1 / 16

GEOG 4400: Resource Use

GEOG 4400: Resource Use. Lecture 2 Paradigms. Philosophical Foundations. Positivism: characterized by concepts such as order, regularities, hypotheses, theories, laws, explanation, prediction, models, and systems A belief in empirical truth and logical consistency Scientific method

ally
Download Presentation

GEOG 4400: Resource Use

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. GEOG 4400: Resource Use Lecture 2 Paradigms

  2. Philosophical Foundations • Positivism: characterized by concepts such as order, regularities, hypotheses, theories, laws, explanation, prediction, models, and systems • A belief in empirical truth and logical consistency • Scientific method • Mitchell (p. 19): the ultimate purpose of positivism is the generation of theories to explain and predict the relationships between phenomena • Problems: difficult to establish theories, unable to isolate and measure each factor, many different ideas

  3. Philosophical Foundations • Humanism: a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values; especially : a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual's dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason

  4. Humanist Approach • Phenomenology: Mitchell (20): studies man-environment relationships by focusing upon human experiences, including actions, memories, fantasies and perceptions • All knowledge stems from the world of experience and cannot be isolated from that world • Behavior is governed by ‘thematic field’ incorporating all the possible intentions, meanings, and former experiences related to that object or event • There is no single, objective world; there are a variety of worlds determined by the number and type of attitudes and intentions of humans • Researches perceptions and attitudes, landscape evaluation, behavioral carrying capacity, natural hazards, and evaluation

  5. Humanist Approach • Idealism: to understand the development of cultural landscapes by uncovering the thought processes lying behind them • Rational explanation: discover the intention of the person in the action to be explained, and then understand the ideas used by the person to interpret the situation • Appreciation for cultural context and time frame • Leads to insight and understanding of problems and human responses in specific situations

  6. Ideology • Combined doctrines, values, and intentions that guide an individual’s outlook on life • Example: Marxist Geography (David Harvey) • Too many people in the past have assumed their ideology without systematically examining its assumptions and goals

  7. Environmental Attitudes and Resources • Exploitation • complete or maximum use of a resource for individual profit or societal gain • Conservation • wise utilization of a resource so that use is tempered by protection to enhance the resources continued availability • Preservation • the non-use of a resource by which it is fully protected and left unimpaired for future generations

  8. Environmental Attitudes • Dominion • Nature controlled and exploited for humans only • Anthropocentrism • Human-centered • Utilitarian • Greatest good for the greatest number (Bentham)

  9. Environmental Attitudes • Stewardship • Stewards of the creation • Romanticism • Aesthetic appreciation • Scientific Conservation • Multiple use • Environmentalism • Pollution prevention • Biocentric/ Deep Ecology • Biocentric equality • Sustainable-Earth conservationists

  10. Conceptualization • Defining the nature of the problem to be investigated, as well as its component parts and their relationships • Necessary to establish operational definitions and outline assumptions

  11. Cornucopians • Cornucopians • Julian Simon

  12. Neo-Malthusians • Paul Ehrlich

  13. Culture and resources • Culture: human attitudes and values, technical and organizational abilities, and social and political relationships • Humans, culture, and nature • only part of nature is perceived as being resources, but that part can change over time and space (mountains) • nature is ‘neutral stuff,’ something that has no value or significance independent of humans

  14. Spatial dimensions of resources • Ubiquities vs. Uniquities • Optimal location for resource extraction • Places where the resource is most concentrated • Places close to labor, transportation, and markets • Highly productive optimal or core area surrounded by a marginal zone of less productive land (Fig 3.1) • Resource rarities represent the strongly localized occurrence of ‘optimal’ conditions (p. 48) • Common resources tend to be those that are cheaper and can be provided in all locations

  15. Location and Resources • Less optimal resources become resources in particular locations • mountain farming • Geopolitical considerations • independent resource desires promote use of less optimal • Development of one resource may expose and promote others • road building to mining areas develops farming

  16. Mobility • Mobile resources • Air, water, fish, birds, migratory animals • Difficult to apply private ownership • More likely to apply ‘common property’ ownership • Mobile human exploiters • Nomads • Transhumance • Privatization or enclosure can have serious effects • Modern mobility: climbers, tourists

More Related