The Subject of Geography and the Science of the Man-Nature Relationship

A philosopher views the geographical environment as a natural-social concept, in which individual elements function simultaneously in a system of natural and social relationships. The geographical environment should be the province of a discipline called general geography, which would exist in addition to specialized physical and social geography. However, since general geography is limited spatially to the earth's landscape sphere, it cannot deal with the broader aspects of the man-nature relationship now that man's influence extends increasingly beyond the earth into outer space. A new discipline called “noology” is proposed to deal with the interplay between human society and all of nature.     

On the Significance of Lenin's Ideas for Soviet Geography

The president of the Geographical Society USSR reviews the present state of Soviet geographic theory in the light of Leninist philosophy. The objective existence of natural regions with definite boundaries is affirmed. The approach of “social physics,” applying natural laws to social phenomena, is rejected. The use of mathematical techniques is welcomed, but not to the extent of giving rise to a separate discipline of “theoretical geography” that would deal with whatever is common to both physical and economic geography. The geographical environment is defined as that part of the earth's natural environment in which nature and society are in direct interaction. Both geographical determinism and social determinism (geographical nihilism) are rejected. The definition of geography as a system of scientific disciplines is affirmed, and a proposed redefinition of geography as dealing with the evolution and control of dynamic spatial systems is rejected.     

INTERACTION BETWEEN PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

The chairmen of the departments of physical geography and economic geography of the USSR at Moscow University call for greater interplay between the two major subfields of geography, particularly in the context of geographical research for regional planning and geographical prediction generally. The demands of a modern economy require a more integrated approach to the study of spatial systems encompassing the totality of the natural environment, settlement, production and living conditions. Such close interaction between physical and economic geography needs to be pursued at all levels of geography as a discipline, from international geographical congresses down to ordinary student field practice.     

Straddling the Boundaries Between Sciences

The author reverts to the theme that, in addition to the particular disciplines in physical geography and in economic geography, there is a genuine need for a general geographic approach to study of the geographical environment and of the man-nature relationship. As a result of the growing social impact on the environment, the operation of natural laws and social laws becomes so closely intertwined that no single discipline operating with one particular set of laws is capable of understanding the complex processes and phenomena in the interplay between nature and society. The growing specialized differentiation of geography as a science does not eliminate it as a distinct field of human knowledge with a common object of study. However there is a danger that the process of differentiation may be going too far, with an increasing number of scholars from adjacent disciplines coming into geography. The trend is said to be evident in the advanced training of geographers in universities, where geography facilities are turning into collections of departments turning out, say, meteorologists with little general geographic background. And yet there is a growing need for broadly trained geographers, particularly in the entire field of long-range planning and pre-planning research, in which the author is engaged.     

地理学的基本规律

地理学有三个基本规律:一,地域分异规律,包括纬度地带性、经度地带性、垂直地带性和非地带性;二,地域综合规律,包括距离衰减规律和区域系统规律;三,地域发展规律,包括地理环境周期性发展和人地关系发展阶段性.这些规律既涉及自然过程,又涉及社会过程,许多重大的历史事件,如文明古国的出现,东亚经济起飞,我国开放政策,在地域上都受地理学基本规律的影响.     

CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTIVE GEOGRAPHY OF LARGE CITIES

The increasing impact of urbanization on the natural environment and physical constraints on city planning in the various natural zones of the USSR call for a program of research that would bring to bear the tools of the various geographical disciplines on the problem and might give rise to a distinctive geography of city planning. Geomorphology might be concerned with a variety of caving and slumping processes typical of large cities; climatology with the impact of cities on the microclimate of an area; hydrology with watertable changes and water-management problems, and biogeography with the distinctive plant and animal life of large cities and urban agglomerations. More complex, integrated research in both physical and economic geography would deal with the choice of suitable sites for new cities, particularly in extreme types of environment; with predictive aspects of the impact of urbanization, and the functional structure of cities. A number of cities and parts of cities with different layouts and different environmental settings should be designated as experimental study areas for geographical research of a more systematic character.     

The Landscape Sphere and the Geographical Environment

An advocate of a unified geography adopts a biosocial, or natural-social, approach to the definition of several concepts in geography, distinguishing the landscape sphere and the geographical environment. The landscape sphere of the earth consists of the sphere of the natural landscape (comprising both untouched and man-altered nature) and the sphere of human activity, or sociosphere, which includes the sphere of the cultural landscape (agrosphere plus technosphere) and mankind itself. The geographical environment includes the natural environment (man-altered nature plus parts of untouched nature), the material results of the labor of past generations and geographical manifestations of the social environment.     

