What are the approaches of geography?

Geography: More Than Just Maps – It’s How We See the World

Geography. The word might conjure up images of dusty maps and memorizing capital cities. But trust me, it’s so much more than that! It’s really about understanding how everything fits together on our planet – the people, the places, and the wild interactions between them. And to get our heads around something that big, geographers use a bunch of different approaches, each like a different pair of glasses for seeing the world.

One of the most basic ways to approach geography is by thinking about it in two main flavors: systematic and regional. Think of the systematic approach as looking at the big picture. Instead of focusing on one place, you’re looking at how, say, climate works everywhere. What are the global temperature patterns? How do winds circulate around the planet? That’s systematic geography in action. It’s often split into physical geography (the Earth’s natural systems) and human geography (people and their societies).

Now, the regional approach is the opposite. It’s all about diving deep into a specific place. What makes the Amazon rainforest unique? Well, you’d look at its climate, sure, but also its incredible biodiversity, the shape of the land, and the people who call it home. Each region is a unique puzzle, with its own mix of environmental, cultural, and economic pieces. So, do you go systematic or regional? It really just depends on what you’re trying to figure out. Want to understand global warming? Systematic. Curious about why Venice is sinking? Regional’s your best bet.

Then, things got a little wild in the mid-20th century. Geographers had what they called the Quantitative Revolution. Basically, they decided geography needed to be more “scientific.” Out went the purely descriptive stuff, and in came statistics, math, and computers! They wanted to find universal laws, just like the physicists. This led to cool new fields like transportation geography (how do things move around?) and even medical geography (where do diseases pop up, and why?). GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, came out of this period. It was a game changer. But, some people thought it went a bit too far, that it forgot about the human side of things.

That’s where humanistic geography comes in. This approach said, “Hey, people aren’t just numbers on a map! They have feelings, experiences, and values.” Humanistic geographers want to know how people experience a place. What does it mean to them? They might study how people connect emotionally to their hometowns or how a landscape becomes a symbol of something bigger. They talk to people, listen to their stories, and try to understand the world from their point of view.

Building on that idea, behavioral geography looks at how our brains influence our actions in space. Why do we choose one route over another? How do we form mental maps of our neighborhoods? It’s a mix of psychology and geography, trying to understand how we perceive and interact with the world around us. This stuff is super useful for city planners, helping them design places that actually work for the people who live there.

But geography can also be a tool for change. Radical geography, which popped up in the 70s, uses a Marxist lens to look at how power and money shape the world. Why are some neighborhoods poor and others rich? How do environmental problems affect some communities more than others? Radical geographers want to expose these inequalities and fight for a more just world.

And let’s not forget about historical geography. This is where we dig into the past to understand the present. How have landscapes changed over time? How did old trade routes shape the cities we know today? By looking at the past, we can get a much better handle on why things are the way they are now.

Today, geography is all about pulling these different approaches together. We’re facing huge challenges – climate change, urbanization, globalization – and we need all the tools we can get to tackle them. We’re using fancy tech like GIS and remote sensing to analyze data and create maps that can help us understand these complex issues. It’s an exciting time to be a geographer, because the world needs our perspective more than ever. So, next time you see a map, remember that geography is so much more than just lines on paper. It’s a way of seeing, understanding, and ultimately, shaping the world we live in.