Geographical Space
Geographical space is humanized space, that is, that has been transformed by human action . Therefore, it has as a basic element the anthropic action, which acts actively in the different space objects. The transformation of natural space into humanized space is mainly due to the development of productive activities.
It is important to highlight that this conceptualization has important specificities, according to the analysis of each epistemological current of geographic science. The concept of geographic space is the basis of Geography studies. Therefore, its understanding is fundamental for the application in more operational concepts, with landscape and region.
Examples of geographical space
Examples of geographic space involve any portion of the Earth’s surface transformed through human action. Thus, typically human landscapes, such as a city , and even landscapes with the presence of natural elements, such as a plantation , are examples of geographic space.
What are the elements that make up geographical space?
The formation of geographic space takes place through the relationship between society and nature. In this sense, the human and natural aspects represent the set of elements that form the geographic space. The interaction between society and nature elements produces a typically geographic space, that is, modified by human action.
The concept of geographic space, according to Milton Santos
The geographer Milton Santos (1926-2001) is considered one of the main researchers of the concept of geographic space at the national level. The Brazilian researcher worked on one of the definitions of geographic space most accepted by the academic community through an analysis based on critical geography. The definition of geographic space pervades, for Milton Santos, an inseparable relationship between actions and objects.
Therefore, the geographic space is formed by the set of actions and objects arranged by human action in the environment . In this context, the aforementioned researcher highlighted that as there is an increase in human intervention in the environment, there is an increasing number of artificial objects in space. The concept of geographic space adopted by Santos is widely used at different levels of Brazilian geographic education.
The world geographic space
The world’s geographic space is characterized by the intense exchange of commercial and human flows around the world, and by the expansion of human action, commonly related to the development of various productive activities. The formation of the world geographic space even followed a logic based on the development of economic activities . Industrialization and urbanization, for example, were phenomena that directly contributed to the formation of the current world geographic space .
Based on an analysis of world spatiality, at different scales, it is inferred that there is an increasing predominance of artificial aspects in the environment. The transformation of the natural landscape into a humanized one, for example, is increasingly dynamic. Currently, totally natural spaces on the globe are increasingly scarce. Such scenarios have as one of the triggers the current process of globalization, which, through the development of transport and communications, has further intensified the transformation of the world space.
