Geography: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Matthews, J. A., & Herbert, D. T. (2008). Geography: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Very Short Introductions.

Chapter Summary

The book has six chapters and about 157 pages of main text, followed by references, further reading and an index. It is written by two geographers from Swansea, John A. Matthews, a physical geographer, and David T. Herbert, a human geographer, and the pairing shows in its structure: one chapter each on physical and human geography, framed by chapters on the discipline as a whole. The publisher presents it as answering four questions: what geography is, how geographers work, why geography is important and where the discipline is heading. It stresses that physical and human geographers often disagree, but that geography as a whole can act as a bridge between the sciences and the humanities, and it describes the conclusion as a manifesto for the subject's future.

Chapter 1: Geography: the world is our stage

The opening chapter asks what geography is. It traces the subject's long history, often politically or spiritually motivated, from ancient mapmaking to its establishment as a university discipline from the sixteenth century. It identifies three core concepts, the analysis of space, the analysis of place and the study of the environment, outlines five main phases in the discipline's development, and argues that despite new technologies there is still a place for classical geographical methods.

Chapter 2: The physical dimension: our natural environments

The chapter on physical geography, the branch the publisher describes as covering natural environments and landscapes. At nearly thirty pages it is, with Chapter 5, the longest after the chapter on human geography. The book's recurring vocabulary, which includes geomorphology, soils, vegetation, the Quaternary and Holocene, natural hazards and environmental change, indicates the range of physical topics the authors draw on.

Chapter 3: The human dimension: people in their places

The longest chapter surveys human geography through its succession of paradigms: the early belief in environmental determinism, spatial science and its models of urban geography, structuralist, Marxist and postmodernist explanations of behaviour and social outcomes, and the cultural turn, which treats culture as socially constructed and led the field to questions of gender and ethnicity. It ends by arguing that quantitative work, though uneasy in human geography, can be a starting point for qualitative research.

Chapter 4: Geography as a whole: the common ground

This chapter looks for what unites the two halves of the subject. It discusses regional geography and its aim of informing policy and solving problems in particular regions; historical geography and its shift from material to cultural processes; integrated geography, which studies the reciprocal relations between environment and people, including in climate change; and landscape geography, which has moved from the form of the land to the interaction of processes.

Chapter 5: How geographers work

The chapter on practice addresses the second of the publisher's four questions: how geographers carry out their work. Terms prominent in the book, such as fieldwork, Geographical Information Systems, spatial analysis, the quantitative revolution, mental maps and "graphicacy", indicate the methods and skills involved.

Chapter 6: Geography's present and future

The final chapter turns to applications and the future of the discipline. Its examples include environmental criminology and the geography of crime, geographical descriptions in literature and film (to be used with caution), studies of glacier forelands that reveal how landscapes develop, and the role of physical geographers in the climate change debate. It weighs the discipline's strengths and weaknesses and argues that better organization is crucial to its continued relevance.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: What geography is

• Space, place and environment: the three core concepts the book identifies as defining geography.
• Phases of geography: the five main stages through which the discipline has developed.
• Classical geographical methods: traditional ways of describing and mapping the world, which the authors argue still have a place.

Chapters 2–3: Physical and human geography

• Physical geography: the study of natural environments and landscapes.
• Environmental determinism: the early view that the physical environment shapes human societies.
• Spatial science: the use of models and quantitative analysis to explain spatial patterns such as urban structure.
• Cultural turn: the shift in human geography towards culture as a socially constructed process and its meanings.

Chapters 4–6: Common ground, methods and applications

• Regional and historical geography: traditions that study the distinctiveness of regions and change over time.
• Integrated geography: the study of reciprocal relationships between environment and people.
• Landscape geography: the study of landscapes, from their form to the interaction of processes.
• Environmental criminology: an applied field examining the concentration of crime in space.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Physical and human geography together. Written by a physical and a human geographer, the book gives each branch its own chapter and then devotes a chapter to their common ground, which suits a reader who needs a picture of the whole discipline rather than one side of it.
• A compact history of ideas. Chapters 1 and 3 sketch the main phases and paradigm shifts, from environmental determinism and spatial science to Marxist, postmodern and cultural approaches, giving newcomers a frame for the longer histories in the course.
• Concrete examples of research. The final chapter illustrates geography's applications through specific fields, environmental criminology, literature and film, and glacier forelands, rather than leaving them abstract.
• A clear argument about the discipline. The book does not only describe; it argues for geography as a bridge between the sciences and the humanities and ends, in the publisher's words, with a manifesto for the subject's future.

Limitations

• Dated. Published in 2008 and not revised since, it describes the discipline and its debates as they stood then; developments in the subject and its methods over the following years are not covered.
• Uneven depth. Six chapters cover the whole discipline in about 150 pages, so each subfield receives only a few pages; the human geography chapter is the longest, and readers with a particular interest will need specialised texts.
• Selective applications. Chapter 6 illustrates geography's present through a handful of fields (crime, literature and film, glacier forelands, climate change), so it offers a sample of current research rather than a survey.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the geographic thought and methods list this is the shortest overview of the discipline and a natural first reading. It covers both physical and human geography, whereas Johnston and Sidaway's history, for example, is confined to human geography. Cresswell's Geographic Thought: A Critical Introduction is the next step for the history and theory of geography, explaining the major traditions and thinkers in more depth. Johnston and Sidaway's Geography and Geographers is a detailed critical history of Anglo-American human geography since 1945, and Livingstone's The Geographical Tradition a history of the discipline from the age of exploration presented as a series of contested episodes; both expand the brief sketch of phases and paradigms in Chapters 1 and 3.

For methods, Gomez and Jones's Research Methods in Geography: A Critical Introduction treats geographic thought and methods together across human and physical geography, and Clifford, Cope and Gillespie's Key Methods in Geography is a handbook of specific techniques for student projects. Either can follow Chapter 5 of this book.

How to Use This Book

School-level geography is enough; no statistics or mapping experience is assumed. The book suits first-year geography students, students from other subjects taking a geography module, and readers deciding whether to study the subject.

A suggested plan:

• Read Chapter 1 first for the core concepts of space, place and environment, which the rest of the book and much of the course use.
• Chapters 2 and 3 together, as a pair. Students from a human geography background should not skip Chapter 2, and vice versa; the contrast is the point of the book.
• Chapter 4 for the common ground; it introduces regional, historical, integrated and landscape geography, each a possible essay topic.
• Chapters 5–6 before a first methods course or project, as orientation on how geographers work and what applied research looks like.

The book can be read in a few sittings. Use its references and further-reading list to follow up any topic, and read it alongside a more recent text such as Cresswell's to bring the account of current debates up to date.