Editing Social geography (section)

=== Before World War II ===
The term "social geography" (or rather "géographie sociale") originates from France, where it was used both by geographer [[Élisée Reclus]] and by sociologists of the [[Pierre Guillaume Frédéric le Play|Le Play]] School, perhaps independently from each other. In fact, the first proven occurrence of the term derives from a review of Reclus' ''Nouvelle géographie universelle'' from 1884, written by [[Paul de Rousiers]], a member of the Le Play School. Reclus himself used the expression in several letters, the first one dating from 1895, and in his last work ''L'Homme et la terre'' from 1905. The first person to employ the term as part of a publication's title was [[Edmond Demolins]], another member of the Le Play School, whose article ''Géographie sociale de la France'' was published in 1896 and 1897. After the death of Reclus as well as the main proponents of Le Play's ideas, and with [[Émile Durkheim]] turning away from his early concept of [[social morphology]],<ref name="term" /> [[Paul Vidal de la Blache]], who noted that geography "is a science of places and not a science of men",<ref>[[Paul Vidal de la Blache|Vidal de la Blache, Paul]] (1913): Des caractères distinctifs de la géographie. ''[[Annales de Géographie]]'' 22: 289-299 [297]. {{in lang|fr}} Cited by: [[Paul Claval|Claval, Paul]] (1986): Social Geography in France. In: Eyles, John (ed.): Social Geography in International perspective. Totowa (Barnes & Noble): 13-29 [13-14].</ref> remained the most influential figure of French geography. One of his students, [[Camille Vallaux]], wrote the two-volume book ''Géographie sociale'', published in 1908 and 1911.<ref name="term" /> [[Jean Brunhes]], one of Vidal's most influential disciples, included a level of (spatial) interactions among groups into his fourfold structure of human geography.<ref>[[Jean Brunhes|Brunhes, Jean]] (1924): Human Geography. London (G.G. Harrap & Co.). [36-46] (Originally published in French in 1910) Cited by: Buttimer, Anne (1968): 137.</ref> Until the Second World War, no more theoretical framework for social geography was developed, though, leading to a concentration on rather descriptive rural and [[regional geography]].<ref>Buttimer, Anne (1968): 137.</ref><ref>Hérin, Robert (1984): Social Geography in France - Heritages and Perspectives. ''GeoJournal'' 9 (3): 231-240 [231].</ref><ref group="note">As Paul Claval (1986) puts it: "At mid-century, French geography was more open to social problems than other schools, but there is nothing like a recognised social geographical field." (p. 15)</ref> However, Vidal's works were influential for the historical [[Annales School]],<ref>Werlen, Benno (2008): 57.</ref> who also shared the rural bias with the contemporary geographers,<ref>Claval, Paul (1986): 14.</ref> and Durkheim's concept of social morphology was later developed and set in connection with social geography by sociologists [[Marcel Mauss]]<ref>[[Marcel Mauss|Mauss, Marcel]] (1927): Divisions et proportions des divisions de la sociologie. ''L'Année Sociologique'', Nouvelle Série 2: 98-173 [112]. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> and [[Maurice Halbwachs]].<ref>Thomale, Eckhard (1972): 136-138.</ref>

The first person in the Anglo-American tradition to use the term "social geography" was George Wilson Hoke, whose paper ''The Study of Social Geography''<ref>Hoke, G. W. (1907): The Study of Social Geography. ''The Geographical Journal'' 29 (1): 64-67.</ref> was published in 1907, yet there is no indication it had any academic impact. Le Play's work, however, was taken up in Britain by [[Patrick Geddes]] and [[Andrew John Herbertson]].<ref name="term" /> Percy M. Roxby, a former student of Herbertson, in 1930 identified social geography as one of human geography's four main branches.<ref>Roxby, P. M. (1930): The Scope and Aims of Human Geography. ''Scottish Geographical Journal'' 46 (5): 276-290 [283].</ref> By contrast, the American academic geography of that time was dominated by the Berkeley School of Cultural Geography led by [[Carl O. Sauer]], while the spatial distribution of social groups was already studied by the [[Chicago school (sociology)|Chicago School of Sociology]].<ref>Del Casino Jr., Vincent J. and Sallie A. Marston (2006): 997, 999-1000.</ref> [[Harlan H. Barrows]], a geographer at the University of Chicago, nevertheless regarded social geography as one of the three major divisions of geography.<ref>[[Harlan H. Barrows|Barrows, H. H.]] (1923): Geography as Human Ecology. ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' 13 (1): 1-14 [7].</ref>

Another pre-war concept that combined elements of sociology and geography was the one established by Dutch sociologist [[Sebald Rudolf Steinmetz]] and his Amsterdam School of [[Sociography]]. However, it lacked a definitive subject, being a combination of geography and [[ethnography]] created as the more concrete counterpart to the rather theoretical sociology. In contrast, the Utrecht School of Social geography, which emerged in the early 1930s, sought to study the relationship between social groups and their [[living space]]s.<ref>Thomale, Eckhard (1972): 108-110, 177-178.</ref><ref>Ernste, Huib and Lothar Smith (2009): Dutch Human Geography. In: Kitchin, Rob and Nigel Thrift (eds.): [[International Encyclopedia of Human Geography]]. Oxford (Elsevier): 255-265 [256].</ref>