Political geography
Topic: Human Geography: Nature, Scope and Approaches · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Human Geography: Nature and Scope"
Meaning
Political geography is a field of human geography. Its sister discipline is political science. It studies states, boundaries, territory and power across space. It also studies how neighbouring political units relate to each other. Other topics include drawing constituency boundaries, elections and political behaviour. Its sub-fields are:
- electoral geography, linked with psephology
- military geography, linked with military science
Example
The Radcliffe Line, drawn in 1947, divided Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan. Political geography studies how such a boundary was drawn and how it cut across rivers, farms and communities.
Don't confuse with
- Geopolitics: it studies how geography shapes state power and strategy, such as Heartland and Rimland ideas. Political geography is the wider study of boundaries, territory and elections.