The Concept of a Region in Geography

Abstract

The concept of the region is common in everyday life. Everyone has some idea of what the word 'region means. In ordinary language, the region means, an area or tract of land. When we talk about conflicts in the 'Middle East, or farm problems in the Corn Belt, or drought, in Matebeleland we are using the regional concept in its broadest sense as a frame of reference. Thus, whenever we identify some geographical area, we are regionalizing earth-space. But geographers have to be more specific than this. They have to define just what the Middle East is and what it comprises, or what the precise limits of the Corn Belt are.