The GEOGRAPHICAL SPACE ALONG GEOGRAPHY CHAINS

AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACH

Abstract

There is no doubt that today's space is configured as the object of Geography, on which all other categories (territory, region, place, landscape, nature) are based. Having so much importance and appearing in such a recurring way, we run the risk of believing that since the institutionalization of Geography, around 1870, space was already configured with such magnificence, which only came about later on, around from 1970. During Traditional Geography, space was treated with little importance and, in some cases, in a slightly confusing way, very close to the category of territory. Ratzel, La Blache, and Hartshorne were the main geographers who made some significant contributions to this category, but the same was treated in a superfluous way, without deepening or more forceful analyzes, appearing in a very descriptive way. With the advent of New Geography, new methodologies are being implemented in Geography, so that space begins to be discussed by some geographers as the object of Geography. We will base ourselves on the writings of Christofoletti and David Harvey to explain how space was approached during this current, but we will see that even receiving greater prominence, how it was approached did not differ much from Traditional Geography, as it was now treated in a much more technical and yet descriptive way. It is only in Critical Geography that space is effectively considered as the object of this science, also receiving a new, no longer descriptive approach, which we will analyze from the thoughts of Lefébvre and Milton Santos.