Geography

The aim of Geography is always to provide account of the nature of geography as a field of study. For most people, the term ‘geography’ has an instant, if over-simplified, meaning. Different  countries in the world, rivers, mountains, and capital cities, and their location on maps, are often among the fi rst things that come to mind. If a contestant in a popular quiz show chooses the category of geography for his or her questions, these are often the questions posed. Geography is of course far more complex than this inventory of factual material. Its subject matter is extremely varied, its concepts are many and well developed and its methodologies are rigorous. It is a broad church with a range of interests and involvements that is often surprising. Modern geography has come a long way from simple descriptions of places and landforms, and it is this modern face that we need to portray. One stance we wish to emphasize is the centrality of geography to many of the big issues that beset the modern world. These range from global warming and other aspects of environmental change to the spatial incidence and spread of diseases such as HIV and AIDS. Geographers have the skills and experience to be involved in teams that address issues of this kind. Geography has always fallen into two parts, physical and human. Physical geographers study the Earth’s surface as a physical entity with its landforms, vegetation cover, soils, climatic variation, and so on. Human geographers are concerned with the ways in which people occupy the Earth’s surface, their movements and settlements, and their perceptions and use of the land, resources, and space. Out of this duality rises one of the strengths
of geography: its ability to act as a bridge between nature and society. We will outline the original ‘Geographical Experiment’ that rested on this synergy between nature and culture, and  recognized the unique position of geography between the sciences and the humanities. The integration of geography as a single discipline, which was explicit and strong through the earlier decades of the 20th century, has became less so in modern times. Greater specialization means that physical and human geographers tend to follow different agendas and refer to different sets of academic literature and scholarship. These trends will be closely discussed, and one of our stances will be to advocate the continuing value and strength of integrated geography.We have acknowledged key sources but owe particular thanks to Seitse Los for preparing the satellite images of the Aral Sea; to Giles Young, who climbed the mountain to take the photograph of Storbreen glacier foreland; and to Nicola Jones and Anna Ratcliffe for their sterling work on drawing, modifying, or otherwise preparing all the illustrations in their fi nal form. We are also grateful to Andrea Keegan for her insights and suggestions.