Famine and its causes in the perspective of the modern geographical thoughts

Abstract

The paper argues that famine researches, based on various philosophies of contemporary geography would generate knowledge with different perspectives. Positivists mainly seek to identify factors that induce famine. An in-depth understanding of the processes of famine must rely upon humanists’ approaches. In cases where investigations on famines are made in regard to poverty alleviation through empowering the poor and other marginal segments of a society, structuralism approaches become the most appropriate. It is concluded that famine being a multi-faceted socio-economic problem, and hence a research depending on single philosophical underpinning cannot come out with comprehensive knowledge of it. Therefore, a research project that entertains positivists, humanists and structuralists at a time can come up with somehow complete insights and observations, which in turn enable to prevent citizens from the agony of hunger and eradicate famine. Key words: Famine, Geography, Humanism, Positivism and Structuralism