Humanistic geography

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Revision as of 13:54, 28 September 2010

Humanistic Geography

Under construction

Humanistic geography is a way of approaching within the field of human geography; an approach that seeks to put humans at the centre of geography (Gregory et al., 2009, p. 356). Human geography in contrast, is concerned with the ways in which place, space and environment are both the condition and in part the consequence of human activities.Humanistic geography achieves an understanding of the human world by studying people’s relations with nature, their geographical behaviour as well as their feelings and ideas in regard to space and place. The basic approach is by observing human experience, awareness and knowledge. Yi-Fu Tuan notes in his text 'humanistic geography' the following topics for example: geographical knowledge, territory and place, crowding and privacy, livelihood and economics, and religion.

Humanistic geography has drawn upon a wide range of humanist philophies, which has led to a generic humanistic geography in addition to versions based around essestentialism, idealism, phenomenology and pragmatism. In the 1970's it led to a response to what were seen as the dehumanizing effects of both positivism and structural Marxism, in addition to promoting a positive model of a humanistic geography.(Gregory et al., 2009, p. 357)

there are two human geographies

References:

- Cloke, P., Philo, Ch. & Sadler, D. (1991) Approaching Human Geography. Chapman, London.

- Gregory, D., Johnston, R., Pratt, G., Watts, M., Whatmore, S. (2009). The Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th edition. London: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.

- Ley, D. & Samuels, M. (1978). Humanistic geography: prospects and problems.

- Tuan, Y. (1976).Humanistic Geography. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.