Topical issues of integration of geography (concerning article of Yu. N. Golubchikov and V. A. Gorbanev)

Abstract

By the end of the 19th century geography was differentiated into numerous branches. In the years of existence of the USSR the gap between physical geography and economic geography has increased. In post-Soviet time along with some resuscitation of interest in geography from representatives of the human sciences, the ideas of geography as a synonym of regional geography or even study of local lore or the servant of tourism have been disseminated. Similar views cause damage to a wholeness of geographical science and its value as most important branch of knowledge of regularities of relationship between the society and the environment. Meanwhile this relationship becomes more and more intense. At the same time geographers accumulated extensive experience of researches in this sphere and created the theoretical and methodological base for integration of various fields of the «sprawling» geography, and also for interdisciplinary researches with other humanities. The national landscape science (landshaftovedenie) has the largest integration potential in this regard.