Vladimir Ira

Abstract

In the long-term development of human geography we can observe a tendency to combine ideas from an intradisciplinary debate and those imported from outside the discipline. It is profoundly influenced by a number of impulses from the rapidly changing world. This paper provides a brief survey of challenges for human geography setting them within the context of paradigmatic development and economic, social, cultural, environmental, political, and technological changes. It briefly focuses on the debates of human geographers what their discipline could or should study in the near future and how it could be done. Part of the paper is devoted to a few reflections of authors from the Visegrad Four countries concentrating attention to further direction of human geography. Human geography is unlikely to be characterised by a mono-paradigm dominance in the next few decades, but a discussion on how to find a common base for the integration of paradigms in geography is likely to continue. Changing hierarchical structures, significant modernization processes, as well as local, regional and global changes influencing space-time behavioural patterns of humans can be expected among the main sources of inspiration for the human geographic research

Keywords: human geography, challenges, future directions, geographical thought, integration of paradigms, Visegrad Four countries,

Vladimir Ira [geogira@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia; Department of Geography, Faculty of Education University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice Jeronýmova 10, 371 15 České Budějovice: Czechia
René Matlovič [geogmatl@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Štefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia