freedom from the ideologies and actions of bourgeois professional class.

The Marxist and related realist works therefore suggest that the objectives of human geography should be:
 To explain and interpret the patterns of spatial organization and of society-
environment relationship. These patterns can be understood only by examining
the economic processes;
 That the economic processes cannot be understood directly, but can be
appreciated through the development of theories of superstructure (religion
and legal system);
 That the economic processes are continuously changing, and therefore universal
laws of superstructure cannot be derived;
 That class struggle (bourgeoisie vs. proletariat) is central to the economic
processes;
 That any attempt to retain the present superstructure can only help the
present unjust system (capitalism) to survive; and
 That the objective of human geography should be to bring social change, to
overcome the problems of exploitation of man and environment (resources).

Thus, the Marxist geography emerged as a critique of quantitative revolution which

made geography as a regional science which promotes capitalism.

Marxists argued that positivist spatial analysis was flawed in three basic ways :
 Insofar as existing geographical realities were treated as spatial as social patterns. In their opinion
geographers might map urban segregation according to class and race, but never interrogate the
political and economic process that led to such unequal geographies.
 Spatial science sought to identify the most efficient locations for factories, supermarkets and social
services.
 Universal spatial laws of the sort sought by positive spatial analysis are a misnomer, and very different
spatial arrangements obtain in different societies.

The system of thought developed by Marx propounds that the state, through
history, has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class
and that class struggle has been the main agent of historical change. In Marxist
philosophy, economic classes and private property are the main cause of historical
change. These two factors determine the man and environment relationship also.

The Marxist geographers conceive that territorial structures essentially reflect

the prevailing socio-spatial dialectics. Marxist geography analyses the dialectical
relationships between social processes, natural environment and spatial relations.
The essence of Marxist philosophy is positivistic approach which puts emphasis on
materialism. Marx writes: “It is not consciousness (ideas) that determines life, but
life that determines ideas”. It is not the ideas that change the world, but the
development of actual reality (space and place) which changes the ideas.
PRAGMATISM IN GEOGRAPHY:
Pragmatism in Geography: Major Attributes of Pragmatism!
Pragmatism is a philosophical perspective which is centrally concerned with the
construction of meaning through experience.

In other words, pragmatism is a philosophy which asserts that meaning and

knowledge can only be defined in terms of their role in experience. It emphasizes
experiences, experimental inquiry and truth as criteria for evaluating
consequences. In other words, pragmatism is the “position in philosophy that
defines meaning and knowledge in terms of their function in experience, with
reference to adjustment and the resolution of problematic situations”.

Pragmatism is a modified form of positivism. Like positivism, pragmatism advocates

the use of scientific method. The only difference being that this movement tries
to find solutions to human problems. The proponents of pragmatism use value-
based scientific methodology (incorporating human attitudes, beliefs and norms) to
solve the practical problems of the society and to ascertain the geographic reality.
In other words, it is action-oriented, user-oriented and extends the experimental
method to include evaluation and implementation. Research is undertaken for the
purpose of solving an immediate problem and the results are a means to an end for
some target population. The researcher gives directives for action and serves as an
‘action agent’ in the implementation of the results.

In geography, this approach is distinguishable as planned action rather than

thought for planning. Because evaluation and implementation stages are involved,
we must deal with the way things are.

Providing means to ends, which involve human activities and welfare, include values
which are an integral part of the reality. Being action-oriented, lobbying,
persuading and other actions are very important in pragmatism.
Pragmatism was developed in America after the civil war and brought about
intellectual and social changes up to the Second World War. Its proponents in
substantial numbers are found in West European countries also.

A common position attributed to this philosophy is one of dealing with practical

problems; thus, the emphasis of pragmatism has been on the practical. A
pragmatist believes that the ‘concrete’ or ‘particular’ situation is important in
obtaining scientific knowledge and for understanding the world.

This is exactly what many geographers have been supporting and that needs focus
for our discipline. For example, one geographer proposed geographic strategies
which include ‘organization’, ‘persuasion’, and ‘action’ to facilitate needed societal
transformations.
The major attributes of pragmatism are:
 The imperfection of reality: The pragmatists believe that the current reality is composite of knowledge
and error.
 The fallibilistic views of knowledge: Because of the changing nature of reality (world) and the mind’s
view of it, it is impossible to guarantee an expected result from a specific experiment. Past successes
do not guarantee future successes. They argue, therefore, that when prediction fails, the underlying
assumptions and hypotheses should be revaluated and modified.
 The scientific method and the hypothetico-deductive models are the best modes of investigation found
to date and should be adhered to.
 Logic should be used as a problem-solving device. The problems should be practical and used for the
promotion of human welfare. Owing to these approaches they reject the positivistic viewpoint of value-
free research.

Pragmatism in geography led to the development of applied geography. Experts and

thinkers agree that human attitudes, interests, desires, prejudices and group
values differ in space and time. Policy based on applied geography, whether it be
the modification of an environment, the removal of inequality in housing,
educational or medical facilities, or the preservation or cultural landscape, include
researcher and client values, which may vary substantially from the values of other
sub-populations, especially those directly involved.
 The aim of pragmatism is to emphasize the human element: “our thoughts
determine our acts, and our acts determine the previous nature of the world”.
Here, man is central. This view is similar to those expressed by Vidal de Lablache
and the French School of Geography. In humanistic geography, man and science are
reconciled. The principal aim of modern humanism in geography is the reconciliation
of social science and man, to accommodate understanding and wisdom, objectivity
and subjectivity, and materialism and idealism.

