Another apporach to Geographical thinking that has drawn my interest is that of David Harvey.
He defines geography as "the discipline that records, analyzes and stores information about the spatial distribution, and the organization of these conditions that provide the material basis for the reproduction of social life". Moreover it promotes conscious awareness of how such conditions are subject to transformations through human action. Because of this ability to know and understand the world of man, he states that the social configurations have always influenced and controled the geographical knowledge. This means that the formal and more scientific practice of geography has been led by power, even though every human being has a loose or informal concept of the territory were they live. Thus, academic or universal geography is constrained by the interests of the power.
This conception of radical geography was first states by anarchists Kropotkin and Reclus, but they failed to build a consistent social theorical skeleton, and so the approaches within radical geography have been in conflict. At the contrary, or rather, at the same time, the Marxist social theory has ignored the spatial difference of the process of capitalist accumulation. In this context, Harvey suggests that the Geography should be a mix of these historical-materialist and radical geographical approaches. Geography must be mundane, world must be described as it is and the uneven geographical development must be critizised.
After this maybe we can suggest interesting alternatives.
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Sunday 1 March 2009
Qué fácil es ser un héroe
Tras varios meses con la curiosidad, ayer pude probar el guitar hero, que es un videojuego que trata de rocar botones en una pieza de plástico con forma de guitarra en función de los colores que aparecen en la pantalla al un ritmo y durante un tiempo determinados. Todo mientras suena una canción cuya parte de guitarra deja de sonar en el momento que uno no toca lo que tiene que tocar. En otras palabras, es un simulador de guitarra.
Yo llevo tocando la guitarra desde 1997 aproximadamente, y debo decir que ese juego es igual de fácil para mí que para alguien que no sabe tocarla. Lo que sí creo es que al que no sabe tocar este juego le puede encender la curiosidad de probar a aventurarse con una guitarra de verdad, aunque definitivamente el ritmo de progreso con el guitar hero es mucho más fácil que con la guitarra, porque ésta última requiere el conocimiento de una determinada técnica que sólo se aprende dedicando miles de horas a intentarlo, algo que sólo se puede aguantar teniendo una infinita pasión por esta empresa. El guitar hero es como un juego que se llamaba "simón" en el que tienes que pulsar el botón del color que te sale, pero el videojuego es mucho más divertido.
Yo llevo tocando la guitarra desde 1997 aproximadamente, y debo decir que ese juego es igual de fácil para mí que para alguien que no sabe tocarla. Lo que sí creo es que al que no sabe tocar este juego le puede encender la curiosidad de probar a aventurarse con una guitarra de verdad, aunque definitivamente el ritmo de progreso con el guitar hero es mucho más fácil que con la guitarra, porque ésta última requiere el conocimiento de una determinada técnica que sólo se aprende dedicando miles de horas a intentarlo, algo que sólo se puede aguantar teniendo una infinita pasión por esta empresa. El guitar hero es como un juego que se llamaba "simón" en el que tienes que pulsar el botón del color que te sale, pero el videojuego es mucho más divertido.
Bad news to god by e-mail
God is losing popularity in Finland. In 2007, about 52.,000 people signed out from the evangelic lutheran church of Finland, but the funny thing is that 47,300 people did so through a web site called "eroakirkosta.fi", that facilitates the user to give up church without the need for personal signature; from home and without hearing reproaches from any priest.
The idea of this web page was developed in 2003 by a association for the freedom of thought, whose head suggests that even more people is expected to sign out due to the money that doing so they would save in times of crisis.
Thus, from 81.7% of the population in 2006 belonging to the evangelic lutheran church of Finland, nowadays it is about 80.7%. You might want to know that there is a minority (1.1%) that belong to the Finnish ortodox church. This shows how the country has traditionally been, and still is in a crossroads between the Eastern and the Western cultures.
There is a number of nice ortodox churches in Finland, many of them made out of wood that contribute to a very interesting and diversified landscape. One extraordinary and somehow symbolic example of this diversity is the Kirkkokatu street in Joensuu, which departs from a Luteran church in the south and ends in the door of an
Ortodox temple in the nor
th. Guess which is which from the pictures.
The idea of this web page was developed in 2003 by a association for the freedom of thought, whose head suggests that even more people is expected to sign out due to the money that doing so they would save in times of crisis.
Thus, from 81.7% of the population in 2006 belonging to the evangelic lutheran church of Finland, nowadays it is about 80.7%. You might want to know that there is a minority (1.1%) that belong to the Finnish ortodox church. This shows how the country has traditionally been, and still is in a crossroads between the Eastern and the Western cultures.
There is a number of nice ortodox churches in Finland, many of them made out of wood that contribute to a very interesting and diversified landscape. One extraordinary and somehow symbolic example of this diversity is the Kirkkokatu street in Joensuu, which departs from a Luteran church in the south and ends in the door of an
Ortodox temple in the nor
th. Guess which is which from the pictures.
Saturday 28 February 2009
Mackinder and Geography
In 2 days I'm going to Germany, where I will stay 11 days. On the while, I am in Ylämylly, a hamlet 12 kms away from the centre of Joensuu and within the municipality of Liperi. I am in a single floor detached house in the neighbourhood of Honkalampi. It is cloudy and moderately cold (-7C) and through the window I can see a lot of snow.
