What is Human Geography?

Today, "Comprehensive Geography" stands as one of the mandatory subjects in high school social studies, alongside History and Public Studies. Thanks to its compulsory status, the subject of "Geography" has gained much more recognition compared to subjects like Sociology, Psychology, and Cultural Anthropology. In that sense, it can be said that Geography has certainly benefited in terms of visibility. However, despite this (or perhaps because of it), Geography is one of the most misunderstood fields of study by beginning students.

No matter which university you attend to study Geography, the university’s geographers will almost certainly sigh and say, “High school geography is different from university-level geography.” Even though everyone has studied Geography as a compulsory subject in high school, university professors often start their classes by discussing the differences between high school and university geography. This is because your perception of "Geography" is so strong, and often, these perceptions are filled with misunderstandings that can be more of a hindrance than a help for the instructors.

Geography, in its most basic definition, is very simple. After all, the only constraint on this field of study is that its subject matter must be "spatial phenomena occurring on the Earth's surface." As long as the phenomenon spreads across the Earth’s surface, it can be studied within Geography. Most natural phenomena (such as climate, landforms, soil, and vegetation) are easily studied in Geography. The majority of natural phenomena occur regardless of human presence, right? These phenomena, which happen with or without people, make up half of the field of Geography, called "Physical Geography."

However, a phenomenon like a tropical depression, which is a subject of Physical Geography, becomes a disaster when it turns into a typhoon and impacts people’s lives. At this point, the focus shifts to reducing the risks and minimizing damage, bringing us into the domain of "Human Geography," the other half of Geography. Geography, therefore, encompasses both physical and human aspects, and my field, Human Geography, focuses on the latter.

Human Geography, like Physical Geography, has a very simple constraint: its subject matter must be "spatial phenomena occurring on the Earth's surface." So, whether we are studying regional differences in crop production (rural geography), the movement of goods and money through trade (commercial geography, economic geography), or human spatial behaviors and their associated perceptions of certain places (behavioral geography), all of these are valid topics for study. The breadth of what can be studied in Geography, free from any rigid constraints, is one of the field’s most attractive features.

One of the diagrams I often reference when talking about Geography at university is a schematic titled "A valley section" drawn in 1909. Interestingly, this diagram was created by Patrick Geddes, a town planner, who did not intend to express the essence of geographical thought.

The diagram depicts the changes in natural conditions from the mountains to the sea, alongside the diversity of human lifestyles and social activities. Over time, humans have gradually accumulated knowledge and developed technologies to cope with nature. Yet, whenever natural disasters occur, they can destroy human settlements without mercy. Since we cannot change the natural conditions we are given, the key challenge for humanity has always been how to minimize risks and maximize the chances of survival in the face of these conditions. This is perhaps humanity's greatest ongoing challenge. What does the diversity of lifestyles depicted in Geddes' diagram signify? It indicates that everyday life in each region represents the result of many generations of people finding the optimal solutions to survive in the struggle against nature.

For example, people living in mountainous areas, where food is scarce, will eventually face extinction if they rely solely on fishing or throwing a cast net. In such regions, only those who adapt to the natural conditions—such as creating tools like axes and saws or utilizing trees for building materials—can survive. The same applies to riverbanks or coastal areas. People living in forests can't expect to catch fish by using tools designed for forest environments. The "optimal solutions" of people living in different environments are often entirely different.

The world we live in is incredibly rich and diverse. This diversity is the result of a long history in which people have adapted to their unique natural conditions. The diversity we see around us is a product of this process. The essence of studying Geography at university, in my view, is to capture this uniqueness and to uncover the mechanisms and processes that have shaped it.

In high school, you likely studied Geography in order to do well on exams. But think about it for a moment. In exams, there is a mutual understanding that there is always one correct answer and multiple incorrect options, creating a sense of unwavering trust. Your goal was simply to memorize the correct answers and avoid getting tricked by misleading questions. In other words, what you did in your exams was a form of intellectual consumption—consuming knowledge created by others. You paid the "exam fee" to the test creators and the "book fee" to the authors of the textbooks.

At university, however, what you will study is not Geography as an intellectual consumer activity. Instead, you will engage in Geography as the creation of new "correct answers" to phenomena that have not yet been fully understood. You will discover new phenomena and explore why and how they came into being, creating new solutions to these phenomena.

No matter how trivial it may seem, you will cultivate the power to provide new answers to the spatial phenomena that exist on the Earth's surface. This is what you will be learning in the Human Geography department.