DEFINITION AND CONCEPT ECONOMIC EOGRAPHY

Definition
A subdiscipline of geography that originated in the late 19 th can be defined as
the study of man and his economic activities under varying sets of conditions.
Geographers are of different opinions as regarding the definition of the subject.
In fact, different authorities have defined Economic Geography in a variety of
ways, but their opinions converge at a common point of accord, where it means
– the study of the spatial distribution of man’s economic activities in relation to
its environment, be it physical or non-physical.
In other words, Economic Geography seeks to describe and explain the absolute
and relative location of economic activities, and the flows of information, raw
materials, goods, and people that connect otherwise separate local, regional, and
national economies.
A deliberation on some of the following definitions offered by various scholars
of the field should help in understanding the concept of the subject matter
better.
E. W. Zimmermann pointed out that, Economic Geography deals with the
economic life of man with relation to environment.
Dudley Stamp writes Economic Geography involves consideration of the
geographical and other factors, which influence man’s productivity, but only in
limited depths, so far as they are connected with production and trade.
R. S. Thoman in his book, ‘The Geography of Economic Activity’ has
remarked, Economic Geography may be defined as an enquiry into the
production, exchange and consumption of goods by people in different areas of
the world. Particular emphasis is placed on the location of economic activity –
upon asking just why economic functions are situated where they are in the
world.
According to Hartshorn and Alexander, Economic Geography is the study of the
spatial variation on the earth’s surface of activities related to producing,
exchanging and consuming goods and services. Whenever possible the goal is
to develop generalizations and theories to account for these spatial variations.
Surpassing all, Chisolm says that Economic Geography is presumed to form
some reasonable estimate of the future course of commercial development as
determined by geographical factors.
Scope
What is economic geography? This basic question has been explained by
several scholars in their own way and also has undergone changes with the
change in nature of the study of economic geography. Until the 1950s, it
was concerned largely with spatial distribution of economic phenomena.

In the early 1960s, for instance, the subject saw it as “an enquiry into the
production, exchange, and consumption of goods by people in different
areas of the world”.

Most of the geographers have defined the scope and method of

economic geography in terms of three basic questions, as under:
(i) Where is the economic activity located?

(ii) What are the characteristics of the economic activity?

(iii) To what other phenomena are the economic activity related?

To these three later studies have added two more:

(iv) Why is the economic activity located where it is?

(v) Would it not be better located elsewhere, to better satisfy certain

economic and social criteria?

And more recently an answer has been given that these are the result of
economic behaviour. This changing nature and change in emphasis on
content of study shows that economic geography has proved the
importance in various periods of its growth. Therefore, it is necessary to
discuss the nature and scope of economic geography both from traditional
to modern point of view.

As early as in 1882, the German scholar, Gotz had defined economic

geography as “a scientific investigation of the nature of world areas in
their direct influence of goods”. Although, Gotz initiated the concept of
economic geography but his influence was limited to Germany only.

The abstract principles of that time could not be related to economic

geography because they were not in their developed form. Economic
geography owes its growth as an academic discipline to the interest of the
British people in commerce. It is interesting to note that George Chisholm,
the father of modern economic geography, had wanted an intellectual
interest to the study of geographical facts relating to commerce.
He thought that the primary use of economic geography is “to form some
reasonable estimate of the future course of commercial development so far
as that is governed by geographical conditions”. In his treatment of the
subject, however, Chisholm emphasised commercial development, and
considered the physical features and climate in relation to products mainly.

This emphasis on physical features and climate in relation to products led

others subsequently to think of economic geography in terms of productive
occupations. Jones and Darkenwald (1950) state that, “Economic
geography deals with productive occupations and attempts to explain why
certain regions are outstanding in the production and exportation of
various articles and why others are significant in the importation and
utilisation of the things.”

On the other hand, Ellsworth Huntington (1940), however, considers that

all sorts of materials, resources, activities, customs, capabilities and types
of ability that play a part in the work getting a living are the subject matter
of economic geography.

Bengston and Van-Royen (1957), in his book Fundamentals of Economic

Geography, have stated that:

Economic geography investigates the diversity in basic resources of the

different parts of the world. It tries to evaluate the effects that differences
of physical environment have upon the utilisation of these resources.

It studies differences in economic development in different regions or

countries of the world. It studies transportation, trade routes and trade
resulting from this different development and as affected by the physical
environment.

Some of the other definitions of economic geography are as follows:

“Economic geography is the study of influence exerted on the economic
activities of man by his physical environment and more specially by the
form and structure of the surface of land, the climatic conditions which
prevail upon it, and the place relations in which its different regions stand
to one another.”

—J. McFarlane
“Economic geography has to do with similarities and differences from
place to place in the ways people make a living.”

—R.E. Murphy

“Economic geography is that aspect of the subject which deals with the
influence of the environment – inorganic and organic – on the activities of
man.”

—R.N. Brown

“Economic geography is concerned with problem of making a living, with

world industries, with basic resources and industrial commodities.”

—E.B. Shaw

“Economic geography is concerned with the distribution of man’s

productive activities over the surface of the earth.”

—N.J.G. Pounds

It thus becomes clear from above definitions that economic geography

mainly deals with the man’s productive activities and their relationship
with environmental conditions. These activities are of three types: primary,
secondary and tertiary, the primary activities are those which obtain simple
commodities or raw materials from the soil, the sea and the rocks. They
are agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining.

These goods are then manufactured, processed or fabricated in factories

and workshops; this constitutes the secondary group of activities. After
manufacturing, transport services as well as services of insurance, brokers,
dealers, etc., are required. These services constitute tertiary activities. All
these human activities are in some way or other linked with environmental
conditions.

A major change has occurred in the nature of economic geography with

the inclusion of the theme, ‘spatial variation’ or ‘areal variation’.
Alexander and Gibson (1979) and Hartshorn and Alexander (1988) in their
book Economic Geography have stated that “economic geography is the
study of areal variation on the earth’s surface in man’s activities related to
producing, exchanging and consuming wealth”.
In pursuit of that goal the economic geographer asks three basic
questions:
(i) Where is the economic activity located?

(ii) What are the characteristics of the economic activity?

(iii) To what other phenomena are the economic activity related?

According to Loyod and Dicken (1972), “As a behavioural science with

spatial dimension of economic system, economic geography is concerned
with the construction of general principles and theories that explain the
operation of the economic system.”

A major change in the study of economic geography has been in the form
of behavioural approach and systems analysis. Behaviour denotes the
actions of individuals or groups, it follows that economic phenomena in
some way reflects individual and group values, policies and decisions.

While system is a set of identified elements so related together that they

form a complex whole. Systems analysis means considerations of such
phenomena as a whole, rather than as something to be analysed into
separate parts.

Economic geographers utilise the system concept in order to better

understand the component elements of some part of reality, and the
relations between them. In fact, economic geography now has grown as a
developed branch of geography with specialised branches having their
own status and importance.