Big picture
Geography studies the Earth as the home of humankind. Physical geography studies the natural environment (landforms, climate, soils); human geography studies how people interact with that environment and how human activities are distributed across space.
The central question of human geography is the relationship between humans and nature: does nature control what people can do, or do people shape nature? Different schools of thought have answered this differently over time. This chapter introduces these ideas and the many fields of human geography.
Learning goals
Define human geography using definitions by key geographers.
Explain the naturalisation of humans and the humanisation of nature.
Explain environmental determinism, possibilism and neo-determinism.
Describe how approaches to human geography changed over time.
Describe the fields and sub-fields of human geography and its links with other disciplines.
Core ideas
1. Definitions
Geographer | Definition |
|---|---|
Friedrich Ratzel | "Human geography is the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and earth's surface." |
Ellen C. Semple | "Human geography is the study of the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth." |
Paul Vidal de la Blache | Human geography offers "a new conception of the inter-relationships between earth and human beings", with a "more synthetic knowledge of the physical laws governing our earth and of the relations between the living beings which inhabit it". |
All three stress the interaction between people and the Earth.
2. Nature and humans: two processes
Naturalisation of humans: in the early stages, humans were heavily dependent on nature and adapted to it. People with low levels of technology lived in harmony with nature, which they feared, worshipped and depended on for food, shelter and medicine. Example: a forest-dwelling community gathering food and medicinal plants, and worshipping the forest.
Humanisation of nature: with technology, humans increasingly shaped nature, creating cultural landscapes: fields, cities, dams and roads. Nature provides opportunities, and humans use them. Example: building terraced farms on hillsides or irrigating deserts.
3. Schools of thought
School | Main idea | Proponents and example |
|---|---|---|
Environmental determinism | The physical environment controls human activities and choices; humans are passive | Early geographers such as Ratzel and Semple. Example: people in hot, humid areas are said to be less active because of the climate |
Possibilism | Nature offers opportunities (possibilities), and humans choose among them using technology and culture; humans are active agents | Paul Vidal de la Blache. Example: in the same climate, people may farm, mine or build industries depending on their choices |
Neo-determinism (stop-and-go determinism) | A middle path: humans can modify nature, but within limits; they should follow nature's "signals", like a driver at traffic lights, stopping when nature warns of limits | Griffith Taylor. Example: overusing groundwater causes depletion, a "red light" to stop |
Neo-determinism argues that neither absolute necessity nor absolute freedom exists; development should respect environmental limits, which links to the idea of sustainable development.
4. Human geography through history
Period | Approach | Broad features |
|---|---|---|
Early colonial period | Exploration and description | Imperial and trade interests encouraged exploring and describing new areas |
Later colonial period | Regional analysis | Detailed descriptions of all aspects of a region, to understand it as part of a whole |
1930s (inter-war period) | Areal differentiation | Identifying how and why regions differ from each other |
Late 1950s to late 1960s | Spatial organisation (quantitative revolution) | Use of computers and statistical tools; mapping and analysing human phenomena with numbers and laws |
1970s | Behavioural, humanistic, radical (welfare) schools | Reaction against purely quantitative methods. Humanistic geography focuses on human awareness and agency; radical geography (inspired by Marxism) explains poverty and inequality through social structures; behavioural geography stresses lived experience and perception of space |
1990s | Post-modernism | Questions grand generalisations; stresses understanding each local context |
5. Fields and sub-fields of human geography
Field | Sub-fields |
|---|---|
Social geography | Behavioural geography, geography of social well-being, geography of leisure, cultural geography, gender geography, historical geography, medical geography |
Urban geography | Study of cities and towns |
Political geography | Electoral geography, military geography |
Population geography | Distribution, density, growth and composition of population |
Settlement geography | Rural and urban settlements |
Economic geography | Resource geography, agricultural geography, industrial geography, marketing geography, geography of tourism, geography of international trade |
6. Links with sister disciplines
Human geography is interdisciplinary. Each field draws on related subjects:
Field of human geography | Sister discipline |
|---|---|
Political geography | Political science |
Economic geography | Economics |
Social geography | Sociology |
Population geography | Demography |
Historical geography | History |
Medical geography | Epidemiology |
Cultural geography | Anthropology |
Agricultural geography | Agricultural sciences |
A reliable approach to questions
Quote definitions accurately with the geographer's name.
Explain naturalisation of humans and humanisation of nature with examples.
Compare determinism, possibilism and neo-determinism, with proponents.
Match each period to its approach.
Match fields of human geography to sister disciplines.
Connections that matter
World population and human development apply population geography.
Primary, secondary and tertiary activities apply economic geography.
Planning and sustainable development connects with neo-determinism.
Common mistakes
Crediting possibilism to Ratzel. Possibilism is associated with Vidal de la Blache.
Confusing neo-determinism with determinism. Neo-determinism is the middle path.
Saying humans were always free to change nature. Early societies were heavily dependent on it.
Mixing up the order of approaches, such as placing the quantitative revolution in the 1930s.
Revision checklist
I can define human geography using three definitions.
I can explain naturalisation and humanisation.
I can compare the three schools of thought.
I can describe approaches through history.
I can list fields, sub-fields and sister disciplines.