NOTES FOR UPSC AND OPSC

AREAL DIFFERENTIATION & REGIONAL  SYNTHESIS AREAL DIFFERENTIATION DEFINITION Areal Differentiation is defined as the study of variation in physical and human phenomena and their relation to other spatially proximate and causally linked phenomena (Hartshorne 1939)   Areal Differentiation  was propounded by Richard Hartshorne in his book " NATURE OF GEOGRAPHY" The main objective: To differentiate between the various areas and finding out the differences in various areas. HISTORY Areal Differentiation comes from one of the old tradition of western geographical inquiry. It was first mentioned by Hecatus of Miletus in the 6th century. It was codified by Strabo in his 17 books on Geography. It went out of fashion 1960 onwards because of (1) positivism inspired a quantitative revolution and (2) quantification example: space geometry. Revival in the 1980s mainly due to  humanistic  geographers emphasizing the social construction of space. CRITIC OF AREA

QUANTITATIVE REVOLUTION AND LOCATIONAL ANALYSIS QUANTITATIVE REVOLUTION Definition:  Application of statistical and mathematical techniques, theory in the understanding geographical system is known as the quantitative revolution in Geography.   The quantitative revolution starts with  Richard Hartshorne  and Schaefer's debate in 1953   It was inspired by Logical Possibilism.   It involved two things:  A statistical method for generating and testing hypothesis using empirical data.  Use of mathematical techniques and theorems for deriving models from initial abstract assumption. Why it is called a revolution? 1. Because it involves a shift in focus of geographical studies and nature of geographical work. 2. New concepts of geography as a science of spatial analysis of phenomena, the idea of Geography our special science emerged. 3. Pronounced commitment to theory with a new set of methodologies. Main objectives of quantitative revolution 1. Chan

DICHOTOMY AND DUALISM Definition: Dichotomy: it refers to the branching of a subject into distinct streams of thought. Dualism: means the existence of parallel streams of thoughts.               In other words, dualism means two aspects of a subject, i.e for geography subject there are two views one is giving importance to environment another is giving importance to social factor . The first among the dual is referred to as environmental determinism and another is known as social determinism.  Hence, dual concepts lead to splitting up of the subject view into two as mentioned above. This leads to dichotomy which means splitting up of a subject on the basis of dual concepts emerged. Whatever dichotomy we go for is derived from three basic concepts: 1. Concept ( Physical/Human) 2. Approach ( Systematic or Regional) 3. Method ( Formal or Functional) Based on these three criteria, there are five basic dualism in geography : 1. Physical ( H ecataeus of M iletus ,