JÓZSEF TÓTH
Department o f General Human Geography and Urban Studies, Janus Pannonius University H-7624 Pécs, Ifjúság útja 6
INTRODUCTION
The aim of all those efforts that have been made in order to elaborate the topics and clarify the principles of cultural, sport and medical geography - in the success of which our younger colleagues have played a great role - is to try to widen the scope of geography, to analyse new geographic fields and to prove the usefulness and efficiency of this attempt.
Summarising the results of this attempt, and trying to determine the place and connection system of these new subdisciplines in the inner structure of geography sci
ence, it is unavoidable to speak about the taxonomic position of geography and the inner structure of geography science.
It is necessary because, regarding this issue, one can find conflicting views in the international literature. Without analysing the bases of certain details and presenting the whole set of arguments, a brief summary is presented below.
STEREOTYPES
There are several misinterpretations or simplifying stereotypes concerning geo
graphy. For the non-professional, who meets geography only as a primary or secondary school subject, and at most through the news of the media that contain geographic in
formation, the ties and differences between the subject, the university major and the science are not clear. Concerning the above mentioned domains there are great differ
ences in geography, thus identification - owing to a slow appearance of the modern achievements of the discipline in the training - is not easy. Therefore, the public opinion devaluates geography science to the level of a school subject which describes facts and phenomena, determines their place and collects the data.
With respect to the geographic science the scientific public opinion is embar
rassed by the concept of geography being a natural and a social science at the same time.
According to a superficial approach, part of it belongs to the natural, another part to the social sciences. This latter approach has representatives even among professionals, how
ever the view, according to which geography is a uniform, but Janus-faced science, is spreading.
Naturally, these problems are the concomitants of the development of each sci
entific discipline. Only the self-improvement of the disciplines and that of the whole science can bring solution, at the same time producing new conflicts.
THE TOPIC OF GEOGRAPHY SCIENCE
Human being - through his needs as of a biological being - can live only in the natural environment using its endowments. The relationship between nature and human beings organised into society, becomes stronger and stronger with the development of the forces of production. Dividing this complicated process into three phases (Figure 1) one can state the following:
1. In the first, pre-industrial phase, the relation between the undisturbed nature and society (with the latter including a low number of population) is weak and - except some limited regions - well-balanced.
2. In the second, industrial phase, as a result of the accelerated development of the forces of production, the two circles, symbolising the two spheres begin to overlap with each other and a new space type appears, which belongs to both of the spheres simultaneously. The relation becomes unbalanced.
• In this space type the laws of both spheres are valid, because it is part of both of them.
• In this space type - since the laws of both spheres are valid - the assertion of the laws is influenced by the other sphere.
geographic environment (social-economic space)
unbalanced interaction
---►
strong interaction
Fig. 1. The stages of the development of geographic environment (social-economic snace)
• This new space type means a new quality. One can call this geographic environment or, with a synonym, social-economic-natural-infrastructural space.
• This new space type is the domain of geography science, the exploration of its structure and evolution is the task of geography science.
3. In the third, post-industrial phase the nature-human interrelationship becomes strengthened and balanced, and a new space, the total geographic environment is coming into existence. The topic of modern geography science is to become global, instead of the physical space, geographic environment of the mental type, structured through the distance weighted by the closeness of socio-economic relations, as an increasingly sig
nificant domain necessarily raises the prestige of the science itself.
The three phases shown in Figure 1 are the three stages of the temporal devel
sion is mentioned so often, that the concepts themselves have become cliches. In fact we do not think over the essence of the process, thus a schematic picture evolves in our mind. This suggests that if the development level of the forces of production rises from stage "A" to stage "B” during time "t", the certain stages can be characterised by lines (Figure 2).
