Humanistic Approach in Geography (Humanism)

Development of Humanistic Geography

• Early Recognition of Humans as Agents of Change
  • The idea that humankind is an agent of change on the Earth’s surface was first introduced by Comte de Buffon in the 18th century.
  • Influenced by Buffon, Immanuel Kant developed anthropocentric physical geography:
    • It included not just natural landforms but also human-created features on Earth.
    • Kant believed that empirical knowledge could arise either through:
      • Pure reason, or
      • Senses, which he divided into:
        • Inner senses → representing human soul or mind (seele or mensch),
        • Outer senses → representing Nature.
• Carl Ritter and Reciprocity Between Nature & Humans
  • In his famous work Erdkunde, Carl Ritter adopted Kant’s anthropocentric concept.
  • He emphasized that geography’s core theme was the reciprocal relationship between natural phenomena and humanity.
• Friedrich Ratzel: Systematic Human Geography
  • In Anthropogeographie, Friedrich Ratzel created a systematic framework for studying human geography.
  • His approach reflected Darwinian natural selection, integrating it into geography.
  • Before Ratzel, human geography was largely regional in scope, but he broadened it into a systematic discipline.
• Paul Vidal de la Blache (Father of Modern Human Geography)
  • In 1899, Blache introduced a possibilistic philosophy to geography.
  • His concept of genre de vie (way of life) described:
    • How human cultures evolve and shape nature through accumulated knowledge and practice.
    • Nature serves as an adviser, while humans act as active forces of change.
  • Jean Brunhes carried forward Blache’s ideas across France and beyond, stressing human exploitation of Earth to fulfill needs and desires.
• Lucien Febvre (1922)
  • Coined the term possibilism in his Geographical Introduction to History.
  • Highlighted how humans, through centuries of labour and decisions, had profoundly modified the Earth’s surface.
• Carl O. Sauer’s Landscape Paradigm (1924)
  • Introduced the idea that humans fashion natural landscapes, emphasizing human influence on the environment.
• Shifts in Geographic Thought: 1920s–1950s
  • 1920s: Positivist philosophy was revived (originally by August Comte in the 1830s).
  • 1950s: Geography underwent a theoretical and quantitative revolution:
    • Schaefer’s spatial organization paradigm and critique of Kant’s exceptionalism opened the door to this change.
• Critical Revolution (1970s)
  • In the 1970s, another revolution occurred—anti-positivist in nature.
  • Known as the Critical Revolution, it responded to the limitations of quantitative and spatial methods.
  • Shifted emphasis toward:
    • Human awareness, consciousness, creativity.
    • Freed humans from the geometric determinism of earlier spatial models.
  • Modern humanistic geography largely grew out of dissatisfaction with the quantitative revolution.
• Revival of Normative Values
  • Humanistic geography revived interest in normative statements:
    • Values, beliefs, attitudes.
    • Aimed at verstehen (understanding humans in their environment).
    • Recognized humans’ ability to use rationality to improve life conditions.
• Reframing Geography’s Focus
  • Proponents argued geography should not be an earth science.
  • Instead, geography should be seen as:
    • The study of the earth as home of humankind.
    • Focus on how humans perceive and experience the places they inhabit.
• Anne Buttimer (1978)
  • Attempted to revive Vidalienne tradition:
    • Argued that spatial units should be studied from local perspectives with a historical approach (similar to Blache’s concept of pays).
  • But there were differences from Blache:
    • Blache viewed human geography as a natural science.
    • Much of his work contained functionalism, which humanistic geographers rejected.
  • Humanistic geography emphasized neo-Kantianism and pragmatism:
    • Focused on human consciousness and experience shaping human actions to solve problems.
• Contrast with Behavioural Geography
  • Humanistic geography began on similar lines as behavioural geography, but they soon diverged:
    • According to Entrikin, humanistic geography focused on subjectivity—both of the researcher and the researched.
    • It moved away from behaviourialism’s formal structures, which were connected to the positivist tradition.
• Early Advocates
  • William Kirk (1951):
    • One of the first to advocate humanistic geography.
    • In his essay Historical Geography and the Concept of the Behaviourial Environment, he laid the groundwork.
    • However, the timing wasn’t right—quantitative revolution was taking root then.
  • Yi-Fu Tuan (1976):
    • A major voice for humanistic geography.
    • Defined it as:
      • Concerned with people and their conditions.
      • Sought understanding of the human-nature relationship and human perception of space and place.
    • Viewed geographical phenomena as manifestations of human awareness and knowledge.
• Advancements After the 1980s
  • Humanistic geography evolved beyond critique of positivism:
    • Became critical of structuralism.
    • Developed more insightful empirical methodologies.
  • Two prominent streams emerged:
    1. Linking with Humanities:
       • Explored knowledge rooted in human feelings and personal experiences of being human on Earth.
    2. Linking with Social Sciences:
       • Integrated with various philosophies from human and social sciences.

