Possibilism (human geography)

Possibilism (eng. Possibilism ) is the opposite of determinism (Geography), he describes the view that man is free by nature in its decision-making.

Accordingly, humans can develop freely and are not restricted in their actions by nature, but only by their own social and physical limits. Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918), who developed a concrete counter-concept to the nature-milieu theory of Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904), is considered to be the co-founder . For him, humans are free and active in their landscape-related actions within a framework set by nature. In his studies, Paul Vidal de la Blache looked at different groups of people (e.g. farmers, miners and nomads, whom he referred to as genres de vie ) and did not examine them as usual for their social coexistence and the resulting actions, but looked at them they only under the postulate of human freedom of choice in their relationship to their geographical living space. De la Blache ensured the rapid dissemination and recognition of this cultural-ecological approach (the capacity of the landscape budget within the framework set by nature) in France. However, it took many years for this concept to spread across borders.

The possibilistic phase is now part of the development of anthropogeography (today: human geography ) and was the dominant paradigm in France between the years 1890 and 1910. Today it is often described as a pioneer of modern social geography .

literature

• Hartmut Leser (Ed.): Diercke Dictionary General Geography . 14th edition Dtv, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-423-03422-7 , p. 698 (EA 1984 under the title Dictionary of General Geography ).
• Heinz Heineberg : Introduction to anthropogeography / human geography ( UTB ; 2445). 3rd edition Schöningh, Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-2445-5 , pp. 22-26 (EA Paderborn 2003)