Geography

From an etymological point of view, the geography is the study of the Surface of the Ground. The word, invented by Ératosthène for a work now lost, comes from the old Greek " η γη " ( He Ge ) the Ground and " γραφειν" ( graphein ) to write. For the Greeks, it is the rational description of the Earth. It is about a science which answers a new curiosity, and which will determine geopolitics by defining the territories to be conquered and to hold. For Strabon, it is the base of the formation of that which wanted to decide.

Today, the geography is a social science, like sociology or the economy. It is the science which studies the space of the companies, or the space dimension of social, i.e. the way in which the companies establish the distances which separate their components (individuals, companies, States, resources, etc).

A long time the geographers were posed four questions major when they looked at the Earth, being registered in that in a descriptive and analytical step:

  1. Which : The individuals/the companies produce their space with their values, their lifestyles. It is the geography of the cultural surfaces, which seeks to show the private individual;
  2. What : Impact of these men, that it is economic, social, or environmental, product of their institutions, research, the techniques, the exchanges or of the exploitation of the natural Ressource S;
  3. Where : The place of these human activities; more generally reason of the localizations;
  4. When : The historical period where the individuals or the companies produce spaces which are added or compete with the precedents. This question reflecting of the remainder the situation of subordination of the geography with respect to the history, to which it provided a decoration.

The geography of the beginning of the 20th century changed much, to exceed this analytical approach and to try to seize the way in which the companies play of space to organize itself and to structure themselves. The fundamental question of the contemporary geography is the following one: " Is there distance? " If, for given problems (employment, housing, access to the natural resources, tourism…), the answer is positive, then that means that the geographical approach is on this subject relevant. Consequently, it is appropriate of s" to question from this point of view that the place made with the great forces which work the company: the individual, communities, capacities, technique, Nature…

Are complex questions done then day, combining dimensions of the company under the geographical angle (why? - Objectives of the individuals/the companies; how? - Relations of the capacity in space; Until where? - Limits, discontinuities, thresholds…)

The geographical approach of a phenomenon is not limited solely to the use of the Cartographie - the study of the charts. The grid of questioning, associated with the Cartography, makes it possible to adjust the analysis of the object - space - and to explain why one finds such or such Phénomène here and not elsewhere.

The geography thus endeavors to determine the causes, as well natural as human; and when they observe differences, their consequences .

Principal branches

It is difficult to draw up a tree structure of the branches of the geography so much this one changes according to the countries and the contemporary times (and even place gives to many epistemological debates).

Academically in France, one distinguishes 3 paradigms:

  • the regional Geography, true idiographic under-discipline, centered on the research of the single one. A territory of predilection: the Area.

Since the years 1970 and 1980, the geography saw developing new branches of its discipline in agreement with a multi-field approach (in particular the use of the tools coming from the disciplines economic, mathematical, political sciences, sociological, and data-processing), inspired by the geographies Scandinavian, North-American and English, in particular through the approaches varied from:

  • the Geopolitical

Started again at the end of the years 1970 by Yves Lacoste, creator and founder of the re-examined Hérodote in 1976 (entitled initially Strategies geographies ideologies , then in 1983 Re-examined geography and of geopolitics ) and author of the test the Geography, that is initially used to make the war . See also the reviews Files , geographical Space founded in 1973 by Brownish Roger, '' Espace-Temps '' founded in 1975 by Jacques Levy and Christian Grataloup… Today, geopolitics tends to analyze the consequences of universalization (Géoéconomie) and the natural stock management (the Or; blue gold - the Water; black gold - the Oil; green gold - the Forest)…

  • the space economy

A field with the borders of the economic Geography and Microéconomie which studies the questions of economic localization, and the economic relations between the world one (Mondialisation) and the room (Town and country planning, Pôle of competence, Délocalisation…) Developed recently, this branch of the geography is distinguished from the preceding ones by the recourse to the tool data processing, to analyze the territory. It supplements the information systems developed in addition in other disciplines by a space reference: geographical location, usually defined by a geographical frame of reference (X, Y, Z). One thus distinguishes the geographical information systems (SIG) and the satellite teledetection. Recover a whole of tools but also of concepts allowing to model the space structures and to analyze space dimensions of the life in society. Heiress of the postmodernism, the Gender Geography develops in France since the end of the Années 1990. She wishes to moderate the geography “  masculine  ” by integrating the vision of other groups belonging to the company, like the sexual, but so social and racial minorities.

