Geography as a Discipline

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Geography Class XI (Fundamentals of Physical Geography), Chapter 1.

Is geography just memorising capitals and rivers?

If your idea of geography is a list of capitals, rivers and mountain ranges, this chapter will change it. A list tells you what and where. Geography begins when you ask why: why do farmers in one region grow wheat and in another rice, why do cities spring up where they do, why did the Himalayas protect India and still let invaders and migrants through? The chapter explains how geography became a science, how it is organised, and why you are studying its physical side.

Where the word comes from

The word geography was first coined by Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar (276 to 194 BC). It joins two Greek roots, geo (earth) and graphos (description), and so means "description of the earth." Because the earth is the home of human beings, scholars refined the idea to "the description of the earth as the abode of human beings."

The earth's surface varies, and geography studies the variation

The surface is not uniform. Physical features vary: mountains, hills, valleys, plains, plateaus, oceans, lakes, deserts and wilderness. Social and cultural features vary too: villages, cities, roads, railways, ports and markets. The physical environment is the stage on which human societies have acted out their skills with the tools they invented. Geography reads the two together.

This is why geography came to be seen as the study of areal differentiation: the study of all phenomena that vary over space. But geographers do not stop at describing variation. They look for the causal relationship between phenomena. Cropping patterns differ from region to region, and that difference is linked to variations in soils, climate, market demand, the farmer's capacity to invest and the technology available. A geographer explains in a frame of cause and effect, which helps not only to interpret the present but also to foresee the future.

Three questions: what, where, why

The first two together give an inventory of what is where. That approach was popular in the colonial period, but it did not make geography a scientific discipline. The third question, why, did.

Pause and predict: a student lists every river of India and marks it on a map. Which of the three questions has she answered, and what could she ask next to make it geography as a science?

Check your answer: she has answered what and where. To move to science she must ask why: why do the Himalayan rivers flow all year while many peninsular rivers swell only in the monsoon, and what does that mean for people living along them?

Two views. For the exam: geography is the study of spatial attributes, in which the "why" question makes it a science. Another reading: geographers have also defined the subject in other ways. Richard Hartshorne and Alfred Hettner stressed describing and explaining areal differentiation, while others have defined geography mainly by its study of human and environment relationships or by its analysis of spatial patterns. The chapter itself touches all three emphases.

People and nature shape each other

Geographical phenomena, both physical and human, are not static but highly dynamic. They change through the interaction between an ever changing earth and untiring, ever active human beings.

Early societies depended directly on their surroundings for edible plants and animals. Nature left its imprint on food, clothing, shelter and occupation. As technology developed, people moved from adapting to nature to modifying it. Technology cut the harshness of labour, raised efficiency, freed time for higher needs, and increased the scale of production and the mobility of labour.

A poet's dialogue captures this: nature made the soil, humans made the cup; nature made the night, humans made the lamp; nature made wilderness, hills and deserts, humans made flower beds and gardens. From it come two phrases to remember.

Geography studies this two way relationship. Space is organised by transport and communication: routes are the links and settlements of every size are the nodes. As a social science, geography studies this spatial organisation and spatial integration.

Geography as an integrating discipline

Geography is a discipline of synthesis. It attempts spatial synthesis, while history attempts temporal synthesis. Its approach is holistic, because the world is a system of interdependencies, and the modern world has been called a global village because transport, audio visual media and information technology have shrunk distances and enriched data.

Geography borrows data from many sciences and fits them together. Different parts of the earth's surface are studied separately by natural sciences such as geology, pedology (soils), oceanography, botany, zoology and meteorology, and by social sciences such as economics, history, sociology, political science and anthropology. A geographer needs a broad grasp of these fields to bring them together.

How geography shapes history. Distance and space themselves have altered the course of history. Countries with great spatial depth gained defence, and in traditional warfare large countries could trade space for time. The ocean around the countries of the New World protected their soil from wars imposed from outside. In India, the Himalayas were a great barrier and protector, yet the passes gave routes to migrants and invaders from Central Asia. The coast encouraged contact with East and Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa, and navigation technology let European countries reach and colonise parts of Asia and Africa, including India, by way of the oceans.

Time as the fourth dimension. Every geographical feature changes over time and can be explained temporally. Time and space can also be converted into each other: place A can be 1,500 km from place B, or two hours away by plane, or seventeen hours away by a fast train. This is why time is called the fourth dimension of geography. The other three are the dimensions of space: length, breadth and height.

Two ways of studying geography

There are two major approaches. They are tied to two German geographers who were contemporaries.

Geography has shown dualism from the start. Earlier scholars emphasised physical geography. But humans are part of nature and have added their own cultural development, so human geography grew with an emphasis on human activity.

Branches of geography

Systematic approach. The branches fall into three families.

Biogeography sits where physical and human geography meet.

Regional approach. Its branches are regional studies (macro, meso and micro), regional planning (country or rural, and town or urban), regional development and regional analysis.

Pause and predict: a researcher maps where tigers live across the world and studies their habitats. Which branch is this?

Check your answer: zoo geography, under biogeography. It studies spatial patterns and characteristics of animals and their habitats. Ecology would instead study the habitat characteristics of species.

The geographer's toolkit

Two things are common to every discipline: philosophy and methods. In geography, philosophy includes geographical thought and the land and human interaction, or human ecology. Methods include cartography (including computer cartography), quantitative and statistical techniques, field survey methods and geo informatics, which covers remote sensing, GIS and GPS.

The discipline is not static. What was once manual cartography is now computer cartography, the internet offers large amounts of information, GIS has opened new vistas and GPS is a handy tool for finding exact locations.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: GIS and GPS are techniques of geo informatics, and GPS finds exact locations. In reality: the two do different jobs. A GPS receiver works out where it is by using signals from satellites, which gives a position. A GIS then stores, layers and analyses data about places, such as roads, rainfall or land use. Remote sensing supplies much of that data. Why it matters: a question that asks which tool "analyses spatial data" wants GIS, and "finds location" wants GPS.

Physical geography: why this book starts here

This chapter opens the study of physical geography, which covers four spheres.

Soils form through pedogenesis, which depends on parent rock, climate, biological activity and time. Time gives maturity to soils and lets a soil profile develop. Soils are renewable resources, and their fertility is both naturally determined and culturally induced, meaning human practice can raise or lower it.

Physical geography is now emerging as a discipline for evaluating and managing natural resources. The physical environment provides the resources, and people use them for economic and cultural growth. Fast resource use with modern technology has created ecological imbalance in the world, so a better understanding of the physical environment is essential for sustainable development.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: humans loosened the shackles of the physical environment through technology, and understanding physical geography supports sustainable development. In reality: the same technology that gave freedom also pushed some natural systems towards their limits, which is the very reason ecological imbalance is now a concern. Air conditioners, for example, cool a room and not the climate. Why it matters: the chapter expects you to hold both ideas together, freedom from nature and responsibility towards it.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Next: The Origin and Evolution of the Earth moves from what geography is to how the earth itself formed.
• Lithosphere link: Geomorphic Processes and Landforms and Their Evolution develop geomorphology.
• Atmosphere link: Composition and Structure of Atmosphere begins climatology.
• Hydrosphere link: Water (Oceans) builds on the hydrosphere.