Human geography

Abstract

Human geography is a major geographical discipline that is mainly concerned with the spatial differentiation or spatial organization of human activities, and the ways in which people use natural resources. Human geographers not only examine the issues of population, society, culture, economy, and politics but also their related impacts upon regions, cities, and rural areas, as well as the society-nature relationships such as resource management. According to the NSFC, human geography is partitioned into four divisions: economic geography, social and cultural geography, urban geography, and rural geography. This chapter is based on an examination of 84 mainstream SCI/SSCI-indexed human geography journals, together with 12 Chinese (CSCD) core journals. Chinese human geographers have conducted a large number of studies into land use and management, urbanization and urban systems, regional sustainable development, and tourism. They also have paid particular attention to industrial agglomerations, foreign direct investment, international trade, global cities, and other key international topics. From 1986 to 2015, there have been substantial increases in the number of papers published in the mainstream SCI/SSCI-indexed human geography journals and in the Chinese human geography journals. About one-half of these papers are published over the last decade. Papers published by Chinese scholars in the mainstream SCI/SSCI-indexed journals account for 5.6 % of the total. On average, each Chinese author published about 1.5 SCI/SSCI-indexed articles, five times more than 10 years ago. The NSFC has played a significant role in Chinese human geography research. Over the last three decades, 84 % of the top 100 authors with the most publication in the Chinese journals and 63 % of the top 100 Chinese authors with the most publications in the SCI/SSCI journals have received funding for NSFC geographical sciences’ projects.