Appraoches Perspective

8/13/2019 Appraoches Perspective

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Approaches and Methods in

Human Geography

Geography 212

Source: Claire Jantz

Revised by Greg Bryan

02/11/05


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Outline

Types of fields in human geography

Theoretical approaches to studying humangeography

Methodology approaches to studyinghuman geography


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Types of fields in Human

Geography Cultural (Demography, migration,

acculturation, assimilation)

Economic(employment, locationtheory, manufacturing, marketing,retailing, services, trade)

Gender studies (feminisms) Rural (economy, planning,

population and change)

Industrial(location, organization,regional development,technological change)

Medical(epidemiology) Urban(economy, housing,

morphology, politics, population,renewal, retailing, sociology,theory, models, systems

Political (electoral, geopolitics)

Population(demography, change,

migration)

Recreational(leisure, sport, tourism)

Historical(countryside, industry,

population, towns) Social (ethnicity, theory, socio-

economic status)

Transport(rural/urban)

(1993 listing of the Institute of British

Geographers and the Association ofAmerican Geographers, in Kitchen and Tate

2000)


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Approaches

What perspective do you use to observe a

phenomenon?

How should it be construed and

represented?

Three basic approaches

empirical-analytical

historical-hermeneutic

critical


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I. Empirical-analytical science

Empiricism (fact seeking) facts speak for themselves

science should be observe phenomena in the real world

value-free (non-bias)

Descriptive analysis

Positivism (scientific)

Scientific statement (hypothesis) Scientific observation

formation of theory Scientific law absolute truth

human behavior can be derived and used for predictions

value-free (non-bias) requires that hypotheses be presented and verified or falsified by

repeatable observations

quantitative methods and models


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What do you think is the variable

displayed in this map?

What does it tell us about America?


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II. Historical-hermeneutic

science Hermeneutics: (self-interpretation)

The study of interpretation and meaning.

- Ex. Biblical interpretation of clarification of the meaningof Gods word.

- Is not used as frequent

Behavioralism: (spatial analysis)

Emphasizes the role of cognitive and decision makingvariables as mediating the relationship between

environment and spatial behavior. model spatial behavior through peoples ability to

remember, process and evaluate geographicinformation.

empirical, quantitative, but measuring the intangible.


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Idealismthere is no real world; reality is a construction of the

mindexplain patterns of behavior through an understanding of

the thoughts behind them

Does not need theories because it is interested in the

theories expressed by the human subjects

Phenomenologyrejects scientific, quantitative approaches

Instead tries to understand the world instead of explaining

it scientifically.

reconstruct the worlds of individuals, their actions and themeanings of phenomena in those worlds to understand

individual behavior without drawing upon a-priori

theories.


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III. Critical science

based on critical theory (truth, merit, motivations,meanings, symbols)

Marxistapproaches (alternative)

society is structured to perpetuate the production ofcapital

political and economic structures that underlie andreproduce capitalist modes of production andconsumption

ask how conditions might be under different socialcircumstances


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Realism (origin)underlying mechanisms and structures of social relations, discovering

the building blocks of reality

studies underlying mechanisms of policy and practice, not interaction

between individualshow something happens and how extensive the phenomena is

what causes change, what allows or forces change

Postmodernism (multiple perspective)all other approaches fail to account for differences within society

there is no one answer, no one discourse is superior or dominant toanother, and that all voices should be included in a dialogue

there is no absolute truth, and no truth outside of interpretation

readings (instead of observations), interpretations (rather than

findings)


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Poststructuralism

relationship between society and culture is mediated

through language

the way we live our lives within society, the constraints

and empowerment that operate, take effect in language

deconstruct (tease apart) the multiple messages conveyed

in language

Feminism

science is dominated by and reflects the position of men(white, wealthy, Western men)

a need for re-negotiation of the role and structure of

institutions and the production of knowledge

a need for re-negotiation of power relations in society sothat our knowledge of the world is more reflective of the

people living in it


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My digression

It is important to

understand not only

the theoretical

background that youare working under, but

also that of the people

who write the books

and articles you arereading

A brief history of social-

geographical thought:

Immanuel Kant

Space and time exist only

as perceptions of them

Thomas Malthus

Direct and economic

relationship between

humans and environment,

predicted an agriculturalcrisis

Hegel

Dialectic - Thesis,

anithesis and sythesis


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Geographic Thought

Marx

Probably mostinfluential thinker ofmodern era

Tied hegelian dialecticto social and economicforces

Historical materialism

= we are shaped by thephysical realities of theworld and historicrelationships

Marx

Labor and capital are adialectic the synthesis, he

believed would becommunism

Mode of productiondetermines the character ofsociety

MOP = everything that goesinto producing necessities

of life - raw materials, laborand capital and therelationships that exist inthe stucture of the system


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Geographic Thought

Marx

Structuralism = people arebasically pawns set in aclass structure

Geographic marxists see thephysical world as a directresult of the stuctures ofcapitalism

In otherwords: Paris lookslike Paris because of the

economic situation in whichit developed, Rte. 1 lookslike Rte. 1 because of 20thcentury capitalism

Marxian vs. Marxist

Mill and Smith

Polar opposite of Marx

Adam Smith =production is andshould be the result ofself-interest

Individual liberty tomake decisions

Utilitarianism =greatest good for thegreatest number of

people


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Geographic thought

Modernism

Recognition that the

the world changed

radically with theIndustrial Revolution

Centralization, big

meaning, big

production, biggovernments,

functionality the key

Often Marxist

Postmodernism

The pendulum swing

A return to the individual

Small plans, projects andstudies

Feminism, identitypolitics

Nothing is true, everyone

has their owninterpretation, at the veryleast you can never sayanything with any kind ofcertainty


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Geographic Thought

Giddens and

Structuration

Giddens united

sociology andgeographic theory in

the early 80s

2 Major points:

Structures andindividuals have a

recursive relationship

Society is created both

over space and time

Political Ecology

Also in the 80s PiersBlakey

Ecology is the result ofpolitical economy

Scale of these forcesvaries from the globalmarket to the

household Both of these thinkers

are chiefly concernedwith globalization


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How would a Marxist interpret this map?

How about a Post-modernist?


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Which approach is best?

Naturalist or anti-naturalist

Inductive or deductive

Value-free or action-oriented Objective or situated

Top down or bottom up

Realism or anti-realism

Structure or agency


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Types of data

Qualitative data words, pictures, sounds

humanistic, subjective,inductive, personal,

idealistic, meaning andunderstanding,specific

inquiry from the

inside

Quantitative data

Numbers, statistics, or

empirical facts

scientific, objective,

numerical, deductive,realistic, explanation and

predictive, populations,

generalizations, society

numeric/statisticaltechniques


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Quantitative analyses

Primary data statistical surveys

Secondary data

data archives

census data

Statistical analysis

descriptive statistics

correlation, regression

spatial statistics


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Geographic technologies

Remote sensing

provides information about the physical environment in

which people live and how they may be interacting with

it

land use data, time series, historical analyses

links to social, cultural and/or political activities

GIS (Geographic Information Systems)

data visualization

reclassification of data, overlay analyses, measuring

distances and connectivity, neighborhood analyses


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Analyzing qualitative data

Descriptions thin or thick

context and process

Classification

interpretive analysis

identifying coherent classes of data

Connection

relationships, associations, interactions between classes

Quantitative techniques


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Corroborating evidence

Are there other alternatives that would explain the data?

Why does your conclusion make sense?Have other researchers come up with similar results?

Data quality

How reliable is your data?

Are your results biased?

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Appraoches Perspective