Human geography is a branch of geography that emphasizes social groups and the way they interact and develop in relation to the natural environment they inhabit.
Examples of Human Geography
- Population geography – By focusing on the study of how a population is distributed and the temporal processes related to it.
- Economic geography – Considering the economic factors and consequences on a social group when being in a given natural environment.
- Cultural geography – By analyzing the cultural relationships of a social group with the landscape.
- Urban geography – Which studies the manifestations in cities.
- Rural geography – When studying agrarian systems, their drawbacks and determined spaces.
- Medical Geography – Studying the environmental factors that affect the health of a population.
Examples of Types of Human Geography Studies
- Demographic studies.
- Social geography with a sociological perspective.
- Geography of rural areas such as agronomy.
- Urbanism and architecture.
- Human ecology.
- The implications of living in a polluted city.
- The social consequences of living in a certain neighborhood of a city.
- Mobility conditions in a city.
- Distribution of a population in a given environment.
- Environmental management of a group or society according to its cultural values.
What is human geography?
As part of geography, human geography is considered to be the second great division within this discipline. In a strict sense, it is responsible for the study of human societies from a spatial perspective, so it emphasizes the way in which societies develop in a physical environment they are inhabiting.
On the other hand, human geography also considers the cultural landscapes and human regions that are built as the social relations between human beings delimit them.
According to some perspectives, human geography could be considered as a regional geography of human societies, where it seeks to identify the way in which human activities are developed from a spatial point of view.
The Human Geography Approach
We must be very clear that human geography does not focus on the physical environment, which is studied by physical geography. What this discipline seeks, as mentioned, is the study of human societies but from a spatial perspective.
What does human geography study?
Understanding that it is a discipline with an interest in human ecology and cultural landscapes, it can be mentioned in this regard that the object of study of this discipline consists of:
- The analysis of the distribution of the human population on the earth’s surface.
- The causes of human distribution on the planet.
- The consequences of this distribution in political, economic, social, demographic and cultural terms.
- The consequences on the existing or potential natural resources of that geographical environment at various scales.
Methods of studying human geography
They are extremely diverse and can be refined, selected or discarded to a large extent according to the characteristics of the object of research. Beyond the above, we can think of two large groups:
- Quantitative research methods – Including: case studies, surveys, statistical analysis and modelling.
- Qualitative research methods – Which can be: historical, documentary, anthropological, with interviews, focus groups, observation, discourse analysis and the like.
Fields of study of human geography
Although it is mentioned with some emphasis that human geography concentrates on the study of human regions and the relationships that are woven between man and the natural environment, we must not fail to mention other branches in which it can be involved such as:
- Population geography – By studying distribution patterns on the surface.
- Economic geography – By considering economic patterns and processes around that distribution in time in a terrestrial space.
- Cultural geography – Being a science that studies human agglomerations, where cities are the maximum representation.
- Geografía rural – El énfasis como su nombre lo indica es el mundo rural-
- Geografía política – Su estudio sobre los espacios políticos.
- Geografía médica – Analiza los efectos del medio ambiente en relación con la salud de las personas.
- Geografía del envejecimiento – en algunos casos se la conoce como geografía gerontológica y analiza las implicaciones espaciales y sociales del envejecimiento en la población mayor, según sea su entorno físico y social.