Lastly, the concept of scale - or multiscalaire approaches - is essential in geography: according to whether the geographer studies all planet (small scales) or only part of this one (large scales), one speaks about general Géographie or regional Géographie. Nowadays, one prefers however to speak about Géographie set of themes in the place of general geography and Géographie of the territories in the place of regional geography.

Epistemology of the geography

Antiquity

The Greek are the first civilization known to have studied the geography, at the same time like science and philosophy. Thalès de Milet, Hérodote (author of the first Chorographie), Ératosthène (first chart of the known world - the ecumene -, calculation of the Earth's circumference), Hipparque, Aristote, Ptolémée contributed major shares to the discipline.

The Romans brought novel methods whereas they charted new areas.

These first “  géographes  ” four branches of the geography develop which go perdurer until the Renaissance:

  • to discover and explore the continents;
  • to measure terrestrial space (Geodesy);
  • to locate the Earth in the astronomical systems (Cosmography);
  • to represent terrestrial space (Cartography).

The Middle Ages

During the the Middle Ages, just after the cruel invasions with the Life century, the interest for the geography decreased in Occident.

In the Early middle ages, this discipline was the poor relation of the education, which was declined through the Liberal arts. The Quadrivium included well the Astronomie, but not the geography.

Isidore of Seville contributed to preserve a certain inheritance of Connaissance S. Nevertheless, the Représentation of the world was very summary: one imagined the Ground punt, and the Continent S were placed inside a round and around T reversed towards the line, the Europe being above the horizontal bar, the Africa below, and the Asia on the right (the America and the Oceania being of course unknown). The horizontal bar represented the the Mediterranean, the vertical bar separating the Asia (in the east), of the Europe and of the Africa (in the west) was consisted the the Danube and the the Nile, which one supposed connected (representation O/T). In the center, point of intersection of the two bars, Jerusalem, the religious city, considered as the center of the world.

Nevertheless, the capital of geographical and scientific information of Antiquity (Euclide, Aristote, Ptolémée,…) was collected in the intellectual centers of the Civilization arabo-Moslem woman. The Muslim world was placed indeed better geographically, with the crossroads of civilizations Greek, mésopotamienne, Indian, Egyptian woman, to collect the knowledge of Antiquity. Baghdad was created on a site close to the place where Alexandre died Large the. In addition, the requirements of the Moslem Prayer (five prayers per day, the faithful one being directed towards Mecque), required geographical knowledge which the Occident did not need.

The Arab geographers, such as Idrisi (to which one owes the first great geography of the Occident, towards 1150), Ibn Battuta (1304-1370), and Ibn Khaldun thus preserved and enriched the heritage gréco-Roman.

In Occident, the Encyclopédie of Vincent of Beauvais ( speculum naturale , nap of knowledge of the Occident at the 13th century) contained known geographical information in 1250.

There were at the 13th century several voyages of missionaries Franciscain S in Asia:

  • Jean de Plan Carpin in Mongolia (1245-1247)
  • Guillaume de Rubrouck went in the Mongolian Empire (1253-1257), and consigned its account of voyage in a Latin work who was a mine of geographical information, historical and ethnographic on the Mongolian empire,
These Information S was very useful for the preparation of the voyage of Marco Polo between 1271 and 1295. This voyage allowed itself to specify geographical information on Asia ( Devisement of the world ).

Other missionaries franciscains left towards Asia:

The whole of these voyages had enriched information already much on the Asia before the voyages by Marco Polo.

The interest for the geography increased considerably in Occident as from this time, and the Représentation of the world strongly evolved/moved, generating a renewal of the Cartographie.

In 1410, the cardinal Pierre d' Ailly wrote the Imago mundi , which will be printed in 1478. Christophe Colomb had a specimen of it.

The Rebirth

In 1492, the first Globe is worked out by Martin Behaim.

With the XV {{E}} and 16th centuries, by great forwardings, often maritime, immensely increased the knowledge of the Planet. These forwardings created an imperative need in addition to note, refer and transmit knowledge thus acquired. Also, the Portulan becomes the standard chart of this time of great forwardings. One can quote, among many others, forwardings of Vasco de Gama (Africa and India), Christophe Colomb (Central America), Magellan (Round the world tour), Jacques Cartier (Canada, 1534). François Xavier évangélisa some territories in Japan (where it informed of the rotundity of the Earth).

