Finally, the new edition of The International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology featuring my chapter on Humanistic Geography, is out. Written together with professor David Seamon of Kansas State University.
Abstract:
First formalized by geographer Yi-Fu Tuan in 1976,
humanistic geography refers to a wide-ranging body of research
emphasizing the importance of human experience and meaning in
understanding people’s relationship with places and geographical
environments. Recognizing that human involvement with the geographical
world is complex and multidimensional, humanistic geographers interpret
human action and awareness as they both sustain and are sustained by
such geographic phenomena as space, place, home, mobility, landscape,
region, nature, and human-made environments. Humanistic geography was
most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s. Over time, it was largely
superseded by more focused conceptual approaches, including
phenomenological geography, existential geography, feminist geography,
poststructural geography, critical geography, and relationalist
geography. Today, there is a renewed interest in a humanistic approach
to geographical topics, though much of this momentum arises from outside
geography via phenomenological research that emphasizes “lived
emplacement.”