Qualitative geography

Qualitative geography is a subfield and methodological approach to geography focusing on the subjective and interpretive aspects of human experiences and world perceptions. It is concerned with understanding the lived experiences of individuals and groups and the social, cultural, and political contexts in which those experiences occur. Thus, qualitative geography is traditionally placed under the branch of human geography; however, technical geographers are increasingly directing their methods toward interpreting, visualizing, and understanding qualitative datasets. While qualitative geography is often viewed as the opposite of quantitative geography, the two sets of techniques are increasingly used to complement each other. Qualitative research can be employed in the scientific process to start the observation process, determine variables to include in research, validate results, and contextualize the results of quantitative research through mixed-methods approaches. Several scientific fields/subfields created or modified and applied specific concepts, theories, methods, principles/laws, techniques/technologies, etc. so to propose specific interdisciplinary approaches for addressing qualitative research-questions of geography. Qualitative geography is the interdisciplinary field of geography gathering these proposed interdisciplinary-approaches from: Behavioral geography Cognitive geography Critical geography Cultural geography Emotional geography Feminist geography Geosophy Marxist geography Social geography Ethnography Culture theory Location Place identity and Sense of place Geography considers place as one of its most significant and complicated concepts, and describing a place is something that qualitative methods are absolutely necessary to accomplish. When referring to human geography, place is a combination of the geographical coordinates of a location, the activities that take place there (past, present, and future), and the interpretations that human individuals and groups assigned to that space.