We explain what a geographical space is and what its components are. Also, characteristics, examples and how they are classified.
What is geographic space?
In geography, geographical space is understood as the specific way in which a society is organized in the physical space it occupies; or to the physical space itself, once it has been organized by a specific society.
In simpler terms, this concept refers to the How societies interact with their environment structured in various “landscapes”: natural, humanized, agrarian, industrial, urban, etc. It can be used as a synonym for territory.
In this way, when studying the geographical space of a society, we must refer to its economic, political, social and cultural organization ; elements that in geography are usually represented as a set of nodes, lines, areas or flows, according to what is stipulated by spatial analysis.
Therefore, some dynamics are static and stable (such as land use), while others are mobile and fluid (such as transportation).
This concept is used in the different schools of geography, although more widely in human geography. Its logic is usually that of starting from the visible, to show the processes that gave rise to it and the dynamics that, present or absent, built the landscape that is observed.
Types of geographic space
There is no specific typology of geographical spaces, since these can be of as many types as they have characteristics. However, a distinction is usually made, based on the degree of human participation in the formation of a given space, between:
- Intervened geographical spaces Those in which human activity of any kind has been indispensable for the construction of a geographical space, as is the case of cities.
- Geographical spaces not intervened Those that are foreign in their constitution to the activities of humanity, such as a desert, for example.
Features of geographical space
The geographical space covers two fundamental perspectives:
- Location perspective. It refers to the location, that is, the geographical location.
- Ecological perspective. It refers to the beings that inhabit it.
Each one considered as a system operating in space, thus allowing three different forms of study: spatial analysis, landscape analysis and ecological-environmental analysis.
On the other hand, geographical space is cumulative, that is, it contains within itself the traces of its own history, which can be traced in its future in a similar way to what biologists do with the evolutionary process. That is to say that the traces of previous societies modify the geographical space and they make it unique, as much as the dynamics of current societies.
There is also the possibility that elements from different historical times overlap in geographical space, say, medieval and modern elements, or industrial and post-industrial elements. This concept is being transformed by the dynamics of the information society of the 21st century, to give rise to new forms of territoriality, such as digital.
Components of geographic space
The following components are attributed to the geographical space:
- Natural Those that, obviously, do not depend on the interference of human beings, but rather respond to nature. mountains, valleys, lakes, seas, are examples of this.
- Social Those that come, however, from human activities that concern the dynamics of creating a community, such as religious activities, nationalities, the States themselves, etc.
- Politicians Those that derive from the way in which power is organized in human society, that is, they respond to pacts, agreements or historical impositions, such as the delimitation of the nations of the planet, the sociopolitical organization of their territories, etc.
- Economical Those that are the result of the numerous dynamics of production and consumption that humanity carries out to satisfy its own needs, such as capital flows, social classes, etc.
- Cultural Those that come from the particular way of seeing the world that a human community preserves throughout generations, such as local traditions, language, gastronomy, etc.
Examples of geographic space
The concept of geographic space can be so broad that it is often difficult to point out examples without falling into the obvious. a home It can be a geographical space, as well as the city in which it is located, or the valley in which the city was built, or the mountain range whole of which said valley is a part.
On a larger scale, it can also be considered geographical space the region of the country in which the mountain range is located, or the entire country, or the continent where it is, or the entire globe. Everything will depend on the perspective and specific interests of the moment.
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References
- “Geographical space” in Wikipedia.
- “Geographic space” in BanRepCultural.
- “Geographic space” (video) at the Center for Research and Development of Content, Media and Educational Technology.
- “Concept of geographical space” in Digital Contents of the Universidad de la Punta (Argentina).
- “Geographical space” in Science Direct.
