WHAT IS GEOGRAPHY?

G105 Lecture 01: 10 Aug 2018

Famous geography students/teachers
 1 2 3 4 5
a. Eratosthenes
b. Strabo
c. Ptolemy
d. Ibn Khaldun
e. Gerardus
Mercator
f. Bernhardus 6 7 8 9 10
Varenius
g. Immanuel Kant
h. Alexander von
Humboldt
i. Elisee Reclus
j. Peter
Kropotkin 12 13 14 15
k. Friedrich
11
Ratzel
l. Ellen Semple
m. Halford
Mackinder
n. Carl Sauer
o. Richard 19
Hartshorne 16 17 18
p. David Harvey
q. Yi-Fu Tuan
r. Doreen
Massey
1. What is geography?
Geography is the study of the “ecumene” and is the
“world discipline”
1. What is geography?
Geography is holistic and integrating
1. What is geography?
Geography is inclusive and outward-looking
1. What is geography?
Geography is both popular and academic
1. What is geography?
Geography is in constant search of identity
Four traditions (competing identities)
! Area study
! Spatial organization
! Human-environment relations
! Earth systems science*
 1. What is geography?
10

Geography as Area Studies

! Chorological/chorographic identity
! Divide the world into related and similar places and
classify them as regions
! Describe physical and human aspects of regions
! E.g. “World geography,” “Geography of Asia”
! Early to mid 20th c.
 1. What is geography?
11

Geography as study of Spatial Organization

! Spatial identity
! Space as subject of geography (Kant: time is history’s)
! How are things organized in space/earth’s surface?
! Why are things where they are?
! E.g. spatial analysis to social space
! Mid to late 20th c.
 1. What is geography?
12

Geography as study of Human-Environment relations

! Human-environment identity
! Environmental geography: bridge between physical and
social sciences; nature/environment as central
! Turn of 20th c. and 21st c.
1. What is geography?
Geography is a natural science, social science and
humanities, but it predates these distinctions
Geography is premodern and modern and has a
very deep history
2. History of geography
“As long as there have been people, there have
been geographies” Warf 2006
Premodern geographies: Greeks and Romans to
Medieval Age and Age of Exploration
Modern geography: late 19th c. to present
2. History of geography: Classical
Earliest written accounts
Intertwined with astronomy,
surveying, exploration, trade
and military
Herodotus: describe places
Eratosthenes: measurement
2. History of geography: Classical
Strabo: Geography; synthesize
interactions between places
Ptolemy: Geographia; grid and
location system; maps
2. History of geography: Medieval
Europe: Mappa Mundi and T-O
maps
Arab Empire: travels, trade,
cartography
Ibn Khaldun (“father of social
sciences”): social conflict; settled
vs. nomadic
2. History of geography: Exploration

15th-17th c: Renaissance; European exploration;

mapping land uses and resources; power of traders
Dutch East India Co.: importance of cartography
2. History of geography: Exploration

Mercator: map projection for navigation

Varenius: Geographica Generalis textbook;
specific geography (places) general
geography (universal laws)