Humanism/ Humanistic Geography

• Humanism is one of the new approaches in geography which emerged during the period of Critical Revolution in Geography
  • It is principally derived from behavioural approach which was also a critique of the Quantitative Revolution
• In true sense, it is an anthropocentric approach, where the role of the human being is considered as central in the solution of complex problems of Human beings and every human being is considered unique
• This approach was developed by Tuan in 1976, According to him, Human awareness, consciousness, and creativity helps in the understanding of meaning, value, and significance of life events of human beings
  • So, the life of humankind has a profile. It may be a profile for an individual family, community, or a nation
  • Life events require anthropocentric explanation where individual behaviour on a particular event needs to be geographically explained
• Humanism contradicted Positivism on the following basis
  • Man as economic and rational
  • Geography as geometrical (only a spatial science neglecting humans)
  • Isotropic surface
  • Man as a mere point on the surface
• Humanism in geography started in late 1960s but after publication of Tuan’s work “Humanistic Geography”, it took centre stage after fall of Quantitative Revolution.
  • The revival of humanism in 1970s owed much to a deep dissatisfaction with more mechanistic models developed during Quantitative Revolution.

Theories of Humanism

• Humanism is based on 4 major theories, in order to understand life events in a better way-
  1. Human Agency – Man is an actor and he influences nature by his tools or technologies. This is close to possibilism where man is an active agent of change.
  2. Human Consciousness – Humans are governed by the human environment or intellectual
     environment which has consciousness. Humans make use of perceptions and mental maps. It is
     close to behaviouralism.
  3. Human Awareness – Man has geographical knowledge and from the day of his existence, his awareness related to the environment is increasing. He knows the limitations and possibilities and that is how he acts. It is close to existentialism. Thus, man has geographical knowledge as well as environmental consciousness.
  4. Human Creativity – Humans have the special ability to create their own tools and the physical environment behaves neutral. Due to his creativity, man can modify the environment for his benefit but man’s creativity varies with circumstances e.g. man’s behaviour in a crowd and privacy are not the same.

Themes

• Origin and Basic Premise
  • Humanistic geography emerged as a reaction against the overly abstract and structuralist approaches in human geography.
  • It opposed the idea of reducing human geography to mere studies of space and structures, ignoring human experience.
  • Sometimes used interchangeably with humanism, it gave central importance to humans, their experiences, and actions.
  • More precisely, humanistic geography focused on the outcomes of human activities and how these reflected human awareness, perception, and creativity.
• Foundational Principles
  • According to Ley and Samuels, humanistic geography was built on three key ideas:
    1. Anthropocentrism — placing humans at the center of study.
    2. Subjectivity — valuing individual perceptions, experiences, and meanings.
    3. Concept of Place — recognizing emotional and symbolic attachments to places.
• Humans Beyond “Economic Man”
  • Rejected the narrow notion of humans as only economic decision-makers.
  • Instead, aimed to explore how geographical activities and phenomena emerged as expressions of human awareness, creativity, and perceptions.
• According to Tuan, there are five basic themes of general interest to geographers, namely –
  1. Nature of Geographical knowledge and its role in human survival
  2. The role of territory in human behaviour and the creation of place identities
  3. The interrelationship between crowding and privacy
  4. The role of knowledge as a factor of influence on the livelihood
  5. The influence of religion on human activities
• These 5 themes have established humanistic approach/humanism or humanist geography
  • Tuan was himself in favour of its recognition as a new critical approach of human geography

