Concepts

• Ocean
  22 April 2016, by S. G.-V.

  An ocean is a vast expanse of water between two continents, and covering several climatic zones. In Greek mythology the ocean is the titan Oceanus, son of Gaia (the Earth ) and Uranus (the sky) and consort to his sister, Tethys (marine goddess). Oceanography distinguishes ocean from sea by the surface area of the continental shelf, generally less then 10-15% for the ocean. The ocean in thus characterised by extensive abyssal areas. However, oceans and seas are often gathered under the term (...)

• Western World and the Occident
  15 February 2015, by H. C.

  The West, the Western World and the Occident
  The west is the cardinal point indicated by the setting sun. In French, the word Occident (from the Latin going down, falling) is at once an alternative to Ouest, and also commonly used to refer to the Western world, while in English it is used only to refer to the west, cardinal point, setting sun etc, although it is today fairly rare outside literary or poetic contexts. The Occident (the West) is opposed to the Orient (the «East»), or the (...)

• North
  15 February 2015, by B. C.

  Although the North is generally singular, and often in English associated with the definite article denoting its "established" status, the word is used to refer to several distinct realities and representations. It is at once a point and a direction, it is used for different spaces and territories, it is a scientific construction and a geographical fantasy. It is one of the cardinal points, but it is also a cultural construction: referring to different things depending on the society (...)

• Landscape
  28 May 2014, by C.Go

  Landscape is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal", or more simply in the French Robert dictionary as "a portion of countryside of which an observer has a view". Landscape is a fundamental notion in geographical approaches, in the same way as space, environment, «territory» or «region». Although other disciplines make use of this notion, such as agronomy, architecture or (...)

• East
  11 January 2014, by D.E.

  East is one of the cardinal points. But its usage in everyday language goes well beyond this simple, short definition. It does in fact prove to be a point that is rather more cardinal than the others. As the sun rises to the east, it has had importance in numerous symbolic universes at different times in history, from the Empire of the Rising Sun to sun worship in ancient Egypt. It is in relation to the sun that we take our bearings. The east is a fundamental direction in feng shui. The (...)

• Continent
  11 January 2014, by B. E., G. H.

  The word continent is derived from the Latin terra continens – a continuous tract of land. The word has thus come to refer to a vast continuous surface area of the globe surrounded by oceanic masses. In a second approach, the word continent is used, in particular among island communities, to refer to what is more generally known as the mainland. In this case there is a «discontinuity» between islands and archipelagos some distance from the continental mass and the mainland, (...)

• South
  8 November 2013, by B. B.

  The South is one of the four cardinal points. Like its opposite, the North, it enables definition of «latitude», between the North Pole and the South Pole, while East and West indicate longitude. These astronomical markers enable the coordinates of a point to be specified, giving the precise localisation on the earth’s surface. However other meaning have been added on to this first meaning, which of course remains valid, so that today in common language the word is related to (...)

• Biosphere
  31 July 2012, by F.A.

  According to François Ramade (2002), the biosphere can be defined "in the simplest manner as the region on the planet where life is possible, and where all living beings are found". This concept, alongside that of the ecosystem, has given ecology its dimension as a global science of the environment. Curiously, geographers have not made much use of this notion, with the exception of bio-geographers (Braque 1988, Rougerie 1988). In recent years this focus has not been widely returned to. (...)

• Tropics
  1 October 2009, by F.D.-D.

  In the strict sense, the tropics refer to two latitudes 23°27’ north and south, defined in relation to a fairly stable cosmic factor, that is the inclination of the polar axis in relation to the ecliptic plane. Their names are derived from the signs of the zodiac (tropic of Cancer for the northern hemisphere, tropic of Capricorn for the southern hemisphere). By extension, the parts of the globe that lie between these two parallels are characterised first of all by their climates. But (...)

• Place
  22 December 2008, by P. C.

  In their writings, "classical" geographers and a certain number of contemporary authors refer to what common meaning defines as places, that is to say determined and singular portions of space to which toponyms are attached. In French the word is "lieu" ("place", from which the English "place" is derived, having more specialised meanings). It was not used for a long time in such writings, "contrée" or "pays" being often used instead (much as "country" and "land" were used in English (...)

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