The essentials
Geography is an integrative discipline that studies the earth as the home of humans. Human geography is the branch that focuses on the relationship between human societies and the earth's surface. Physical environment (landforms, soils, climate, water, natural vegetation, fauna) and the cultural environment created by people (houses, villages, cities, roads, industries, farms, ports) are closely linked, and human geography studies this two-way link.
Physical and human phenomena are often described in each other's terms: we speak of the "mouth" of a river, the "snout" of a glacier or the "neck" of an isthmus, and also describe a city or region as a living organism. This shows how closely the two are tied together in geographical thinking.
Key points
- Friedrich Ratzel: human geography is the synthetic study of the relationship between human societies and the earth's surface (emphasis on synthesis).
- Ellen C. Semple: human geography studies the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth (emphasis on dynamism).
- Paul Vidal de la Blache: emphasised the relations between living beings and the physical laws of the earth; he is linked with possibilism.
- Human geography is interdisciplinary. Social geography links with sociology, political geography with political science, economic geography with economics, historical geography with history, population geography with demography.
- Sub-fields include settlement geography, urban geography, agricultural geography, industrial geography, geography of transport and communication, medical geography, electoral geography and military geography.
Exam tips
Questions often give a definition and ask you to identify its author. Remember the keyword: Ratzel – "synthetic", Semple – "changing", "unresting man", "unstable earth".
Common mistakes
Students sometimes think human geography studies only people. It actually studies people in relation to their physical setting, and the landscape that results from this interaction.