Meanwhile, the well-known fact that the advancement o f the forces of produc
tion is unbalanced, the different sectors of economy appearing during labour division have different dynamics of development and their initial levels of development are dif
ferent, is pushed into the background. If replacing the former schematic, straight lines equivalent to development levels "A" and "B" with zigzagged ones, in a way that one part of this line gets under, other part gets over the straight meaning the average, then one can get the development level of forces of production in stages "A" and "B". With the line-section getting above the straight representing the average, calling alpha-, and the other sections calling beta-branches, one can predict that after period "t", alpha- branches have better chances in stage "B" to keep on functioning as alpha-branches (to maintain their position), while beta-branches remain under the average level.
In the case of structural transformation, changes might occur, however they are the result of some technical-technological rearrangement, or that o f central interventions.
time state of development
Fig. 2. The sectoral aspect o f the development o f production forces
From a sectoral view it can be stated that the unequal sectoral development of the forces of production means further inequality, moreover it proceeds with the appear
ance of inequalities. It is natural that alpha and beta branches have special interests and these interests are related to the position of the given branches.
2. If the unified process of the development of production forces are viewed not from sectoral aspect, but approached from the spatial side, then it can be said that in
certain regions alpha branches prevail, while in other ones beta branches are concen
trated as a result of the effect of the social-economic-historical factors (Figure 3). This kind of concentration does not mean exclusivity, rather the predominance of the alpha- or beta type of branches that counts. As a result of the different spatial allocation of the
Fig. 3. Spatial aspect o f the development o f production forces. - 1 = social-geographic space; 2 = developed, innovative regions with the concentration o f alpha-branches; 3 = underdeveloped, depressed regions with the concentration of beta-branches
two branch-types, inequalities and regional disparities appear in the course of the devel
opment of social-economic space.
According to the above mentioned positions, it is evident that with the devel
opment of regions, characterised by the concentration of alpha- or beta branches, spe
cific interests are associated stemming from the situation of the related areas.
These two approaches - the regional vs sectoral aspect of the development of productive forces - are of the equal rank. Both the development of sectoral and regional disparities can be considered an objective process, as well as those interests which fol
low the progress and can be interpreted from sectoral and regional aspects.
3. Geographical approach - according to the summary of our explanation - means that the expert
- interprets the phenomena in a broad system of complex interrelationships;
- his/her ideas comprise the social-economic-infrastructural-natural space, i. e.
the geographic environment;
- interprets the phenomena both from sectoral and regional aspects;
- when observing things spatially, the temporal aspect is not left out of his/her consideration.
4. It should be stated that the indispensability of the geographic approach can
not be restricted to geography. Starting from the point that everything is allocated somewhere in the social-economic space, the approach related to space and spatial proc
esses have significance for the society.
THE INNER STRUCTURE OF GEOGRAPHIC SCIENCE
In connection with the inner structure of geographic science there are several approaches. The author disregards describing the details relating to this, but it should be mentioned that the reason for the different divisions or the confused logical base of
- human geography, dealing with the topic of geography from the aspect of society, - physical geography, dealing with the topic of geography from the aspect of nature, - regional geography, dealing with the topic of geography from the aspect of the sepa
rated elements (regions, countries, areas) of the social-economic-infrastructural-natural space (geographic environment).
2. For all of the three aspects and in between the connecting aspect-pairs a number of auxiliary sciences provide the material to be synthesised and built in. The
General Sectoral Regional (describing)
Fig. 4. The inner structure of geographic science. - 1 = branches of geography; 2 = auxiliary sciences;
3 = ways o f approach
demand for the knowledge of the auxiliary sciences - in the case of the large number of disciplines - makes the cultivation of geography particularly difficult.
3. The complexity and versatility ensures that the graduated experts are able to occupy jobs beyond their narrower qualification successfully.
4. In Figure 4 it is shown that in contrast to the former (horizontal) approach, the aspects of geography can be interpreted according to general, sectoral or regional viewpoints coming to the fore.
5. The general, sectoral, and regional approaches can be conceived within hu
man, physical and regional geography, moreover they are valid for the broader subdisci
plines of certain branches of geosciences.
L. Bassa-A. Kertész (eds): Windows on Hungarian Geography
Studies in Geography in Hungary 28, Geographical Research Inst. HAS, Budapest 1998, pp. 117-129