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THE FUTURE AND GEOGRAPHY
Dr Stephen Belbin, Lesotho
Written in advance of the International Geographical Union conference to be
held in South Africa during 2002 on the theme of The Geographical renaissance at
the dawn of the millennium, this article presents one possible overview of the
nature and value of modern Geography and geographical training in understanding
environmental and social issues.
INTRODUCTION
The future? New technology, infrastructure development, better healthcare,
greater access to education and wealth creation? Hopefully. But will these come
unaided and will they bring problems as well as riches. Economic depression,
greater population pressure, more pollution, increased armed conflict, never
ending inequality: things may be as troubled as ever. Solutions can come from
many sources but why bother with Geography? Isn't that an old fashioned school
subject about mountains, cities and maps. How can geographers help us address
the problems communities are facing now never mind what is likely to come? Read
on.
The word Geography literally means writing (graphy) about the Earth (geo). To
be more specific, the Earth means the land surface where we live, the habitat of
humankind. That's O.K. but given the forest of things, natural and man made that
surround us, "Earth writing" is likely to be too general, wide-ranging
even a nebulous activity of little specific use in the "real world".
Not so! Geography is more than just what geographers do. The discipline has long
had two interrelated themes or priorities which in their modern forms give
focus, coherence and relevance. These are the spatial dynamic and ecological
integration.
SPACE BEYOND A FRONTIER
Nothing on Earth happens in a vacuum, it occurs in and over space. But
there's more. Space is not just an area or background, the Geographer isn't just
interested in drawing lines on some big stage scenery to separate one region
from another. Space is a property of any phenomenon and can give clues as to
what and why something is. Furthermore, differences of space are differences of
essence and action, fueling action which can change essence. Space is not a
spectator, it is a player. It even dominates time. What is a year but movement
in space: one orbit of the Sun by the Earth? What is a day but movement in
space: one spin of the Earth on its axis of rotation? If these spaces change,
then time changes. It is as if time is just a fourth dimension of space.
Spatial scale is of course important. By its very definition, Geography
focuses on a spatial range between the size of the Earth (with its diameter of
12,000 km) down to the distance of a few centimeters, although for explanation,
geographers will go outside this range to the subatomic or to the rest of the
solar system and even beyond. But geographers also look at scales within this
focal range, addressing problems not just at the global level but at national
and perhaps most valuably, at local community levels where a professional,
perhaps an expert in national or international issues, has to deal with ordinary
people in a village.
Spatially aware geographers also recognize the spatial diversity that
underlies commonly used terms such as "the rural areas" or SADC, an
asset in getting to the specifics of a place, reminding us that all places have
value, that they cannot be easily dismissed as ghettos, that all countries,
regions and villages are not the same and that broad spatial generalizations
should be treated with caution. Related to this, regional analysis and
synthesis, a traditional aspect of Geography continues to be relevant given the
need for regional expertise among political and financial commentators even in
this world of globalization.
Geographers aren't just interested in static patterns or pinpointing
location. They also identify, measure and evaluate dynamic patterns of flow,
variability, temporal change and spatial diffusion, whether of matter, energy or
ideas. Even more, space is not just about what is there but also what we think
is there. Since our thought usually influences our behaviour, so the perception
by a community of where a river or a town is may need to mapped in addition to
mapping where they actually are. Space becomes even more complex when different
communities have different perceptions about the location of the same event.
Geographers can also advise on how spatial patterns can be improved and
predicted: the best location, the best use of an area, the spatial targeting of
mitigation measures: the best practice given prevailing conditions and
limitations, the most likely future change to a boundary, the most likely change
of use for an area, the most likely spatial impact of a certain event, the most
probable spatial scenario given a set of initial conditions and so on. Such
questions obviously do not just apply at the center of regions and zones but
often at the more dynamic, perhaps more unstable margins where change may be
more likely. Furthermore, to address these issues effectively, a decision or
policy maker will need spatial models, maps and the interactive random access
digital images of geographic information systems which geographers can provide
and interpret.
But above all, spatial awareness is not just a game of naming and placing
symbols or cleverly teasing out patterns from a wealth of data. It is also about
being able to translate between the image and the field. For example, what does
the line you draw actually mean not just at the size of our understanding as a
symbol on a map but also at the size of reality on the ground. In the
geographer's mind a map or image becomes a real enlargement of human vision
beyond the horizon. That is no mean trick to get right and requires training and
imagination: geographical imagination.
