Areal Differentiation

• Areal differentiation refers to a approach of study of discipline of geography wherein places on earth are categorized into different regions or differentiated from each other based on certain criteria.This approach leads to study of uniqueness of or peculiarity of a region and causative factor responsible for the uniqueness
• .For example, urban region and rural region can be differentiated and these regions are studies for their unique features.
• Alongwith spatial analysis and landscape approaches, this is often seen as one of the three major approaches to understanding in human geography
• It is indeed the oldest western tradition of geographical inquiry, tracing its beginnings to the Greeks, Hecataeus of Miletus and Strabo
• Some of the earliest geographical scholars, including Strabo and Ibn Khaldun, sought to describe and catalog variations in the places and cultures they encountered, or were informed about by others
• For much of the historical development of geography as a science, this was the approach followed.
• The classic epoch of regional geography.it is said,was reached in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when much of the conceptual debate in geography was devoted to the concept of the region
• The most detailed modern explanation and vigorous defense of the perspective of areal differentiation was provided by Richard Hartshorne in his influential monograph, The Nature of Geography, published in 1939. This is usually seen as claiming that geography is about showing how unique regions reveal the co-variation of  phenomena that can only be understood through identifying regions.
• It was later criticised for its descriptiveness and the lack of theory. Strong criticism was leveled against it in particular during the 1950s and the quantitative revolution.
• This approach was heavily criticized during quantitative revolution as static,sterile and simple.
• In the 1980s areal differentiation made something of a comeback as a central perspective for human geography. This was mainly because
• Growing regional economic disparity
• Environmental degradation which has regional dimension
• New social contextual theory like -Naxalism
• Implementation of plans and policies.