12. Define geographic imagination. Why is it important?

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The geographic imagination of a specific person is their opinion and perspective of the world around them. Your geographic imagination is impacted on the way you were conceived and taken care of as a child, your ways of communication, the way your mind reflects on certain things, and your lifestyle and culture in general. In addition, affiliates with a certain social or ethnic grouping sometimes share a specific view of topography, locations, and individuals. To most geographers today, there are three main meanings of the phrase geographic imagination. Te first was made by a man named David Harvey who declared that "geographical imagination" was a device to find a sense of comparison socially and spatially between a person and a more massive communal group of people in terms of beliefs and ideas of space and the world in general. Also, Harvey believed that geographic imagination could help compare different social groups and find a way to fight oppression. The second main definition that is used today was concocted by a man named Derek Gregory, who stated that geographic information meant the opinions related to your way of living and your history based on space. The final chief definition of geographical information is much more simple and down to point. It proclaims that the phrase conveys how people picture and provide space. Geographic information in society is extremely complicated, and is the cause of "actions in the cultural, economical, political, and historical context of ...<a> person or group" (Understanding the Geographical Imagination by Jen Jack Gieseking) Furthermore, geographic imagination can be useful to fight against tyranny and support civil rights. For example, the tale of Virginia Wolf being forced to not enter an Oxford library due to the reasoning that she was a woman tagged the large amount of oppression towards women in her lifetime The importance of geographical imagination is that it is the view that is formed in everyone's mind related to how they view the world around them. Geographical imagination is why there are different cultures, languages, and ways of thinking. By understanding the meaning of geographic information, you can go on to learn about different groups of people and ways of life and compare them with yours. The downside to geographical imagination is that sometimes a problem can form when "one's world view can shut out other world views" (Origins Manuel, pg. 5) which has lead to much of the conflict in our history.

Image from http://www.solstation.com/stars/earth.htm

Sources: Origins Manuel pages 4-5

Gieseking, Jen Jack. "Understanding the Geographical Imagination." Jgiesekingorg. September 15, 2007. Accessed August 23, 2015.

URL for the website source above: http://jgieseking.org/understanding-the-geographical-imagination/