Population density (people per km
2) by country,
2007
Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earth's surface.
Scope
It encompasses human, political, cultural, social, and economic aspects of social sciences. While the major focus of human geography is not the physical landscape of the Earth (see physical geography), it is not possible to discuss human geography without going into the physical landscape on which human activities are being played out, and environmental geography is emerging as an important link between the two. Human geography is methodologically diverse using both qualitative methods and quantitative methods, including case studies, survey research, statistical analysis, and model building among others. Thematically, human geography may be concerned with an array of human enterprises, from villages and cities, schools, health, commerce and trade, to name a few. What unites these is the emphasis on the often spatial human architecture of a variety of institutions and practices. For example, a human geographer might be concerned with the geographic patterns of communicable diseases, school performance in rural versus urban school districts, or the rise of innovative technology clusters.
Fields of human geography
The main fields of study in human geography focus around the core fields of:
- Cultural geography is the study of cultural products and norms and their variation across and relations to spaces and places. It focuses on describing and analyzing the ways language, religion, economy, government, and other cultural phenomena vary or remain constant from one place to another and on explaining how humans function spatially1
- Economic geography is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the Earth. The subject matter investigated is strongly influenced by the researcher's methodological approach.
- Historical geography is the study of the human, physical, fictional, theoretical, and "real" geographies of the past. Historical geography studies a wide variety of issues and topics. A common theme is the study of the geographies of the past and how a place or region changes through time. Many historical geographers study geographical patterns through time, including how people have interacted with their environment, and created the cultural landscape.
- Political geography is concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures.
- Population geography is the study of the ways in which spatial variations in the distribution, composition, migration, and growth of populations are related to the nature of places. Population geography involves demography in a geographical perspective. It focuses on the characteristics of population distributions that change in a spatial context.
Within each of the subfields various philosophical approach can be used in research therefore an urban geographer could be a Feminist or Marxist geographer etc. Such approaches are:
List of notable human geographers
Carl Ritter - considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern geography
Human geography journals
As with all social sciences, human geographers publish research and other written work in a variety of academic journals. Whilst human geography is interdisciplinary, there are a number of journals with a human geography focus. These include:
Further reading
- Cloke, Paul J.; et al (2005). Introducing Human Geographies, Hodder Arnold, London.
- Daniels, Peter; et al (2004). An Introduction to Human Geography, Prentice-Hall, London.
- Johnston, R.J. (2000). The Dictionary of Human Geography, Blackwell Publishers, London.
- Flowerdew, Robin; Martin, David (1997). Methods in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a Research Project, Prentice-Hall, London.
- Johnston, R.J (2002). Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World, Blackwell Publishers, London.
- Cloke, Paul J.; et al (2004). Envisioning Human Geographies, Hodder Arnold, London.
- Blij, Harm J.De; et al (2001). Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts, John Wiley and Sons, London.
- Crang, Mike; Thrift, Nigel (2000). Thinking Space, Routledge , London.
- Gregory, Martin & Smith, Eds., Derik, Ron & Graham (1994). Human Geography: Society, Space and Social Science, Macmillan, London.
- Moseley, W.G., D. Lanegran and K. Pandit (eds). (2007). The Introductory Reader in Human Geography: Contemporary Debates and Classic Writings. Malden, MA: Blackwell Press. ISBN 978-1-4051-4922-8.
- Soja, Edward (1989). Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory, Verso, London.
- Harvey, David (1995). Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference, Blackwell Publishers, Inc., Malden, Mass..
AP Human Geography
Advanced Placement Human Geography
External links
References
- de Blij, H.J.; Alexander B. Murphy (2000). Culture, Society, and Space (7th edition ed.), John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-44107-4.
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