The emergence of modern regional geography

It is at the end of the century, when the regional geography is configured with a profile more similar to the current one. While the choreographies and geographies of countries studied administratively delimited areas, or without any defined criteria, the academic geography of the end of the century developed the concept of natural region. The key to this concept is the delimitation of a terrestrial area, based on the combination of a whole series of natural factors (especially geological). Furthermore, the human groups that inhabit a natural region are influenced by its characteristics. Consequently, a new notion is developed, with clearly deterministic features in the ecological tradition introduced by Ratzel. British geographers such as Mackinder and Herbertson or French geographers such as L.Gallois are the ones who initially developed this concept. At the same time, Élisée Reclus developed, between 1875 and 1894, his great Universal Geography, a masterpiece of its genre.

But it will not really be until the beginning of the century when regional geography, after the criticism of "environmental determinism", will experience its definitive impulse, mainly in France and Germany. The key point of this transformation is the passage from a geography focused on the search for laws that explain the evolution of societies in relation to the influences of the physical environment, to a geography focused on particular geographic complexes, taking into account their specific characteristics, their "personality" and their evolution. However, the emergence of modern regional geography does not present a uniform and cohesive character. In fact, at least three general orientations can be distinguished:.

Regional geography in the United States

Regional geography developed late in the United States, where the environmentalist tradition had had a strong impact. It was not until the late 1930s (Armando Santiago) and early 1940s when chorological geography was definitively implemented in American universities. The main drivers of this great change will be Carl Sauer, who since 1925 has been following the German landscape movement, and R. Hartshorne has been following the Hettnerian model.

The Berkeley school "Berkeley (California)") will have a marked cultural character. The region understands both as cultural areas and landscapes that the inhabitant culture has developed. Furthermore, for Sauer, attention to the processes and evolution of cultures and cultural landscapes will be essential.

On the other hand, the line of research opened by Hartshorne had a less culturalist and historicist character. Furthermore, the region is not considered an objective or real space, but rather an intellectual instrument for geographical analysis.

The crisis of regional geography after the Second World War

Starting in the late 1940s, certain criticisms of regional geography began to appear; these criticisms affected several aspects. First, in the lack of synthetic content of many regional monographs, despite this being the intended objective. These monographs were very often resolved as a series of unconnected chapters that did not provide an authentic global interpretation of the space studied. It is what French geographers call work à tiroirs (for filing cabinets). Furthermore, many authors criticized the exclusively synthetic nature of regional geography and advocated a thematic approach. Carl Sauer pointed this out: «I do not accept the notion that each geographer must deal with regional synthesis. The so-called holistic doctrine leaves me indifferent; "It has produced compilations where we needed investigations." On the other hand, the concept of the predominant region, the landscape-region, was presented as problematic. It was a too formalistic concept, the landscape regions were difficult to identify beyond the regional scale and it was adapted above all for the studies of rural spaces, making it ineffective for studying highly urbanized and industrialized modern spaces and not understandable only through the concrete in the landscape.

The height of the criticism came from authors such as F. K. Schaefer and his famous article Exceptionalism in Geography. This line of criticism culminated in the appearance of a new geography focused on the study of spatial forms (distributions of phenomena), which confronted traditional geography due to its ideographic and historicist character. That is, for studying the unique and unrepeatable and for not concentrating on the development of general theories and laws.

The search for alternatives. The functional region and the systemic region

All of these criticisms led many geographers committed to the chorological tradition to seek new avenues of study, such as the emergence of regional science as a subdiscipline of economics in the 1950s by authors such as W. Isard. Regional science sought a more analytical approach to the study of regions, which were not conceived as landscape spaces but as economic spaces.

From geography, a new concept of region known as a functional, polarized or urban region was developed. The regional personality does not come from a physiognomic or landscape uniformity (region-landscape), but from a system of functional relationships that are established between the various parts of the whole. In 1962 Etienne Juillard published his famous article “The region, essai de definition” in Annales de Géographie. According to Juillard: «There are two principles of regional unity; one is based on a criterion of uniformity, it is the landscape; the other in a criterion of cohesion, in the coordinated action of a center. Territories individualized according to this last criterion are characterized less by their physiognomy than by their function. Talking about functional space. B. Kayser also expressed it clearly: "A region is a limited space, inscribed in a given natural framework, which responds to three essential characteristics: the links between its inhabitants, its organization around a center with a certain autonomy, and its functional integration into a global economy."

