In my paper I aim to show certain connections between phenomenology and human geography at both conceptual and historical levels. For what concerns the history of geographical thought, I will deal with the influence of phenomenology on the epistemology of geography in three steps: (1) The contribution of Husserlian phenomenology to the consolidation of geography as an autonomous discipline, turning its middle state between natural and cultural sciences from a weakness to a strength (Sauer 1925, Hettner 1927); (2) The rise of phenomenological geography, inspired to Heidegger and Merleau Ponty, as a reaction against spatial science and positivist geography (Tuan 1974, Relph 1976, Seamon 1979); (3)The complex relationships between recent non-representational geographies and the neo-phenomenology of atmospheres (Lorimer 2005, Thrift 2007, Wylie 2010, Böhme 2017, Griffero 2021)
At the conceptual level, I will single out some overlapping areas between geography and phenomenology: the emphasis on description, the importance of qualitative methods, the centrality of the body.