Definitions of Geography
The following definitions are derived from discussions at the First Geography Summit held at Southwest Texas State University. They reveal the variety of ways in which different people including professional geographers, K-12 teachers, book publishers and others explain geography. Use these definitions to help you craft your own idea about the discipline and how it relates to the world in which we live.
Geography is a social science that focuses
on the spatial distribution of human and physical phenomena.
Geography is the study and analysis of the
spatial organization of society.
Geography is a spatial perspective on
people, places and environment.
Geography is the description and analysis of
Earth processes, both physical and human, over time and over space.
Geography is a spatial discipline. It is a
perspective that seeks to understand patterns on Earth and the processes that
created them.
Geography is the study of spatial
relationships (interactions among places and regions) and human-environment
relationships (interactions among elements of the human and physical
environment) and their applications.
Geography is the way “things” are
arranged on Earth and near its surface, the ways they interact, and the
consequences of the interaction.
Geography is the science and art of
understanding the spatial relations among people, place, and environment.
Geography is a perspective, a way of
perceiving the world, a way of asking questions, thinking about them,
researching them answering them, that can be differentiated from other
perspectives by it focus on interconnections between the physical environment
and the biological environment, between humans and the planet, between objects
that exist and constructed conceptions of them all, at all scales.
Geography is the study of the distribution
of phenomena, physical or human, on Earth. Geography is a tool used to help
better understand the spatial aspects of other disciplines. Geography is a pair
of tinted glasses through which Earth becomes a system of myriad relationships.