Q.1) Explain the following terminologies in about 50 words each: (5 x 5 =25 marks)
Humanistic geography
The term humanistic geography was used for the first time by Yi-Fi- Tuan in 1976. The focus of humanistic geography is humans and their conditions. It gave central and active role to human awareness and human agency, human consciousness and human creativity. It is a subjective approach which aims at verstehn, at an understanding of man in his environment.
Idealism in geography
This is a view that reality is mental or mind dependent. In a philosophical sense, idealism is the view that activity of the mind is the foundation of human existence and knowledge. It is in opposition to the naturalism and materialism.
The patterns of any of the phenomena of cultural landscape are not arbitrary but reflect the thinking of human who created them.
An idealistic geographer recognises the importance of human studying human activity on the earth in relation to the overall cultural context. It is an idiographic approach.
Radicalism in Geography
It is of the view that reality exist independent of the mind. It is not mind dependent. It is antithetical in many aspects to the idealism. The basic philosophy of idealism is that facts speak for themselves and explanation is logical and inductive. Advocates use of theories and models in geographical studies. It is very close to the philosophy of positivism but change in methodology of explanation.
Marxism in geography
Marxism in geography is a perspective within ‘historical materialism’ which is centrally concerned with the ways in which production of space, place and landscape is implicated in the reproduction of specific ‘social formations’. The historical materialism of Marx is based on the dialectic – the perpetual resolution of opposition, in which each resolution produces its own contradiction. Its main concern is uneven development. Social justice and regional inequalities.
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher.
Q.2) Distinguish between radical and welfare approaches in geographic studies. (20 marks)
Radical geography
The radical approach in geography developed in 1970s as a reaction to “quantitative revolution‟ and positivism which tried to make geography as a spatial science, with great emphasis on locational analysis.
Approach and objectives of radical geography are as follows
1. To expose the issues of inequality, deprivation, discrimination, health, exploitation, crime and environmental degradation in the capitalist countries.
2. To highlight the weaknesses of the positivism and quantitative revolution in geography which emphasized on geography as a “spatial science‟ with a thrust on locational analysis.
3. To bring a cultural revolution to eradicate permissiveness, sexism and discrimination against females.
4. To remove regional inequalities.
5. Radicalists opposed political centralization and economic concentration. Contrary to multinationals, they favoured small- scale self-sufficient social units, living in greater harmony with their natural surroundings.
6. They were against imperialism, nationalism, national chauvinism and racism.
7. They opposed the idea of the superiority of the white and the west.
8. According to radicalists the man and environment relationship may be understood through history. In other words, the mode of production in any society determines the economic relation among its people.
9. One of the objectives of the radicalists was to explain not only what is happening but also to prescribe revolutionary changes and solution to the social problems.
10. To develop a more just, equal, tension free, peaceful and enjoyable society.
Welfare geography
The welfare approach in fact emerged as the reaction to positivism, quantitative revolution, spatial science, and model-building which was thought to be insufficiently concerned with contemporary problems of human societies.
The 1970s saw a major redirection of human geography towards ‘welfare’ issues such as poverty, hunger, deprivation, malnutrition, crime, distribution of assets, income, and access to social services (e.g., health care and education).
The social problems are being tackled with approaches ranging from positive to normative, from radicalism to humanism, and from idealism to realism.
Approach
Welfare geographers who are trying to formulate pragmatic proposals for public policy clarify the description and explanation of the phenomena (problems of society). On the basis of such analysis they evaluate their plans and prescribe suitable strategies.
Description – empirical identification of territorial levels of human well being and human condition.
Explanation- involves identification of cause and effects links among various activities undertaken in society as they contribute who gets what and where.
Evaluation – involves making judgements on the desirability of the alternative geographical states and societal structure from which they arise. The judgements are made with reference to equity and as well as efficiency criteria.
Prescription – it is answering ethical question, who gets what and where?
Q.3) Define the quality of life and explain its parameters with adequate examples. (15 marks)
The concept of quality of life broadly encompasses how an individual measure the ‘goodness’ of multiple aspects of their life. These evaluations include one’s emotional reactions to life occurrences, disposition, sense of life fulfilment and satisfaction, and satisfaction with work and personal relationships. In the literature, the term ‘quality of life’ is also often referred to as ‘well-being’.
Parameters of quality of life
Material living conditions – material living standards are determined on the basis of three sub-dimensions: income, consumption and material conditions.
Productive or main activity – Productive or main activity dimension is determined through three sub-dimensions: quantity of employment, quality of employment and other main activity (inactive population and unpaid work).
Health – Health is an essential part of the quality of life of citizens and it can also be considered as a form of human capital. Poor health can affect the general progress of society. Physical and/or mental problems also have a very detrimental effect on subjective well-being.
Education – In our knowledge-based economies, education plays a pivotal role in the lives of citizens and is an important factor in determining how far they progress in life. Levels of education can determine the job an individual will have. Individuals with limited skills and competences are usually excluded from a wide range of jobs and sometimes even miss out on opportunities to achieve valued goals within society.
Leisure and social interactions – The power of networks and social connections should not be underestimated when trying to measure the well-being of an individual, as they directly influence life satisfaction.
Economic and physical safety – Security is a crucial aspect of citizens’ lives. Being able to plan ahead and overcome any sudden deterioration in their economic and wider environment has an impact on their quality of life.
