Political geography around the world V: Poland

Abstract

Political geography differs from other geographical sciences by virtue of the fact that the specific features of social phenomena with which it is concerned are of a political character. Political geography investigates many problems which are also of interest to political science, economics, history and sociology. Its discipline makes use of behaviouristic theory, the theory of decision-making, the theory of games, the matrix calculus, etc. Every problem of political geography is, to a large extent, an interdisciplinary issue in the domain where theory and practice come together. Political geography is also thought to be a historical geography of the present day, and this belief is justified since the political geography of today becomes the historical geography of tomorrow. A well-known American geographer, R. Hartshome (1950), in his paper on political geography points out that though we have not produced an atomic bomb in political geography, its field is sown with dynamite. It is therefore advisable to act with caution when practising this discipline. Since from the dawn of its existence the character of political geography has been very complex, many difficulties may arise and there is a risk that scholars engaged in this discipline make mistakes. Political geography deals on the one hand with facts of nature, and on the other with unique historical phenomena. In this context we encounter examples of how nature and social regularities operate and interact. Goblet (1956: 23) believes that the basic research aim in political geography is to look for similar forms (homologues) and similar functions (analogies) as well as to classify and identify the types of political units. Many years ago Vallaux (19 11: 24-3 1) emphasized that political geography avoided the deductive and aprioristic method. The subject of research is determined in a concrete way and its description is based upon observation of facts or analysis of documents. This provides the foundations on which explanations of phenomena are based, regularity is sought by way of induction, and relations in space and time are compared in accordance with the principle that nothing can be held true unless scientifically proved. Political geography also uses the method of prognostic extrapolation, which forecasts trends on the basis of the tendencies existing now and observed in the past. Studies in the domain of political geography refer to the mutual cooperation of geographical space and political processes. Every political process is associated with its specific geographical space and no geographical space lacks links with a political process. Thus, we can describe political geography as a study of the spatial distribution and spatial relationships of political processes.