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Файл:Fundamentals of Geography. Study guide
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Country studies as a science
61
number of new worlds to explore and map. In local analysis and spatial science,
"regions" still existed, but they actually became cells linked to data in a spatial
matrix that could be analyzed by statistical methods, and regionalization increasingly turned into classification and the creation of a taxonomy. It is important to
note here the fundamental role of Walter Kristaller (1893–1969) in Germany, Walter Isard (1919–2010) in the USA and Torsten Hagerstrand (1916–2004) in Sweden, who were all pioneers in quantitative and theoretical geography. Despite his
role in this context, Hagerstrand was also interested in regional and ecological
perspectives and his ideas about the geography of time would be repeated later in
the "new regional geography", where Allan Pred (1984) used them to develop his
theoretical ideas about place and region (Massey, 1978).
In France, the regional and geographical style and the regional monograph as
the crown of science, created according to Vidal, were still strong after the Second
World War, and it took more time to replace them with new approaches. This is
an interesting delay, because, as Nigel Trift notes, during the heyday of Italian
geography, the local features of the lifestyle of the French peasantry were already
disappearing under the pressure of capitalism and the activities of the French state.
The 1960s were marked by an active debate in France about the goals and
methods of country studies, as well as about the essence of human geography.
Also here the emphasis has gradually shifted towards spatial interaction and patterns of distribution. But, as Paul Claval demonstrated, region and country geography were still important in France (Clavel, 1998).
The emergence of new theoretical and quantitative approaches did not mean
the end of country studies in the 1950s and 1960s. Regional knowledge had been
and remained crucial in schools and higher educational institutions. Country-specific ideas and its potential role were discussed in country-specific journals, educational publications, sometimes related to methods of teaching geography.
Despite major upheavals in geographical research, a strong country-specific
approach persisted in North America.
Since the 60s, there had been calls to achieve a balance between country studies and a new geography.
In Germany, some representatives of traditional social geography continued to
develop country studies, but quantitative approaches also spread here.
British and Dutch geographers organized an international symposium at the
turn of the 1990s with the aim of developing new approaches in regional geography.
Topic 7
62
Since then, a new regional geography and a new regionalism began to develop in
the UK, while regional identity was studied mainly by Dutch and Scandinavian
geographers.
Today geographers are rethinking the issue of the "objectivity" of the countries-regions. A typical feature of both new country studies and relational regional
geography is that they do not prefer any particular spatial scale: understanding
regions requires recognition and analysis of processes that take place at different
scales, between them. This is useful for understanding both the complexity of
modern spaces and the internal relations of power. Moreover, the emphasis on
historical approaches did not mean simply "taking history seriously" or focusing
on past processes, but instead problematizing all assumptions about society, man,
social change and territorial transformation (Mironenko, 2001). New regional geographers have shown that there is no reason to distinguish between historical and
other geographical regions: construction of the regions is constantly ongoing, it is
never completed process, "geo history". While traditional regional geographers
focused on regional worlds consisting of a supposedly rich mosaic of regional formations, the task of reviving regional studies, therefore, was to develop methodological approaches to the study of broader social and spatial transformations taking
place in a world characterized by the increasing dynamics of globalizing capitalism. Many scientists, inspired by new trends, now pay attention not only to how
the processes of regional construction are under way, as well as the on "stretching"
of regions across the supposed regional borders, but they also carefully study the
regionalization of social and everyday life.
Since all these elements are constantly in the flow of the globalizing world,
this realization forced scientists to develop new perspectives for country studies
and search for appropriate influences from social and cultural theory.
Country studies is an important branch of academic geography. It was intensively developed in many states until the 1950s and 1960s, and since then has
declined in academic research, but retains its role in school geography and higher
education. The new regional geography has brought both regional geography and
the region back to the theoretical debate which appeared in the 1980s (Mashbits,
1998). The new regional geographers theorized both the ideas of the region and
the role of regional knowledge within a framework, being inspired by social and
cultural theory, taking seriously into account historically determined social conditions. Thus, the new regional geography is not just a collection of "spatial
Country studies as a science
63
knowledge" and not an internal methodological problem of a geographical discipline. Representatives of this approach considered how best to implement the new
regional geography.
Most scientists assume that this happens most effectively when going beyond
the traditional boundaries between social sciences and humanities, as well as when
scientists begin to be interested in power relations related to the processes of creating a region, narratives of regional identity or regional development. Along with
the emergence of a new regional geography, some other traditional topics have
also been further developed, primarily the issue of the scale and role of historical
approaches. The new regional geography was accompanied by a new regionalism,
which especially contradicted with economic geography (Romanko, 2016).
Today, regions are considered as complex institutional structures, "institutional facts", since they depend both on human consent and on the activities and
decisions made in the context of such social institutions as political organization,
governance, economy, mass media or education systems. These institutions operate according to different principles, which contradict traditional notions of regions as isolated, limited units. This limitation is not an “either/or” question, because in the modern fast and migrating world, regional borders can be open in
some social practices and discourses, and they can be relatively closed in others.