The Cartographie progressed at the same time, at the same time by the quantity of new knowledge brought by explorations, the diffusion of the documents by the Imprimerie, like new methods and solid theoretical foundations (projection of Mercator in XVIe century). The charts of the world of the Geographica Generalis , by Bernard Varenius and those of Gerardus Mercator illustrate it with glare.

Like known as above, the geographical effort of the Rebirth relates initially to the cartography. However, in Italy, Giovanni Botero publishes in Rome, of 1591 to 1592, three volumes of Relazioni Universali which marks the birth of the statistics or descriptive science of the State. It is in fact a geography applied to the needs for the new administrations. Etymology: STATO = STATE; there is a numerical census which is used for management of the States.

XVIIIe and XIXe centuries

With the XVIIIe century, James Cook and Perugia explore the zone of the Pacifique.

At the 18th century, the geography starts to emerge as a scientific discipline. But the 19th century should be waited so that it takes a real place in teaching in France. Following the defeat of France in 1870 against the Prussia, it is taught in the primary education, in particular through a book of reading, the Tour de France by two children. Its teaching in the superior is initiated with the National university street of Ulm, by Vidal of Blache, the French geographer marking of the end of the 19th century.

Contemporary period

Between the XIX {{E}} and the 20th century, the geography was essential with difficulty like a discipline on whole share in the scientific discipline.

Several currents developed trying to show the interaction between the man and the Nature, with more or less of success and rigor of approach:

  • the deterministic current, taken along by the German geographer Carl Ritter. The determinism considers that a natural Cause produces a social consequence.
  • the current environmentalist, developed by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel. Any living being is the product of the medium in which he lives.
  • the current possibilist of Vidal of Blache which seeks to moderate the preceding approaches, perceived like not very objective. There are no geographical determinants, but possibilities that the man chooses, or not, of using. Nature proposes, the man lays out.
  • the French School of geography, creates by Paul Vidal of Blache, develops also a specificity: the regional Geography. It is a question of treating the single one, area (“  idiographie  ” or work on specificities), thus avoiding the nomothetic drifts, but falling into an encyclopedic knowledge.

New Geography

The new geography develops starting from the Années 1950 and continuous on its impetus during the Années 1960, directly influenced by the Anglo-Saxon geographies, more precisely Scandinavian and American.

Inspired by mathematics (Statistical S) and the rules of the economy, the geography falls into through wanting at all costs to establish “  lois  ” universal (nomothetic science).

Behavioral geography

It is a question above all of raising the question “  who does what?   ” and “  why?   ” (or: “  who says what?   ” and “  why?   ”)

Radical geography

Also called Marxist or critical geography, this geography is strongly influenced by other social sciences. Antoine Bailly defines the radical problems thus: A vision of the geography which privileges the problems of the historical Matérialisme and the dialectical step in the socio-economic analysis of the social practices (2001)

It falls under a context of social disturbances and social dispute during the Guerre of Vietnam at the time when the prestige of science is in fall.

One finds geographers like Yves Lacoste and equips it with the review Hérodote, Guy Di Méo ( the Man, the company, space , 1991) or the American David Harvey ( Directions in Geography , 1973 and Social justice and The City , 1977)

Tools

The geography requires to be able to locate the various parts of the Earth the ones compared to the others. With this intention, of many techniques were developed through the history:

The introduction of the Informatique in geography made it possible to the geographers to develop a discipline with whole share: the Géomatique. The géomatique one is a whole of methods and tools allowing acquisition, storage, management as well as the data dissemination to space reference. They are tools like the geographical information systems (SIG), which are used to cross geolocalized information and to carry out multicriterion space analyzes. The most known SIG and most used are:

Several others geographical Information systems are designed by independent data processing specialists and geographers. Those often succeed in filling the faults or the lapses of memory emerging of imposing quoted software Ci-high. However, the radiation of this third software is weak and does not allow a broad population to use them.

In addition, some consider, incorrectly, the software Google Earth like a SIG. This software is only one tool for dynamic visualization of the Earth in 3D. Another software, World Wind, similar to Google Earth, is also distributed by NASA. In both cases, the objective announced by Google and NASA are to integrate the greatest component count of the SIG in their software. But the tools produced until now can be used only by geographers knowing the Programmation sufficiently to carry out quite thin results there (from a point of view Géomatique).

See too

geography|geography

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