Geography among the sciences

RONALD F. ABLER

Abler, Ronald F. (2001). among the sciences. Fennia 179:2, pp. 175–179. Helsinki. ISSN 0015-0010.

Speech at the inauguration ceremony of the new building of the Department of Geography of the University of Helsinki.

Ronald F. Abler, Executive Director, Association of American Geographers. Secretary General, International Geographical Union. Association of Ameri- can Geographers, 1710 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington DC 20009, USA. MS received 19th November 2001 (revised 19th November, 2001).

Geography and the geographers who construct it on navigation and way finding, and on how enjoy distinctive opportunities and respond to dis- people perceive, respond to, and alter their sur- tinctive challenges compared to those who pro- roundings. Supporting and intertwining with this fess and practice other disciplines. Geographers rich substantive array are the geographers who address an unusually wide variety of topics, and create and refine the discipline’s distinct tech- employ remarkably diverse methods in their at- niques of mapmaking, remote sensing, and geo- tempts to solve problems and achieve understand- graphic information systems (GIS). ing. Consequently, geography exhibits extensive What lends coherence and unity to an intellec- internal specialization, which often engenders tual enterprise with the audacity to assert domin- confusion on the part of colleagues in other dis- ion across the natural, social, and behavioral sci- ciplines about geography’s intellectual core and ences as well as the humanities? A deep and abid- substantive domain. To maintain its vital role ing conviction that location matters. Whether they among the sciences, geographers would be wise focus their analytical and explanatory skills on to articulate more clearly the ways they can con- patterns of weather and climate, on the ways cit- tribute to the grand challenges facing contempo- ies organize and reorganize their neighborhoods rary science and humanity more generally, which and hinterlands, on how immigrants try to repro- in turn demands rethinking of traditional patterns duce the look and feel of their homelands in new of thought and practice. settings, on the ways flood plain dwellers credit or discredit the threats posed by floods, or on how to make computerized maps easier to draw and Geography’s distinctive breadth interpret, geographers attend always to where things are, why they are there, and how they are Not uniquely among the sciences, but distinctly connected to other things at other places. Mete- and perhaps unmatched in degree, geographers orologists more likely than not attend primarily seek to understand and explain phenomena to the of atmospheric processes. A geo- across a wide spectrum of intellectual realms. graphically trained climatologist will attend pri- Some ply the trade alongside botanists, atmos- marily to the ways atmospheric physics produces pheric scientists, or earth scientists. Others engage temporal patterns of weather extending over years primarily in social science pursuits by exploring and decades at specific places and in specific re- the geometry and choreography of cultural, eco- gions. nomic, political, social phenomena. Yet others Every coherent, self-conscious intellectual en- view the world in humanistic terms, describing, terprise (my definition of a discipline) has at its interpreting, and explaining places and land- core one fundamental truth that can be elaborat- scapes in ways that resonate with personal emo- ed indefinitely within its realm of applicability. tion and experience. Still others have found a be- Negate that basic proposition, and the enterprise havioral viewpoint exciting and satisfying in their necessarily collapses. Economics has arisen from 176 Ronald F. Abler FENNIA 179: 2 (2001) the undeniable existence of scarcity, and all of the patterns (sets of distances) and they offer admira- grandeur and horror of the dismal science follow bly affective ways of portraying and analyzing from the fact of scarcity. Were everything that hu- those dimensions of human experience and nat- man beings wanted ubiquitously abundant, eco- ural systems. Geographers and kindred spirits nomics would not-could not-exist as an intellec- have been making maps for thousands of years. tual enterprise. If natural and human systems did Computerization has greatly enhanced the pow- not exist in a temporal continuum with a past, er and utility of maps in recent years. Geograph- present, and probable future, neither history nor ic information systems (GIS) are to geography cosmography would be viable or even thinkable what telescopes are to astronomy and micro- concepts. Everything and everybody would just be scopes are to biology – and more. Rendering rather than having been nascent, then being, and maps into digital form has fostered the develop- then have been. ment of powerful new tools for analyzing patterns Geography’s intellectual superstructure is built and processes that unfold simultaneously in space on the of distance, which in turn arises and time at terrestrial scales. from terrestrial space-an aspect of existence as Equally important is the capability digital stor- fundamental as time. The undeniable existence of age and manipulation of maps offers for synthe- terrestrial space and the need to move individu- sis, and especially for synthesizing different kinds als, commodities, goods, and services among of data such as the geographical relationships be- places within terrestrial space is the foundation tween natural and social phenomena. Comparing of geography’s intellectual superstructure. Wheth- more than two or three paper maps to see how er apparent or not, any movement of people, different features are geographically related to things, or even ideas among places entails costs. each other is difficult. Comparing five or six is al- The costs may be monetary, political, social, or most impossible. When maps have been convert- psychological, but nothing moves in the natural ed to digital form, however, they can readily be or human world without the expenditure of one compared to each other with considerable rigor, of these forms of . The friction of distance engendering much improved understanding of the is geography’s sine qua non, in the same way that ways numerous features of the natural and social scarcity gives rise to economics and time gives environment combine to produce individual plac- rise to history. Eliminate the friction of distance, es and regions. and geography becomes nonsensical. But because the friction of distance can never be eliminated at terrestrial scales, geography has always been, is, and will remain vital. Consequences of geography’s breadth What we call geography then is the necessari- and perspective ly continuous teasing out of the nature and con- sequences of the costs of overcoming the friction A discipline that spreads its attentions as widely of distance in human and natural systems. Indi- as geography enjoys a constant tension between viduals or groups of people who wish to exchange fission and cohesion. For better or for worse, ge- goods must find ways to move them about, and ography has spawned what sometimes appears to the constantly changing costs of moving them be an embarrassment of specialized subgroups to about shape not only the networks that carry the provide local foci within its wide beam. The As- goods but in the long run, the fortunes of the plac- sociation of American Geographers, for example, es participating in the exchanges. Air and water hosts 53 specialty groups with interests ranging and combine to overcome the friction of from Africa to the World Wide Web, and three af- distance for materials ranging from molecules to finity groups for geographers employed by com- immense boulders, and sculpt the shape of the munity colleges, those who are graduate students earth in doing so. Geographers profess and prac- in geography, and those who are retired. Mem- tice across many diverse substantive topics be- bership in the specialty groups ranges from more cause they seek understanding of the ways the than 1,400 for the GIS specialty group, to fewer frictions of distance play out in specific subjects. than 100 for several of the more specialized The distinctive methods geographers bring to groups. The disparity evident in the existence of bear on the problems and topics they pursue arise 53 specialty groups within geography versus the from geography’s traditional focus on distance and 24 sections in the American Association for the FENNIA 179: 2 (2001) Geography among the sciences 177

