Geography Among the Sciences

Geography among the sciences RONALD F. ABLER Abler, Ronald F. (2001). Geography 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 work 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 physics 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 friction 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 energy. 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 consequences 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 gravity 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

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