BS Environmental Sciences

2nd Semester (Evening)

Anthropology Assignment: Evolution of Human Environment Relationship

Shahwaiz Chattha (17724)

Danish Ali (17747)
Haris Irshad (17758)
Hamayoun Zia (17742)
Ali Shair Sahi (17709)
 2014 87 3 409 http://dx.doi.org/10.7163/
GPol.2014.28
May 2014 July 2014

Geographia Polonica
Volume 87, Issue 3, pp. 409-421
http://dx.doi.org/10.7163/GPol.2014.28

INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
www.igipz.pan.pl
www.geographiapolonica.pl

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT-SPACE

OF PLACE – THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH PARADIGMS
IN GEOGRAPHY AND THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY
Marek Degórski
Chairman of Steering Committee for the IGU Krakow Regional Conference
Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization
Polish Academy of Sciences
Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw: Poland
e-mail: m.degor@twarda.pan.pl

Abstract
This paper presents the evolution of research paradigms in geography related to the study of relationships
between humans, environment and place, and their tenacious role in functional and spatial analyses of the en-
vironmental megasystem. The author describes ontological, epistemological as well as axiological dimensions
of interdependencies between humans, environment, and place, understood as space in which the integration
of nature and culture takes place, influencing, among other things, human behavior and generation of the
quality of human living conditions. Surveys conducted among the inhabitants of the environs of Warsaw re-
vealed how different the perception and valuation of environmental issues is depending on space of place, its
structure, and function. The author also emphasized the potential of environment as a value, which presently,
in connection with the quality of human life, is perceived in the category of supply and demand.

Key words
relationship • environment • space • place • paradigm • Warsaw Metropolitan Area