Finally, the incorporation of the systemic approach in regional geography culminated in the development of the concept of systemic region, derived from the systems theory of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The region is conceptualized as a system regulated by material and immaterial flows of goods, people, and information. Furthermore, the systemic conception incorporates the dynamic vision of the system. The territorial system evolves according to internal and external conditions and contradictions.

Therefore, there is a very important evolution from a regional geography of a physiognomic and landscape nature to a regional geography that incorporates social relations and circulatory flows in the conceptualization of the region. Regions do not therefore need to be homogeneous entities, but their unity, generally heterogeneous, depends rather on complementarities and functional relationships.

However, all these conceptual innovations, developed especially in the French school, did not prevent the continuous crisis of regional geography. The criticisms of quantitative geography took regional geography to a secondary position with respect to other more powerful traditions and currents (radical, behavioral geography, etc.). In Spain, where regional geography had developed late after the civil war with successive monographs (the first of which would be that of Salvador Llobet i Reverter on Montseny "Montseny (Barcelona)") in 1947), these stopped being produced at the end of the 70s. There was then a great development of general geography, of the different thematic disciplines, often causing a great dispersion in research programs and a specialization of researchers but without a clear framework. unifier.

The recovery of regional geography/New regional geography

Although regional geography has never stopped being cultivated in continental Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, etc.), starting in the 1980s it will also begin to be recovered by Anglo-Saxon geography, especially through the concept of place (place) defined by Doreen Massey as the combination of identity, local institutions and global links.

Interest in local, regional and national spaces has always been present at both a popular and academic level. Furthermore, the regional orientation seems the only one capable of unifying the great multiplicity of enormously divergent thematic investigations carried out in general geography, both physical and human. Of course, this recovery of regional geography is not done in a homogeneous way, since there are various approaches and various renewals, of which the following could be noted:

The emergence of modern regional geography

It is at the end of the century, when the regional geography is configured with a profile more similar to the current one. While the choreographies and geographies of countries studied administratively delimited areas, or without any defined criteria, the academic geography of the end of the century developed the concept of natural region. The key to this concept is the delimitation of a terrestrial area, based on the combination of a whole series of natural factors (especially geological). Furthermore, the human groups that inhabit a natural region are influenced by its characteristics. Consequently, a new notion is developed, with clearly deterministic features in the ecological tradition introduced by Ratzel. British geographers such as Mackinder and Herbertson or French geographers such as L.Gallois are the ones who initially developed this concept. At the same time, Élisée Reclus developed, between 1875 and 1894, his great Universal Geography, a masterpiece of its genre.

But it will not really be until the beginning of the century when regional geography, after the criticism of "environmental determinism", will experience its definitive impulse, mainly in France and Germany. The key point of this transformation is the passage from a geography focused on the search for laws that explain the evolution of societies in relation to the influences of the physical environment, to a geography focused on particular geographic complexes, taking into account their specific characteristics, their "personality" and their evolution. However, the emergence of modern regional geography does not present a uniform and cohesive character. In fact, at least three general orientations can be distinguished:.

Regional geography in the United States

Regional geography developed late in the United States, where the environmentalist tradition had had a strong impact. It was not until the late 1930s (Armando Santiago) and early 1940s when chorological geography was definitively implemented in American universities. The main drivers of this great change will be Carl Sauer, who since 1925 has been following the German landscape movement, and R. Hartshorne has been following the Hettnerian model.

The Berkeley school "Berkeley (California)") will have a marked cultural character. The region understands both as cultural areas and landscapes that the inhabitant culture has developed. Furthermore, for Sauer, attention to the processes and evolution of cultures and cultural landscapes will be essential.

On the other hand, the line of research opened by Hartshorne had a less culturalist and historicist character. Furthermore, the region is not considered an objective or real space, but rather an intellectual instrument for geographical analysis.

