This section will contain the Synopses related to Geography.
Synopsis The main argument in J.B Harley’s article “Destruction of the Map” is to give the ideas in postmodern thinking in order to “redefine the nature of maps as representations of power” (p. 1). In his article, Harley presents three steps for destruction of maps: first, to review the traditional map as an object of …
Harley, J.B. 1989. Deconstructing the Map. Cartographica 26: 1-20. Read More »
Synopsis The thesis statement of Richard Peet’s article “Inequality and Poverty: A Marxist-Geographic Theory” is that according to Marxists theory “Equality and poverty are functional components of the capitalist mode of production: capitalism necessarily produces in-egalitarian social structures…Inequality is transferred from one generation to another through the environment of services and opportunities which surrounds each …
Synopsis The main argument in Yi-Fu Tuan’s article “Humanistic Geography” is that Humanistic geography is “not primarily an earth science, yet it is a branch of geography because it reflects upon kinds of evidence that interest other branches of the discipline” (p. 266). Tuan argues that “HUMANISTIC geography reflects upon geographical phenomena with the ultimate …
Synopsis The main argument in Robert Kates’s article “The Human Environment: The Road not Taken, the Road still Beckoning” is that “There are four traditions whose identification provides an alternative to the competing monistic definitions that have been the geographer’s lot… [They are]: (1) a spatial tradition, (2) an area studies tradition, (3) a man-land …
Synopsis Chester N. Macdonald’s article “Human Adjustment to Floods’ in the Development of Risk and Hazard Management” admires the contributions made by Gilbert F. White who is also as a ‘father of floodplain management’ and writes “Human adjustment to floods’ has not only shaped how we study and perceive flooding but has also had…revolutionize the …
Synopsis The main argument in Julian Wolpert’s article “The Decision Process in Spatial Context” is that alongside classical normative theory, the behavioral concepts and generalizations must come into existence so as to address relevant man’s economic behavior extended to “the spatial dimension” (p. 537). This behavioral concepts and generalizations rested upon “the existence of an …
Synopsis The main argument in Carl O Sauer’s article “The Agency of Man on the Earth” is that human action can modify the earth and he has the capacity to “alter his natural environment, the manner of his doing, and the virtue of his action…the physical and biologic processes that man sets in motion, inhibits …
Synopsis The main argument in Warren C Thornthwaite’s article “An Approach toward a Rational Classification of Climate” is that “climatology is nothing more than statistical meteorology … of elements like temperature, precipitation, atmospheric humidity, and pressure, and wind velocity” (p. 55). Further, Thornthwaite argues that climate is not a product of precipitation alone, but a …
Synopsis Barry D. Keim in his article “The Lasting Scientific Impact of the Thornthwaite Water-Balance Model” admires the new climate classification system made by Warren Thornthwaite in 1948 and writes climate is “an analysis of the interaction between energy and moisture at the earth’s surface, rather than analyzing temperature and precipitation as separate variables” (p. …
Synopsis The main argument in Derwent Whittlesey’s article “Sequence “occupance” is that the “human “occupance” is like the “biotic phenomena” which carries “…the seed of its own transformation” within itself (p. 162). Therefore, sequent “occupance” is the process in which a landscape is gradually transformed by a succession of occupying populations, each of which modifies …