NATURE AND SCOPE OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION  : 

Economic geography is the sub-branch of human geography. So that’s sub-geography that deal with means to earn livelihood (economic activities). In simple word, we can say that economic geography is related with the study of pattern of production, exchange of goods service or it may be defined as study of patterns of production, exchange of goods and services their consumption or it may be defined as the study of variation in economic activities of man in a relation to the physio-cultural environment on the earth surface.

The British Geographer George Chisholm wrote the first textbook on economic geography. The title of the book was “Handbook on Commercial Geography,” published in 1889. So he considered as “Father of Economic Geography”

DEFINITIONS OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY : 

In simple words economic geography is the study of man and his economic activities. Economic geography has been defined in various ways by different scholars or geographers they are given below : 

According to Hartshorne and Alexander, in his book “Economic Geography” in 1988, it’s "Economic geography is the study of spatial variation on the Earth's surface of activities related to producing, exchanging and consuming goods and services. Whenever possible the goal is to develop generalisations and theories to account for these spatial variations." 

According to R. E Murphy in his book  “An  Introduction to Geography” that’s “Economic geography has to do with similarities and differences from place to place in the ways people make a living.”

According to E.W Zimmermann  that’s, "Economic geography deals with economic life of man with relation to environment". 

According to Gatz “Economic Geography make a scientific investigation of nature of world areas in their direct influence on the production of goods”. 

According to R.N Brown “Economic geography is that aspect of the subject which deals with the influence of the environment – inorganic and organic – on the activities of man.”                                                                                                     

It thus becomes clear from above definitions that economic geography mainly deals with the man’s productive activities and their relationship with environmental conditions. These activities are of three types: primary, secondary and tertiary. 

NATURE OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY  : 

There is no unanimity in geographers, economists, anthropologist, scholars regarding the nature of economic geography because  the nature of economic geography varies, it’s totally depend on in which field you are thinking.

The economic geography personified has a nature, just as any human being has a peculiar nature or the psychological tendency. As says H.J. Mackinder, the geography is a science, arts and philosophy by nature. So, it follows that "the economic geography" being a sub-discipline in the subject of the geography is a science, arts and philosophy, too.

Economic geography is a science because it follows the scientific methods of the observation, the collection of the data, the hypothesis, the theory and the model building ever open to the scientific scrutiny in terms of the relationship among the variables under the study and the validity of such a relationship.

Economic geography is an art, since it involves quite a subjective approach, too in terms of the skillful organization of the field studies, the collection of the data, the map drawing and the interpretation of the results.

Economic geography is a philosophy, too, in terms of ever trying to philosophize the questions of the human beings and the environment relationship in the economic terms. It tries to frame the postulations as to what, why, how and where an economic activity takes place in a particular corner of the globe or the spatial point in the universe.

Economic geography is also a social science because it deals with the study of the use of a country’s natural resources and their production and distribution.

Economic geography is sometimes approached as a branch of anthropogeography that focuses on regional system of human economic activity.

So it clear maintained above the nature of economic geography is very difficult to say that it’s a science, social science, arts, philosophy and anthropology also.

SCOPE OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY : 

The scope or subject matter of economic geography is too broad because it is the study of the distributional pattern of various of economic activities over the surface of the earth. It also study the location and spatial organization of those economic activities.

Generally in simple words we study in economic geography economic activities, physio-cultural factors influencing the location and distribution of economic activities,  resources types and their distribution, regional development and remedial measures.

So basically the scope means the subject matter of any discipline. So the subject matter of the important branches of Economic geography as mention bellow:

1.  Theoretical economic geography :  This is the broadest of all the branches economic geography and geographers within this subdivision mainly focus on building new theories for how the world's economy is arranged.

2.  Historical economic geography : This examines the history and development of spatial economic structure using historical data. It studies how centers of population and economic activity shift, what patterns of regional specialization and localization evolve over time and what factors explain these changes. Economic geographers look at the historic development of an area to understand their economies.

3.  Regional economic geography : This aspect of economic geography looks at the economies of specific regions around the world.  Economic geographers look at local development as well as the relationships that specific regions have with other areas.

4. Critical economic geography : Critical economic geography is an approach taken from the point of view of contemporary critical geography and its philosophy. Geographers in this field study economic inequalities and the dominance of one region over another and how that dominance impacts development of economies.

5.  Behavioral economic geography : This aspect of studies the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, locational decision-making, and behaviour of firms and individuals.

Additionally, some specific topics are also included in economic geography which are also related to the economy, they include : 

• Geography of Agriculture
• Geography of Industry
• Transport and Communication Geography
• Geography of Leisure and Tourism
• Geography of Services, Trade and Retail
• Geography of Resources
• Labour Geography
• Environmental and Development Geography
• Rural and Urban Geography (economic aspects)
• Globalisation

Besides the above parameters we can also study the scope of economic geography by these spatial parameters, they are given below : 

Economic geography has enormous spatial scope which includes the following aspects;

1. Vertical Aspect : 

The vertical aspects encompasses spatial locations from ocean bed to the mountain top and the economic phenomena associated with them.

2. Horizontal Aspect : These are the two types of aspect, they are;

• Continental Scope : It studies economic terms and interactions of all continents/islands. 
• Hemispheric Scope  : The entire Earth may be studied in terms of Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern Hemispheres.
• Global Scope : It has the global scope because of the variations in the level and the interdependencies that exist in the international economic development. The whole Earth has become a global system with the shrinking economic distance. So much that even a person in the most remote geographical/economic areas of the world now participates in an economic system that is less the local and the regional and more the national and the international in the scope.

3. Economic Aspect : These are the major three types for study purpose;

• Production :  All the kinds of economic activities primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary are studied product.
• Exchange : It includes the value addition to each product, goods and services created by the specialised services. It includes services provided at different levels of handling, including packaging, promotion, financing and merchandising of the product.
• Consumption : The consumption includes both the pattern of consumption and the spatial aspects of consumer behaviour.

So that is above detailed discussion of scope of economic geography, after the describing the nature and scope of economic geography, now we come to the approaches to study economic geography.