regional geography
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Regional geography is a major branch of
geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
. It focuses on the interaction of different cultural and natural geofactors in a specific land or landscape, while its counterpart, systematic geography, concentrates on a specific geofactor at the global level.


Basics

Attention is paid to unique characteristics of a particular region such as natural elements, human elements, and
regionalization Regionalisation is the tendency to form decentralised regions. Regionalisation or land classification can be observed in various disciplines: *In agriculture, see Agricultural Land Classification. *In biogeography, see Biogeography#Biogeographi ...
which covers the techniques of delineating space into
region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
s. Rooted in the tradition of the German-speaking countries, the two pillars of regional geography are the idiographic study of ''Länder'' or spatial individuals (specific places, countries, continents) and the typological study of ''Landschaften'' or spatial types (landscapes such as coastal regions, mountain regions, border regions, etc.).


Approach

Regional geography is also a certain approach to geographical study, comparable to
quantitative geography Quantitative geography is a subfield of geography that develops, tests, and uses mathematical and statistical methods to analyze and model geographic phenomena and patterns. It aims to explain and predict the distribution and dynamics of human and ...
or
critical geography Critical geography is theoretically informed geographical scholarship that promotes social justice, liberation, and  leftist politics. Critical geography is also used as an umbrella term for Marxist, feminist, postmodern, poststru ...
. This approach prevailed during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, a period when then regional geography paradigm was central within the geographical sciences. It was later criticised for its descriptiveness and the lack of theory. Strong criticism was leveled against it in particular during the 1950s and the quantitative revolution. Main critics were G. H. T. KimbleKimble, G.H.T. (1951): ''The Inadequacy of the Regional Concept'', London Essays in Geography, edd. L.D. Stamp and S.W. Wooldridge, pp. 492-512. and Fred K. Schaefer. The regional geography paradigm has influenced many other geographical sciences, including
economic geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography which studies economic activity and factors affecting them. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. There are four branches of economic geography. There is, primary secto ...
and geomorphology. Regional geography is still taught in some universities as a study of the major regions of the world. In the Western Hemisphere, these may be cultural regions such as Northern and Latin America, or their corresponding geographic regions or continents, namely North and South America, whose "boundaries" differ significantly from the cultural regions. In the Eastern Hemisphere, Europe and Asia may be considered cultural regions or as continents depending on the criteria used to differentiate between them and determine their shared boundaries. These discrepancies arise from the aforementioned lack of a unifying theory behind the definitions and delineations of these continents and regions. In addition, the notion of a city-region approach to the study of geography, underlining urban-rural interactions, gained credence since the mid-1980s. Some geographers have also attempted to reintroduce a certain amount of regionalism since the 1980s. This involves a complex definition of regions and their interactions with other scales.MacLeod, G. and Jones, M. (2001): ''Renewing The Geography of Regions'', Environment and Planning D, 16(9), pp. 669-695. Regional geography was once used as a basis for the geomorphological works such as those of David Linton and Henri Baulig. Yet, according to
Karna Lidmar-Bergström Karna Lidmar-Bergström (born 1940) is a Swedish geologist and geomorphologist known for her study of Pre-Quaternary landforms in Sweden and Norway. In 2004 she was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.Alfred Hettner Alfred Hettner (August 6, 1859 in Dresden – August 31, 1941 in Heidelberg) was a German geographer. He is known for his concept of chorology, the study of places and regions, a concept that influenced both Carl O. Sauer and Richard Hartsh ...
in Germany, with his concept of
chorology Chorology (from Greek , ''khōros'', "place, space"; and , ''-logia'') can mean * the study of the causal relations between geographical phenomena occurring within a particular region * the study of the spatial distribution of organisms ( biogeogra ...
;
Paul Vidal de la Blache #REDIRECT Paul Vidal de La Blache {{redirect category shell, {{R from move{{R from other capitalisation ...
in France, with the possibilism approach (possibilism being a softer notion than
environmental determinism Environmental determinism (also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism) is the study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular development trajectories. Jared Diamond, Jeffrey Herbst, ...
); and, in the United States, Richard Hartshorne with his concept of areal differentiation. The school of
Carl O. Sauer Carl Ortwin Sauer (December 24, 1889 – July 18, 1975) was an American geographer. Sauer was a professor of geography at the University of California at Berkeley from 1923 until becoming professor emeritus in 1957. He has been called "the d ...
, strongly influenced by Alfred Hettner and Paul Vidal de la Blache, is also seen as regional geography in its broadest sense.


See also

*
Chorography Chorography (from wikt:χῶρος, χῶρος ''khōros'', "place" and wikt:γράφω, γράφειν ''graphein'', "to write") is the art of describing or mapping a region or district, and by extension such a description or map. This term der ...
*
Regional planning Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...
*
Regional studies Area studies (also known as regional studies) are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Regional Geography Area studies History of geography