Maarg Manthan · Topic 17.1

Human Geography – Nature, Scope and Approaches

Geography › Human Geography and Population · Topic 17.1

Human geography is the study of the relationship between the physical environment and the socio-cultural environment that humans have created, and of how human activities are distributed and change over space and time. It has passed through the stages of exploration, regional analysis, areal differentiation, spatial organisation and, later, the welfare, radical and behavioural approaches, and has many branches such as social, urban, population, settlement and economic geography.

5 min read · UPSC Prelims · Geography · Human Geography and Population

At a Glance

Definition Study of human-environment interaction over space
Stages Exploration, regional analysis, areal differentiation, spatial organisation
Late schools Welfare, radical, behavioural
Branches Social, urban, political, population, settlement, economic
Key idea Nature and human are inseparable
Exam link UPSC Prelims, Geography: Human Geography and Population

Where Does It Fit?

This is the first topic of the macro on human geography and population. The previous macro described the soils and climate of India, and this one begins the study of people and their relationship with space. The next topic covers the interaction between humans and the environment. Previous topic: Major Soil Groups of India. Next topic: Environment and Human Interrelationship.

What Is Human Geography?

In short: human geography asks where people and their activities are, why they are there, and how they change the places they live in.

Geography studies any event or phenomenon that varies over space and time. Physical geography studies the physical environment, such as the landforms, climate, soils and water described in the earlier macros, and human geography studies the relationship between that physical environment and the socio-cultural environment created by humans through their mutual interaction. The German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, who wrote on the influence of environment on peoples in the late nineteenth century, is often called the founder of the field, and the French scholar Vidal de la Blache stressed that humans choose among the possibilities that nature offers. Ellen Churchill Semple brought the ideas of Ratzel to the United States. The dichotomy between the physical and human parts of geography is not a valid one, because nature and humans are inseparable and should be seen as a whole: a farm, a city or a road is at the same time a product of climate, soil and relief and of technology, culture and policy.

The nature of the subject is spatial, integrative and applied. It is spatial, because it looks at patterns and flows over the earth’s surface; it is integrative, because it draws on many other disciplines; and it is applied, because its methods of mapping, remote sensing and geographic information systems are used for planning cities, mapping disease, managing disasters and many other tasks.

What Are the Stages and Approaches of Human Geography?

Stage or school	Period or idea	Focus
Exploration and description	Early colonial period	Imperial and trade interests led to the discovery of new areas, and an encyclopaedic account of each area was the aim
Regional analysis	Early twentieth century	Complete description of all aspects of a region, on the idea that the parts help to understand the whole earth
Areal differentiation	1930s to 1950s	The uniqueness of each region and the reasons why it is different from others
Spatial organisation	1950s to 1970s, the quantitative revolution	Use of computers, statistics and the laws of physics to find mappable patterns; sometimes criticised for neglecting people
Humanistic or welfare school	1970s	Social well-being: housing, health, education and quality of life
Radical school	1970s	Marxist ideas to explain poverty, deprivation and inequality as products of capitalism
Behavioural school	1970s	Lived experience and the perception of space by social groups of different ethnicity, race and religion

From the 1990s, critical, feminist and cultural approaches emphasised gender, identity, power and representation, and more recently, geographic information systems, satellite data, big data and the idea of the Anthropocene have extended the scope of the discipline. A Prelims question often asks which stage or school is associated with which feature, as in the case of the quantitative revolution and spatial organisation.

What Are Its Branches and Sister Disciplines?

Branch	Sister discipline
Social geography, behavioural geography, geography of well-being, leisure and gender	Sociology, psychology, welfare economics, anthropology and women’s studies
Urban and settlement geography	Urban studies and planning
Political and electoral geography	Political science and psephology
Population geography and medical geography	Demography and epidemiology
Historical geography	History
Economic geography: resources, agriculture, industries, marketing, tourism and international trade	Economics, resource economics, agricultural sciences, industrial economics, commerce and tourism management

Population geography, which is the subject of most of this macro, is the study of the distribution, density, growth and composition of people, as in Distribution and Density of Population, and the way in which these are linked to the environment is the subject of Environment and Human Interrelationship. As an analytical point, human geography is useful for the civil services precisely because the problems that administrators face, such as migration, urban growth, inequality, hazards and resource conflicts, are spatial and need an integrated view, which is the approach that this discipline trains.

Why Is This Topic Important?

Concepts Schools and stages asked
Foundation Frame for population and settlement
Application Planning and policy

What Came Next?

The next topic describes how humans and the environment interact, through determinism and possibilism. Next topic: Environment and Human Interrelationship.

Key People and Terms

Areal differentiation Study of regional uniqueness
Quantitative revolution Use of statistics in geography
Humanistic school Focus on well-being
Radical school Marxist view of inequality
Behavioural school Perception of space
GIS Geographic information system

Exam Corner

Points to Remember

Ratzel is the founder; Vidal de la Blache stressed possibilism.
The quantitative revolution belongs to spatial organisation.
Radical school uses Marxian ideas.
Behavioural school studies perception.
Nature and humans are inseparable.

Do Not Confuse With

Regional analysis and areal differentiation Description of all aspects versus uniqueness
Humanistic and radical schools Well-being versus capitalism critique
Human and physical geography Social space versus natural environment

Memory Hook

Explore, describe the region, differentiate it, count it, then ask about welfare, inequality and perception.

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the nature and approaches of the subject. These points add depth.

Nature Spatial, integrative, applied
Evolution From description to critique
Use Planning with GIS

A Question You May Face

An original practice question, not a past paper question.

“Define human geography and trace the evolution of its approaches from areal differentiation to the radical and behavioural schools.”

How to Answer

Definition Nature and humans together.
Stages Four stages.
Schools Welfare, radical, behavioural.
Use Planning and policy.

GS Relevance

Prelims: definition, stages, schools of thought, sub-fields and sister disciplines. GS Paper 1: human geography concepts, approaches to the study of geography.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is human geography?

Human geography is the branch of geography that studies the relationship between the physical environment and the socio-cultural environment created by humans. It examines how human activities and settlements are distributed over space and how they change with time, using ideas from social sciences, and it includes population, settlement, economic and political geography.

What are the stages of development of human geography?

Human geography passed through the stages of exploration and description, regional analysis, areal differentiation, and spatial organisation, marked by the quantitative revolution. After the 1970s, it developed the humanistic or welfare, radical and behavioural schools of thought, which paid more attention to people, inequality and perception.

What is the quantitative revolution in geography?

The quantitative revolution was a phase in the 1950s and 1960s in which geographers used computers, statistics and mathematical models, and even laws of physics, to find patterns in human activities. It is associated with the stage of spatial organisation and was later criticised for ignoring human experience and inequality.

What is the radical school of thought in human geography?

The radical school, which arose in the 1970s, uses Marxian theory to explain poverty, deprivation and social inequality as results of the development of capitalism. It criticised earlier geography for ignoring social problems and argued that spatial patterns are shaped by economic and political power.

What are the main branches of human geography?

The main branches of human geography are social geography, urban geography, political geography, population geography, settlement geography and economic geography, with sub-fields such as behavioural, cultural, gender, medical, electoral and historical geography. Each is linked to a sister discipline of the social sciences.

PYQ Practice — Statement Analysis

1 The quantitative revolution is associated with the stage of spatial organisation.

True

Statistics and computers were used.

2 The radical school uses Marxian theory to explain inequality.