It should also be noted that the subjects, institutions and organizations involved in
the zoning and creation of the meaning of regional spaces can act both inside and
outside the regions. The creation of regions always includes normative components, because institutional structures are the place of rules, power and trust, in
which borders, symbols and institutions merge through material and discursive
practices. Once created, they are also social facts in the sense that they can generate actions and can be generated by actions, as long as people believe in their existence, and they play a legitimate role in the spaces of "publicity" (for example,
in the media) or in management (Thrift, 1994). This action can be both reproductive, sustainable or transformative.
Although regional geography lost its academic status in the 1950s and 60s, and
even if new regional geography and new regionalism provide new theoretically
grounded views on regional geography, traditional points of view are still often
manifested in textbooks of regional geography, where regions, formed and classified by authors are often described without contextual interpretation. Therefore,
one of the eternal problems for regional geographers is to reveal contradictions of
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the "geographical" assumptions and inclusions/exclusions that such regions imply
at various spatial scales. Textbooks often give the etymological meaning of geography: geo (earth) and grapho (to write or describe). We should take into account
cultural aspect of such information: whatever criticism may say, regional geography is also important for our worldview in this traditional, rather technical sense.
But critical understanding of the problems of this approach is important, and the
task is to identify a versatile and complex intersection of power and regional geography. This suggests that critical regional geography is also a political geography.
Project assignment
1. Prepare a report on economic and geographical characteristics of your country.
2. Are there any fiction books dedicated to the nature of your country? Name
them (and quote them).
3. What prerequisites do you think were beneficial for the establishment of
the state?
65
T O P I C 8
Th e Ru s sian Fed e rat i on
Let's consider some aspects of the economic development of the Russian Federation and how they are linked with the geographical location of the country.
“Russia is unique in its climate, size and location. The Russian Federation is
the largest country in the world, occupying 11,5 % of the land. However, most of
this vast territory is practically uninhabited. 65 % of the Russian territory is subject
to permanent or sporadic permafrost. The average January temperature in Moscow
is -10°C, but more than 90 % of Russia is even colder. Accessibility is another
problem. In the northern part of the Eurasian continent, most of the rivers flow
from the south to the north. There are no cheap transcontinental water transport
routes from Europe to Asia, expensive land transport is practically the only option”
(Mikhailova, 2004). It’s not only the climate in most of the Russian territories,
which is harsh; these areas are also remote from world markets and major settlements in Russia itself.
“The physical geography of the Russian Federation represents natural restrictions for the distribution of economic activity on the territory. Given such climatic and land resources, it is not surprising that the population of Russia is concentrated in areas with relatively favorable natural conditions. The western part of
the country and a narrow strip along its southern border to the east of the Ural
Mountains, which together make up less than 20 % of its land, are quite populated.
But even there, the population density is usually lower compared to the global
average. Physical geography is also an important driving force of spatial evolution
of the Russian economy. The most valuable resources including not only fossil
fuels, diamonds and abundant deposits of various non-ferrous metals, but also
wood and furs (the most important resource in imperial and pre-imperial times)
can be found far from where people live, in regions with unfavorable climate, far
from major communication routes” (Vacarelu, 2018).
“The exploitation of these resources is expensive. The state – the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, or the modern Russian Federation – has always faced the
same compromise throughout the history. On the one hand, there is a desire to reap
the benefits of this vast territory; on the other hand, there are huge economic costs
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66
of development in a relatively unfavorable natural environment. Over the centuries, this costs and benefits problem in cross-border development has been solved
in different ways. However, the common feature is that the state has always made
important decisions with limited capacity” (Mikhailova, 2004).
“Throughout the most of its history, the Russian Empire has been trying to
strengthen its military presence in the East and Southeast. The population moved
to the Soviet Union, large-scale investment programs were implemented in the
regions of Siberia and the Far East. Both approaches have left a mark in the economic geography of Russia that we observe today” (Mikhailova, 2004).
“According to the evidence of the last 20 years, the mobility of the population
is still quite limited. This means that in order to understand the Russian spatial
economy, we must understand its evolution from a historical perspective. The
most obvious factor explaining the distribution of economic activity in Russia today is the legacy of the Soviet system. As for this legacy, we know a lot about how
and when productive factors were redistributed across the territory. We know less
about why the Soviet authorities made this choice, what distortions occurred as
a result and what their long-term consequences were” (Mikhailova, 2004).
Although there are a lot of books on industrial placement in many countries:
the USA, European Union countries, China, Japan and many others, about modern Russia. What are the secondary effects like in various industries? What factors determine the location and co-location of production facilities? What are the
characteristics of the location dynamics of various industries with and after the
transition economy? These are just some of the open questions that researchers
may have.
Another number of issues concerns regional policy. One of the features of spatial economy is its sparsity. There are too few people in too large territory. The
global trend is such that further concentration of economic activity in favorably
located agglomerations of Russia should be expected. But this means that some
territories will lose population and stagnate.