Advancement of Science (AAAS), which repre- could not do so for geography. Wilford is a sym- sents all of science, has not gone unnoticed or pathetic friend of the discipline, a Councillor of unremarked by those concerned about geogra- the American Geographical Society and author of phy’s expansive purview. Internationally, similar a number of books on topics related to geogra- internal specialization prevails. The International phy, including The Mapmakers (Knopf 1981), and Geographical Union (IGU) boasts 22 commis- The Mysterious History of Columbus (Knopf sions, ten study groups, and two task forces. 1991). Wilford recommended that geographers Maintaining cohesion within such topical diver- identify, and identify their individual work with, sity can be difficult, but to date it has been possi- large scientific undertakings, the grand challeng- ble through occasional adjustments in the struc- es that face humankind in general. It's possible ture and operations of geography’s scholarly so- that geography is congenitally incapable of con- cieties. The AAG established specialty and affini- sensus on such big questions, but I’ve always pre- ty groups in response to the increasing size and ferred to think there is a big picture in geography, diversity of its membership and its annual meet- basic themes that do unify its diverse manifesta- ings. At its March 2001 annual meeting in New tions, and that our difficulty has been in voicing York City, for example, 4,750 participants attend- it clearly and in linking it in productive ways to ed more than 3,000 presentations organized into major problems. Accordingly, I will devote the some 750 sessions. Specialty and affinity group concluding section of today’s remarks to ways I organization and sponsorship of sessions at the think geographers can and should respond to the annual meetings helps meeting participants find challenges posed generally by their own diversi- presentations and sessions of interest amidst an ty of interests and more specifically to that posed almost bewildering array of possibilities. Similar- by Wilford. ly, the 2000 segmenting of the Annals of the As- sociation of American Geographers into four sec- tions devoted respectively to Environmental Sci- Responses to the challenge ences; Methods, Models, and Geographical Infor- of diversity mation Sciences; Nature and Society; and People, Place, Region was instituted to highlight the four Certainly some of the grand challenges facing sci- major intellectual realms in which geographers ence today are suitable, worthy, and even noble work. causes in which geographers should enlist. More Restructuring disciplinary meetings and publi- important, emerging efforts in earth systems sci- cations helps maintain cohesion within geogra- ence, sustainability science, and vulnerability sci- phy but it does little to alleviate the second con- ence will be less than fully effective if geographers sequences of geography’s diverse interests and in large numbers do not participate in their for- applications – the confusion among colleagues in mulation and elaboration. The explanation and other disciplines about geography’s goals. In many understanding of nested and coupled natural and instances, geographers have failed to articulate human systems sought by scholars in earth sys- adequately to non geographers the conceptual tems science are inherently geographical. Global core that unifies their diverse substantive interests. changes are the summations of events that occur In many instances, geographers have spread their in localities. Any workable strategies for mitigat- expertise so thinly over so many regions or top- ing the causes of global change or for responding ics that they have failed to achieve the critical to its consequences will operate at locality scale. mass prerequisite to providing trenchant explana- Modifying the forces that drive global change will tion or understanding. These shortcomings were require refined analysis of the ways local actions cast into sharp relief at the opening session of the are linked to global processes, tempered by local 2001 annual meeting of the Association of Amer- knowledge of how decisions are made at locality ican Geographers. Keynote speaker John Noble scale. Geographers excel at producing those kinds Wilford, a seasoned science writer for the New of knowledge and understanding. Much the same York Times observed that while he as a non sci- is true with respect to the attempts to identify the entist could articulate clearly the overriding re- limits on process that form the core of sustaina- search agendas now being pursued by astrono- bility science and the efforts to map peoples and mers and archeologists (two of the other disci- places at risk from anthropogenic and natural haz- plines he covers in addition to geography), he ards in vulnerability science. 178 Ronald F. Abler FENNIA 179: 2 (2001)