Governance and basic rights – The right to get involved in public debates and influence the shaping of public policies is an important aspect of quality of life. There are 3 sub-dimensions covered in the governance and basic rights dimension: trust in institutions and public services; discrimination and equal opportunities and active citizenship.
Natural and living environment – Exposure to air, water and noise pollution can have a direct impact on the health of individuals and the economic prosperity of societies.
Q.4) Comment upon the contributions of D.M. Smith in outlining ‘welfare’ as a key focus in the geographies of social well-being. (15 marks)
Scientific revolution entered geography in the early 1970s. the pragmatist advocated the use of scientific methods for finding solutions to human problems. It is with this intention that scholars like David M Smith had adopted the welfare approach while discussing the problems and prospects of human geography.
Smith defined welfare geography as the study of “who gets what, where and how”. The geographical ‘state’ or situations in the above sense may refer to any aspect of spatial arrangement of human existence. It may relate to the spatial allocation of resources, income, or any other source of human well-being. The expression may concern with the spatial incidence of poverty or any other social problem.
The ‘who’ suggests a population of an area under review (a city, region or nation). The ‘what’ refers to various facilities and handicaps enjoyed and endured by the population in the form of services, commodities, social relationships, etc. The ‘where’ refers to the differing living standards in different areas. And ‘how’ reflects the process by which the observed differences arise.
Welfare geographers who are trying to formulate pragmatic proposals for public policy clarify the description and explanation of the phenomena (problems of society). On the basis of such analysis they evaluate their plans and prescribe suitable strategies.
Description – empirical identification of territorial levels of human well-being and human condition.
Explanation- involves identification of cause and effects links among various activities undertaken in society as they contribute who gets what and where.
Evaluation – involves making judgements on the desirability of the alternative geographical states and societal structure from which they arise. The judgements are made with reference to equity and as well as efficiency criteria.
Prescription – it is answering ethical question, who gets what, where and how?
Implementation – is the final process replacing the state or situations deemed undesirable by something superior.
Another way in which welfare geographers aid in the efforts for social wellbeing is that their analysis helps in strategizing for a balanced development. Geographical distance and ease of understanding mean that some people will be enjoying a better positional advantage due to locational aspects. Spatial allocation problems are related to the identification of priority areas, planning routes, the location of factories or other sources of employment, the spatial arrangement of facilities providing medical care, housing complexes, shopping centres and allocation of land for different urban and recreational uses. Each of these decisions could be made in some ways, and every decision can have a different influence.
Geographers by their expertise can build up more sophisticated knowledge and models of the process of development. This involves unscrambling and complex networks of economic, social and cultural relationships and also the ecological relationships in equilibrium, so easily disturbed by ill-conceived ‘developmental’ projects. Therefore, locational decisions and comprehensive plans for spatial allocation of resources must be made with utmost care and dedication, in a way that the benefits and penalties are found to be proportional among the population in a more or less predictable and reasonable manner.
Reasons such as the Vietnam war, crime explosion, environmental degradation etc. has led to the arrival of welfare approach in humanities and eventually in geography. Especially, with geography, with the issue of distribution taking a new urgency, the contribution of geographers such as D.M Smith and other welfare geographers brought the focus of geography on to the wellbeing of the society
Q.5) Elaborate upon the influence of Marxist philosophy on geographical research, outlining key themes addressed by Marxist geographers Since the 1970’s. (15 marks)
Marxism in geography is a perspective within ‘historical materialism’ which is centrally concerned with the ways in which production of space, place and landscape is implicated in the reproduction of specific ‘social formations’. The historical materialism of Marx is based on the dialectic – the perpetual resolution of opposition, in which each resolution produces its own contradiction. Its main concern is uneven development, Social justice and regional inequalities.
Marxist geography insists on value free inquiry. Marxists geography discloses the ‘social processes which originate spatial appearance’ and which in turn forms an input to the continuing social processes.
Marxist is a form of realism, which seeks to relate the empirical world of appearance to a set of infrastructural determinants – economic processes. It attempted to provide a powerful theoretical and political base for resistance to the dominance of the capitalist imperatives on individual action.
The Marxist and related realist works therefore suggest that the objectives of human geography should be:
1. To explain and interpret the patterns of spatial organization and of society-environment relationship. These patterns can be understood only by examining the economic processes;
2. That the economic processes cannot be understood directly, but can be appreciated through the development of theories of superstructure (religion and legal system);
3. That the economic processes are continuously changing, and therefore universal laws of superstructure cannot be derived;
4. That class struggle (bourgeoisie vs. proletariat) is central to the economic processes;
5. That any attempt to retain the present superstructure can only help the present unjust system (capitalism) to survive; and
6. That the objective of human geography should be to bring social change, to overcome the problems of exploitation of man and environment (resources).
Thus, the Marxist geography emerged as a critique of quantitative revolution which made geography as a regional science which promotes capitalism.
The Marxist geographers conceive that territorial structures essentially reflect the prevailing socio-spatial dialectics. Marxist geography analyses the dialectical relationships between social processes, natural environment and spatial relations.
The essence of Marxist philosophy is positivistic approach which puts emphasis on materialism. Marx writes: “It is not consciousness (ideas) that determines life, but life that determines ideas”. It is not the ideas that change the world, but the development of actual reality (space and place) which changes the ideas.
Marx believed that society develops in stages in accordance with the development in the factors of production (materials and instruments of labour). In other words, consciousness develops with productivity, increase in needs, and with an increase in the number of people. It emerges as a dynamic process because in transforming the bonds of our experience we transform ourselves.