Yi-Fu Tuan’s Five Key Themes of Humanistic Geography

1. Geographical Knowledge or Personal Geographies
   • Humans are seen as rational beings capable of thinking, perceiving, and making sense of their environment.
   • Ideas, thoughts, and perceptions arising in human minds constitute personal geographical knowledge.
   • This knowledge is subjective and varies from person to person.
   • People rely on their personal geographical knowledge for biological survival and decision-making about the environment.
2. Role of Territory and Creation of Place Identities
   • A sense of place is a central concern in humanistic geography.
   • Every individual develops emotional bonds with certain spaces where their biological and social needs are met.
   • Such spaces become more than physical areas; they turn into personal territories tied to individual identities.
   • Humanistic geographers study how a simple spatial unit transforms into a meaningful place identity for a person.
3. Crowding and Privacy
   • Crowding in a space can cause physical and psychological stress.
   • Societal mechanisms such as cultural practices, social institutions, and infrastructure help manage these stresses.
   • Conversely, privacy and seclusion are important for personal well-being.
   • In private spaces, individuals build their own inner world, which influences their thoughts and actions.
4. Role of Geographical Knowledge in Determining Livelihood
   • To sustain life, humans engage in economic activities informed by their geographical knowledge.
   • People use this knowledge to decide what activities to pursue and where to conduct them.
   • This reflects a pragmatic approach — distinguishing between life-sustaining and life-destroying actions based on an understanding of space.
5. The Impact of Religion
   • Religion is viewed as a deeply subjective realm involving values, beliefs, and ethics.
   • It reflects a human desire for coherence — to make sense of life and surroundings.
   • Variations in religious experiences, across individuals and cultures, offer valuable insights for humanistic geographers to explore the relationship between belief systems and geographical spaces.

Approaches in Humanistic Geography

• Humanistic geography emerged as a conceptual perspective that emphasized:
  • A deep understanding of human-environment relationships.
  • Focused on individual and group awareness and experiences in relation to various spatial units and geographical phenomena.
• Unlike positivist and behavioural frameworks:
  • It viewed humans as rational, thinking, perceiving beings.
  • Not as mere responders to external stimuli.
• According to Ley and Samuels, humanistic geography integrated various philosophical traditions:
  • Idealism
  • Existentialism
  • Hermeneutics
  • Phenomenology
  • Plus earlier influence of pragmatism.
• The central aim was to create a people-centered geography with human development as its primary goal.
• Realizing its importance as a branch of geography, some geographers have developed approaches for humanistic geography.
  • Presently, there are 3 well recognized approaches in Humanistic geography –

Idealistic Approach

• As a counter to the postulates of positivism, Leonard Guelke propounded the philosophy of idealism in 1981 and urged the human geographers especially the historical geographers to probe into what humans, as decision-makers believed in and not why they believed.
  • Thus, human geographers were not supposed to engage themselves in developing theories as, the pertinent theories that resulted in the geographical activities under study were already extant in human minds.
• According to him, an idealistic approach is required for philosophical events in Geography to understand the perceived world.
  • Philosophical events like historical events of scarcity, events of large scale human transfer, large scale massacres require idealistic explanations.
  • Historical events can be explained by an idealistic approach
• Humanistic geography inspired by the idealist philosophy upheld that reality was basically a mental construct and a pattern of human behaviour actually reflected the underlying ideas.
• Idealism according to Guelke was based on two propositions—
  • (i) a metaphysical proposition which asserted that an idea or a mental construct had a particular duration which was however, independent of material things and processes; and,
  • (ii) an epistemological proposition which believed that knowledge was derived indirectly from the subjective human experience of the world and was an outcome of human thoughts and ideas.
  • It upheld that the existence of a ‘real’ world was actually mind-dependent.
• Gulke developed the concept of humanistic geopolitics based on historical events.
  • He had viewed that present-day politics has a greater dependence on historical events rather than present events.
  • Through an idealistic approach, he also presented the concept of humanistic geopolitics.
  • Accordingly, the politics of territorial space depends on historical events than present events.
  • Although the basis of geopolitics may be a historical or humanistic approach but it is similar to German politics.
• Consequently, the approach and theme of Gulke failed to be widely acknowledged.

