Geosophy

From Geography

Geosophy is the study of geography from any of all points of view (Wright, 1947). John K. Wright invented this term in his 1946 presidential address to the Association of American geographers (Cloke, Philo & Sadler, 1999). In stead of just looking at the one point of view of the academic geographer, geosophy studies how (groups of) people perceive and imagine the world. This makes geosophy part of humanistic geography.

Geosophy is not an objective study and the stricter methods of analysis can not be applied. A survey of the subsequent use of the term by geographers suggests that some geographical ideas are transmitted largely by undocumented, informal methods (Michael Handley, 1993). Also, by emphasyzing the role of human nature, geosophy differed from the dominant geographical approaches of that time. With the use of geosophical inquiries it provide us background and perspective of certain elements of geography. It shows us how we think about and observe our place in the bigger picture of the world. From scientist to farmers and from businessman to politicians it shows their view on several elements of geography. This shows different kind of 'opinions' and acknowledges it as a non-objective study of geography. When using geosophy in a way by reflecting on the past it shows the values given to a place connected to a certain period. In this way people give meaning to all places we inhabit and pass this through to, for example, future generations. In this way places are changed by adding more depth, history and social contingency to places. In this way people can never enter the same place, because of the given (subjective) knowledge to the place. Maybe static and immutable in our memories, as anchors to our past, are themselves fluid and dynamic, so that each time we reenter a place, we and the place have been changed. (Blake Mayberry,2010)

References

• Cloke P, Philo C, Sadler D. (1999). Approaching Human Geography
• Wright, John K. (1947). Terrae Incognitae: The Place of Imagination. Geography Annals of the Association of American Geographers 37: 1-15.
• Michael Handley (1993). John K. Wright and Human Nature in Geography

Contributors

• page created by --SusanVerbeij 12:02, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
• Page enhanced by Paul van den Hogen --PaulHogen 13:38, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
• Page enhanced by Paul van den Hogen--PaulHogen--PaulHogen 21:28, 25 October 2012 (CEST)