中国历史地理学的回顾与前瞻

中国历史地理学是一门既古老而又年轻的科学,是研究历史时期我国地理现象和人地关系的科学。这是近几十年来治此学的学人经过历时长久的论证,与历来的沿革地理学不同,沿革地理学只是中国历史地理学中历史人文地理的一个部分,不能以一个部分代替全面。中国历史地理学是一门有用于世的学科,当前国家的建设事业,多与此学有关,深望治此学人共同努力,多所建树,无负于时代的使命。     

Present Problems in Soviet Cartography and the Tasks of the Geographical Society

After having long existed as a technical discipline serving the needs of geographers, cartography in the Soviet Union has become increasingly a research discipline involving many common interests with geography. Collaboration between cartographers and geographers is becoming increasingly essential as more attention is being given to thematic cartography involving not only particular disciplines (geomorphology, economic geography, population geography) but what may be called an integrated “geographical” cartography. Much effort continues to be devoted in the Soviet Union to the compilation of regional atlases and to a wide range of thematic maps. Increasing attention is being given to the production of evaluative maps, assessing the potential use of the physical environment and natural resources. School maps represent a major part of Soviet map production. Tourist and hiking maps need to be seriously improved.     

中外犯罪地理规律实证研究

任何一种犯罪都是犯罪行为者在特定的地理时空内进行的,因此,犯罪行为无不受地理环境的影响而呈现出地理规律性。本文用犯罪地理学、行为地理学和人类生物学的观点,结合国内外犯罪规律实证研究,系统地探讨了犯罪的行为地理规律、自然地理规律、社会地理规律和犯罪的人工环境规律。这些犯罪规律实证研究,在理论上有利于促进犯罪地理学和犯罪学的发展,在实践上可为制定犯罪防控决策提供科学依据。     

对城市社会-生活空间的本体解构

根据国外著名学者的观点与权威性文献总结国外地理学社会论(学派)形成与发展的思维观,重点探讨城市社会-生活空间理论的思想与方法论,并力图用概念化结构模式(图)表示出来,作为理解城市社会-生活空间本体构成,以及进一步对其研究的解构理念。全文从地理学社会论创立解剖社会空间的思想观逻辑,预示城市社会-生活空间规律的研究代表了当今人文地理学前沿理论水平的重要方面。     

犯罪地理学的理论研究

目前,国内外学术界还没有建立起真正意义上的犯罪地理学,因此,犯罪地理学的理论研究就显得特别重要。为此,本文系统地探讨了犯罪地理学的理论体系,认为犯罪地理学的理论体系含有:①地理环境决定论;②环境论(月相说、星相说、地域说、犯罪地形说、折衷主义学派环境论);③犯罪时日论;④芝加哥学派的犯罪同心圆论;⑤犯罪区位论。通过犯罪地理学理论体系的研究,希望有益于犯罪地理学的创建和发展。     

Charting the development of social and cultural geography in Mainland China: voices from the inside*

This article provides an overview of the recent development of social and cultural geography in China. It discusses six major bodies of work: cultural areas, cultural diffusion and cultural integration; geographies of ethnic cultures; cultural landscape and cultural economy; place and place-based cultural politics; marginal social groups; and geographies of social injustice. Although social and cultural geography is still located on the periphery of the disciplinary landscape of Chinese human geography, it is nonetheless developing into a noteworthy field of research. We start this review by calling attention to some problems in epistemologies and analytical approaches. Social and cultural geography in China often suffers from an analytical separation between environment and culture as ontologically enclosed entities. Also, it pays insufficient attention to the mutually constitutive relations between the social and the spatial. However, more recent studies have begun to engage with constructionist/poststructuralist approaches, and develop less positivist interpretations of space, social relations and cultural meanings. This review suggests that social and cultural geography in China needs to develop broader research scopes and strengthen theoretical frameworks. It concludes by calling for constructive dialogues between Chinese and Western human geographical scholarships.     

On Interrelationships Between Natural and Social Laws

The author takes issue with those geographers who argue that a unified geography is ruled out by the fact that natural laws and social laws cannot be blended and there are no general laws operating in the geographical environment. He seeks to demonstrate in philosophical terms that laws of nature operate in society by speeding or slowing the rate of social development and that, on the other hand, social laws affect the end result of the operation of natural laws.     