So analysis of space is clearly valuable in understanding the natural world,
not just the traditional patterns in Physical or Environmental Geography such as
mountains, rivers and soils that continue to be relevant but also to more modern
patterns of hazards, natural resources and environmental change such as global
warming, water quality, rainfall variability, sea level rise, the risk of frost
and flood, desertification and biodiversity decay.
But when it comes to human activity and Human Geography, surely new
technology is making space less important even irrelevant. E-mail (underlying
activities such as e-commerce, e-education and even e-voting) takes only seconds
(as long as the system is up and running, not down or running away) and you can
put your business on the other side of the world (as long as there is a
committed work force, you can manage people from a different culture and someone
does the training). In short, the real space now is cyberspace. We can also
travel at 5 times the speed of sound (given the air fare). The Atlantic ocean is
a pond. The Earth; a village.
Yet if we recall our human past then as we hurriedly click the computer mouse,
we may realize that new technology doesn't destroy space, it creates new space
and those that successfully embrace the future will be those that understand the
new space. But also remember that new technology is always spatially limited,
not accessible to everyone everywhere at least initially and even for some time
after. How many houses in the world still don't have a telephone never mind a
computer. For most of the world's population, new technology is more likely to
be a bicycle. If we all change to a sustainable non fossil fuel based
eco-economy, we may all be riding bicycles.
Furthermore, the future doesn't just belong to new technology. There are
spatial patterns of the human landscape based on older (active or relic)
technologies and social dimensions which still present us a plethora of problems
and challenges that shape what we do. Local economies and the regions they may
define, are not all the same as Manhattan or Chicago. This is not to say they
should be protected at all costs or become the basis for human conflict, but
they should be understood in their diversity and individuality. Even if a
shepherd in the Sahel of Northern Africa gets instructions from a restaurateur
in Paris direct by cell phone, this doesn't replace the local reality of feeding
and watering healthy , economically viable sheep in a fragile, vulnerable local
environment.
So, space still needs to be documented and deciphered, not just for
communities but also increasingly at the scale of the household and the
individual to understand trends and relics of environmental change and social
development in order to help combat not just the obvious although still unsolved
problems of drought, soil erosion, shanty towns and dirty water but many other
high profile issues such as drug trafficking, political migration, slavery,
racism, the debt crisis and global terrorism. If the world is getting smaller
for some, then the room; the space, for error becomes smaller and the spatial
context becomes more important. Spatial diversity will still exist in the
future, even the global. There will never be such a thing as complete
placelessness. To mentally sweep away consideration of the spatial differences
that geographers can help to enlighten is a mistake, even a dangerous mistake.
INTEGRATION NOT EXCLUSION
Again, nothing happens in a vacuum, events are not isolated they are
interconnected. Their understanding may therefore require not only detailed
analysis but an appreciation of phenomena beyond those directly n question, with
perhaps the identification of the key causal/functional linkages and their
organization into a system. This approach may mean trespassing into domains of
other branches of knowledge. A successful scientist, professional or problem
solver may therefore need to take a wider view, to integrate detail and
methodologies beyond their own specialism.
Geography, since it's early days (6th century B.C.) has taken an integrative
approach, not surprising due to the diversity of it's subject matter. In modern
times, Geographers have specialized in different key areas or different
geographies e.g. geomorphology, hydrology, climatology, urban and rural
geography, political geography, population geography, feminist geography and so
on. This has been necessary to develop a modern discipline capable of tackling
detailed environmental and social issues, using the most modern methods of data
collection and analysis available. But despite the plethora of Geographies, the
many "isms" used in human geographers (such as structuralism, realism
and marxism) and the various topics and natural processes studied in physical
geography, the true geographer is still an integrationalist At the heart of this
lies ecological integration, the interaction between people and their
environment, the cross between the challenge of the natural environment and the
complex human response. This aspect must be kept in view by the Geographer no
matter what specialism he or she pursues. For example, how can the climate
geographer ignore land surface transformation by human activity when the Earth's
surfaces influence weather to such an extent.. Similarly, how can the urban
geographer forget water resources, soil characteristics and so on and how does
the feminist geographer proceed without referring to gender based use of natural
resources.