“Man today, especially in the context of a highly Introduction

developed technical and industrial civilization,
has become an explorer of nature on a grand
scale, often treating it in a utilitarian way, thus
destroying many of its treasures and attractions
and polluting the natural environment of earth-
ly existence. However, nature is also given to us
to be admired and contemplated, like a great
mirror of the world (…).” (John Paul II 1985).
As interdependencies occurring between
humans and their living environment were
already being discussed in antiquity, they have
constituted an important subject of scientific
research for a long time. Presently, the human-
environment relationship is also of great impor-
tance for many scientific fields, which aim
410
at undertaking and solving the issues connect-
ed with the nature of world and human (Lam-
bin 2005; Maik 2006). Geography is undoubt-
edly one of multiple scientific disciplines, the
research scope of which includes the study
of the interactional relationship of natural and
anthropogenic systems, and which will con-
tinue to treat the study of these relationships
as its proper and specific research subject.
As science develops, together with geography
as one of its disciplines, theoretical and method-
ological progress will also take place and new
theoretical models will be elaborated which,
through empirical verification, will be adopted
as applicable solutions. They will be used for
the assessment and/or prediction of the course
of natural, as well as anthropogenic, processes
and phenomena, and their interactional inter-
dependencies occurring in the megasystem
of the geographical environment. The evolution
of the scope of research in its objective aspect
will also take place, caused by the emergence
of new objects and phenomena of both physi-
cal as well as socio-economical origin.
The issues connected with the human-envi-
ronment relationship have thus been, and are
now among, the basic questions related to the
knowledge of our earthly existence in the onto-
logical, epistemological as well as axiologi-
cal sense (Degórski 2006). These issues were
also of major importance for the development
of geographical thought, being since the end
of the 19th century, the cognitive foundation
accumulating fundamental empirical potential
(Maik 2006; Giuliani & Scopelliti 2009). In the
attempt to define their scientific discipline,
geographers have also referred and refer now
to the relationship between humans and the
environment. In Poland, Pulinowa (1996), based
on the performed analysis of defining geogra-
phy as a scientific discipline, pointed out that
in the last century of the second millennium,
the most frequently repeating object of geo-
graphical cognition referred to interdependen-
cies between humans and the environment.
Irrespective of the evolution of research par-
adigms, the nature of place will still be present
in geographical studies aiming at understand-
ing the relationships occurring between human
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
Marek Degórski
and environment, as it is a crucial attribute
of human existence in the geographical envi-
ronment, which also constitutes an inherent ele-
ment of cognition. Deep psychological and emo-
tional bonds occur between humans and their
homes (Tuan 1977: 45). According to the same
author, geographers did not take enough inter-
est in this human commitment to place and its
perception, analyzing mainly the abstract, geo-
metrical and subjective notion of space (Tuan
1974: 132). Such a  state of  affairs is  caused
by, among other things, a widespread belief
among geographers that space constitutes the
basic subject of their research and relationships
occurring between subsequent spatial compo-
nents are an inherent mechanism of cognition.
In the search for new research paradigms,
or while performing constructive revision
of the existing concepts and theories consti-
tuting the foundations of geography, it is nec-
essary to adopt the perspective of a human-
environment-place relationship. On one hand,
it becomes possible to assess dynamics of inter-
actional interdependencies between socio-eco-
nomic process and natural factors that deter-
mine them, or vice versa (anthropogenic impact
on the environment), as well as to identify the
actions that optimize the functioning of the
geographical environment megasystem on dif-
ferent levels of spatial organization. On the
other hand, it enables the shaping of the
human-place relationship, in both an ontologi-
cal as well as a noospheric sphere.
The aim of the paper is to determine the
role of geography as a scientific discipline
in the study of human-environment interac-
tion in the space of place as well as to define
the research paradigm enabling the research
on these mutual relationships in contempo-
rary ontological and axiological conditions.
Geographical research
and intersubjective paradigm
in the study of space of place
The specific character of geographical research
results from two research approaches connect-
ed with the overall analysis of the geographical
environment megasystem. The first approach,
Relationships between human-environment-space of place – The evolution of research paradigms…
according to the theory of Wilson (1998),
is based on the consilience of knowledge about
the structure and functioning of the geographi-
cal environment megasystem through the
synthesis of a consistent set of information
about subsequent systems and subsystems.
The second approach is holistic and according
to it, the phenomena create a comprehensive
system and reasoning is based on information
concerning the entire system and not on the
rules governing its components.
In this research context, the megasystem
of geographical environment can be defined
as a comprehensive hierarchical system con-
sisting of lower order systems (natural envi-
ronment and socio-economic environment),
subject to evolution resulting in the emer-
gence of a new quality comprehensive system
(evolution or degradation of the megasys-
tem of the geographical environment). This
dualism is characteristic of geography, and
it is expressed in the study of the geographical
megasystem, including the natural and socio-
economic environment systems too, as well
as the interactional relationships between
them. This constitutes a research approach,
which makes it possible to create its overall
image and allow for studies on the human-
environment relationship. The comprehensive
character of geographical studies had been
pointed out already when the methodologi-
cal foundations of modern geography were
being formulated. For instance, in the middle
of the 19th century, Galton (1855: 107) had
written in his work determining the founda-
tions of modern geography: “Geography
as a scientific discipline broadens the per-
ception of reality in a peculiar way. It accu-
mulates the dispersed knowledge of other
disciplines, assigning to them the meaning
they lacked while taking them into account
separately”. This statement has not become
outdated as it still emphasizes the specificity
of geographical research in the context of its
consiliential and holistic character. Despite
the fact that 150 years have passed, its theo-
retical as well as pragmatic meaning is very
clear and thus verifiable. It makes it possi-
ble to emphasize the thesis, which is still up
411
to date, and states that a comprehensive
approach towards the functioning of geo-
graphical environment megasystem is an
inherent characteristic of geographical stud-
ies. However, other disciplines refer to the
specificity of their subjects and methodolo-
gies and study subsequent components of the
environment or gather information in the con-
text of the functioning of one of the systems
of the geographical environment megasys-
tem, being the natural environment or socio-
economic system.
The next characteristic of geographi-
cal research, predisposing it to the studies
of human-environment relationships, is the
application of different scales in spatial analy-
sis (so called multiscaling), enabling the gen-
eralization of results from a local to global
scale and vice versa; the creation of local
solutions based on phenomena and pro-
cesses occurring on a global scale. It mainly
concerns the functional analysis of each
of the systems forming the geographical envi-
ronment megasystem as well as its entirety,
and it refers to the concept of space of place
and space of flows developed in recent years
and resulting from the theory of matter and
energy flow in space (Brunn & Leinbach 1991;
Sassen 1991; Castells, 1996).
The geographical environment, due to its
specific character, shaped by the indefinite
number of processes, phenomena and objects
which undergo constant evolution or emerge
and disappear spontaneously in space, con-
stitutes an empirically open research subject
(Degórski 2006). As a result, geography pos-
sesses an empirically open research subject,
which undoubtedly constitutes another rea-
son predisposing it to complex spatial stud-
ies, including the studies assessing mutual
relationships between humans and the envi-
ronment, which results in new processes, phe-
nomena and objects occurring in space.
The abovementioned space of place, which
is above all a sociological and philosophical
category, is part of the human-environment
system. Empirical notion of place is difficult
to be defined mainly due to its complex-
ity (Relph 1976). Although places are usually
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
412
characterized by a defined location and per-
manent identifiable features, the notion
of place does not result from its location, func-
tion, or the community residing in the place
or else from artificial or conscious experienc-
es. The notion of place is much deeper and
it can be discovered through examining the
intentions underlying human behavior (Relph
1976). Place implies the location and integra-
tion of nature and culture (Walmsley & Lewis
1984), being at the same time an important
element for every human being. People often
identify with the place emotionally and its
perception is highly influenced by the relation-
ships occurring between natural and social
systems. According to some researchers,
geographers have attached too much impor-
tance to natural and social environments
as a determinant of human existence, which
is rather beyond human will. In the analyses
of human-environment-place relationships,
experience is a more important research sub-
ject, as it makes it possible to understand how
human feelings and thoughts are linked with
events and places (Gibson 1978).
In recent years, geographical research
has experienced an important development
of the paradigm of an intersubjective study
of the environmental megasystem. In physi-
cal geography, such an approach is reflected
in moving away from the studies of objec-
tively existing landscape towards the study
of the environment of a certain subject, and
especially the living environment of peo-
ple and communities (Ostaszewska 2002).
This approach is similar to the paradigm
of human geography, where environment
is perceived from the perspective of people
and communities, thus being burdened with
the lack of verifiability (intersubjectivism). The
‘environmental’ option in physical geography
adopts similar assumptions, creating new
opportunities of methodological rapproche-
ment between physical and socio-economic
geography.
In such a perception of reality, man is not
only a passive observer of his geographical
environment, but also a subject, taking an
active part in its shaping (Buttimer 1996;
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
Marek Degórski
Degórski 2003), in particular in the creation
of natural and cultural identity, and the gen-
eration of factors of socio-economic develop-
ment (Barkers 2003; Degórski 2003, 2008;
Lambin 2005; Meyer & Degórski 2007; Sed-
lacek & Gaube 2010). Researchers are taking
into account the potential of the natural envi-
ronment and its significant role in the shap-
ing of conditions of human health and quality
of life. Together with social wellbeing and high
psychological standards (Gawor & Głębocka
2008), they determine individual behavioral
attitudes in the context of space of place.
Cognitive behaviorism
in determining the relationship
between human and environment
Humans, since their appearance on Earth,
had been developing in harmony with nature,
which had already been stated by Alexander
Humboldt in his treatise Kosmos. Nature
had been human shelter, a source of alimen-
tation, as well as a working and living envi-
ronment (Redman 1999; Degórski 2007).
Depending on cultural differences, the com-
ponents of nature had often been perceived
as sacrum, treated with due humility and rev-
erence. For a human being, the natural envi-
ronment had thus been important from the
ontological, epistemological as well as sacral
point of view. However, together with civili-
zational development, the functions of the
natural environment were re-evaluated in the
context of social life. Humans, by creating
their own anthropogenic system, concentrat-
ed on bringing it to perfection, whereas the
system of natural environment was treated
as its more and more distant surrounding.
The natural hierarchy of values, resulting from
inherent, inborn and instinctively perceived
existential conditions, was undergoing a grad-
ual evolution, heading towards the deprecia-
tion of importance of the natural environment
in the life of individuals as well as entire socie-
ties. Nihilistic attitudes, more and more fre-
quently adapting to reality, created the image
of homo sapiens as the conqueror of nature,
able to transform and adapt the environment
Relationships between human-environment-space of place – The evolution of research paradigms…
to their needs and visions, often without
realistic economic calculations. In the 19th
century and 20th century, it resulted in rapid
devastation of the natural environment, exces-
sive exploitation of its resources, in particular
non-renewable ones. The menace of deple-
tion of some resources emerged, concerning
in particular energetic resources necessary for
our existence on Earth and difficult to be sub-
stituted at that level of civilizational develop-
ment. Humanity of course, is obliged to deal
with this problem by undertaking subsequent
attempts to produce biofuels (Ma & Hanna
1999) or obtain the energy from renewable
resources (Hollwey 1996; Iniyana 2000).
The end of the 20th century was marked
by a visible shift in human behavior in differ-
ent regions of our planet. Landscape quality
was becoming increasingly important for set-
tlement as well as for locating enterprises.
It is necessary to note that, while the location
of service sector companies is unrestricted,
it is increasingly conditioned by landscape
quality. A growing number of people want
to live and work in an environment character-
ized by a landscape free, as much as possible,
from the results of anthropogenic impact,
characterized by spatial order and good sani-
tary conditions. All these features result in the
increased environmental awareness of socie-
ties. Human inborn sensitivity towards nature
and symbiotic coexistence of human and
natural environments has been revived. It can
thus be argued that the societies of highly
developed countries are experiencing the
environmental awareness
development of civilization
Figure 1. The relationship between civilizational
development of societies and their environmental
awareness
413
renaissance of pro-environmental attitudes,
which results mainly from their inner need and
partially from their self-preservation instinct,
which calls for a more rational use of environ-
mental resources (Fig. 1). It concerns numer-
ous aspects of our life, among other things, the
optimization of water resources management
(Wisserhof 1995), air quality improvement
(Holgate et al. 1999), or the protection of soil
resources (Doran et al. 1996; Karlena 2003).
The shift in human mentality, and the need
to shape the space of place in strong connec-
tion with the natural system, results in subur-
banization processes, i.e. the escape of peo-
ple from the area that they had very strongly
shaped themselves to the place where natural
and semi-natural processes have a greater
impact on the environment. Human desire
to be closer to nature influences the correct
functioning of the geographical environment
megasystem. A decision to move to an area
closer to nature is perceived as added existen-
tial value, whereas for nature, it results in the
increase of stress and disturbed functioning.
According to the research of Degórska (2008,
2012), in the last 15 years, settlement in War-
saw metropolitan area moved to the zone
with a radius of 50 km from the core of the
city. The zone of the most intensive settlement
processes is also moving further away from
the city border. At present, this area is located
30 to  40 km from the city (Degórska 2012),
which proves that human influence on open
territories of big urban agglomeration has
been very dynamic in the last decades.
Diversity of social attitudes
towards environmental issues
in Warsaw agglomeration
Spatial development of urbanized areas and
increased civil pressure, as well as a rise
in the level of education (particularly in the
field of ecology) means that in Poland, we can
observe an increasing sensitivity of people
towards the values of the natural environ-
ment. In addition, we also see an increased
sensitivity to the natural environment’s role
in the development of social-behavioral
