Brazilian pioneers in geographical research of regional development: Orlando Valverde and Hilgard O’Reilly Sternberg

• Autor(a) principal: Kohlhepp, Gerd
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Desenvolvimento Regional (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://ojsrevista.furb.br/ojs/index.php/rbdr/article/view/5172
• topic: Amazonia; Brazil; geographical research; Hilgard O’Reilly Sternberg; Orlando Valverde; regional development.; Amazonía; Brasil; desarrollo regional; Hilgard O’Reilly Sternberg; investigaciones geográficas; Orlando Valverde.; Amazônia; Brasil; desenvolvimento regional; Hilgard O’Reilly Sternberg; Orlando Valverde; pesquisas geográficas.

In the end of the 1930s the first generation of geographers studied in Brazil, but had to register for post-graduate courses in the USA or in Europe until the 1960s. Two of the pioneers were Orlando Valverde, who joined the CNG as the first geographer in 1940 and worked there with Leo Waibel on colonization and agrarian geography from 1946 to 1950, as well as Hilgard O’Reilly Sternberg, holder of the chair of geography of Brazil at the University of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, supporting later on, as Vice-President of the IGU, the international networks of Brazilian geography. Both scientists are the most eminent Brazilian representatives in research of regional disparities of this country, especially in analyzing the natural and human conditions of tropical rainforest regions of Amazonia. Both recognized a holistic approach as the only method of exploring man-environmental conflicts existing in Brazil. They established basic research about possibilities of sustainable regional development in Brazil, integrating the traditional know-how of the region’s inhabitants and securing regional identity against influences of misdirected state-controlled regional planning and globalization, using methods of political ecology. Orlando and Hilgard – the latter from Berkeley since 1964 – contributed to the perception and public attention of problems of regional development with high expert knowledge, scientific ethics and critical awareness.JEL-Code | N90; O18; Q18.