EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHY THOUGHTS

EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHY THOUGHTS 

Evolution means changes that have taken place. Evolution of geography is the changes that taken place in geography. At the beginning geography started as a simple description and it is evolved up to complex discipline or phenomena. Changes in geography are challenges faced geography as a discipline.                                                                                                                                                 

Geography like any other discipline, faced with problems in organizing materials and approaches. Geography undergone the following different (six) phases or evolution so as to be described as a discipline:

1.      Exploration Phase
At this period there was industrial countries were exploring new lands in the 15th Century.  Therefore, geography at this time people concerned where the materials are found, hence by that time geography was taught in order to know and collect information in different phenomena and where materials (like minerals) are found and geography was based to find the location of the materials where are found. Interest of the people were taught through description, simply to describe the phenomena as existed as well as students of geography were only required to know the inventory of things and place naming e.g. who is discovered and where it found.  

The weakness of this phase (approach or theory) is that, failed to explain for the occurrence of the phenomena (on how the phenomena was found) and there were no chance to question about. This phase was abandoned following to another phase so as to collect its weakness.

2.      Environmental Determinism Phase 
This phase was influenced by Charles Darwin. Physical environment controlled this phase because it controlled what people did in that particular period. Under this paradigm there was a belief that, nature of human activity was controlled by the physical environment and that man is a product of the earth’s surface. At time went on, geographers started to question about this phase e.g. why mineral is found here and not in other place in this region.

Geographical teaching at this phase or period was mainly influenced with physical environment on man or human activities and physical environment was a determinant factor. Geography moved from description to explanation. Example, why this phenomena is found here and not there? Weakness of this paradigm: in reality not all physical environment can determine human activities even though it is a determinant factor.

3.      Regionalism Phase
This phase dominated geographical thinking before the 2nd world war. The interest of geographers was to attack or oppose the environmentalism approach.  It concerned with identification of uniqueness of the regions; as said that, in each region man and nature were seemed to adopt each other. (Meaning that, you cannot distinguish nature and man.

Geography was taught through how to distinguish about how region differ from one to another. The students of geography knew the different between one region and location to another. Weakness of this paradigm: thinkers of this phase said that geography lacked theory to guide different regions. This phase it also rooted in environmental determinism i.e. physical environment is a determinant factor.

4.      Quantitative Revolution Phase
This phase came to fill the gap of regional approach that lacked theories. It came with different ideas in order to shape the discipline. In this phase geographers started to make laws or theories so as to criticize the previous. Advocators of this phase, said geography were a spatial science and geometry was the language for the analysis of spatial form. They thought that it is important to formulate laws or theories on the cause and effect relationship, hence lead to the introduction of geometry, practical geography in this discipline.

Geography in this phase started to be accurate, specific, and strict because people followed laws and theories. Even though somehow the phase was so much good, but there were some challenges like: it placed too much emphasis on making and testing theories and paid more explanation to the phenomena. It involved too much mathematical calculation (geometry). Put behind behavior as a determinant factor.

5.      Behaviorism Phase
For behaviorism argument is that, laws or theories are insignificant (not enough) for understanding how those pertaining come to being. In this phase, it advocated that behavior plays an important role in understanding of the spatial distribution and patterns of manmade phenomena on the earth’s surface.   Weakness: behaviorists they didn’t give critical view of the spatial inequalities.
                                      
6.      Radicalism Phase

The radical approach to geography it rose in 1970 to add a new dimension in geography discipline. Radicalism presented a critical view of spatial inequalities which the previous phase failed to do this. Influenced by Marxist theory and in this phase, the main emphasis is, the differences in physical environmental factors and the behavior of the individual are not sufficient to the spatial variation of phenomena. They said, there other factors which can determine the spatial phenomena like organization of the society, political structure and alike.

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