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
414
attitudes that are connected with the assess-
ment of the surrounding world – in particu-
lar, the perception of place. This thesis can
be proved by looking at the very interesting
results of the studies on space of place in the
context of human perception of issues con-
nected with environmental resources, per-
formed based on a pilot survey conducted
in the Masovian Voivodeship (Central Poland)
on a sample of 2000 respondents. The author
presented preliminary results concerning one
of the communes and the research method-
ology in  his earlier paper (Degórski 2008b).
However, new facts described in the work
of  Degórska (2012) encouraged the author
to extend the scope of research and take into
account communes located in the zone char-
acterized by the strongest settlement pressure
in the Warsaw metropolitan zone. The towns
chosen for the purposes of the survey were
located 20-40 kilometers from Warsaw, but
within its metropolitan area; Otwock located
ca. 25 km southeast from the center of War-
saw, Dębe Wielkie located 30 km east from
the center of Warsaw, Mińsk Mazowiecki ca.
40 km in the same direction, and Piaseczno,
located ca. 20 km south from the center
of Warsaw (Fig. 2).
The towns and villages are located in the
zone of influence of the capital city and are
all characterized by important residential and
recreational function. Space of place is per-
ceived by the inhabitants as a hedonistic val-
ue, which ensures the highest living standard,
i.e. good accommodation conditions, rest and
Figure 2. Location of the studied towns and communes of the Warsaw Metropolitan Area
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
Marek Degórski
relaxation. One of the numerous questions
connected with the perception of environment
concerned the assessment by local communi-
ty of the influence of natural conditions on the
attractiveness of their space of place. The
highest number of positive responses (91%)
to the question formulated in this way was
recorded in Otwock, a town with an important
spa potential, benefiting from its location rent
in an attractive forest complex. All respond-
ents (irrespective of such criteria as age, edu-
cation, sex) stated that natural values of the
Masovian Landscape Park bordering the
town increase its attractiveness as a place
of residence; as many as 98% of the respond-
ents saw the natural values of the town
as a chance for a positive influence on its eco-
nomic development. They claim that, apart
from their personal positive perception of the
influence of the quality of environment on the
standard of living in their space of place, nat-
ural values may also result in an important
improvement. This improvement is in the form
of the town’s financial condition, through an
increase in its attractiveness for the loca-
tion of enterprises and services connected
with the broadly understood medical sector,
as well as in the development of the spa and
touristic function of the town and region. The
inhabitants of Otwock also emphasized the
importance of implementing the rules of sus-
tainable development in the town’s expansion
and functioning.
Environmental issues in the space of place
are perceived in a slightly different way by the
Relationships between human-environment-space of place – The evolution of research paradigms…
local community of Dębe Wielkie (a rural com-
mune). According to the inhabitants, the most
important factor connected with the optimiza-
tion of the standard of living is the improve-
ment of the condition of technical infrastruc-
ture, and in particular the quality of water.
Very interesting results were also obtained
in the survey in connection with the attitude
of local the community towards green areas
as an integral part of green infrastructure;
53% of respondents assessed their condition
as satisfactory, 27% as good and very good
and only 15% as bad and very bad.
Similar results connected with the main-
tenance of green areas were obtained in the
Piaseczno commune. The inhabitants, when
asked how they assess the condition of the
natural environment – including the condi-
tion of forests, parks, roadside wooded are-
as and green areas in residential districts
– expressed a positive opinion in the major-
ity of analytical units reflecting the division
of Piaseczno into research zones. The most
satisfactory results were obtained in the zone
of agricultural lands (D), where the major-
ity of respondents assessed the condition
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5 sequent hazards (Fig. 4).
0 Questions presented to the respond-
very good good average bad very bad
A B C D
Figure 3. Respondents’ assessment of the
condition of environment in analytical zones
of Piaseczno commune
(A – the town of Piaseczno, B – areas adjacent
to Warsaw, C – areas where agricultural function
prevails, D – agricultural lands located furthest
from Warsaw)
415
of the natural environment as good (as many
as  41% of  respondents) and average (34%
of respondents). For 11% of respondents, the
condition of green areas was very good, while
for 8% bad and for 6% very bad. The inhab-
itants of Piaseczno express the most critical
approach towards the condition of green
areas, as for 41% of respondents, the cur-
rent condition of the natural environment
is average, for 31% bad and for 15% very bad
(Fig. 3). In the zone located in the near vicinity
of Warsaw (zone B), according to the major-
ity of respondents, the condition of the natu-
ral environment in their place of residence
is  average (36% of  respondents) and good
(31% of respondents).
Another problem connected with the
perception of space of place in the context
of the human-environment relationship is the
sanitary condition of the environment and its
influence on the health of the population. An
important factor in the perception of space
of place is thus constituted by human aware-
ness of the occurrence of natural, as well
as anthropogenic, risks in the system of the
geographical environment that may pose
a threat to human health and safety. It is the
most serious problem in the context of the
functioning of the natural environment for
over 80% of respondents. For instance, accord-
ing to the analysis of results of questionnaires
conducted in Piaseczno, divided into research
zones according to their location, the domi-
nating function of land use as well as employ-
ment structure, different points of view of the
local community can be presented in connec-
tion with the subject of research, which results
also from a different scale of influence of sub-
ents were multiple-choice, with a possibility
to choose from one to three answers. Accord-
ing to the inhabitants of the urban (Piasec-
zno), and suburban areas (between Warsaw
and Piaseczno), the quality of water consti-
tuted a major health hazard. This risk is put
in the first place by nearly 46% of respond-
ents in the town of Piaseczno and nearly 40%
in its suburban area (zone B), while in the
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
416
drinking water quality
illegal dumping of waste
industrial noise and from power lines
road noise
air pollution
odors
quality of the food purchased in stores
quality of food from own crops
0 20
Figure 4. Main health hazards in the social perception of subsequent research zones of Piaseczno
commune in the context of quality of natural environment
(A – the town of Piaseczno, B – areas adjacent to Warsaw, C – areas where agricultural function prevails,
D – agricultural lands located furthest from Warsaw)
remaining two zones, being mainly agricul-
tural lands characterized by their own water
intakes, the percentage drops below 20%
of respondents (Fig. 4). For local communities,
the problem of waste landfills located in their
surroundings is perceived in a different way.
In agricultural areas (zones C and D), the
perception of this hazard as the most signifi-
cant for inhabitants’ health is the most visible.
In the area located in close proximity to Cho-
jnowski Landscape Park, ca. 89% of respond-
ents perceived it as the most significant for
their health, while in the second zone where
agricultural function prevails (zone D), the
percentage reached over 77% of respond-
ents. In urban and suburban areas, less that
40% of respondents assessed this factor
in their questionnaires as important for their
health. Road noise and air pollution (Fig. 4)
were other important health hazards pointed
out by inhabitants of the urbanized area.
In all locations studied according to the
space of place, local communities referred
to the positive influence of sustainable devel-
opment solutions on their quality of life.
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
Marek Degórski
A
B
C
D
40 60 80 100
Nevertheless, it has to be said that the per-
centage of respondents describing this influ-
ence as very significant and significant did
not exceed 50% in each research location,
which results partly from the level of educa-
tion, but is also caused by social policy of local
authorities, often excessively concentrated
on economic development without taking into
account environmental factors.
Environmental potential paradigm
The evolution of attitudes of societies of vari-
ous states towards the role of the natural
and cultural environment in the functioning
of socio-economic system results in the fact
that the improvement of the quality of life
is no longer perceived as caused exclu-
sively by economic and social development.
For them, it is also caused by the optimiza-
tion of the use of the natural environmental
potential and management of its resources
(Dupont et al. 1998; Gunderson & Holling
2002; Berbeka 2005; Murphy 2006). The
potential of the natural environment is usually
Relationships between human-environment-space of place – The evolution of research paradigms…
understood as all environmental values and
resources creating the natural system’s capa-
bility to satisfy broadly understood (physical
and psychological) human needs, present
as well as future, together with self-regulatory
and immune mechanisms maintaining this
capability in the environment.
In geographical studies, a lot of attention
is devoted to the potential of the environment
(analyzed in various spatial scales, from local
to supraregional), its broadly understood
resources, including landscape and cultural
values, as well as functional links with other
components of the geographical megasystem
(Lagendijk & Cornford 2000; Degórski 2012).
The environment is also perceived as a factor
capable of generating development trajecto-
ries, which, because of their concentration,
create attraction points, i.e. attractors, having
their attraction area, called basin of attraction,
deciding among others about the so-called
stickiness of the place. According to general
system theory by  von Bertalanffy (1973), an
attractor is the area or point in a certain
space of states at which the system aims
and around which the system remains at an
unrestricted time scale, subject to the evolu-
tion of chaotic systems. The system is con-
sidered chaotic when in its state space map,
saddle points, homoclinic intersection points
(intersection of the inflow and outflow of the
same trajectory) and heterocyclic intersection
points (intersection of the inflow and outflow
of different trajectories) are observed. Due
to the presented features of the course of the
development trajectory, the values of the nat-
ural environment do not always decide about
the attractiveness of a given place with equal
force. As it is commonly known, even slight
initial differences in environmental potential
may result in a radically different outcome
and, furthermore, the course of develop-
ment trajectories is highly influenced by the
interacting economic and social background
of the natural environment system. This fea-
ture of each place in space is also responsi-
ble for the drainage of human and economic
capital from the external system, and then
for its anchoring (holding), enabling to obtain
417
a temporary state of social and economic
equilibrium. This state can stabilize or under-
go further development processes under
the influence of endogenous and exogenous
factors. Attractors, being the equilibrium
points attracting each trajectory of a given
dynamic system constitute, thanks to the non-
linearity of social and natural relationships,
a factor, which in specific conditions creates
the systems characterized by metastability
(Domański 2008; Liu et  al. 2009; Degórski
2013). In  the search of  development attrac-
tors created by the environmental potential,
artificial neural networks, so called multilayer
perceptrons, can be used as a modern tool
enabling the performance of multifactorial
analysis of data characteristic for environ-
mental resources and quantified landscape
values. Artificial neural networks are used
with success in different scientific disciplines.
They enable an unrestricted creation of mod-
els of linear, as well as nonlinear, functions
as well as control the complex issue of multidi-
mensionality which, when other methods are
applied, considerably hinders the attempts
to model nonlinear functions (in particular the
functions with an important number of inde-
pendent variables, so called vector functions).
The potential of the natural environment
can thus be treated as one of the most sig-
nificant subjects of geographical research,
the study of which creates the possibilities
of identifying development directions for
a given space of place. In such a case, the
research scope is often wider that the inter-
ests of geographers, which results from the
synergic influence of different development
factors of psychological and mental origin.
Another key element in the research proce-
dure for the environmental potential paradigm
is constituted by an attempt to assess its val-
ue in the context of supply and demand. Eco-
system services are increasingly used for this
purpose. Ecosystem services are understood
as nature components, which are directly con-
sumed, perceived or used to increase human
wellbeing (Boydem & Banzhafem 2007). The
service is thus the ‘final product’ of the ecosys-
tem and not a natural process in the course
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
418
of which it is created. In this way, it is possi-
ble to measure a given service and perform
its economic valuation. The abovementioned
functions cannot thus be treated automati-
cally as ecosystem services, as there is a cer-
tain chain of interdependencies between the
ecosystem and human wellbeing, where the
service constitutes a ‘bridge’ (de Groot et al.
2010). The notion of ecosystem services is,
in general terms, defined as a set of eco-
system products and functions (e.g. water
and air purification, production of oxygen,
recreation) that a person/community ben-
efits from (Costanza et al. 1997). According
to their functions and effects, services offered
by nature are divided into the following cat-
egories: provisioning services, regulating
services, supporting services and cultural ser-
vices (TEEB 2008). The integration, study and
understanding of these four types of benefits
in the concept of ecosystem services is now
among the greatest challenges for specialists
in various scientific disciplines, managerial
staff, policymakers as well as the entire soci-
ety (Sutherland et al. 2006, 2009; Burkhard
et al. 2010). Even if the notion of ecosystem
services was already formulated in the sec-
ond half of the 1990s (Costanza et al. 1997),
genuine development of this scientific branch
has only recently occurred (Lenda et al. 2010).
It is also emphasized that some of them are
difficult to be observed (Vejre et al. 2010) and
are defined as a hidden value.
Conclusion
The essence of research on the relationship
of human-environment-space of place present-
ed in the paper demonstrated the importance
Geographia Polonica 2014, 87, 3, pp. 409-421
Marek Degórski
of these studies for a better understanding
of the functioning of the geographical envi-
ronment megasystem, in particular in the
context of human perception and actions con-
ditioned by environmental potential for the
improvement of the quality of life. This very
old geographical research direction remains
up to date and generates new research meth-
ods, sets of concepts, empirical models and,
finally, it may lead to the formulation of theo-
ries creating the basis of a new geographi-
cal research paradigm. Detailed theories and
notions of environmental potential paradigm
will thus be embedded with experimental
(historical) data, which is now being verified.
This research approach is, and will continue
to be, in close correlation with the intersubjec-
tive research paradigm of the space of place,
perceived individually and not subject to sci-
entific verification processes. It is also neces-
sary to emphasize that correct identification
of the discussed interdependencies is cru-
cial for determining development directions
for subsequent units of geographical space
and optimizing living conditions (Connelly &
Richardson 2004). The 2011 Human Devel-
opment Report argues that “(…) bad environ-
ment and bad health are two overlapping
deficiencies, very strongly correlated with
each other”. Geographers should thus make
every effort possible to increase human liv-
ing standards. In this way, the space of place
of every human will become unique in both
a noological as well as an ontological sense.
Editors’ note:
Unless otherwise stated, the sources of tables and
figures are the author(s), on the basis of their own
research.
Integrating Human and Natural History

