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Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Geography: It’s Nature and
Perspectives
Topic I
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain the importance of geography as a field of study
Why is Geography a Science?
• Field of inquiry
– ask questions and gather evidence
– “why of where”
• Geography: the study of where things are found on
Earth’s surface and the reasons for the locations
– analysis of the spatial relationship between
phenomena (objects that can be sensed or
something perceived or mentally constructed)
• Ex. relationship between climate and agricultural
production
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain the importance of geography as a field of study
Why is Geography a Science?
“Each place we see is affected by and created by
people, and each place reflects the culture of the
people in that place over time.”
• To study human geography is to understand
and explain the theme of human activity
interacting with the environment.
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain the importance of geography as a field of study
Why is Geography a Science?
• Studying human geography requires a spatial
perspective
– spatial: pertaining to the space on Earth’s surface;
synonym for geographic
– differing scales interact and affect each other
• What happens at the global scale affects the local, but
it also affects the individual, regional, and national.
Similarly, the processes at these scales influence the
global.
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain the importance of geography as a field of study
Why is Geography a Science?
…What happens at the global scale affects the local, but it also
affects the individual, regional, and national. Similarly, the
processes at these scales influence the global…
Ex. President Obama, in May 2016, sent a letter directing
school districts directing to allow transgender students to use
bathrooms and locker rooms that match his or her chosen
gender identity.
– national (U.S.) issue that affects the individual at the local scale
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Why is Geography a Science?
• 5 Themes of Geography (spatial study)
– Movement
– Region
– Human-Environment Interaction
– Location
– Place
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
What Are Geographic Questions?
Movement
• Movement refers to the mobility of people, goods, and ideas
across the surface of the planet.
• Spatial interaction between places depends on:
• The distances among places
• The accessibility of places
• The transportation and communication connectivity
among places
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
What Are Geographic Questions?
Human-environment interactions
• A spatial perspective invites consideration of the
relationship between humans and the physical world.
• Asking locational questions often means looking at the
reciprocal relationship between humans and environments.
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
What Are Geographic Questions?
Region
• Features of the Earth’s surface tend to be concentrated in
particular areas, which we call regions.
• Understanding the regional geography of a place allows us
to make sense of much of the information we have about
places.
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
What Are Geographic Questions?
Location
• Highlights how the geographical position of people and
things on Earth’s surface affects what happens and why
• Helps to establish the context within which events and
processes are situated
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
What Are Geographic Questions?
Place
• People develop a sense of place by infusing a place with
meaning and emotion.
• We also develop perceptions of places where we have
never been through books, movies, stories, and pictures.
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain the importance of geography as a field of study
Why is Geography a Science?
• Geographers seek to explain why places are
unique but also why they are related to other
places
– place
– region
– scale
– space
– connections
• Luxembourg
• Describe Ruston in terms of place, region etc…
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Place
• Place: a specific point on Earth distinguished
by a particular characteristic
– The place of the city, Luxembourg, is atop a hill
overlooking the Alzette River.
– place is a unique location
– “sense of place”
– toponym (place name)
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Place
• Site vs situation
– site: physical character of a place
• Ex. climate, water source, vegetation, topography
• site factors are important for choosing settlement
locations
– situation: location of a place in relation to another
• Ex. RHS is across the street from the Lambright
• situtation helps geographers understand the
importance of a place
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Define region as a concept, identify world regions, and understand regionalization processes
Geographic Perspective: Region
• Region: an area on Earth with one or more
distinctive characteristics.
– Formal, functional, vernacular
• Places can be in multiple regions
simultaneously
• Regions vary in size
• Regionalization: process of describing the
earth in small, distinct areas
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Define region as a concept, identify world regions, and understand regionalization processes
Geographic Perspective: Region
• Formal Region: (uniform region) an area
within which everyone shares in common one
or more distinctive characteristics
– language, agricultural production, climate,
– political entities (Montana or France) with
particular boundaries, laws, taxes
– predominant characteristic (not 100%)
• Republican or Democrat election victories
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Define region as a concept, identify world regions, and understand regionalization processes
Geographic Perspective: Region
• formal region contin…
– pure characteristics are 100% shared among all
– aggregate characteristic are dominant among the
group but not 100%
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Define region as a concept, identify world regions, and understand regionalization processes
Geographic Perspective: Region
• Functional Region: (nodal region) an area
organized around a node of focal point
– characteristic is more dominant the close to the
node and less dominant as distance increases
– distance decay: the diminished importance and
eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with
increasing distance from its origin
– Ex. TV or radio stations
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Define region as a concept, identify world regions, and understand regionalization processes
Geographic Perspective: Region
• Vernacular Region: (perceptual region) an
area that people believe exists as part of their
cultural identity
– Ex. the South
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Define region as a concept, identify world regions, and understand regionalization processes
Geographic Perspective: Region
• Regions exhibit spacial association
– spatial association: the distribution of one feature
is related to the distribution of another
• Ex. Crime and liquor stores, other examples?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Scale
• Scale: relationship between the portion of the
Earth studied and the Earth as a whole
– local, regional, global
– globalization: a force or process that involves the
entire world and results in making something
worldwide in scope
– technology “shrinks” the world; places are more
interconnected
• globalization of the economy
• transnational corporations
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Scale
• Globalization vs Local Diversity
– Geographers seek to explain the tension between
local cultural diversity in an increasingly
globalized world
• increasingly uniform cultural preferences
• increasingly uniform cultural landscape
• cultural landscape: combination of cultural features
such as language or religion, economic features such
as industry and agriculture, and physical features such
as climate and vegetation
