The Greeks already spoke of the ecumene. For them this refers to the entire world known by a culture, to that portion of the Earth permanently inhabited. It is closely related to human geography. The Earth is taken as the home of the human species and the relationship of interdependence between humanity and its habitat is asked. The geographical point of view is confused with the ethnographic point of view to delimit its inhabited areas, giving rise to other ecumens.
Knowledge of the Earth leads them to know other spaces, deserts and inhabited areas, and other ways of living. Cartography helps to specify locations and distributions; National geographic schools develop their interests and methods. The theory of a single ecumene on Earth disappears although it is preserved with some philosophical theories, as in the case of Kant who, when exposing the duty of the citizen, finds that to inhabit the Earth is to behave as a citizen of the world.
The question of the ecumene is reformulated in human geography in which Vidal de la Blache (Principes de géographie humaine, 1921) uses the word to name the relationship of the Earth with humanity: "Above the localism, from which the previous conceptions are inspired, the general relations between the Earth and man are updated (...). The oceanic solitudes divided the ecumene for a long time, ignoring each other each other (...). Nowadays all parts of the Earth come into relationship, isolation is an anomaly that seems a challenge". The evolution of a humanity divided into different ecumene towards a single united ecumene gives way to the principle of terrestrial unity that founds human geography.
Max Sorre") develops this concept of the "united ecumene" by Vidal de la Blache and goes so far as to say that the Earth is above all a habitat in the biological sense, where the human race lives and reproduces, dividing itself into races adapted to different environments (geographical determinism, opposed to possibilism).[4] He begins to glimpse that it is a space that concerns society. Max Sorre makes the ecumene a key notion of human geography.
Years later, although it seemed that the end of classical geography had already arrived, O. Dollfus"), finds it again and attempts to reduce those who try to reformulate the geographical project: “The domain of geographical space in its broadest sense is "the epidermis of the Earth", that is, the terrestrial surface and the biosphere. In a meaning that is only apparently more restrictive, it is the habitable space, the ecumene of the ancients, where natural conditions allow the organization of life in society. Until recently, the ecumene more or less coincided with arable land usable for agriculture and grazing. The deserts where irrigation is impossible, the glacial domain of high latitudes and high mountains were excluded from this. This notion of the ecumene must be revised. The geographer Max Sorre, who has developed and used it extensively, confirmed it himself.”
A. Berque") proposes to extend the ecological relationship between man and habitable Earth towards an ontological reflection that takes into account the human character of the Earth and the terrestrial foundation of humanity. This interrelation that Beerqe brings closer to the definition of geographical space. All points of geographical space are located on the surface of the Earth, defined by their coordinates and their altitude, but also by their location. As a locatable space, the geographical space eu finds itself mappable. Later, Jameson (1986) will demand a “social cartography”, maps that “allow situational representation”, relating the imaginaries of social beings with the real conditions of their existence.
In the analysis of geographical space, we start from what is present, from what is visible, to understand the importance of inheritance and the speed of evolution, to decipher the systems that are the structures that act on space. The analysis of an urban landscape is revealing of its history and its development conditions, and shows the weight of the past in the organization of urban space in contemporary times. Different attempts have been made to classify geographical spaces and the fundamental criterion that has been followed is that of spatial order, although other classifications could be based on climate or even levels of development (developed or underdeveloped countries). The analysis and understanding of the phenomena located in a geographical space involves the use of cartographic documents where different elements are selected according to the scales used. Human action tends to transform the natural environment into a geographic environment, and although human history is minimal for the history of the Earth, it holds a main position for the explanation and understanding of geographic space.