So, what does the economic geography of the world and Russia study? What is the subject of landscape science research? What does economic geography and regional economics study?
The origins of science
When did geography arise? It is not easy to answer this question. Perhaps she was born precisely when the most ancient man first drew with a sharp pebble on the wall of his cave a primitive picture of the area surrounding his immediate habitat.
The first scientific expeditions were carried out by the ancient Egyptians about 5 thousand years ago. They were primarily interested in the Red Sea basin, as well as the central regions of Africa. They came up with a calendar to make it more convenient to monitor river spills and other natural phenomena.
A huge leap at an early stage in the development of geographical science occurred in ancient times. Eratosthenes, Strabo, Claudius Ptolemy - all these scientists have made a huge contribution to it. The writings of Aristotle laid the foundations of modern meteorology and oceanology. By the way, it was in the so-called Hellenistic period of history that the first signs of the division of a unified science of geography were outlined.
The structure of modern geographical science
Five to six centuries ago, the leading countries of the world with unprecedented excitement practiced in the colonization of new lands. Accordingly, the essence of geography in those days was reduced to only one thing: a thorough study of newly discovered territories and laying new routes for future voyages and expeditions.
But today everything is completely different. Modern geography is a science that spends a lot of time on the systematization of knowledge and facts obtained by natural scientists and travelers over the previous centuries. She is trying to identify those patterns that will be true for both natural and socio-economic processes and phenomena.
Geography today is divided into three large industries. It:
- physical;
- economic;
- social geography.
The last two areas of knowledge are very often combined into one discipline called "socio-economic geography."
Within each of the above industries, there are still a number of scientific disciplines. For example, hydrology, climatology, geomorphology, glaciology, etc. are distinguished as part of physical geography. Social and economic geography is divided into political, medical, military, cultural geography, urban studies, regional geography, and other disciplines.
What does economic geography study? What are the main goals and objectives of this science? Let's try to answer these questions further.
What does economic geography study?
This scientific discipline is studied today in high school, colleges, technical schools and universities. What is its essence? What is studying the subject?
Economic geography (or social) is a complex scientific discipline that studies the spatial organization of the economic life of a society, country, region, planet as a whole. The main object of her research is the so-called territorial-economic systems.
What does economic geography study more specifically? The subject of this science is the study of the economic diversity of a particular country or region, the search for similar and different features in the economic development of different regions, the identification of important patterns in the distribution of social production.
Modern economic geography sets itself a lot of theoretical and practical tasks: from the search for constructive solutions to the problems of territorial-economic systems to the training of relevant specialists - economic geographers. At the same time, a wide range of scientific methods are used in economic and geographical research: balance, statistical, "field", comparative descriptive, historical, cartographic, and many others.
What does social geography and regional economics study?
If economic geography is studying economics, then social, respectively, explores society (population). Demographic indicators, education and medicine, the ethnic composition of the population, local conflicts and the level of development of culture - all this is included in the wide range of interests of this scientific discipline.
Perhaps the main task of social geography is to determine the characteristics of the socialization of a particular person, as well as assess the pace of development in general. Moreover, science not only explores various social processes occurring in regional social systems, but also tries to develop an algorithm for their optimization.
Regional economics is another discipline that is closely related to economic and social geography. However, it refers to a system of purely economic sciences. The regional economy is studying the regional organization of production. Its main task is to identify the specifics of specific economic regions, as well as develop effective programs for their development in the future.
What does the socio-economic geography of the world and Russia study?
The difference between the socio-economic geography of the world and Russia is obvious. If in the first case, science studies the spatial organization of the economic life of society on a planetary scale, then in the second case it studies the territorial and economic systems within one state.
What does the economic geography of Russia study? This discipline reveals the general picture of the development of the economy in the state, helps to understand the features of the location of the main industries, explores the patterns of development of the country's economy as a whole and in individual regions.
To date, the most important centers for the development of socio-economic geography are located in the USA (Clark University in the State of Massachusetts), Great Britain (University of Oxford) and Russia (Lomonosov Moscow State University).
Physical geography and landscape science
Physical geography studies the geographic envelope of our planet as a whole, as well as the study of its individual components. In this regard, it is divided into several independent scientific disciplines, among which:
- climatology;
- meteorology;
- geomorphology;
- hydrology;
- oceanology;
- paleogeography;
- biogeography and others.
Landscape science is located somewhat apart - a science that studies the genesis, structure, functioning and development of natural complexes (landscapes). The name of the discipline comes from the German word Landschaft, which translates as "landscape", "type of terrain." The foundation of landscape science was laid in the works of German scientists - Karl Ritter and Alexander Humboldt.
By the way, this “layer” of geographical sciences is most closely connected with other natural sciences - physics, chemistry, biology, ecology and soil science.