Human Geography and Area Research
0004-5608
Abstract
FIRST glance it might appear that only in physical geography would a A geographer make a contribution to an area research program staffed by social scientists. Geographers, however, do not so delimit their field.' This paper focuses in particular on the contributions of human geography. In the treatment I present my own point of view, but am only too conscious that I neither reveal exclusively new thoughts nor, in the attempt to emphasize new ideas, cover all topics uniformly.2 As an example of the distinctive nature of human geography let us consider economic geography. This branch, Wooldridge and East observe, is in practice at least three quarters of the field of human geography and (rightly or wrongly) is not a branch of economics any more than is economic geology.3 Hartshorne, Finch, and others earlier indicated much the same opinion.4 Most topics studied by the economic geographer are also considered by economists in various specialist branches of that subject, but are not, however, core topics in economics. Some of the topics which the economic geographer studies include: various aspects of agriculture, mining, and other production; industrial location and development; transport routes and flows; markets; and rural and urban settlements. More nearly core topics for a relatively pure economist on the other hand include: price movements,