Author Dines (Dienes, 2002) describes what he calls the "Archipelago of Russia": the striking contrasts that exist between developed and progressive spaces,
on the one hand, and undeveloped "dead space", or the outback, on the other. However, these contrasts are likely to intensify even more in the future. Russia is now
facing a typical problem of a multinational country, where the leading regions are
significantly ahead of the laggards in terms of gross product and quality of life.
The Russian Federation
67
The problem of inequality in Russia and the social problems as consequences, is
considered to be a regional aspect. The most important factor determining a person's economic prospects in Russia is the place of residence (Dienes, 2002). Combined with low interregional mobility, this means an increase in problems: how to
effectively help people in lagging regions without subsidizing the inefficient spatial allocation of production resources? One of the obvious measures is the promotion of migration, the reduction of institutional and economic barriers to the
mobility of the population.
Practical task
1. Read the text on topics related to the geography of Russia.
2. Answer the questions.
3. Retell one text, you have chosen.
68
T O P I C 9
Hu m an i mpac t on bio s phe r e
Global problems of humanity include problems that affect the economic development, social sphere, political stability, the conditions of the environment and
require international cooperation to solve them, since even the most highly developed state, due to the specific characteristics of the problems, cannot solve them
individually (Fig. 13, 14) (Geology, Geoecology ..., 2014).
Fig. 13. The global problems of mankind (according to Rodionova, 1995)
Global problems
of modernity
Problems of Education and Healthcare
The problem of war
and peace
Environmental issues
Demographic problem
Energetics and raw materials
problem
Food problem
The problem
of exploration
Human impact on the biosphere
69
FEATURES OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS
Fig. 14. Features of the global problems of mankind
(according to Rodionova, 1995)
Global environmental problems.
For a long time, man has had an impact on the environment by engaging in
cattle raising, hunting, agriculture, construction of irrigation facilities, deforestation, etc., Human capabilities were limited for a long time and in general, people
didn’t change the natural landscapes much. However, the population of the planet
grew, man got powerful technologies, his influence on the natural environment
was bigger and for the last few decades it has become unpredictably huge. Therefore, V. I. Vernadsky 's teaching about the transition of the biosphere into the
noosphere is becoming particularly relevant these days; his dogma serves as the
basis for fundamental research aimed at dealing with environmental problems
The rapid development of scientific and technological progress has led to a sharp
increase in anthropogenic impact on the natural environment, to the emergence
of new or exacerbation of previously existing life problems (Modern Global,
2006).
The scale of human impact on nature has become truly planetary, and in terms
of the quantitative effect of the impact, human activity has begun to surpass many
natural processes.
Generated by the activities
of the world community
They need urgent and
effective solutions
They require
the collective efforts
of all earthlings
They threaten the death
of all mankind
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People annually extract over 100 billion tons of minerals from the earth's
bowels, 800 million tons of various metals are melted, over 500 million tons of
mineral fertilizers are dispersed in the fields (Astvatsaturov, 2006). About
9 billion tons of conventional fuel are burned annually, as a result more than
20 billion tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the environment. Over the
past two centuries the area of forests has decreased from 56 to 26 % of the land
surface on our planet. Even this statistic shows how relevant and important the
purposefulness and nature of these impacts are for humans and their habitat.
Vernadsky believed in the power of the human mind when he wrote these
words: "Therefore, we can see our future with confidence. It's in our hands. We
won't let it out."
Impact on the Earth's crust. In recent years, man has actively begun to
penetrate into the life of the Earth's crust, extracting a huge amount of minerals
and moving them along the surface of the Earth. Excessive extraction of minerals, including groundwater, began to cause subsidence of the earth's surface. For
example, in the Ruhr basin, Donetsk and Moscow coal basins, the deflection is
the first few meters at a depth of 300–1000 m, and the diameter of surface depressions over some coal basins reaches hundreds of kilometers. Pumping of
groundwater also leads to significant subsidence of the soil in these areas. There
has been down warping of sections of the Earth's crust under cities and large
reservoirs. For example, under one of the largest on the globe, the Kariba reservoir on the Zambezi River in Africa, the rate of soil deflection during filling and
in the first subsequent years was 10–12 mm/year (Gorshkov, 1987). The similar
geodetic data are typical for a number of reservoirs in our country. Finally, large
reservoirs, especially in mountainous areas, can lead to an increase in natural
seismicity and cause earthquakes. In Tajikistan, as the Nurek reservoir on the
Vakhsh River was filled, there was an increase in seismicity and the number of
earthquakes increased in several times. The open method of mining mineral deposits (iron ores, coal) has the biggest impact on the earth's surface; it accounts
for more than 75 % in Russia. Currently, there are about 200 operating coal pits
in our country, occupying 450 thousand. ha of land, and the area of disturbed
farmland reaches 1 million hectares.
Impact on climate. Man has long influenced the climate by his activities.
The climate was affected by deforestation, irrigation of arid lands, the creation
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