Figure 1. Selected indicators of environmental and human history.

While this depiction of past events is integrative and suggestive of major patterns and developments in
the human-environment interaction, it plots only coincidence, not causation, and must, of course, be
supplemented with integrated models and narratives of causation. In this graph, time is plotted on the
vertical axis on a log scale running from 100,000 years before present (BP) until now. Technological
events are listed on the right side and cultural/political events are listed on the left. Biologically modern
humans arose at least 100,000 yrs BP and probably more than 200,000 – 250,000 yrs BP, but sedentism
(and later agriculture) did not start until after the end of the last ice age and the dramatic warming and
stabilization of climate that occurred around 10,000 yrs BP, at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary.
Northern Hemisphere temperature can be reconstructed for this entire period from ice core data,
combined with the instrument record from 1850 until the present. Human population fluctuated
globally at around 1 million until the advent of agriculture, after which it began to increase exponentially
(with some declines as during the black death in Europe) to a current population of over 6 Billion. Gross
World Product (GWP) followed with some lag as people tapped new energy sources such as wind and
eventually fossil fuels. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) closely track population,
GWP and energy use for the last 150 years. The start of the ―Great Acceleration‖ after WWII can be
clearly seen in the GWP, population, and water withdrawal plots. The plot for ―SE Asian Monsoons‖
shows the long-term variability in this important regional precipitation pattern. Patterns in land use are
shown as the fraction of land in forest, cropland, and in the ―three largest polities‖. This area in large
―polities‖ or sovereign political entities has increased over time, with significant peaks at the height of
the Roman, Islamic Caliphate, Mongol, and British empires. Currently the three largest polities are
Russia, Canada, and China, together covering about 32% of the land surface. At the peak of the British
empire in 1925, the 3 largest were Britain, Russia, and France, together covering about 53% of the land
surface before the independence of British and French colonies.

