Edward Relph

From Geography

Edward Charles Relph is a geographer who was born in Wales in 1944. He works as a professor at the Toronto University in Canada. Professor Relph teaches many different kind of themes but his career is mainly chararterized by one theme: The importance of critical observation and discription of changing landscapes. He is very commmited to teach students and colleagues how to look at places and landscapes for themselves ( Canadian association of geographers, 2009).

Relph's objective is to recover what he believes to be a dual sense of 'marvelling' and 'concern' (or 'care') embedded in everyday geographical experiences, as a prelude to reshaping an academic geography in which 'abstract technical thinking has begun to submerge geographical experience either by making (it) seem relatively trivial or simply by obscuring it with generalizations. More specifically, what Relph does is to examine four basic geographical concepts -those of region, landscape, space and place- that are not just concepts for academic geography, but are also 'the contexts and subjects of geographical experience, and in a differt aspect again... are parts of being-in-the-world (Paul Cloke, Clavis Philo, David Sadler, ('Approaching Human Geography",Paul Clapman, Londen)

Edwards Charles Relph career begins with his book "Place and Placelessnes", Place and Placelessness was a major force in ushering the field of humanistic geography amidst the quantitative revolution. Colleagues call his book very inventive. His book challenges the old ways of looking to places and offers a new way of looking.This book is followed by two other books. These are: Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography in 1984 and Modern Urban Landscapes in 1987. Both of these focus on the meanings of landscape and place. Edward Charles Relph continues to publish on various topics including suburban downtowns and methodology. His interests today center on justice, dislocation and heteropia. His latest project is a book on Toronto where he would provide interpretations of the city from insights of Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis. These are two proffesors who also worked and lived in Toronto ( Canadian association of geographers, 2009).

Edward Charles Relph remains dedicated to look en teach about what lies beneath the visible landscape, to connect what you can see with sometimes distant processes like meanings and interpretations in a human mind. This requires the use of concepts that are connected to every day life. This important connection stands up over time in Dr. Relph's work.This is also why the Canadian Association of Geographers honours Professor Relph with the Scholarly Distinction in Geography Award (Canadian association of geographers, 2009).

References:

• Cloke, P., Philo, C. and Sadler, D. (1991). Approaching Human Geography. London: Paul Chapman

• Canadian Association of geographers.(2009). Award for Scholarly Distinction In Geography: Edward Relph. Found on 9 september 2011, at http://www.cag-acg.ca/en/edward_relph.html

Published by Paul Cuijpers and Mike van der Linden

Edited by Lars Schopen (9 september 2011)