Structure and Function in Geography

Geography seeks to describe and interpret the variable character from place to place of the earth as the world of man. This areal differentiation results from a complex of many phenomena, factors of which are natural, biological and human. These factors are organaized by variable functions. When a phenomenon is analyzed into factors and when they are integrated by functional relations, we may say that the phenomenon has a structure. Among the human activities, social ones are the most important. Therefore geogaphy must study the social structure most closely. From such a point of view, we examined the development of the notion of structure or organization in some works of French geographers: Vidal de la Blache, Demangeon, Sorre, George and some others. The notion is becoming successivaely more and more clear and definite. It will be more and more important for analyzing geographical complex. Hereafter geography will interpret the areal differentiation by analyzing the structure of the complex