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'.

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. (

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