Is Everyone a Geographer?

[JosephKerski]

In my last column, I raised the question about whether a travel column would look different authored from the perspective of a geographer or geospatial professional versus a column authored from the perspective of a journalist. I stated that some similarities surely exist but there are likely to be some key differences. This discussion raises a larger issue: Are all travel writers really geographers? Are all travelers essentially geographers? And, more broadly: With the advent of easy to use geotechnologies that have enabled the general public to use many of the same tools and data that were formerly only used by GIS specialists, does that mean that everyone is now a geographer?

In the new book Practicing Geography , my colleagues and I wrote a chapter that asks this very question. These new capabilities reinvoke inherent tensions between the integrity of the field of geography as a discrete academic discipline, on the one hand, and its generalist appeal on the other hand. Although this tension within geography is not new—William Morris Davis reacted to it over one hundred years ago (Schulten 2001)—geography may have never been more prominent within the everyday human experience than it is today
.

I contend that geography is a three-legged stool. One of the legs of the stool represents deep and rich content knowledge that has accumulated across the millennia but also is forward-looking—envisioning how the world could and should be. The content knowledge includes that about specific places, processes, and phenomena. Another of the legs represents geographic skills—working with scale, maps, imagery, databases, graphs, space and time, movement, dispersion, fieldwork, regions from cultural regions to ecoregions, different perspectives, human-environment interaction, interpreting the past and present and planning for the future, and many more. The skills are used in low tech and high tech situations ranging from interpreting paper maps to operating field probes and performing geoprocessing operations within a GIS environment. The last leg represents the spatial perspective—the unique place-based framework that all geographers bring to any problem that they examine. The spatial perspective is holistic; it is systems-based.

What are your thoughts about this topic: Isn’t everyone a geographer? And, what about the increasing number of professionals outside who are incorporating spatial thinking and GIS into their work—in business, history, mathematics, design, biology, engineering and other fields. Are they geographers? Do they need to be geographers? If not, what geographic content knowledge, skills, and perspective do they need to have in order to be effective in their own fields?

-Joseph Kerski, Esri Education Manager

Reference
Schulten, S. 2001. The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

[PegGronemeyer1]

@JosephKerski 

In response to your question of is everyone a geographer - just my thoughts.  I see everyone as a potential geographer in the role of data collector via community science.  I believe that data produced/provided by the larger global community of 'unofficial' data collectors - sorry not sure what terms to use - are of enormous use, and still largely  untapped.  The "pubic" is able to collect data/provide information on geographic and temporal scales that would be impossible for a single (in my case) biologist or team could. 

My concern is the difficulty of 'training' people on the most critical points of data collection, e.g. via an app, so that their time and effort produce accurate, useful data.   I think most of the people that go to the trouble to download an app to (for example) provide sightings of birds, bees, species, etc. are genuinely interested in 'helping'.  I have seen apps developed (with a great deal of effort) for the explicit use of community data collection that were great examples of explicit, clear instructions, and that provided a good balance between enough information that the user could accurately collect the data and what to expect (or not) once they had submitted the data.   

As a designer of data collection forms using Survey123 primarily, I can appreciate it is no small task to create a well balanced data form to guide a volunteer user through the process, without creating an excessively long form that is unlikely to be completed or appreciated.   It would be great to have some best practices or guidelines developed on how to design data collection forms for community volunteers - possibly via a set of GIS and non-GIS volunteers with lots of ESRI community (and outside ESRI)  feedback?  E.g. dropdown 'help' sections that have (very) brief species descriptions and how to distinguish two similar bumblebee species with schematics and arrows pointing towards the easiest and most obvious difference.  That is something obviously not needed in the data form for the bumblebee experts. 

I think volunteer efforts in good faith by community 'scientists' or whatever term  you prefer should be used to the fullest possible extent, but that we need to spent time and effort thinking about how to accurately collect the information and make it as easy as possible (and rewarding)  for the volunteer.  

[JosephKerski]

Many thanks @PegGronemeyer1  !   Yes, and to your many valid points, this 'value added' how to construct a valid and valuable field survey is something I and my colleagues and I think others in the education community do in hands-on F2F and online workshops on a continual basis.  There is just a lack of time to write all of that down in the guidelines you are speaking to, which I agree is quite needed.  I leave some of those guidelines to the iNaturalist / globe.gov / crowdsourcing community as I don't want to replicate all the good work they have done over the years; plus there is a new Esri Press book that I think will be helpful in this space, here:  https://www.esri.com/en-us/esri-press/browse/fieldwork-handbook    And then on a wider issue that you are also touching on concerning crowdsourcing and the ability of the general public to adequately respond to a survey with valid data is something my colleague and I write about sometimes on https://spatialreserves.wordpress.com.   Many thanks for caring, reading, and responding!  Keep on mapping Peg!

--Joseph Kerski