SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY:

MEANING AND SCOPE-

M. SARMA
DEFINITION:
• Social geography is a branch of Human Geography dealing
with social structures, social groups and social activities.
• W. Fitzgerald tried to define social geography in 1946 which
is almost equated with human geography and stated social
geography studied ‘spatial arrangement of social
phenomena, which are of signifince to man’.
• According to T. Harrison(1946) social geography is the
‘genetic description of social differences’.
• J.W. Watson(1957) defined it ‘as the identification of different
regions of the earth according to their association of social
phenomenon related to the total environment’.
• R. E. Pahl in 1965 gave the definition of social geography as ‘
the study of the pattern and processes in understanding
socially defined population groups in aspatial setting.’
• A. Buttimer(1968) defined social geography as ‘the study of
areal (spatial) patterns and functional relations of social
groups in their context of their social environment’.
• British geographer J. Eyles (1974) defined social geography
as ‘the analysis of social patterns and processes arising from
the distribution of and access to, scarce resources’.
• Another British geographer E. Jones(1975) defined social
geography as ‘the understanding of the patterns which arise
from the use the social groups make of space as they see it,
and of the processes involved in making and changing such
pattern’.
• C. Hamnett 1996 put forward a still clear definition by
saying that, ‘Social geography is primarily concerned with
the study of geography of social structure, social activities
and social groups across a wide range of human societies’.
Without going into these polemics, we may however, gainfully
say that ‘social geography is concerned with the pattern of
attributes (like religion, social custom, and tradition etc.)and
activities of people (e.g. economic, social,cultural etc.).
 SCOPE OF SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY:
The dominant theme or the subject matter of social geography are-
i) First, it is primarily concern with space
ii) Second, it searches for order, i.e. it tries to establish patter, say
from small order to large order. For example, it tries to study
people in society from a family to a clan, then from a clan to a
caste and so on.
iii) Thirdly, it tries to explain the patterns so established, i.e. to
examine those processes that produce a particular pattern. For
example, process of migration produces high density of
population.
iv) Fourthly, it identifies social problems and their areal distribution,
and attempts to ameliorate the problems. For example, poverty,
unemployed, riot etc.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY
AND OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCE:

Social geography differs from Human geography in that the

former attempts to study the social aspects of people in so
far as such aspects give character to space, but human
geography is all pervasive and includes all the dependent
variables associated with the activities of human beings.
Sociology, on the other hand is a science of society with scant
spatial interpretation. Social geography draws a lot from
sociological concepts and theories, and thus there is a
relationship between the two discipline,
It is difficult to differentiate Social geography from Cultural
geography. However, we can say that while Cultural
geography mainly deals with the works of men, Social
geography is more concerned with men, their social
institutions (like political organization, social organization
etc.) structure (like family, clan, caste etc.) quality of life,
age-sex structure etc. in a particular region.
Human geography emphasis to society with relation to
environment, but Social geography emphasis to society with
relation to space.
Social geography may be defined as the study of spatial
structures of social phenomena in various forms and
relations and understanding of the social processes behind
their occurrence across a wide range of human world.
Social phenomena are obviously different in nature such as
race, ethnicity, caste, class, gender, household and family
structure etc. Key areas of social production as geography of
health, housing, education, sphere of social practices,
perception of environment, social space formation, social
problems as poverty, hunger, crime, rasism, exploitation,
inequality, injustice, etc.
Certainly, the scope of social geography will widen every
passing decade with focus on new social concerns of ever
growing complex world, and the use of new perspective,
theories and methods for their analysis.
In the 1970s and 80s , the subject enriched itself incorporating
such approaches as welfare, radical, humanistic etc. while
Social geography today is concerned with i) influence of
space in giving shape to asocial life. ii) influence of society
on the occurrence of socio-economic and physical setting. iii)
Providing explanation for spatial pattern of various
phenomena associated with human society.
Finally we may conclude that Social geography’s main aim
(trust) is to identify the social phenomena of the earth
surface,
Simply, Social geography is the geographical implication of
society.
 APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF SOCIAL
GEOGRAPHY:
It is to be noted that the subject Social geography deals with the
people in society. The theories related to human society can be
divided into two broad categories viz. Holistic approach and Action
orianted approach.
The Holistic Approach: The holistic group of theories consider society
as a whole, while the action oriented ones examine the role of
individuals or groups who constitute society. Social geography, in
the past learned more heavily on the holism, incorporating both
determinist and possibilist approaches. A common example of the
holistic deterministic approach is to consider the society of
monsoon land as a society of subsistent cultivators. In the holistic
possibility approach we refer to the actions of the society of an area
and their influence on environment.
Emrys Jones and John Eyles of London put forwarded a new approach
which named as “ group approach”.
Group Approach: It is to be noted that social groups are vary in size.
However, for the purpose of social geographical study, a broad two
level categories are observed. One is Primary group and the other is
Secondary group. The primary or group in mind is characterized by
informal, personal, face-to-face contact between members and is a
vast component in a society. Similarly, a neighborhood group or
clan or a tribe is also a primary group. Thus, the family is a primary
group. Such primary groups make up the important social units
within a large society.
Next, coming to the secondary group, we find
that some people group together to achieve
certain ends. Such secondary groups divided
into three sub-groups. Firstly, some individuals,
who are similarly placed on the cultural,
economic, or political leaders to protect their
interest. There are many examples of this
including immigrants, linguistic or religious
group. Such groups are called ascribed groups.
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