Four traditions of geography

William Pattison's four traditions of geography, often referred to as just the four traditions of geography, are a proposed way to organize the various competing themes and approaches within geography. Proposed in a 1964 article in the Journal of Geography to address criticism that geography was undisciplined and calls for definitions of the scope of geography as a discipline that had been ongoing for at least half a century, the four traditions of geography propose that American geographers work was consistent, but fit into four distinct traditions rather than one overarching definition. The original traditions proposed by Pattison are the spatial tradition, the area studies tradition, the Man-Land tradition, and the Earth science tradition. The four traditions of geography have been widely used to teach geography in the classroom as a compromise between a single definition and memorization of many distinct sub-themes. There are many competing methods to organize geography. The original four traditions have had several proposed changes.