I've spent part of the mornign reading the local North Karelian newspaper (Karjalainen) with the help of my pocket dictionary. After going trough a selective reading (It takes to me a lot of time to read in Finnish), I gave up and I took an antology in Human Geography. I read one article written by the geographer Halford J. Mackinder in 1887 named "On the scope and methods of geography". It is said that this guy paved the way of Geography in Great Britain as a distinctive discipline. In this article he states geography as a comprehensive science and as the "bridge" between many disciplines.
Hr suggests that geography has been used for describing the new territories discovered and as the world is already fully discovered, geography is expected to dissapear. Against this, he claims that geography should be used to explain the world on a comprehensive way, as it is the only discipline able to trace the interaction of man in society and so much os his environment as this varier locally. In order to achieve this, the interactive elements must be preliminary analyzed an later put in relation to each other. Like this, he claims a distinction between description and analysis. Thus, a physical geographical approach that works on the relation of all physical phenomena is put in relation with the "political" geographical approach is based on history. Understanding the causal relations he claims, is a way of economizing "the power of memory".
However, he also claims that within the wide geography, a science must be especialized in order to be good, but this is not a problem because geography offers thousands of approaches from which to depart. His arguments are supported with the examples of South England and India. In this examples he explains all the geological and biological history that precedes to the settlement of humans. It is interesting his vision on how man changes his environment and the environment changes his consequences over the human.
He concludes his writing stating that geography can meet the practical requirements of the statesman and merchant; the theoretical requirements of the historian and scientists; and the intellectual requirements of the teacher.
Reading this article it came to my mind the first weeks of my geography studies; we were given lectures about the dynamics of the earth and tectonics, and after the lessons one classmate that nowadays is one of my best friends, told me that this dynamics sounded to him as fabulous phenomena, typical to be heard or read on a fiction book. I think this literary character of the geographical thinking is what makes it so attractive and fascinating.
Thanks Halford!
I've spent part of the mornign reading the local North Karelian newspaper (Karjalainen) with the help of my pocket dictionary. After going trough a selective reading (It takes to me a lot of time to read in Finnish), I gave up and I took an antology in Human Geography. I read one article written by the geographer Halford J. Mackinder in 1887 named "On the scope and methods of geography". It is said that this guy paved the way of Geography in Great Britain as a distinctive discipline. In this article he states geography as a comprehensive science and as the "bridge" between many disciplines.
Hr suggests that geography has been used for describing the new territories discovered and as the world is already fully discovered, geography is expected to dissapear. Against this, he claims that geography should be used to explain the world on a comprehensive way, as it is the only discipline able to trace the interaction of man in society and so much os his environment as this varier locally. In order to achieve this, the interactive elements must be preliminary analyzed an later put in relation to each other. Like this, he claims a distinction between description and analysis. Thus, a physical geographical approach that works on the relation of all physical phenomena is put in relation with the "political" geographical approach is based on history. Understanding the causal relations he claims, is a way of economizing "the power of memory".
However, he also claims that within the wide geography, a science must be especialized in order to be good, but this is not a problem because geography offers thousands of approaches from which to depart. His arguments are supported with the examples of South England and India. In this examples he explains all the geological and biological history that precedes to the settlement of humans. It is interesting his vision on how man changes his environment and the environment changes his consequences over the human.
He concludes his writing stating that geography can meet the practical requirements of the statesman and merchant; the theoretical requirements of the historian and scientists; and the intellectual requirements of the teacher.
Reading this article it came to my mind the first weeks of my geography studies; we were given lectures about the dynamics of the earth and tectonics, and after the lessons one classmate that nowadays is one of my best friends, told me that this dynamics sounded to him as fabulous phenomena, typical to be heard or read on a fiction book. I think this literary character of the geographical thinking is what makes it so attractive and fascinating.
Thanks Halford!
Friday 27 February 2009
Geography in Finland
Let's start now. I live in Finland since 2006, when I came for studies as an Erasmus exchange in the university of Joensuu. Though I had studied geography 2 years, in Finland I got a more concrete idea of what was it about, just because the courses had a more practical approach to human geography. I decided to stay and finish my masters degree in human geography, what nowadays I consider a good decision. I am happy with the geography department of the university of Joensuu. The staff is highly expert and very helpful, what I think a geography department should be. Professors are at the same level with students and that is something that at least in Spain I have hardly felt. I recommend Finland in general and Joensuu in particular as a place for studying geography.
Besides Joensuu, as far as I know there are geography departments in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Oulu. It is said that the one in Joensuu is very important because it is highly focused in the borderland region between Finland and Rusia, which is a very interesting border area.
Geography is the solution
Today I restart a blog that I created in order to speak about miscellaneous thinks that draws my interest. I have decided to give it a more concrete approach but with the possibility of covering a wide range of topics. I said: what the hell if I'm a geographer and geographers are able to go through every single thing in this world! Since today I will consider geography the point of departure of thig blog. What a lucky man I am!
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