Human history has traditionally been cast in terms of the rise and fall of great civilizations, wars, specific
human achievements, and extreme natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, floods, plagues). This history
tends to leave out, however, the important ecological and climatic context and the less obvious
interactions which shaped and mediated these events (Figure 1). Socio-ecological systems are intimately
linked in ways that we are only beginning to appreciate. Furthering the research agenda on such
systems poses great methodological challenges. Events can be selectively chosen from the past to
support almost any theory of historical causation. While Figure 1 puts a range of environmental
indicators and historical events together on the same graph, it can show only coincidence, not
causation. The causal links are more complex and not self-evident. For example, water availability is
related to complex developments resulting from social organization, engineering and climate (see the
Roman Empire period on Figure 1). While we use the timeline to illustrate the parallels between human
and environmental change, the complex web of causation that resulted in the sequence of events
depicted cannot be easily represented on such a graph.
Human societies respond to environmental (e.g., climate) signals through multiple pathways including
collapse or failure, migration and creative invention through discovery. Extreme drought, for instance,
has triggered both social collapse and ingenious management of water through irrigation. Human
responses to change may in turn alter feedbacks between climate, ecological, and social systems,
producing a complex web of multidirectional connections in time and space. Ensuring appropriate future
responses and feedbacks within the humanenvironment system will depend on our understanding of
this past web and how to adapt to future surprises. To develop that understanding, we need to look at
multiple time and space scales.

At millennial timescales different cultural elements (social and political structure, traditional practices,
and beliefs, to name a few) enable or constrain responses. Even global-scale events (climate change,
major volcanic activity, etc.) do not affect all regions at precisely the same time or with the same
intensity. Models (conceptual and computational) of how societal characteristics and environmental
conditions affect the resilience of socio-ecological systems are needed. Processes important for the
study of resilience, vulnerability, or sustainability include: the degree of rigidity of social, economic, and
political networks; the diversity of biophysical resources and of human resourcefulness; the
development of complexity, costliness and ineffectiveness in problem-solving; and the cyclical
expansion/contraction and geographical shift in the center of accumulation with periodic declines and
―dark ages‖ when external limits to social reproduction are reached. Simple, deterministic relationships
between environmental stress, (for example, a climatic event), and social change are inadequate.
Organizational, technological and perceptual mechanisms mediate the responses of societies to
environmental stress, and there are also time-delays to societal responses.

More recent changes in the human-environment relationship, such as accelerated globalization and
global environmental change, have deep roots in humanity’s relationship with nature over the past
millennium. While we often associate the term ―global change‖ with the greenhouse gas warming
evident in the last decade, socio-ecological changes at continental and global scales were put in motion
over at least the past 1000 years (e.g. many European landscapes looked much like they do today far
earlier than this). Important phenomena include a rise in human population, the strengthening of nation
states, the global transfer of inventions and values, the beginning of industrialization and the rise of
global communications, and associated with these the dramatic modifications of land use and
biodiversity, hydrological and energy flows, and key ecological processes.

The last 1000 year period is also interesting because it’s a period when broad swings in temperature as
well as clusters of extreme weather events arguably changed the trajectory of history. The fourteenth
century in Europe saw the end of the Medieval Warm Period. Particularly during the period from 1315–
1317 Western Europe witnessed a combination of rainy autumns, cold springs, and wet summers that
led to crop failures and a dramatic slowdown in urban expansion. These early Europeans were further
subjected to the last major locust invasion (1338), the ―millennium flood‖ (1342), and the coldest
summer of the millennium in 1347. From 1347 to 1350 the ―Black Death‖ devastated populations. The
clustering of extreme events in the fourteenth century fundamentally undermined social order and was
a key factor in a major wave of anti-Semitic pogroms and systematic discrimination. In the same period,
agricultural land was abandoned and forests increased. Many would argue that it also led to the end of
the feudal system, improved land and employee rights and, through the enlightenment period, paved
the way for the modern age. The Little Ice Age affected food availability in many parts of Europe, leading
to the development of technological, economic and political strategies as ways to reduce vulnerability.
The exceptional 1788-1795 ENSO event reverberated around the world in places as far afield as the first
British colonial settlement in Australia, the Indian monsoon region, Mexico and western Europe (13).
Thus, the present nature and complexity of socio-ecological systems are heavily contingent on the past;
we cannot fully understand the present condition without going back centuries or even millennia into
the past. An important implication is that societal actions today will reverberate for centuries into the
future in climatic and many other ways.

Turning to the more recent past, the 20th century witnessed several sharp changes in the evolution of
socio-ecological systems, at both global (two world wars and the Great Depression) and regional (e.g.
the failure of Soviet farming, its reliance on grain from the U.S., and subsequent collapse as a polity)
discontinuities. Variations in the growth rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere occurred in
response to both climatic controls over land-atmosphere-ocean fluxes (for example, CO2 increases more
rapidly in El Niño years because of climate effects on terrestrial ecosystems) and political events (the
growth rate slowed during the 1970s oil shock and after the breakup of the Soviet Union because of
changes in fossil fuel use). The 20th century also marks the first period for which instrumental records of
many environmental parameters have become available and for which detailed statistical records of
many human activities have also been collected.

The most remarkable phenomenon on Earth in the 20th century was the ―Great Acceleration,‖ the
sharp increase in human population, economic activity, resource use, transport, communication and
knowledge–science–technology that was triggered in many parts of the world (North America, Western
Europe, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand) following World War II and which has continued into this
century (Figure 1, 14, 15). Other parts of the world, especially the monsoon Asia region, are now also in
the midst of the Great Acceleration. The tension between the modern nation-state and the emergence
of multinational corporations and international political institutions is a strong feature of the changing
human-environmental relationship. The ―engine‖ of the Great Acceleration is an interlinked system
consisting of population increase, rising consumption, abundant cheap energy, and liberalizing political
economies.

Globalization, especially an exploding knowledge base and rapidly expanding connectivity and
information flow, thus acts as a strong accelerator of the system. The environmental effects of the Great
Acceleration are clearly visible at the global scale—changing atmospheric chemistry and climate,
degradation of many ecosystem services (e.g., provision

of freshwater, biological diversity, etc.), and homogenization of the biotic fabric of the planet. The Great
Acceleration is arguably the most profound and rapid shift in the human– environment relationship that
the Earth has experienced.

Towards the end of the 20th century, there were signs that the Great Acceleration could not continue in
its present form without increasing the risk of crossing major thresholds and triggering abrupt changes
worldwide. Transitions to new energy systems will be required. There is a growing disparity between the
wealthy and the poor, and, through modern communication, a growing awareness by the poor of this
gap, leading to heightened material aspirations globally—a potentially explosive situation. Many of the
ecosystem services upon which human well-being depends are depleted or degrading, with possible
rapid changes when thresholds are crossed. The climate may be more sensitive to increases in carbon
dioxide and may have more inertia than earlier thought, raising concerns of abrupt and irreversible
changes in the planetary environment as a whole.
From the past, we know there are circumstances in which a society is resilient to perturbations (e.g.,
climate change) and there are circumstances in which a society is so vulnerable to perturbations that it
will be unable to cope. The evolutionary biologist and biogeographer Jared Diamond identifies what he
considered to be the 12 most serious environmental problems facing past and future societies—
problems that often have led to the collapse of historical societies:

1. Loss of habitat and ecosystem services; 2. Overfishing; 3. Loss of biodiversity; 4. Soil erosion and
degradation; 5. Energy limits; 6. Freshwater limits; 7. Photosynthetic capacity limits; 8. Toxic
chemicals; 9. Alien species introductions; 10. Climate change; 11. Population growth; and 12. Human
consumption levels.