Hermeneutic Approach

• It was developed by a German school. The German Hermeneutic Approach is known as the theory of interpretation and classification of meaning.
• The contention between the objectivity and subjectivity of human discourses led to ‘double hermeneutics.’
• Hermeneutics was applied in contrast to the positivist-spatial science methods as advocated by humanistic geography through, a presuppositional approach directed by social conscience.
• It provided an epistemology that aided in restructuring regional geography by speaking of the spatio-temporal aspect of a region. At the same time, it expressed its concern regarding any spatial unit with respect to its culture as developed by humans occupying it over time particularly language.

Phenomenological Approach

• Phenomenology, though first mentioned by Carl Sauer in the 1920s, became prominent in the 1970s through the work of Relph.
  • Tuan propounded this approach. Kirk is also the propounder of this approach.
• Like the other humanistic approaches, it critiqued positivism:
  • Argued that there is no objective world without human existence.
• According to Tuan, it is an approach for understanding the world in totality.
• Kirk in 1963 identified two different yet mutually dependent environments—-(i) a phenomenal environment that included everything on this planet; and, (ii) the behaviourial environment that was the perceived and experienced part of the former.
  • Phenomenology in geography was concerned with the phenomenal environment the elements of which were considered distinctive for every human since, it was the outcome of individual perception and action.
• Nowadays, there has been a growing consciousness for world community or make the people of the world live in a world village.
• This type of approach is supposed to be more efficient in the understanding of world phenomenon.
• Phenomenologists argue that there is no objective world independent of Man’s existence.
• All kinds of knowledge proceed from the world of experience and cannot be independent of the world which is in totality.
• Every knowledge and every experience has a background of totality and proceeds for totality.

Central Strength of Humanistic Geography

• Placed human experience, perception, and actions at the heart of geography.
• Criticized positivism for ignoring the human dimension.
• Emphasized that human beings are living, thinking, acting agents who create meaning through their interactions with places.
• Focused on subjective elements like sense of place, attitudes, values — aspects that could not easily be measured using positivist methods.

Criticisms against Humanistic Geography

• Uncertainty and Lack of Empirical Verification
  • Humanistic explanations could not always be confirmed or proven with certainty.
  • Positivist methods, though sometimes flawed, could be tested, verified, and refined through new evidence — this was harder in humanistic approaches.
  • As a result, positivists argued that humanistic findings lacked scientific rigor.
• Encouraged Dualism in Geography
  • Humanistic geography created a divide between physical and human geography.
  • Focused too much on human behavior and subjective experiences — ignoring that human and physical environments are interconnected and should be studied together.
  • This artificial separation diluted the unity of the discipline of geography.
• Methodological Obscurity
  • Lacked a clear, consistent methodology.
  • Relied on subjective perceptions and mental constructs, which are difficult to validate or generalize.
  • Any method seemed acceptable, leading to uncertainty about which methods were reliable for building sound geographic knowledge.
• Limited Practical or Applied Use
  • Difficult to translate subjective interpretations into concrete policies or solutions for geographic problems.
  • Since many interpretations of reality were possible, it became hard to identify clear geographical problems or propose actionable policies.
• Failed to Offer a Strong Alternative to Scientific Methods
  • As noted by Entrikin, while it combined various philosophical ideas, it could not provide a robust or viable alternative to the established scientific approaches in geography.
  • Often seen more as critical philosophy than as a practical geographic methodology.
• Static Concept of Place
  • Treated “place” as a static, unchanging entity — this view was criticized by post-structuralist geographers.
  • Modern geographers argued that space is dynamic and socially constructed, constantly shaped by new social and environmental processes.
  • Postmodernists further challenged the idea of “real” vs “perceived” space — in today’s digital and virtual world, these boundaries are increasingly blurred.

Decline and Continuing Influence

• Over time, humanistic geography lost prominence, especially after the 1990s.
• Criticized for its unscientific nature and inability to produce universal laws or theories.
• However, its value in emphasizing the role of human thought, beliefs, and experiences is still acknowledged.

Recent Developments

• Humanistic geography began adopting psychoanalytic theories to strengthen its methodology.
• Increasing focus on the interaction between human perception and the shaping of physical landscapes.
• Humanistic ideas still persist in certain areas, especially in phenomenological studies of space, and in the growing understanding of subjective experiences of place.

Conclusion

• It revived the principles of regional geography and areal differentiation and enriched geographical thought.
• It is therefore obvious that the humanistic approach is not a welfare approach but is an approach to understand the world in a more scientific and comprehensive way.