INTEGRATING GEOGRAPHIES: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND HYBRID TOPICS IN GEOGRAPHY

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce and analyze some theoretical perspectives and hybrid topics that can be arranged as theoretically and methodologically integrated possibilities in Geographical studies. The analytical discussion is focused in approaches and themes that takes Geography as a fragmented and bipolarized science which is splitted between the “human” and the “physical” pole, and look for overcome this split by conceiving integrative perspectives in geographic analysis. To accomplish the article purpose, the text was organized in two parts: the first one discussed the concept of “nature” and its implications to the development of two fields in Geography: Political Ecology and Critical Physical Geography. In the second part, we exam four thematic topics which can be conceived as possibilities for integrated work in geographic science, such as: "Cultural and natural heritage", "Environmental justice" and "Social diversity". Through different theoretical foundations, there is a diversity of possibilities in Geography that encompass a variety of phenomena which analyze them considering their natural and social dimension.