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, an ...

. 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 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 or critical geography. 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 The quantitative revolution (QR) was a paradigm shift that sought to develop a more rigorous and systematic methodology for the discipline of geography. It came as a response to the inadequacy of regional geography to explain general spatial dyna ...

. 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 Fred Kurt Schaefer (July 7, 1904 – June 6, 1953) was a geographer. He is considered one of the pioneers of quantitative revolution. Life Fred K. Schaefer was born in Berlin, Germany in the family of metal worker. He was involved in politics a ...

. 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 sect ...

and

geomorphology Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or ...

. 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 Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry (given name), Henry. People with this given name ; French noblemen :'' See the 'List_of_rulers_named_Henry#France, List of rulers named Henry ...

. Yet, according to Karna Lidmar-Bergström regional geography is since the 1990s not longer accepted by mainstream scholarship as a basis for geomorphological studies.

Notable figures

Notable figures in regional geography were Alfred Hettner in Germany, with his concept of chorology; Paul Vidal de la Blache 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 Richard Hartshorne (December 12, 1899 – November 5, 1992) was a prominent American geographer, and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who specialized in economic and political geography and the philosophy of geography. He is k ...

with his concept of areal differentiation. The school of Carl O. Sauer, strongly influenced by Alfred Hettner and Paul Vidal de la Blache, is also seen as regional geography in its broadest sense.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Regional Geography Area studies History of geography

Basics

Approach

Notable figures

See also

References