Chapter 1 — Human Geography: Nature and Scope

The chapter gives three definitions. Ratzel defined it as 'the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and earth's surface', with synthesis as the keyword. Semple described it as 'the study of the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth', with dynamism as the keyword. Paul Vidal de la Blache offered it as a 'conception resulting from a more synthetic knowledge of the physical laws governing our earth and of the relations between the living beings which inhabit it', presenting a new conception of interrelationships.

Environmental determinism refers to the type of interaction between primitive human society and the strong forces of nature where humans were greatly influenced by and adapted to the dictates of nature. This occurred because the level of technology was very low and human social development was primitive. At this stage we can imagine a 'naturalised human' who listened to nature, was afraid of its fury, and worshipped it.

Possibilism describes the stage where humans, with better technology and social development, move from a state of necessity to a state of freedom. They create possibilities with resources obtained from the environment. Human activities create cultural landscapes — health resorts on highlands, huge urban sprawls, fields, orchards in plains, ports on coasts, oceanic routes, and satellites in space. Nature provides opportunities and human beings make use of these, so nature slowly gets humanised.

Neo-determinism, also called 'stop and go determinism', was introduced by geographer Griffith Taylor. It represents a middle path between environmental determinism and possibilism. Using the traffic light analogy, it means neither is there absolute necessity (environmental determinism) nor absolute freedom (possibilism). Human beings can conquer nature by obeying it — they must respond to 'red signals' and can proceed when nature permits. Possibilities can be created within limits that do not damage the environment.

Technology is the most important factor in human-environment interaction. It indicates the level of cultural development of society. Human beings developed technology after gaining a better understanding of natural laws — for example, understanding friction and heat led to discovering fire; understanding DNA and genetics helped conquer diseases; understanding aerodynamics enabled faster planes. Technology loosens the shackles of environment on human beings, enabling them to overcome natural constraints.

Naturalisation of humans refers to primitive societies living in complete harmony with their natural environment, with direct dependence on the physical environment as 'Mother Nature' — nature is worshipped, revered, and conserved. Humanisation of nature is the reverse: with advanced technology, humans overcome natural constraints and create cultural imprints everywhere. The chapter illustrates these with two contrasting examples — Benda from the Abujh Maad forest (naturalisation) and Kari from Trondheim, Norway (humanisation).

Three schools emerged in the 1970s due to discontentment with the quantitative revolution's dehumanised approach. The welfare or humanistic school was concerned with social well-being — housing, health, and education. The radical school employed Marxian theory to explain the basic causes of poverty, deprivation, and social inequality, relating them to capitalism. The behavioural school laid great emphasis on lived experience and the perception of space by social categories based on ethnicity, race, and religion.

The quantitative revolution marked the phase from the late 1950s to the late 1960s in human geography. It was characterised by the use of computers and sophisticated statistical tools. Laws of physics were often applied to map and analyse human phenomena. The main objective was to identify mappable patterns for different human activities. This phase approached geography with spatial organisation as its focus.

Human geography has several sub-fields: Social Geography (interfaces with sociology, psychology, welfare economics, anthropology, women's studies, history, epidemiology); Urban Geography (urban studies and planning); Political Geography (political science, psephology, military science); Population Geography (demography); Settlement Geography (urban/rural planning); and Economic Geography (economics, agricultural sciences, industrial economics, business studies, tourism and travel management, international trade).

The chapter outlines five stages: Early Colonial period (exploration and description, driven by imperial and trade interests); Later Colonial period (regional analysis, studying all regions as parts of a whole earth); 1930s through inter-War period (areal differentiation, identifying uniqueness of regions); Late 1950s–1960s (spatial organisation and quantitative revolution using computers and statistics); 1970s (emergence of humanistic, radical, and behavioural schools); and 1990s (post-modernism, questioning grand generalisations and emphasising each local context).

The chapter states that geography as a field of study is integrative, empirical, and practical. Its reach is extensive and each and every event or phenomenon which varies over space and time can be studied geographically. The core concern of geography is to understand the earth as the home of human beings and to study all elements that have sustained them. Both physical and human geography are described using metaphors from human anatomy — 'face' of the earth, 'eye' of the storm, 'mouth' of the river — showing their interwoven nature.

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