The Specialist–Synthesis Approach to the Revival of Geography: The Case of Cultural Ecology

Abstract

Geography prospers within the major graduate and research institutions of the United States where and when it makes research contributions on par with the rest of the academy; other prescriptions for its revival will have little impact in this realm. Geography has been unable to maintain these contributions when it embarks upon disciplinary trajectories that emphasize synthesis without expertise or specialization within a theoretical domain unto itself. Geography has flourished within the academy by addressing major conceptual and applied themes shared within an interdisciplinary formal but by way of a specialist‐synthesis fusion. This approach re quires both a topical expertise commensurate with the affiliated fields of study and geographic synthesis of multi‐variable interactions either in place or among places. This approach has been honed in the cultural ecology subfield of geography, a subfield perhaps more noted at the interdisciplinary level than within its home discipline. The development of the specialist‐synthesis approach in cultural ecology is briefly examined, and two examples of its use are provided to address conceptual themes of multidisciplinary significance. It is argued that this approach marks much of the very best research contributions in our discipline, regardless of subfield, and that only increased contributions of this kind will sustain geography within the research academy and, perhaps, resurrect the discipline in those elite institutions that do not now have it.

Responses of soil erosion processes to land cover changes in the Loess Plateau of China: A case study on the Beiluo River basin

“…Land use and cover changes greatly affect many environmental aspects and ecological processes (Turner, 1989), including soil and water losses (Walling, 1999;Fu et al, 1994;Kang et al, 2001;Huang et al, 2003;Zhang et al, 2008;García-Ruiz, 2010). As a core subject, many researchers have attempted to elucidate the interaction between land cover pattern and ecological processes (Fu et al, 2011).…”

Introduction: The Continued Importance of Smallholders Today

“…Maintaining the different core objectives of their disciplines, the anthropological and geographical cohorts shared a desire to reshape human-environment research to be consistent with (eco)system-and theory-based science [31,32].…”

Géographie et anthropologie. Deux regards complémentaires pour l’étude des territoires des populations traditionnelles d’Amazonie brésilienne

“…Cette proximité a été également forte autour de Claude Lévi-Strauss, qui a entretenu des relations avec des géographes tels que Pierre Monbeig (avec lequel il participa à des d'excursions communes sur le front du café dans le Paraná 1 ) ou Pierre Gourou (qu'il invita à participer aux comité de lecture de la revue L'Homme), et a reçu l'enseignement de Franz Boas, arrivé lui-même à l'anthropologie par l'intermédiaire de la géographie. Pourtant, comme le remarquent à quinze ans d'intervalle et dans chacun des deux pays M-C. Robic (2004) et B.L. Turner (1989, l'interaction entre les deux n'a que peu été théorisée depuis une vingtaine d'années, et le cloisonnement disciplinaire a souvent maintenu les deux disciplines séparées.…”

“…L'approche la plus féconde pour l'interaction entre les deux disciplines semble donc l'étude en commun et sur le terrain des situations, comme le souligne Brookfield (1962). Cette pratique peut d'autant plus se concrétiser que la géographie dispose d'une large ouverture dans ses problématiques, qui la rend par essence transdisciplinaire (Turner, 1989). La géographie peut ainsi fournir avec ses nouveaux outils (SIG, télédétection, GPS ou analyse de cartes mentales) une évaluation toujours plus objective de la dimension spatiale (que fait-on et où le fait-on ?)…”