scholarly journals 1st Seminar of Geographical Research - SEPEGE - Human Geography/USP

Author(s):  
Ricardo Baitz
Author(s):  
Ekuase Innocent Omobude

The positivist methods of explaining geographical phenomena enjoyed prominence and revolutionized the methods of geographical research up to the 1950s where the criticisms were largely that the methods cannot account for any role in human geography and the subsequent rise of humanism as an alternative mode of explanation. These critiques and the introduction of many concepts in humanism inadvertently slowed down the progress in seeking for acceptable scientific methods to explain human experiences in geographical research. These criticisms in the 1980s and 90s reduced the popularity and application of the quantitative methodologies which were powerful research techniques in human geography. Geography by its nature is a dual discipline with one half on physical and the other on human geography. Human geographers have used quantitative methodologies to study a multitude of topics including demographics, migration, housing and settlement patterns and ethnic segregation. Human activities like migration, journey to work, retail capital patronage, have adopted some element of scientific laws and models have been focused on transportation, migration, settlement development, innovation diffusion, population growth and distribution, urban land use etc. The shortcomings of the philosophy of humanism have not provided a good alternative in explaining geographical phenomenon and has over time become the gains of the positivist school of thought. The resurgence in the interest in positivism as a tool for explanation of geographical phenomena bores down from the fact that the humanistic methods is laced with subjectivity, the language of discourse is abstract and difficult to comprehend while the logical sequence of the positivist methods make the approach real and achievable.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Laws

The purpose of this article is to put forward the case for a magically realist human geography, drawing on geographical research into the lives and lifeworlds of people with long-term and disabling mental health difficulties. In the article, I move between extracts from my own ethnographic research with mental health service users and survivors and the equally unusual stories of the literary genre, magical realism, in which I find a framework for addressing what I understand as a narrative paucity in much of mainstream research writing about mental distress. The article reflects upon the strange and sometimes magical qualities of illness and recovery in the context of individuals living with severe and enduring mental health problems and how traditional constructions of ‘evidence’ variously exclude or overlook such experiences. The contributions of the article are both to explore how ‘magic’ might encapsulate certain aspects of living with mental distress and – developing ongoing discussions in the sub-discipline around geographies of enchantment, magic and spirituality – to consider how a magical realist framework for geographical research might do justice to the rich, marvellous and irreducible experiences of everyday life, which are often excluded from conventional evidence bases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Wai-chung Yeung

While upholding the analytical relevance of a better distinction of mechanism from process in the geographical analysis of uneven development, the five commentators of my forum paper have raised some critical epistemological issues that provoke three points of clarification in this response. First, I argue for an epistemological position that views theory not only as abstract devices but more importantly as explanation of social–spatial change. I elaborate further on the importance of causal mechanism in such an explanatory kind of theory. Second, I discuss the relevance and usefulness of mid-range theories in geographical research. Finally, this response ends with a return to the bigger picture of the kind of human geography that might benefit from mechanism-based theorizing.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-57
Author(s):  
Wiesław Ziaja

Abstract The paper concerns specific features of exploration, geographical recognition, exploitation of natural resources, and economy of the archipelago. Development of the Svalbard system of nature protection areas and its impact on the environment and human activity is shown. Both the natural environment and Norwegian national interests are perfectly protected in Svalbard. Classical physico-geographical research was lost in significance to biological investigations (or to environmental science in the aspect of biotic components). Research activity in the human geography of Svalbard has mostly declined.


Human geography, which is an integral branch of contemporary geographical science, relies on a broad methodological basis, using both the general geographical methodological apparatus and the methodological apparatus of related and related sciences. However, taking into account the specifics of the object-subject field of human geography, it is necessary to improve the methodological apparatus, going beyond the use of methods inherent only in geographical science. The anthropogenic factor becomes dominant in all negative changes in the interaction of the “society-human-nature” system. There is a need to replenish the methodological apparatus of human geography through the use of methods of related sciences, in particular, sociology. Sociological methods operate with large amounts of data and can be applied at various stages of socio-geographical research: at the stage of collecting information, its processing and interpretation. Among Ukrainian scientists, human geographers, for now, the use of sociological methods of collecting and processing information is more ignored, unlike foreign scientists. The use of traditional socio-geographical methods and ignoring the methods of related sciences indicate the need for a thorough review of the methodological and methodological foundations of socio-geographical research. This is required by the complexity of the global processes of socio-economic development of modern civilization as a single global socio-geographic system of the planet. At the stage of collecting socio-geographical information, it is important to use sociological methods of collecting information that are indispensable for the study of those features of geographical systems that are not covered by official statistics, as well as for the study of factors of processes and phenomena at the individual and group levels. Sociological research methods have a branched structure, in which they are distinguished as general scientific and special sociological research methods. Sociological methods of data collection can be used in socio-geographical studies, the choice of which depends on the type of goals, objectives, features of the object of study, the material capabilities of the researcher and the capabilities of the toolkit. Sociological methods for collecting information are divided into 5 main classes: survey, analysis of documents, experiment, observation and testing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Essebo

