Norbert Csizmadia (Photo: Orsolya Egressy)
Norbert Csizmadia
03/10/2023 10:18
Why is a geographical perspective important? Geography is a tool for understanding the world, and geographical maps can help us to unravel the hidden and visible connections in our world. Geography is at once economy (geoeconomics), politics (geopolitics), technology (geotechnology), design (geodesign), and the laws of nature (geonomy), and it is at once vision, visionary and fusion. Geographical location is destiny itself!
The 3+1 most important passwords of our current era are interconnectivity, complexity, sustainability, and Eurasia. An interconnected Eurasia that is complex and sustainable. A long-term sustainable Eurasian era that is complex and interconnected. A complex world that is interconnected and built on sustainability. A 500-year long Atlantic era (1492 - 1996) - followed by a new, long-term, 500-year Eurasian era.
For a long time, geography was only a description and representation of our Earth and its environment (Geography 1.0), but with the age of geographical exploration it opened up to new areas (Geography 2.0). It became interconnected through trade and aimed to compare areas between them (Geography 3.0), then centuries later it integrated the territorial approach along your borders and created its own new subfields (Geography 4.0), such as social geography or economic geography, and towards the end of the last century it became dominated by the geography of globalisation (Geography 5.0). Just as technological development follows industrial revolutions, so too does social development, so the new cycle of geography is about the geography of technology and fusion (geography 6.0).
Indeed, the new geo-fusion geography, through modern geopolitics and technological development, provides opportunities for small countries to become important players. Areas poor in natural resources have become rich in knowledge and innovation. The era of geofusion is about the rise of geoeconomics and geotechnology.
The author is geographer and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pallas Athene Domus Meriti Foundation and the John von Neumann University Foundation