Geographical Thoughts of Scheafer & Hartshorn – UGC NET – Notes

Introduction

• The debate on the methodology of pursuing Geographical studies that ensured between the two geographers F K Schaefer and Richard Hartshorne is one of the most stimulating and academic exchanges the subject of geography has witnessed.
• This debate began with F K Schaefer’s paper titled “Exceptionalism in Geography: A Methodological Examination” published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers in September 1953. Schaefer’s articles were published posthumously, and the debate continues as Richard Hartshorne published his comment (caveat) in the same journal in 1954, followed by an elaborate article titled “Exceptionalism in Geography Re-examined” published in the same journal in September 1955.
• Richard Hartshorne also published another article in the same journal in June 1958 titled “The Concept of Geography as a Science of Space, from Kant and Humboldt to Hettner.” Drawing from the research articles mentioned above the debate on the methodological position of Geography that arose in the academic circles of the United States in the 1950s may be charted out.

Exceptionalism in Geography

• In the early Nineteen fifties, the geographers in the United States were influenced by the regional paradigm as the chosen methodological frame for pursuing geographical research. The most celebrated proponent of the Regional paradigm was Richard Hartshorne also from the United States and Hartshorne’s seminal monograph named “The Nature of Geography” which appeared in the Annals and later was published in the form of a monograph by the Association of American Geographers. Though Hartshorne’s paradigm of regional geography was well received, there arose disillusionment and discontent in accepting regional paradigm as the most accepted way of doing geography among certain sections of geographers in the United States.
• F K Schaefer was a trained as an economist and later pursued Geography. Schaefer was associated with the Department of Geography at the University of lowa and he had migrated to the United States to escape the Nazi persecution that was taking place in the then Germany.
• F K Schaefer took it upon himself to clarify the position of Geography within the broad arrangement of various schemes of knowledge systems; the sciences and the social sciences. His motive was to refute the pre-eminence given to Regional Paradigm of Geography as the only mode of conducting geographical research and for that, he re-interpreted the works of scholars whom Richard Hartshorne had used in his monograph.
• F K Schaefer’s rebuttal to the Hartshornean tradition of Regional paradigm came in the form of a research article published posthumously in 1953 by the Annals of the Association of American Geographers. It is in this paper that he takes up the cause of systematic geography while rejecting the claim of Exceptionalism of Geography. The claim for Exceptionalism in geography emerged from the notion that the core focus of geography should be areal differentiation. Geography should be studied as a science that explains the realities of areal differentiation that appears on the surface of the earth. The differences between these regions need the attention of geographers as well as the combination of all aspects present on those spaces and how they are different from other places.
• In this manner, Geographical research would be able to put forward an “accurate, orderly and rational description and interpretation of the variable character of the earth’s surface.” The aim of geographical research according to Hartshorne is to gain a complete understanding of the areal differentiation of the earth. For that, geography must focus on the synthesis of all phenomenon occurring in a particular region.
• The region too would get its identity from the synthesis of the various phenomenon present in the region. Hartshorne also leans on the Kantian tradition and draws an analogy between history and geography, saying that as history divides time into sections so does Geography divides space into sections. Geography thus studies the world and describes and interprets different regions as they appear in a particular time. What other disciplines study as a heterogeneous phenomenon, geography studies that entire phenomenon in combination. By doing this geography puts together the aspects which other disciplines study in isolation.
• For looking at the phenomenon in combination, geography must use descriptive mode of analysis For Hartshorne the raison d’etre of Geography is the study of areal differentiation, so it can be best expressed through regional geography. Regions are categorized into ‘formal regions’ and ‘functional regions’. Formal regions are those where the entire region has a homogeneous phenomenon and Functional regions are those where the unity of the region depends on the node which controls the flow of the phenomenon across space thus carving out a functional region. Regional paradigm this acquired the status of the most feasible methodology of conducting geographical research; as regional geography brought together various aspects of spatial character which are dealt separately in topical geography. This method of bringing together of the phenomenon and their interaction with each other to give a special character to a region was analyzed in geographical research.
• Even within topical specializations, the study of regions had an important role to offer. If we take the example of relating Economics with Economic Geography and applying the theories and laws of Economics to Geography, the focus of the Geographer as distinguished from the Economist would be his application of the economic theories over and within regions.
• Hartshorne also elicited the enquiry of ‘generic problems’ rather than ‘causal relationships’ while undertaking geographical research. He was keener on the functional representation of phenomenon on the earth’s surface rather than how each phenomenon leaves its imprint on the surface of the earth. With the focus on the organization and arrangement of the phenomenon on the surface of the earth as the primary research objective of Geography, enquiring into the causality of the assemblage of phenomenon took a backseat.