国内外女性主义地理学研究述评

后现代思潮背景下,性别研究在人文科学领域越来越重要。性别不只是关于个体身份的自然属性,更是一种映射社会变革、社会不平等和反抗特权的社会关系。本文梳理国内外女性主义研究的相关文献,具体从女性主义地理学理论渊源、西方女性主义地理学和中国本土女性主义地理学等三方面对女性主义地理研究进行综述。较之于国外同行,国内女性主义地理学研究仍显单薄,多数是采借和沿袭西方的相关理论进而通过特定案例加以印证（佐证）,某种意义上是对西方同行的回应性研究。未来的我国女性主义地理研究,需要关注三个问题：从我国传统文化女性发展理论中吸取营养;聚焦女性日常生活世界领域的实践逻辑;女性作为能动者的个体和自组织的集体智慧需要引起注意。     

The Subject and Structure of Geosystems Theory

A logical model of the system of disciplines generally known as physical geography distinguishes three subjects of study, each associated with a particular level of organization of the basic study object, namely the earth's physical landscape envelope or landscape shell and its subsystems (individual landscapes or geocomplexes): (1) study of the componental level of organization would be the subject of the particular disciplines in physical geography (geomorphology, climatology, etc.); (2) study of the integrated level of organization would be the subject of landscape science, which is viewed as a synthesis of the particular disciplines; (3) study of the earth's natural environment at the level of the entire landscape envelope would be the subject of general physical geography or general earth science. The subject matter of the particular disciplines and of the synthesized landscape science is further broken down into research areas: regional research (concerned with geographical spaces); typological research (quasi-geographical spaces) and general research (nongeographical).     

移动地理研究的一种理论框架——基于文献分析

移动性是21世纪人文地理的研究热点和重要议题,它体现了空间科学的社会学转向,属于人文地理学的核心概念和中心命题,其中心性突出体现在它与其他传统和新兴的人文地理分支学科的交叉。本文以表格为工具梳理了地理移动性的研究理路,发现移动地理与其他人文地理分支学科共同聚焦的核心是：时间地理、旅游地理、行为地理的“时空行为”问题,政治地理、社会地理的“权力”“平等”“权利”问题,身体地理的“具身实践”“感官体验”问题,情感地理的“地方依恋”“身份认同”问题,想象地理的“地方感”问题,道德地理的“空间道德感”问题。本文识别这些关键问题为移动地理的“核心要素”,搭建移动地理的框架和体系,指出探查这些要素之间相互作用机制和不同时空移动类型的转化机理是未来移动性的研究方向。根据移动的空间尺度和时间强度,构建了包括日常移动、旅游和旅行移动到永久性移动在内的地理学移动性连续轴类型,并探索了移动地理研究的方法论体系。     

Determinism and Indeterminism in Foreign Geography. Part II

The controversy between the environmentalists and the possibilists and the schools of cultural determinism, social determinism and indeterminism in West European and American geography are reviewed. The shift away from geographical determinism is viewed as not being necessarily a positive development in geography because it has led to a gradual strengthening of indeterminist tendencies with their associated disregard for physical geographical factors. When viewed in the historical context, geographical determinism is found to have shifted significantly from the extreme views of Ellen Semple and Ellsworth Huntington to a more pragmatically oriented view of the environmental impact on problems of economic development, i.e. from historical-sociological explanations to problems in applied geography. Even if the modern determinists tend to exaggerate the significance of the physical environment in some cases, this is still viewed as the lesser evil compared with an underestimation of environmental factors.     

On the Unity of Geography

A Leningrad University physical geographer criticizes attempts to affirm the unity of geography through the creation of new disciplines like “general geography,” which would focus on study of the man-nature relationship. He contends that such a general geography, which would seek to identify general geographic laws, is advocated primarily by economic geographers who would emphasize the role of man at the expense of physical geography. Isachenko takes issue with the view that what makes any research “geographical” is its relationship to man. He contends that the criterion of whether any investigation is “geographical” is its relationship to the geosystem, defined as any natural complex, ranging from the global to the local scale. In his opinion, the unity of geography should be furthered not through the establishment of new supradisciplines, such as general geography, but through closer ties, both in methodology and in organizational terms, between the two main groups of geographical disciplines—physical geography and economic geography.     

犯罪地理学研究的新进展

本文简述了犯罪地理学研究进展的历史,揭示了犯罪地理学研究进展过程中各个阶段的特征。探讨了西方犯罪地理学研究的新进展,论述了实证主义、激进地理学思想、科际整合理论、GIS的引入是目前犯罪地理学发展的新趋势。此外,还探讨了中国犯罪地理学研究的新进展。最后,对21世纪的犯罪地理学研究进行了展望,阐述了犯罪地理学研究的12个热点课题,并指出21世纪将是犯罪地理学大发展的世纪。