Les contraintes physiques et ia géographie contemporaine

Abstract

Physical constraints and contemporary geography. — Perception of natural milieux varies according to the current different conceptions of geography. Human geography, neoliberal or marxist, considers them to be either insignificant or as a framework for socio-economic activities. The evolution of the French school of geography supports this conception with the result that physical geography (except for a part of geographical climatology) is evolving into an autonomous discipline which aims to describe and explain this framework while forgetting socio-economic reality. The concept of physical constraints is denned as interaction between natural elements and a space organised by man. They are within a scale or values, not on an equal footing with man but on an equal footing with other socio-economic constraints. Distinctions are made between static constraints, characterised by their temporal stability (relief, seasonal change) and dynamic constraints which are susceptible to vary in time and are expressed in terms of probability.