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Space
• Space: the physical gap or interval between
two objects
– Geographers “think spatially”…”why of where”
– distribution: the arragement of a feature in space
• density
• concentration
• pattern
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Space
• Density: the frequency with which something
occurs
– Ex. how many in a given area
• Concentration: the extent of a feature’s spread
over a given area
– clustered or dispersed
– *Random distribution: neither clustered not
dispersed
• Pattern: geometric arrangement of objects in
space
– linear, rectangular, grid, irregular,
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Space
• Space and Distance
– absolute distance vs travel distance
– travel time
– distance decay
• friction of distance: the amount of time it takes to get
from one place to another; decreases as technology
increases
• space-time compression: describes the reduction in
time it takes for something to reach another palace
– cognitive distance: the perceived distance
between two places
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Space
• Inequality
– contemporary geographers seek to explain
differences in equality, especially in gender,
ethnicity, and sexuality
– poststructuralist
– humanistic
– behavioral
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Space
• Poststructuralist
– examines how the powerful/elite dominate space
• Humanistic
– emphasizes the ways that individuals form ideas
about place and give those places symbolic meaning
• Ex. Christopher Street in NYC
• Behavioral
– emphasizes the importance of understanding the
psychological basis for individual actions in space
• Ex. husband vs wife daily actions
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Connections
• Connections are the relationships between
people and objects across space
– technology reduces connection time
• Connections result in
– assimilation
– acculturation
– syncretism
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Connections
• assimilation: the adoption of a new culture;
the process by which a group’s cultural
features are altered to resemble another
• acculturation: learning how to operate within
a new culture; changes within a culture from
meeting another
• syncretism: the combination of elements of
two groups into a new cultural feature
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Connections
• diffusion: process by which a feature spreads
across space from one place to another over
time
– relocation diffusion
– expansion diffusion
• hearth: place where a feature originates
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Connections
• relocation diffusion: spread of an idea
through physical movement
• expansion diffusion: spread of a feature in an
additive process
– hierarchical
– contagious
– stimulus
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Sustainability
• Geographers are concerned with the availability of
resources in the present and future
• resource
– useful substances
• sustainability
– availability for future use
• renewable resources
– use more slowly
• nonrenewable resources
– use more quickly
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Sustainability
• Three Pillars of Sustainability
– environment
– society
– economy
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Sustainability
• Environmental Pillar
– conservation and preservation
• Societal Pillar
– individual’s and society’s choice of consumer
products
• Economic Pillar
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Sustainability
• Critics says, particularly the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) believe the Earth is past the
point of sustainability.
• Other critics say resource availability has no
maximum
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Sustainability
• Natural resources are classified into 4 systems
– atmosphere
– hydrosphere
– lithosphere
– biosphere (biotic)
• Each is either biotic or abiotic
– biotic: living organisms
– abiotic: nonliving or inorganic matter
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Cultural Ecology
• Modification of the environment due to
technological innovations
– negative consequences to the ecosystem
– ecology: study of ecosystems
• cultural ecology: geographic study of humanenvironment relationships
– Two fields of thought
• environmental determinism
• possibilism
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Cultural Ecology
• Environmental Determinism
– Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)
– Carl Ritter (1779-1859)
• believed the physical environment caused social
development (or lack of)
– Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1932)
• geography is the study of the influences of the natural
environment on people
– Ellsworth Huntington (1876-1947)
• climate is a major determinant of a civilization
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Cultural Ecology
• Possibilism
– modern geographic thought
– physical environment may limit some actions, but
people can adjust to the environment
• Possibilism and Sustainability
– geographers use cultural geography to determine
if an activity is sustainable
• Ex. world population vs food production
(Malthus - Ch. 2)
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain major geographical concepts underlying the geographic perspective
Geographic Perspective: Environmental Change
• Geographers seek to understand how and why
people modify the natural environment
– Ex. Netherlands
• polder: land that is created by draining water
– agricultural use
– social use
– Ex. California
• lack of rainfall (drought)
• 80% of surface water used for agriculture
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use landscape analysis to examine the human organization of space
Geographic Perspective: Landscapes
• landscape: an area less defined than a region
and is described in an abstract manner
– Carl Sauer looked at landscape as an assemblage
of different elements that came together in one
area
– humans can alter landscapes
– exist at different spatial scales
– can visual or tangible
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use landscape analysis to examine the human organization of space
Geographic Perspective: Landscapes
• ordinary landscape: (vernacular landscape)
people encounter on a daily basis
• iconic landscape: brings to mind images and
symbols essential to identity
– Ex. Statue of Liberty
• interior landscape: inside buildings
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use landscape analysis to examine the human organization of space
Geographic Perspective: Landscapes
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
Maps
• The geographer’s main tool is a map
– Communication tool
– Reference tool
• Cartography (mapmaking) has been around
since about 6200 B.C.
• Map Projection
• Types of Maps
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
What patterns do you notice? Why?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
What patterns do you notice?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
What conclusion can you draw?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret maps
How has the U.S. population changed over time?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Apply mathematical formulas and graphs to interpret geographic concepts
What are the implications of this graph?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Apply mathematical formulas and graphs to interpret geographic concepts
What are the implications of this graph?
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret geographic models
• Case Studies
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use concepts such as space, place, and region to examine geographic issues
• Case Studies
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Interpret patterns and processes at different scales
• Case Studies
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Explain and evaluate the regionalization process
• RHS Case Study
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Analyze changing interconnections among places
• Case Studies
Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
Use and interpret geospatial data
• Case Studies