From the above discussion, some of the elements of pragmatic geography can
be identified as under:
i. Geographic space is a composite of knowledge and error.
ii. Geographic space is changeable as our knowledge of it changes and the scale of measurement
becomes more refined.
iii. Geographic space is a manifestation of the ‘human element’ through time.
iv. Geographic space is structured and restructured as a result of solution to practical human problems.
v. Spatial reality is a composite of human experience.
vi. Spatial laws are useful for hypothesis formulation but the hypothesis may be modified in the light of our
knowledge.
vii. Geographical studies are concerned with the practical problems of man in space, and they can be
studied using the scientific method.
IDEALISM IN GEOGRAPHY.
Idealism, in philosophy, any view that stresses the central role of the ideal or the
spiritual in the interpretation of experience. It may hold that the world
or reality exists essentially as spirit or consciousness, that abstractions and laws
are more fundamental in reality than sensory things, or, at least, that whatever
exists is known in dimensions that are chiefly mental—through and as ideas.

Thus, the two basic forms of idealism are metaphysical idealism, which asserts the
ideality of reality, and epistemological idealism, which holds that in the knowledge
process the mind can grasp only the psychic or that its objects are conditioned by
their perceptibility. In its metaphysics, idealism is thus directly opposed
to materialism—the view that the basic substance of the world is matter and that
it is known primarily through and as material forms and processes. In
its epistemology, it is opposed to realism, which holds that in human knowledge
objects are grasped and seen as they really are—in their existence outside and
independently of the mind.

As a philosophy often expressed in bold and expansive syntheses, idealism is also

opposed to various restrictive forms of thought: to skepticism, with occasional
exceptions, as in the work of the British Hegelian F.H. Bradley; to logical
positivism, which stresses observable facts and relations and therefore spurns the
speculative “pretensions” of every metaphysics; and sometimes to atheism, since
the idealist sometimes extrapolates the concept of mind to embrace
an infinite Mind. The essential orientation of idealism can be sensed through some
of its typical tenets: “Truth is the whole, or the Absolute”; “to be is to be
perceived”; “reality reveals its ultimate nature more faithfully in its highest
qualities (mental) than in its lowest (material)”; “the Ego is both subject and
object.”
EXISTENTIALISM IN GEOGRAPHY:
A Philosophical View That Man Is Responsible For Making His Own Nature
Existentialism is a philosophical view that man is responsible for making his own
nature!
Existentialism is a philosophical view that man is responsible for making his own
nature. It lays stress on personal freedom, personal decision and personal
commitment. It emerges to challenge and even abandon the purely objective,
quantitative and deterministic analysis. It urges a concern for human values,
quality, subjectivity and spirituality.

In existential geography, a central concept is that of existential space. According

to Samuel, it is the ‘assignment of space’.  Such an assignment is a result of human
reality. Existentialism has been considered as an Endeavour, on the one hand, to
restore the concrete, immediate experience of existence in situ to the realm of
knowledge, and on the other hand, to bridge the logical gap that separates
subjective from objective, idealism from materialism, and essence from existence.
It is based on “existence comes before essence”. This phrase means that “man
first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world, and defines himself
afterwards”. This also means that to understand man we must first of all “begin
with the subjective life” and “man is nothing else but that which he makes of
himself”.

The first principle of existentialism is “once thrown into the world (man) is
responsible for everything he does”. Existence comes before essence, as it were,
because man is free. In brief, existentialism is a philosophical view declaring that
man is responsible for making his own nature. As said earlier, it lays stress on
personal freedom, personal decision and personal commitment. It emphatically
argued, “we are along with no excuses”. The essential argument rejects any
sentiment that would abandon man to nature, making him the product of his
environment. As such, existentialism provides a firm foundation for the philosophy
of human geography.
The operative principle of any existential logic is that man “expresses himself as a
whole in even his most insignificant behaviour”. In other words, there is not a
taste, a mannerism, or human act which is not revealing. An existential method is
one that endeavours to ‘decipher’ that total expression, and to do so by “beginning
with the subjective”. To begin with, subjective means that “man first of all exists,
encounters himself, surges up in the world, and defines himself afterwards”. In the
process “…man’s inward attitude, the way in which he contemplates his world and
grows aware of it, the essential value of his satisfaction are the origins of what he
does”.

An existential method, in short, begins by examining the centres, people (and, in

particular, individuals) occupy and the way they define their relations with the
world. It begins with an analysis of existential space, by first analysing the
partiality that people project into their situations. More specifically, the method
entails ‘existential psychoanalysis’.

Some scholars have considered existentialism as a ‘biography of landscape’. An

analysis of the landscape biography may be either backward from an already given
landscape to particular individuals or groups, or forward from the latter towards
landscape articulation. in both cases, the concern is to identify the source of a
landscape and the meaning that landscape conveys. The scale of existential space
may vary, ranging from individuals to groups/societies. In an existential analysis,
the researcher can look to individuals or specific groups (large or small) for the
biographies of landscapes. Though with this approach the researcher is
constrained to be consistent in the scale of analysis, yet he can investigate the
‘great’ figures and civilisations or any number of ‘lesser’ individuals and
communities. Every landscape is someone’s existential space.

In the light of the above discussion, it may be said that existential geography is a
study of the biography of landscape. In other words, existential geography is a
type of historical geography that endeavours to reconstruct a landscape in the
eyes of its occupants, users, explorers and students in the light of historical
situations that condition, modify, or change relationships.
Thus, the essence of the existential geography is that for every landscape or
every existential geography there is someone who can be held responsible and
accountable. The responsibility may lie on individuals or groups, whether sane or
insane, rational or irrational, well intended or demonic, the fact is they make their
choices and their landscapes. To summarize, existential geography places the
greatest emphasis on the human core of existence. The main advantage of this
philosophy lies in the fact that it is anthropocentric which should help in the
expansion of the horizon of geographical research.