The cultural approach and geography ‐ the perspective of communication

An interest in culture developed in human geography from its beginning. It was rooted in a conception of 'geography as a science of places, not of men' (Vidal de la Blache), and focused on the study of man/milieu relationships through the analysis of landscapes or genres de vie , the origin and dispersal of agriculture, and the regional diversity of the earth. A neo-Weberian orientation appeared in the 1960s, but the main shift occurred in the 1970s, with the adoption of phenomenological or critical perspectives. The new cultural approach modernises the traditional orientations in the field, explores the meaning that people give to their spatial experience, and introduces new questions about the epistemological foundations of geography as a scientific discipline. In order to understand how society is produced and reproduced and how significance is given to the world, the new approach stresses the role of communication in cultural processes and spatial organisation.