Genre de vie

From Geography

The French geographist Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918) developed a new approach which challenged the older theory about environmental determinism. This new approach means that human beings are not confined by their environment, rather this environment creates opportunities (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1991). Thus there is a movement from environmental determinism to possibilism.

Vidal de la blache made a distinction between natural environment and human communities. This relationship between human communities and the cultural ‘milieu’ is the most important aspect of his view on geography. According to Vidal this mutual relation is an ongoing dialogue that produces a human world full of different ‘genres de vie’. Literally this can be translated as mode of life or lifestyle (Johnston, Gregery, Pratt & Watts, 2000). So through this mutual relation a new concept was born named ‘genre de vie’. These lifestyles can refer to particular people living in particular places. Groups of people are able to choose their own lifestyle by using their own ‘insights, traditions and ambitions’ (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1991). According to Vidal de la Blache, geographers have to focus on smaller area’s(pays) to do their research. These area’s have to be as accessible as possible in order to have enough depth in your research. Instead of genre de vie we also could use the word 'culture'(Roodenburg & Buesink, n.d.).

By many geographers the way of life of people was mainly related to the characteristics of the natural environment. They assumed that non-organic environmental conditions (for example landscape and climate) determine human actions. According to Vidal de la Blache, a same environment for groups of people with different genres de vie may have several meanings. This is the reason why Vidal de la Blache introduced the possibilism. The possibilism implies that the natural setting limits, but also provides opportunities for people to do certain things. How people react to their environment and which actions they perform, depends on their genre de vie. Lucien Febvre, a student of Vidal de la Blache, elaborated the concept possibilism later (Roodenburg & Buesink, n.d.).

References:

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

Johnston, R.j., Gregory, D., Pratt, G. & Watts, M. (2000). The dictionay of Human geography. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford.

Roodenburg, H. & Buesink, T. (n.d.). Vidal de la Blache en het concept van genre de vie. Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen.

Published by Lotte Brouwer & Inge Schoenmakers edited by Luc Bouman & Anke Janssen