Milton Santos

Milton Almeida dos Santos (May 3, 1926 – June 24, 2001) was a Brazilian geographer who had a degree in law. He became known for pioneer works in various fields in geography, notably urban development in developing countries. He is considered the father of Critical Geography in Brazil.

This name uses Portuguese naming customs: the first or maternal family name is Almeida and the second or paternal family name is dos Santos.
Milton Santos
Born(1926-05-03)3 May 1926
Brotas de Macaúbas, Bahia, Brazil
Died24 June 2001(2001-06-24) (aged 75)
São Paulo, Brazil
Alma materUniversidade Federal da Bahia, University of Strasbourg
Scientific career
FieldsHuman geography

Biography

Santos was born in Brotas de Macaúbas, Bahia, Brazil on May 3, 1926.[1] Santos' parents were elementary school teachers and taught him at home how to read and write. By the time he was eight, he had already completed the equivalent of an elementary school education. Milton's father was a descendant from slaves, which gave Santos motivation to study. From 1934 to 1936, he lived in Alcobaça, learning French and good manners.

Santos taught geography to high school students to finance university classes in Salvador.[2] He graduated majoring in law yet he did not practice it. He instead took and passed a public examination for secondary teacher and went to teach geography in Ilhéus.[3]

Santos went on to study and teach in Europe, America, and Africa.[4] Although he is considered exiled by the military government, he was actually forbidden to leave the country and could only do so after a negotiation between the French ambassador and the government. He turned the painful exile that the military dictatorship had imposed on him for thirteen years into benefits. Milton Santos wrote more than forty books in several languages. His works became a reference for all those who intended to understand the world in a critical way, that is to say, not in a negative way necessarily, but applying concepts of Critical Geography and the Frankfurt School.[5]

Some of his works include "Por Uma Geografia Nova" (1978) and "A Natureza do Espaço" (1996). His work "O Espaço Dividido", in which Santos develops a theory on urban development in underdeveloped countries, is considered a geography classic.[6][7][8]

Milton Santos went on to win the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize - the highest award that can be gained in the field of geography. The award is modeled after the Nobel Prize and is considered and colloquially called the Nobel Prize for geography. Santos is only Latin-American to ever win the prize. [9][10][11]

Death

Milton Santos died in São Paulo, on June 24, 2001, at age 75,[12] as a result of prostate cancer diagnosed about seven years earlier.[13]

Tribute

On 1 October 2018, search engine Google celebrated Milton Santos with a Doodle.[14]

See also
  • Afro-Brazilians

References
  1. http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-124a.htm Revista Scripta Nova - University of Barcelona
  2. "Milton Santos: Aspectos de sua vida e obra".
  3. http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-124a.htm Revista Scripta Nova - University of Barcelona
  4. http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-124a.htm Revista Scripta Nova - University of Barcelona
  5. http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn/sn-124a.htm Revista Scripta Nova - University of Barcelona
  6. "Milton Santos: Aspectos de sua vida e obra".
  7. "Mílton Santos".
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-09-03. Retrieved 2012-11-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Milton Santos: Aspectos de sua vida e obra".
  10. "Mílton Santos".
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-09-03. Retrieved 2012-11-26.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "A obra de Milton Santos". GGN (in Portuguese). 22 January 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  13. "Professor Milton Santos morre de câncer na próstata aos 75 anos". Folha De S. Paulo (in Portuguese). 24 June 2001. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  14. "Celebrating Milton Santos". Google. 2018-10-01. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
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