Integrative geography

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The integrated geography (more rarely Integrated geography ) is that part of geography , which deals with human-environment relationships. It thus represents the interface between physical geography and human geography and, in addition to these two, is also referred to as the third “pillar” of geography. However, it does not have its own set of methodological instruments, but rather represents a combination of natural and social science research.

Concept and conception

Although human-environment relationships have a long tradition as a subject of research in geography, there is no general term for a sub-discipline that deals with them. In any case, physical geography and human geography now differ so greatly from one another in theoretical and methodological terms that attempts to synthesize them , such as those in landscape science in particular , are considered outdated.

The relatively new term “integrative geography” emphasizes the procedural character of research practice, which combines natural and social science approaches. Other terms, on the other hand, refer primarily to humans as a biotic living being and how they deal with their natural environment, such as human-ecological geography or physical anthropogeography , or they emphasize the role of humans as part of an ecosystem, as is often the case with ecogeography or environmental geography . In addition to integrated geography , the latter term is increasingly being used as environmental geography in the Anglo-American region.

history

The idea of ​​an approach that could unite the two major areas of geography was often thematized and discussed, not least in the hope of a unique selling point compared to other scientific disciplines. One of the best-known proposals is a speech entitled Geography a human ecology by Harlan H. Barrows , which he gave in 1922 as President of the Association of American Geographers .

Substantially narrower, namely as a box-section between discipline Bevölkerungsgeographie and Biogeographie should by Karl Heinz puffing the physical Anthropogeographie be defined. As early as 1924 , Albrecht Penck had considered the earth's population capacity to be the main problem , especially with regard to human needs for food.

With the theoretical and research methodical divergence of physical and human geography from the 1970s at the latest, it became apparent on the one hand that the notion of a technical unit was not appropriate, especially since environmental problems could no longer simply be conceptualized as problems of people adapting to their environment in the sense of human ecology. On the other hand, it was precisely this that made the need for integrative approaches clear. While the geomorphologist Richard J. Chorley proposed system-analytical methods for this , theoretical approaches such as political ecology and later the geographical adaptation of the actor-network theory developed from critical human geography .

Subject areas

Integrative geography is primarily defined by specific problems that deal with questions of health and sustainability , and less by clearly delimited subject areas. With medical geography and geographical disaster and risk research , however, there are two sub-disciplines of geography that are generally assigned to it. Geography is also closely integrated into the integrative research of specific human-environment systems such as mountain , coastal , polar , tropical and desert research .

See also

literature

  • Noel Castree, David Demeritt, Diana Liverman , Bruce Rhoads (Eds.): A Companion to Environmental Geography (=  Blackwell companions to geography . Volume 7 ). Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester / Malden 2009, ISBN 978-1-4051-5622-6 .
  • Peter Meusburger , Thomas Schwan (Hrsg.): Human Ecology: Approaches to Overcoming the Nature-Culture-Dichotomy (=  geographic knowledge . Volume 135 ). F. Steiner, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08377-4 .
  • Detlef Müller-Mahn , Ute Wardenga (Ed.): Possibilities and limits of integrative research approaches in physical geography and human geography (=  Forum IfL . Volume 2 ). Self-published by the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3-86082-053-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Weichhart : In Search of the "Third Pillar". Are there ways from rhetoric to pragmatics? In: Detlef Müller-Mahn, Ute Wardenga (Ed.): Possibilities and limits of integrative research approaches in physical geography and human geography (=  IfL Forum ). tape 2 . Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3-86082-053-7 , p. 109-136 .
  2. ↑ Harlan H. Barrows: Geography as Human Ecology . In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers . tape 13 , no. 1 , 1923, pp. 1-14 , doi : 10.1080 / 00045602309356882 .
  3. ^ Karlheinz Paffen: Position and meaning of the physical anthropogeography . In: Geography . tape 13 , no. 4 , 1959, pp. 354–372 , doi : 10.3112 / geography . 1959.04.08 .
  4. ↑ Peter Weichhart: Gesucht: A human-ecological-oriented sub-discipline of complex geography . In: Reports on German regional studies . tape 54 , 1980, pp. 125-132 .
  5. ^ Richard J. Chorley: Geography as Human Ecology . In: Richard J. Chorley (Ed.): Directions in Geography . Methuen, London 1973, p. 155–169 (The title of the article is a sarcastic reference to Barrows' speech and the ecological lines of tradition in geography.).
  6. ^ Piers Blaikie , Harold Brookfield : Land Degradation and Society . Methuen, London / New York 1987, ISBN 0-416-40150-3 .
  7. ↑ Jonathan Murdoch : Inhuman / nonhuman / human: actor-network theory and the prospects for a nondualistic and symmetrical perspective on nature and society . In: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space . tape 15 , no. 6 , 1997, pp. 731-756 , doi : 10.1068 / d150731 .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Zierhofer: Geography of the hybrids . In: Geography . tape 53 , no. 1 , 1999, p. 1–13 , doi : 10.3112 / geography.1999.01.01 .