The crisis of regional geography after the Second World War

Starting in the late 1940s, certain criticisms of regional geography began to appear; these criticisms affected several aspects. First, in the lack of synthetic content of many regional monographs, despite this being the intended objective. These monographs were very often resolved as a series of unconnected chapters that did not provide an authentic global interpretation of the space studied. It is what French geographers call work à tiroirs (for filing cabinets). Furthermore, many authors criticized the exclusively synthetic nature of regional geography and advocated a thematic approach. Carl Sauer pointed this out: «I do not accept the notion that each geographer must deal with regional synthesis. The so-called holistic doctrine leaves me indifferent; "It has produced compilations where we needed investigations." On the other hand, the concept of the predominant region, the landscape-region, was presented as problematic. It was a too formalistic concept, the landscape regions were difficult to identify beyond the regional scale and it was adapted above all for the studies of rural spaces, making it ineffective for studying highly urbanized and industrialized modern spaces and not understandable only through the concrete in the landscape.

The height of the criticism came from authors such as F. K. Schaefer and his famous article Exceptionalism in Geography. This line of criticism culminated in the appearance of a new geography focused on the study of spatial forms (distributions of phenomena), which confronted traditional geography due to its ideographic and historicist character. That is, for studying the unique and unrepeatable and for not concentrating on the development of general theories and laws.

The search for alternatives. The functional region and the systemic region

All of these criticisms led many geographers committed to the chorological tradition to seek new avenues of study, such as the emergence of regional science as a subdiscipline of economics in the 1950s by authors such as W. Isard. Regional science sought a more analytical approach to the study of regions, which were not conceived as landscape spaces but as economic spaces.

From geography, a new concept of region known as a functional, polarized or urban region was developed. The regional personality does not come from a physiognomic or landscape uniformity (region-landscape), but from a system of functional relationships that are established between the various parts of the whole. In 1962 Etienne Juillard published his famous article “The region, essai de definition” in Annales de Géographie. According to Juillard: «There are two principles of regional unity; one is based on a criterion of uniformity, it is the landscape; the other in a criterion of cohesion, in the coordinated action of a center. Territories individualized according to this last criterion are characterized less by their physiognomy than by their function. Talking about functional space. B. Kayser also expressed it clearly: "A region is a limited space, inscribed in a given natural framework, which responds to three essential characteristics: the links between its inhabitants, its organization around a center with a certain autonomy, and its functional integration into a global economy."

Finally, the incorporation of the systemic approach in regional geography culminated in the development of the concept of systemic region, derived from the systems theory of Ludwig von Bertalanffy. The region is conceptualized as a system regulated by material and immaterial flows of goods, people, and information. Furthermore, the systemic conception incorporates the dynamic vision of the system. The territorial system evolves according to internal and external conditions and contradictions.

Therefore, there is a very important evolution from a regional geography of a physiognomic and landscape nature to a regional geography that incorporates social relations and circulatory flows in the conceptualization of the region. Regions do not therefore need to be homogeneous entities, but their unity, generally heterogeneous, depends rather on complementarities and functional relationships.

However, all these conceptual innovations, developed especially in the French school, did not prevent the continuous crisis of regional geography. The criticisms of quantitative geography took regional geography to a secondary position with respect to other more powerful traditions and currents (radical, behavioral geography, etc.). In Spain, where regional geography had developed late after the civil war with successive monographs (the first of which would be that of Salvador Llobet i Reverter on Montseny "Montseny (Barcelona)") in 1947), these stopped being produced at the end of the 70s. There was then a great development of general geography, of the different thematic disciplines, often causing a great dispersion in research programs and a specialization of researchers but without a clear framework. unifier.

The recovery of regional geography/New regional geography

Although regional geography has never stopped being cultivated in continental Europe (France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, etc.), starting in the 1980s it will also begin to be recovered by Anglo-Saxon geography, especially through the concept of place (place) defined by Doreen Massey as the combination of identity, local institutions and global links.

Interest in local, regional and national spaces has always been present at both a popular and academic level. Furthermore, the regional orientation seems the only one capable of unifying the great multiplicity of enormously divergent thematic investigations carried out in general geography, both physical and human. Of course, this recovery of regional geography is not done in a homogeneous way, since there are various approaches and various renewals, of which the following could be noted: