ABSTRACT
A strong methodological basis should counter the objections raised by too many members of the scientific geographical community. This chapter describes the academic regional geography. In Europe, classical regional geographers conceived of regions as human-centred ecological systems. The major shortcomings of regional geographers is supposed to be their failure to develop and use a conceptual apparatus and theories, in contrast to geographers devoting themselves to topical studies. However, classical French and German regional geographies were certainly based on geographical paradigms which shaped the theoretical structure and composition of the empirical contents of many monographs. The recent history of French and German regional geography shows an analytical dissection of the paradigmatic, conceptual framework of the classical phase. World-system is the first key concept in the framework which might be productive. The chapter presents the key concepts such as spatial organization, social structure, settlement system, civilization, population and communication system.