Meeting the grand challenges outside geogra- here under Markku Löytönen’s expert guidance, phy proper will require overcoming some obsta- my very limited prior knowledge of both forced cles to progress that have arisen inside the disci- me to rely largely on my own experience in my pline because of its fragmented nature (Turner own country in preparing these remarks. There are 2002). Foremost among these is the need to state many similarities in the practice of science and clearly and forcefully, as I have tried to do today, geography in Finland and the United States, and the validity and value of the perspective that uni- there are certainly no differences between the two fies the work geographers do. That location mat- countries in the theory and conceptual compo- ters is an ineluctable reality of human existence nents of the enterprises, but important differenc- and of most of humankind’s intellectual con- es in the cultural and social contexts in which structs. Geographers would do well to clarify that geography and science are conducted should not message by providing examples of how their ways be forgotten. of thinking enhance the insights of the disciplines Foremost among those differences is scale, a and specialties pursued by their non geographer factor that is often overlooked by those not sensi- colleagues. Meeting that challenge will in turn tive to it, and a dimension of process that can pro- require attention to a linked series of subsidiary foundly affect outcomes. Scale certainly affects objectives: reducing somewhat geography’s inter- the degree of division of labor and specialization nal diversity by finding commonalities among its of task that can be achieved. A small country such plethora of sub specialities; contributing more ef- as Finland incurs all the fixed costs of maintain- fectively to the formulation of the research agen- ing a scientific infrastructure without being able das of science; building intellectual bridges to to spread those costs over the larger corps of sci- colleagues in other disciplines cognate with ge- entists that would exist in a larger country. That ography’s major realms of research and applica- in turn results in multiple obligations for those tion; strengthening the discipline’s scholarly and who do choose science and geography as careers professional societies; and a reduction in the pro- in Finland. I see your university faculty and stu- portion of the discipline’s effort that is expended dents in geography playing substantially less spe- in pursuing isolated, diminutive projects. cialized roles than their counterparts in the Unit- That work has been undertaken in the United ed States, where such tasks as teacher training or States with the formation of a new division with- developing and maintaining links with geogra- in the Association of American Geographers. The phers in government and the private sector are goals of the AAG Research and Strategic Initiatives often performed by individuals who enjoy the lux- Division are to promote more effective links be- ury of specializing in those roles. tween the AAG and geographers in government From what I have seen, however, generally and agencies and private firms; enlarge AAG partici- at the University of Helsinki, geography thrives pation in government programs, foster research here despite its small size, both as an individual and teaching partnerships among the academic, enterprise and as a vital component of Finnish government, and private sectors, collaborate more science. I spent most of my academic career at closely with cognate organizations, and take de- Penn State University where geography is a part liberate steps to secure appointments for geogra- of Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sci- phers to positions of leadership in the broader sci- ences. The Penn State Department of Geography entific establishment of the United States and in was rated the best graduate program in geogra- international scientific organizations. phy in a 1995 National Academy of Sciences ranking of doctoral programs in the sciences. I believe that much of that accomplishment is at- tributable to the ways Penn State’s geographers Geography among the sciences profited by their close association with the natu- in Finland ral scientists – geologists, metallurgists, meteor- ologists, petroleum engineers, and others – who I apologize for presenting such a parochial view were their colleagues in that college. I see pleas- of geography among the sciences today. While I ant and promising parallels between geography’s have greatly enjoyed and profited by the greater home among the university sciences at Penn State acquaintance with Finnish science and Finnish and geography’s past and new home here at the geography I have acquired during my few days University of Helsinki. FENNIA 179: 2 (2001) Geography among the sciences 179

Personally and on behalf of the Association of REFERENCES American Geographers and the International Ge- Turner BL (2002). Contested Identities: Human-En- ographical Union, I offer warmest congratulations vironment Geography and Disciplinary Implica- to you on the occasion of the dedication of the tions in a Restructuring Academy. Annals of the magnificent Physicum as a new home for geogra- Association of American Geographers. [in press]. phy and science at the University of Helsinki. You have our best wishes for continued and increased success in your teaching, research, and service to your country and to international science.