More importantly, Diamond, and several others before him, have emphasized that the interplay of
multiple factors is almost always more critical than any single factor. Societies on the edge become
brittle and lose resilience (including the ability to adapt social values to new circumstances) making
them more susceptible to the impacts of potential perturbations of several kinds, including climate
change, political corruption, war, and terrorism. In addition, what happens to any society is an emergent
phenomenon, the result of individual decisions and conflicts in combination with environmental factors.

To make further progress, we need to construct a framework to help us understand the full range of
human-environment interactions and how they affect societal development and resilience. We now
have the capacity to develop this framework in the form of more comprehensive integrated models,
combining approaches from geophysical, systems dynamics and agent-based models to implement
approaches including simulation games and scenario analysis. Insights from modeling and analysis of the
rich array of well-documented integrated historic events can be used to structure, test and further
develop these models. A

few examples of integrated dynamic historical simulation models now exist, including Turchin’s work on
historical dynamics with several case studies on everything from the rise and fall of religions to imperial
expansion and dynastic cycles, and agent-based simulation models of the growth and decline of the
Anasazi in the Southwestern U.S.

The fundamental question we need to ask is: how does the history of human-environment systems
generate useful insights about the future? In trying to gain insights from the past, tests of alternate
models must play a central role. While in the natural sciences, alternate models can be tested against
numerical data sets, in testing models (conceptual and computational) of the human-environment
system, we need to use the full range of data from numerical time series to historical narratives. We also
need to develop new skills and techniques for integrating these disparate data sources of fundamentally
different characters. The extent to which we can (or cannot) reproduce historical behavior in socio-
ecological systems determines the confidence we can place in future projections. An array of different
modeling approaches, some focused strongly on the biophysical aspects of the Earth System (e.g.,
General Circulation Models of climate) and others centered on socio-economic aspects (e.g., models of
the global economy) have been developed for projecting Earth System behavior into the future. In the
second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries the evolution theory of Darwinism, the deductive
research methods and the Newtonian causality largely aff ected the scientifi c thought (Grossman, L.
1977). For geography, which was on its way to become an academic discipline, it was a problematic
question how to treat the place and role of humans within the great natural system of the Humboldtian
synthesis. The research on the The aspects of the newly professionalising geography
relations between humans and environment has resulted in the genesis of anthropogeography. From a
historical perspective, Hajdú (2007) claims, that the research on human-environment relations was a
basic topic in the forming geographical science. According to István Berényi (1997) this issue is
connected to the classic (early) anthropogeography, which an
Integrated models at multiple spatial and temporal scales have also been developed. Recognizing that
no single approach has intrinsic advantages, a strategy of comparing, synthesizing and integrating the
results from different modeling approaches is probably more productive, paralleling the use of multiple
working hypotheses. Developing an integrated historical narrative and database will allow testing of
alternate models, more rapid evolution of paradigms, and better answers to IHOPE related questions.
alysed the connections between humans and their natural and social surroundings. Tibor Mendöl
(1999), who wrote the history of geography in the middle of the 20th century, gave a diff erent
interpretation. According to him, in the end of the 19th century geography was the science of
connections and causalities in general. Our research group accepts the opinion of Probáld (1999), who
emphasised that the integrated analysis of spatial phenomena and the investigation of
humanenvironment relations are among the most important targets of geographical research.
Discussing the role of scientifi c approaches and paradigms in geography, scientists who helped the
process of paradigm formation should also be mentioned. The research on human-environment
relations has appeared in geography from time to time, but the connecting paradigms had diff erent
stories through time and space. At the end of the 19th century the German, French, British and
American schools were equally engaged in human-environment research and anthropogeography. Four
scientists got important positions at d ifferent universities at the same time, and they were interested in
the research of society within the framework of the new science investigating the features of the Earth
(Castree, N. 2011). The German Friedrich Ratzel, the French Paul Vidal de la Blache, the British Halford
Mackinder and the American William Morris Davis determined the scientifi c thought of
humanenvironment relationships within the new academic discipline of geography. All of them accepted
the concept of unifi ed geography that the research of nature and society is feasible within one
discipline. With Mackinder’s words, they believed, that geography can bridge the gap between physical
and social sciences (Castree, N. 2011). According to Davis the research on the relation between the
Earth and its inhabitants is the task of geography, this research issue separate geography from other
sciences (Lewthwaite, G.R. 1966; Harden, C.P. 2012). Their thought was infl uenced by the evolutionary
theory of Lamarck and Darwin

(Livingstone, D.N. 2011). We can say that it was a compulsion to them to demonstrate the relationship
between nature and society.

Ratzel, determinism and their infl uence on scientifi c thought

The result of the activity of Friedrich Ratzel from the German School was the determinist paradigm
about human-environment relations, which dominated geographical thought for some decades. Due to
his work this paradigm got scientifi c legitimacy, but later on it had a controversial career in history, not
only in a scientifi c meaning. It has been transformed through time and space, but basically it remained
the same. According to environmental determinism the environment, the nature controls human
activities (Livingstone, D.N. 2011). As Hajdú (2007) commented environment determines the diverse
development processes of society. Nature is the independent variable, the cause, while the human
evolution and its social features are dependent variables, the answers to the cause (Harden, C.P. 2012).
Environmental determinism was not the product of academic geography, discoveries had already made
it popular. This idea was propagated by several earlier writings, and especially the infl uence of climate
on people was a popular theory (Livingstone, D.N. 2002). In the 18th century, philosophers of the
Enlightenment already wrote about the connections between the climate and the cultures. Geographic
discoveries found various cultures at diff erent latitudes, which were dissimilar from the European
culture; therefore, the relation between climate and culture seemed quite obvious (Coombes, P. and
Barber, K. 2005). Merely a modern science was necessary to legitimate this viewpoint. Geography
became an academic discipline more or less the same time when western powers demanded the
legitimacy of their colonial aspirations (Livingstone, D.N. 1992). At the end of the 19th and early 20th
centuries this thought was undoubtedly connected

Kőszegi, M. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (2) 87–99.90

to geography and the reason for this was the subject of geographical research. According to Livingstone
determinism served as a perfect basis for academic geography to provide an appropriate framework for
the research of society. Second, it gave the scientifi c justifi cation of colonial policies and so the spirit of
the age made it successful (Livingstone, D.N. 2011). Peet, R. (1985) confi rms this view in his article
about the social background of environmental determinism; according to him this idea was the entrance
of geography to modern sciences. Darwinian thoughts in geography gave a scientifi c explanation to the
question, why it is possible that certain nations are more successful than others in the struggle for world
domination (Peet, R. 1985). Consequently, environmental determinism is basically Eurocentric. Even
nowadays we can meet scientifi c works based on the premise, that the formation of European culture
was connected to special environmental features, or certain environmental features made non-
European nations less resistant mentally and/or physically (Blaut, J.M. 1999; Castree, N. 2011). Ratzel‘s
works are deeply inspired by the evolutionary theory; he studied zoology, biology and anatomy in the
1860s (Peet, R. 1985). He was a professor in Munich and later in Leipzig in the 1880s, when power eff
orts of the united German Empire became stronger; his thoughts gave the legitimacy of these
imperialistic desires. According to Berényi (1992), in the works of Ratzel the physical environment
determines the possibility of human activities, the spatial movement of people and their spatial
distribution; therefore the development of a state is the function of the physical sett ings. Mendöl
(1999) emphasised that Ratzel had not claimed that every social phenomenon can be explained by
environmental reasons; he just wanted to point those social phenomena, which really refl ect the impact
of environmental factors. In Ratzelian thought the state is an organism under the rule of biological
evolution, like every creature on Earth. Nations live on a given territory, which feed them; therefore, the
need for a larger territory or living space