Given such a wide perspective, a geographer must be prepared to rise to the
challenge of unashamedly crossing academic boundaries, even those within
Geography itself, stepping on other's toes, taking what is needed from across
the knowledge spectrum from natural and social sciences alike to explain what he
or she finds. Those that criticize such an approach as too general, encouraging
the growth of professionals who know nothing about everything, should remember
that the success of the human species is based on being a generalist and that
despite the numerous specializations within academia and beyond, there is a
realization that multidisciplinary, even ecological approaches such as in
Geography, are necessary to tackle both detailed issues as well as the big
questions of who on a species level we are, where are we going and what we
should be doing with the World.
Ecological integration therefore does not weaken Geography but gives it the
value of being able to advise on several modern issues in the desire for
sustainable development at all levels, such as the appropriate use of natural
resources, the proper management of waste and the need to combat the impact of
climate change on natural and human systems at different spatial scales.
Furthermore, as we are bombarded with more and more words and pictures everyday,
the need to distinguish between information and speculation to identify and
understand key links, especially the ecological, will become ever more urgent.
But the theme of ecological integration is not static. In the future, it will
not just involve the concrete world, but will increasingly include more on
gender, indigenous knowledge, emotional and even spiritual dimensions and more
analysis of the environmental and cultural images in the media, cinema,
television, painting, literature, photography, virtual reality, advertising and
the Internet in order to gain deeper understanding of the ecological link which
may help to identify more applicable, more sustainable practices and solutions.
FUSION
These two themes: the spatial dynamic and ecological integration, are not
unique to Geography. Space lurks in other subjects from Astronomy to History.
Ecological integration is not so common but does exist elsewhere such as in
Development Studies. What makes Geography unique is firstly the emphasis, they
are central not peripheral: they are paradigms. Secondly, they are fused. Space
is abstract but when combined at the Earth's surface with events, particularly
in the context of ecological integration, space becomes place. It's as if space
is a building which shapes us; the world and then we; the world shape space; the
building. It's as if there is a continual conflict between everything that is
trying to find it's own space and space trying to create its own patterns. Will
our brave new future be caught in the crossfire?
In essence, it is these two practices that for me define the discipline of
Geography i.e. that "Earth writing" means approaching the Earth's
surface as a complex environmental entity (that includes the human species)
while focusing on the ecological interaction between events at the variety of
spatial scales the events define and which define them. Doing this for the sake
of knowledge then enables geographers no matter what their specialization, to
help signpost solutions of many of the World's problems that undermine our
well-being, our supposed species supremacy and if unchallenged will threaten our
existence. Geography is therefore not sitting in an old fashioned dusty corner
of the schoolroom, fragmented and ready to be consigned to an academic dustbin
but is a modern, unified, challenging discipline whose time has come and whose
vision will be ignored at the risk of consigning the human race to the dustbin
of extinction.
EXAMPLES
To take some simple examples from Lesotho where I have been working for
several years. At an AIDS awareness workshop held at the National University of
Lesotho in 2000, the first act of the first key note speaker was to display a
map showing the incidence of AIDS in Africa. Does this mean that we have to be
aware of the spatial context of what is probably Africa's and Lesotho's biggest
enemy before we can get down to other important details?
At the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa conference held
in Maseru, Lesotho in October 2001, a keynote speaker illustrated how
interlinked the many environmental problems of Lesotho are, involving soils,
climate change, farming systems and poverty. How can such a web be understood
let alone addressed in the future without the detailed ecological integration
approach that Geography can offer?
On a more fundamental level, when someone says "I am a Mosotho"
they are referring not just to culture (the culture of the people of Lesotho and
beyond) but also to place and even to an environment. The fusion of Place,
Culture and Environment is the stuff of Geography and suggests even now with our
heightened sense of individuality and with what some call the demise of the
nation state, we cannot fully express an identity without invoking Geography?
These examples suggest that Lesotho, among other things, will need
Geographers to research, explain, predict, advise, teach and to provide some
basic conceptual and skills training for a variety of professionals so that the
country can embrace the future with all its benefits and problems.
How true for the future of the rest of Africa as well.
Dr Stephen Belbin is an independent Geography consultant specializing in
weather and climate with 10 years experience as a teacher and researcher in
Southern Africa
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