The symbolic order of objects and the frame of geographical action: An analysis of the modes and effects of categorisation of the geographical world as applied to the mountains in the West

Author: Bernard Debarbieux

Source: GeoJournal, Volume 60, Number 4, 2004 , pp. 397-405(9)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Societies cope with their geographical environment with the help of objects and categories of objects. Objects are cognitive symbols enabling societies to come to terms with the incertainties and complexity of the real. This text begins by presenting processes of objectivation and of categorisation of geographical reality. Then, it analyses how far categorisation of objects influences the practice and the transformation of corresponding reality. Coping with categorisation and transformation, it thus circumscribes the interactions between language, cognition and action by which geographical entities are transformed. It illustrates this thesis with the historical transformation of modes of apprehension of the mountains in the West and the parallel transformation of their usage and the modes of planning applied to them.

Keywords: action; category; geographical object; mountains; objectivation

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:GEJO.0000042976.00775.24

Affiliations: 1: Department of Geography, University of Geneva, UNIMAIL, Boulevard du Pont d'Arve 40, CH 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland bernard.debarbieux@geo.unige.ch, Email: bernard.debarbieux@geo.unige.ch

Publication date: 2004-01-01