(Lebensraum) is instinctively present in their thoughts (Anderson, J. 2009). Later on, the living space
theory had become notorious and compromised due to the book of Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf), the Nazi
ideology and the events of the Second World War. It is one of the reasons why environmental
determinism disappeared from scientifi c thought and geopolitics in the second half of the 20th century.
However, the infl uence of Ratzelian thoughts is far beyond German geography and geopolitics. In his
study about the short history of the 20th century geography Probáld (1999) discussed the predominance
of environmental determinism in American geography in the fi rst part of the 20th century too, thanks to
the works of Ellen Churchill Semple and Ellsworth Huntington. Semple was Ratzel’s student in the 1890s
in Berlin. Her oft en cited study was published in 1911 (Infl uences of Geographic Environment) and
became very infl uential for decades in the United States (Peet, R. 1985; Harden, C.P. 2012). Sometimes,
the work of Semple is mentioned as a separate geographical approach as environmentalism
(Lewthwaite, G.R. 1966, Probáld, F. 1999). In her convincing theory Semple emphasised the vitalising
connection between Earth and man. Man cannot be investigated scientifi cally without the Earth,
therefore, the aim of geography is to investigate the infl uence of natural factors on historical events
(Peet, R. 1985). She investigated the eff ects of environment on human mind; this had involved the
demonstration of mental features of nations and races. The basic thought, that the cradle of mankind is
the hot zone, but the temperate zone off ers the challenges and trigger higher-order development, had
already appeared in Ratzel’s works. However, Semple went further: she described with spectacular
examples the direct relation between nature and cultures (Peet, R. 1985). As Pál Teleki (1917/1996),
wrote in his seminal work, Huntington went as far as to claim that the rise of civilisations is possible only
in a certain climatic type of the Earth. In the works of Semple, Huntington and their followers the
environmental factors

91K őszegi, M. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (2) 87–99.

were “determinative causes of racial diff erences, cultural practices, moral values, ingenuity and the
ultimate capabilities of any given population” (Judkins, G. et al. 2008. p. 20). Looking back, they are
criticisable, because they drew consequences without well-documented causes and eff ects and without
systematic research. They generated many stereotypes and legitimated racism too (Harden, C.P. 2012).
According to Peet, R. (1985) determinism was popular in the United States in the early 20th century,
because this theory legitimated the declaration of the superiority of the American nation as well as their
spatial expansion over the American continent. Ratzelian thoughts were echoed in Hungarian geography
much later. Research on human-environment relationships appeared only in the early 20th century due
to the works of Jenő Cholnoky, a prominent physical geographer and Géza Czirbusz known as the
Hungarian apostle of anthropogeography. While Cholnoky considered humans as one of the natural
factors, Czirbusz advanced humankind from nature and he emphasised that other, more important
internal eff ects have a signifi cant role in the life of society (Fodor, F. 2006). Czirbusz considered Ratzel’s
thoughts and determinism with criticism and he called this theory “geographical fatalism”. Therefore,
Hajdú (2007) regards Cholnoky a deterministic scientist, whereas he considers Czirbusz a possibilistic or
even a nihilistic thinker. The Ratzelian concept of natural barriers was an important argument in the
Hungarian struggle for the revision of the borders set by the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Probáld (2012)
emphasised the presence of determinism in Hungarian geography between the two world wars. He
presented several examples to demonstrate that the works of geographers were diff erently aff ected by
this idea. Only Ferenc Fodor formulated extremely deterministic thoughts in his late work, when he
stated that all functions of the state are deeply rooted in the geographical features of its land. According
to him, the character of the nations bears strong imprint even of environments their ancestors lived in
many centuries ago.

Nevertheless, other Hungarian geographers, who investigated human-environment relations like Pál
Teleki, Tibor Mendöl, Gyula Prinz and András Rónai were closer to possibilism and the French School.
Environmental determinism provided a scientifi c basis for the early 20th century scientists, who studied
human phenomena in a changing world (Frenkel, S. 1992, 1994). According to Harden “the concept of
environmental determinism, like the theory of continental drift , provided a stepping stone for the
advancement of knowledge” (Harden, C.P. 2012, p. 740). Nevertheless, determinism got more and more
critics within the scientifi c community from the 1920s that has led to a paradigm shift in geography aft
er the Second World War. However, this over-simplifying theory had great popularity and it infl uenced
political decisions until the fall of colonizer politics (Frenkel, S. 1992, 1994).
The critic of determinism: the impact of Paul Vidal de la Blache and the French School

The infl uence of evolutionary theory is noticeable in the works of Vidal de la Blache too (he used the
expression ‘struggle for existence’), but as a historian he was rather a social scientist. Vidal de la Blache
accepted the thought of unifi ed geography; nature and society exist in one integrated system in his
works, but he examined their relations from the side of the society. Teleki (1917/1996) quoted his
thoughts about geography: according to him geography received many ideas from other disciplines, but
equally offers them a lot, because geography has the possibility to consider things together, that were
intimately joined by nature and to understand and to make understand the relations of phenomena,
which are present in the whole nature including all of us, humans, and the diff erent landscapes.
According to Vidal de la Blache humans have a relative autonomy from nature, people rate and use
natural resources in diff erent ways (Berényi, I. 1997). His students em

Kőszegi, M. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (2) 87–99.92

phasised the importance of free will: “man is free to pick and choose between the vast but varying range
of possibilities presented by his environment” (Lewthwaite, G.R. 1966, p 3; Teleki, P. 1917/1996). As
Probáld (1999) wrote, the natural features could not determine the events of history, but provide a
more or less wide range of possibilities. The utilisation of these possibilities depends on the cultural or
technical development of the society. In possibilistic thought the nature is an eff ective but not
deterministic factor in the formation of diff erences between cultures. Environment gives possibilities to
social activities. The humans as actors create their own culture and their environment through this
(Anderson, J. 2009). The French Jean Brunhes, a student of Vidal de la Blache, emphasised that
researchers must concentrate on interrelationships and not on unidirectional relations (Lewthwaite,
G.R. 1966). According to Brunhes, as humans become members of their community and accept their
culture through socialisation, they exert an impact on nature too. They become factors aff ecting the
environment, but there are many other factors infl uencing the nature, therefore, infl uencing humans
too (Teleki, P. 1917/1996). This is the essence of the human-environment relationship. His way of
thinking was free from overstatements as it is refl ected by his claim that every truth related to human-
environment relations can be only approximate, and the overemphasis on precision leads to falsifi
cation (Brunhes, J. 1913). Vidal de la Blache examined smaller spatial units as opposed to the expanding
state territories of his age; many landscape monographs were created by him and his followers (Teleki,
P. 1917/1996). He coined the term genres de vie (way of life) and he pointed out that spatial behaviour
of human groups is primarily aff ected by cultural features. He did not draw general conclusions, instead
he wanted to explore concrete relationships fi rst. That is why he turned back to earlier data collection
and classifi cation methodology. He wanted to gather the characteristics of groups with certain ways of
life. His re

search was rather descriptive focussing on the quantitative and qualitative categorisation of all features
in a landscape (Berényi, I. 1992; Mendöl, T. 1999; Anderson, J. 2009). According to Berényi (1997), the
possibilism theory was the successor of determinism in time; the Ratzelian thought became an obsolete
conception by the turn of the 20th century due to the clear and intense transformation of nature by the
upturning manufacturing industry. In fact, Vidal de la Blache and Ratzel were active in almost the same
time; therefore, it is more appropriate to say that these two viewpoints lived next to each other. The infl
uence of the French School and Vidal de la Blache penetrated to other countries, too. The concept of
synthetic geography of Teleki, the prominent Hungarian geographer of the interwar period was closely
connected to this approach. He was enthusiastic about the ingenuity of landscape monographs, but he
considered them methodologically primitive (Teleki, P. 1917/1996). According to him, the mission of
geographical description is to introduce the characters of landscapes and the comparison of them,
searching for typical diff erences and similarities (Teleki, P. 1917/1996). Possibilism could be used as a
kind of scientifi c support to Hungarian irredentist eff orts. Zoltán Krasznai (2003) pointed out that using
ideas of the French School in the Paris Peace Conference was a tactical step. According to their concept,
the Carpathian Basin is a complex of landscapes, which complete each other (Győri, R. 2009). The
monograph of the Carpathian Basin is the last product of this idea (Bulla, B. and Mendöl, T. 1947). The
infl uence of the French School can be recognised in the theoretical studies of István Dékány and in the
works of Tibor Mendöl, too (Hajdú, Z. 2007; Győri, R. 2009). The predominance of descriptive geography
became more and more obvious internationally till the remarkable paradigm shift aft er the Second
World War. In the 1920s, the scientifi c arguments against determinism in the American geography used
the approach of possibilism. These arguments and

93K őszegi, M. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (2) 87–99.

the basis of the human ecological approach are connected to Carl Sauer (Williams, M. 1994; Judkins, G.
et al. 2008). In addition to the importance of the free will, Sauer emphasised that nature off ers or limits
certain possibilities, but does not determine the culture (Harden, C.P. 2012). He stated that the human
behaviour is not dependent on environmental constrains or on logical necessity but rather on the
conventions acquired in the culture. His research methodology took into consideration the historical
development and used inductive methods like Vidal de la Blache, he presented how the culture and the
physical environment can be studied in an integrated framework and context. (Judkins, G. et al. 2008).
Another similarity, that Sauer performed his research using small territorial units too. He called them
cultural landscapes, emphasising that they are the results of the joint infl uence of culture and nature
(Harden, C.P. 2012). In the American geography, the ecological views appeared in the 1920s starting
mainly with the research of Sauer who worked with some anthropologists at Berkeley University. His
follower, Harlan Barrows emphasised that human ecological research can provide the appropriate
framework for the unifi ed geography by the exploration of relationships between humans and the
environment (Grossman, L. 1977; Harden, C.P. 2012). The early ecological studies of Sauer and his school
concentrated principally to the prints of the society recognisable in the cultural landscape (Grossman, L.
1977).

Study of human–environment relations in the bipolar world

The new political system formed aft er the Second World War established diff erent research conditions,
ideas and directions in the opposing countries of the capitalist and the communist blocks. We have to
study the theoretical and ideological aspects of both sides in order to outline the further evolution of
human–environment research in geography.

Communism and human-environment relationships.

According to Hajdú (1999) both determinism and nihilism were present in pre-revolution Russian
geography, but just after the Soviet takeover possibilism became the dominant approach. Later on,
possibilism changed place with nihilism and social determinism due to the building up of the Stalinist
system and the ambitious state plans for nature transformations, though communist geographers w
ould have protested against this categorisation. Radó, S. (1962) emphasised that Soviet geographers
equally rejected the bourgeois environmental determinism, the geographical possibilism and the
American environmentalism. The scientifi c life of the Soviet Block was under the rule of one exclusive
ideology: the dialectical and historical materialism of Marx and Engels. This ideology postulates the
mutual relations of phenomena; therefore, it offered an intellectual direction to Eastern Block
geographers how to think about human-environment relations (Vavilov, Sz.I. 1950). According to Marx, a
connecting process, the work determines the relationship between humans and nature. This process is
associated with humans, who transform the environment and through this themselves. Nature provides
diff erent conditions to people. Societies depending on their degree of development use diff erent
natural resources during the production. Because of this relationship those territories of the Earth
where natural resources are rich do not force people to develop themselves. Several Hungarian scientifi
c works used the thoughts of Marx to explain why the motherland of the capital was not the tropical
climate with its overgrowing vegetation, but the temperate zone. Certainly, Marx was infl uenced by the
scientifi c results of his age (evolutionary theory, information from discoveries), therefore, the dialectical
and historical materialism helped to develop deterministic thoughts in geography. However, he
unambiguously declared that the work and the production hereby the humans are the motive force of
events.

Kőszegi, M. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (2) 87–99.94

Humans were emancipated from the environment through work and production and the society
depending on its degree of development dominates nature (Smith, N. 1990). Not only the investigation
of human-environment relationships, but even the hard separation of humans and nature became the
ideological basis of the Marxist-Leninist geography. Nevertheless, during everyday research practices
these ideas were in the service of actual political reasons and they were interpreted as it was
advantageous for decision makers. According to Engel-Di Mauro (2009), the strict catechism followed by
geographers was similar to the parody of Marx’s works (Engel-Di Mauro, S. 2009). The geographical
investigations were under state control, in service of the planned economy. Physical and human
geography were separated from each other, and the later was replaced by economic geography, which
pointed out the research directions (Timár, J. 2009). Science must be useful for society and it must serve
the resolution of tasks set by the state, therefore, only applied research was favoured in the Eastern
Block (Vavilov, Sz.I. 1950). On the other hand, science in the communist era was based on positivism,
searched for objective truth and believed that the world is knowable (Vavilov, Sz.I. 1950). Eastern Block
geographers were rather thinking in a system of geographical sciences because of specialisation
processes dissecting geography (Radó, S. 1962). Research was structured into two almost completely
distinct units: physical and economic geography. Physical geography investigated the scene of
production, the natural environment; therefore, it prepared the study of economic geography. In the
Stalinist era, the task of the Soviet science was the service of monumental plans, like industrialisation,
military preparations or the notorious environment-transformations (Shaw, D.J.B. and Oldfield, J.D.
2007). Practically, it led to the most simplistic interpretation of human-environment relations: society
stands above nature and society is able to form and to transform nature in any way according to its
needs (Shaw, D.J.B. and

Oldfield, J.D. 2007). As geography served the coloniser ambitions of the Western countries earlier, so
was it used by the Soviet politics to support the actual nature-transforming state plans. It was a total
compulsion for them, they did not have a choice; they had to serve the dictatorship. According to Hajdú
(1999), the science of geography acted in fact in the propaganda of the works, and not in the
formulation of plans. In the 1970s the negative environmental eff ects of the grand plans became so
obvious that it inspired scientists to reconsider human-environment relationships again. Regional
landscape research reappeared and new investigations with more qualitative methods as well as
research themes from other fi elds of human geography (not economy) could begin (Shaw, D.J.B. and
Oldfield, J.D. 2007; Timár, J. 2009). These developments were also valid for Hungary, where the
sovietisation of science and of geography took place at the end of the 1940s. The end of this era when
most studies neglected the environment can be assigned to the study of György Enyedi (1972). He
discussed how much environmental factors were ignored in the study of social development. His work
indicated the rethinking of nature-society relations in the early 1970s.

The changing Western geography and the nature-society dichotomy

The concept of paradigm shift can explain the ignoration of human-environment relationships in
geography aft er the Second World War (Kuhn, T.S. 1984). In the Western world the quantitative
revolution and the spatial science approach, which endured till the 1980s pushed human-nature
relationships aside during the second half of the 20th century (Probáld, F. 1999). First, the
abovementioned paradigm shift occurred mainly aft er the Second World War thanks to the
specialisation of geographical research. Development of geomorphology, climatology, economic
geography and political geography in the early 20th century
Relationships between human-environment-space of place – The evolution of research paradigms…
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Article first received • May 2014
Article accepted • July 2014
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