The concept of myth is far from foreign to geographical research, yet its definition and use has been both varied and assumed, leaving much of its potential geographically unexplored. Myths – naturalised stories which reflect ideology, alleviate anxiety, and guide everyday practices – instil place with meaning. Following the tradition within human geography of engaging with issues intersecting perception and place, this paper suggests that to further develop the concept of myth in and through human geography may help advance central disciplinary themes centring on issues of naturalisation and transformation of societal beliefs and, by extension, place.


2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Dörfler ◽  
Eberhard Rothfuß

Abstract. This article aims to explore the potential of Alfred Schütz' sociological phenomenology for spatial phenomena and its integration into human geography. Although the influence and productivity of phenomenology in general could contribute significantly to shed light on spatial phenomena of the life-world, such as a progressive sense of place (Massey, 1993), transnationalities (Pries, 2001), socio-spatial atmospheres (Hasse, 2017), “home” and encounters (Seamon, 1979, 2014), enforced life(s) in refugee camps and others, it has never become a major strand of contemporary (German speaking) human geography. According to Hasse (2017) phenomenology has even remained almost absent in geographical research. In contrast to this proposition, the analytically endorsed and empirically examined theorems of phenomenology have recently been challenged by “post-phenomenology” and “non-representational theory”. These approaches raise – though both argumentatively and empirically unproven – their voice against pretended limitations of “classical” phenomenology in arguing with “imagined” limits of meaning and understanding. Irrespective of these developments, we would like to refer to the analytical and methodological stringency of approaches that arise from the rich tradition of phenomenology and emphasize their still largely untapped potential for human geography by suggesting a “Leib”-based approach rooted in reconstructive methodologies to analyse the various spatial phenomena of the life-world.


2019 ◽  
pp. 229-10.33526/EJKS.20191901.229
Author(s):  
Xiaoxuan Lu

Focusing on the interplay between memory and place, this article examines the rationale behind the use of axonometric drawings (axons) in a geographical research study of the Tumen/Tuman River region encompassing the borders shared by China, Russia and North Korea. The concepts of “memory of place” and “place of memory” guide the structure of this project and the flow of this article. “Memory of place” emphasises the lived experience of our physical senses, and helps determine the great potential of visual methodologies in the fields of geographical and landscape research and study. Drawn up using the graphic production techniques of abstracting, foregrounding, highlighting and juxtaposing, axons avail themselves of and inform both realist and idealist states of mind. In contrast, “place of memory” references a particular type of materiality and helps us understand Tumen Shan-shui as a library of memories that reveals a profusion of contested aesthetic, cultural and political meanings. Axons serve to tell narratives revealing desires, actions and undertakings that have shaped and continue to shape the substance of the memory sites in question including infrastructure, architecture and signage. Initially adopted by the author as a medium for recording and communicating due to security restrictions imposed in the border areas in question, the creation of axons generated new insights on methods of documentation in landscape research, and the places and landscapes themselves.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Lidia Mierzejewska ◽  
Jerzy Parysek

Abstract The complexity of the reality studied by geographical research requires applying such methods which allow describing the state of affairs and ongoing changes in the best possible way. This study aims to present a model of research on selected aspects of the dynamics and structure of socio-economic development. The idea was to determine whether we deal with the process of reducing or widening the differences in terms of individual features. The article primarily pursues a methodological goal, and to a lesser extent an empirical one. The methodological objective of the paper was to propose and verify a multi-aspect approach to the study of development processes. The analyses carried out reveal that in terms of the features taken into account in the set of 24 of the largest Polish cities the dominating processes are those increasing differences between cities, which are unfavourable in the context of the adopted development policies aiming at reducing the existing disparities. In relation to the methodological objective, the results of the conducted research confirm the rationale of the application of the measures of dynamics and the feature variance to determine the character (dynamics and structure) of the socio-economic development process of cities. Comparatively less effective, especially for interpretation, is the application of principal component analysis and a multivariate classification, which is mainly the result of differences in the variance of particular features.


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