Download Unit 1 Notes Nature and Perspectives

Unit 1 Notes: Nature & Perspectives
Purpose of Human Geography
Understand spatial organization = understanding human life on Earth
Location, People, Events, Environmental relationships, interconnectedness
What is Human Geography?
The study of how people make places, how we organize space and society, how we interact with each other
in places and across space, and how we make sense of others and ourselves in our locality, region, and
world.
Geographers use fieldwork to understand linkages among places and to see the complexities of issues
Defining Geography
• Word coined by Eratosthenes
– Geo = Earth
– Graphia = writing
• Geography thus means “earth writing”
Physical v. Human Geography
• Geographers are concerned with the tension between globalization and local diversity
• Explain Patterns – Different angles
• Physical:
• Earth’s natural phenomena
• Why/where naturally occurring patterns
• Example: patterns of climate, soil, topography & why they exist
• Human:
• Spatial analysis of human patterns
• Why/where patterns of human creation
• Example: patterns of religions, govt, languages, etc. & why they exist
Globalization
The spread of economic activities from one country to many other regions.
Establishing integrated industrial and service sectors world-wide.
Primarily an economic factor
Has enormous social and political consequences.
A set of processes that:
increases interactions
deepens relationships
heightens interdependence
No regard to country borders
Potential Outcomes of Globalization:
uneven distribution
varies across scales
impacts the entire world
Local Diversity
More globalized = more diverse
i.e. Europe - Scottish
Reaction to globalization is to find unique cultural traditions/identity
Spatial Perspective
• Geographers observe regularities across earth and depict them on maps
• Thinking about Space
– Spatial thinking is the most fundamental asset of a geographer (Space to a Geographer is like time
to a historian)
– The process of understanding why people and activities are distributed across the space
Spatial Thinking
Look for “where” and “why” human activities are located where they are
How people/objects vary
Allows for:
Identification
Explanation
Prediction
Of human & physical patterns
Geographic Models
• Understand why patterns exist
• Predict change
• DTM (Demographic Transition Model)
• Measurement of birth and death rates
• Population change over time
• Limitations to the DTM
• Based on British History
• China’s restrictive policies and volume
• Land Use Models:
• Von Thunen
• Weber's Least Cost
• Gravity Model of Spatial Interaction
• Migration patterns
• Larger places = more migrants
• Closer places = more migrants
Geographical Themes
In the 1980s the National Geographic Society created the Five Themes of Geography
Location
Human Environmental Interaction
Regions
Place
Movement
Location
1.
2.
3.
4.
Where something is on Earth
4 ways geographers identify location
Absolute/Mathematical Location:
Latitude – parallels
Longitude – horizontals (meridians)
GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
Relative Location – relationship to places around it
Site – Internal physical & cultural (climate, soil, latitude, elevation, etc)
Situation – Location relative to the physical and cultural characteristics (location of a place relative to
other places)
Place Name
• Toponym – the name by which a geographical place is known
Human Environment Interaction
How people interact with their environment:
Cultural Ecology – Study of the aspects and outcomes of human interactions
Environmental determinism - a cornerstone of geographic thought.
Non-Ecumene:
High, dry, cold, or wet area
Decide not to live b/c environment decided it can’t be inhabited
Possibilism
The environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their
environment.
Ex. When climate limits the crop, people can grow crops that are compatible.
Ecumene – area inhabited by human life
Developed possibilism / environment conducive
Cultural Landscape
A unique combination of social relationships and physical processes
Each region = a distinctive landscape
Carl Sauer – Father of Human Geography
“Built environment”
People = most important agents of change to Earth’s surface
Ex: The Netherlands
Polders – Possibilsm
The Florida Everglades – Env. Determinism
Regions
An area that displays a selected criteria
Group of places with similar characteristics
Derived from cultural landscape
3 types of regions
Formal Region
A uniform or homogenous area where all share a common attribute such as language/religion
(Christianity), climate (North v. South), or political system (N.Korea).
The state of North Carolina is a Formal Region
Functional Region
Functional or Nodal- an area organized around a center, node or focal point that is organized to function
politically, socially or economically
Linked together by some type of movement or function
Hearth – place where an idea originates from
Cultural Hearth-centers of innovation and invention, the center or cradle of a culture.
Vernacular/Perceptual Region
Vernacular or Perceptual-how people think about or perceive a region
such as Midwest or the South
Area that exists as part of cultural identity
Mental Map –
Internal representation
Depicts what one knows about a place
Cultural perceptions-like perceptual regions, there are many intangible elements that define a region’s
personality.
Consider the South as a Cultural Region;
Houses with porches
Foods like grits, greens and cornbread.
Drawl or dialects like Cajun.
Southern Baptist-Bible Belt
Slow pace of life and courtesy, hospitality.
Movement
The mobility of information, people, goods, and other phenomena
Spatial interaction - How places interact with one another
Friction of distance - Distance reduces amount of interaction between 2 places
Distance decay: Intensity of some phenomenon decreases as distances from it increases
Further away = less likely to interact
Space-Time Compression: Greater sense of world becoming “smaller”
Improved communication, technology, transportation
Reduction in friction of distance
Diffusion
Process in which characteristics spread across one place to another
Action
Diffuse away from hearth
Interactions are a result of diffusion
Types of Diffusion:
Relocation
Expansion
Hierarchical
Contagious
Stimulus
Types of Diffusion
Relocation - Slow / not widespread

Occurs through movement of people

Individual migrate to new locations

Religion is prime example
Expansion - Snowball effect

Hierarchical Diffusion:

From hearth/node

“trickle-down” effect

Contagious Diffusion:

Widespread diffusion

Lots of people involved

Stimulus Diffusion:

Spread of underlying principle

Main idea may/may not be spread
Cultural Diffusion
Spread of idea or innovation from its source to other cultures
Assimilation:
Can be forced
Change to host nation culture
Acculturaition:
Retain the important traditions
Change for convenience
Place
The distinctive physical and human characteristics of a place
Human attributes:
Religions, languages, political organizations, clothing, art
Physical attributes:
Climate, terrain, natural resources
“Sense of place” –
Unique identity to a particular location
Infusing emotion & meaning
Maps
Serve 2 Purposes:
Tool of Reference - find one’s way
Tool of Communication – show distribution of human and physical features
Cartography – Science of map-making
Babylonians 1st cartographers
Phoenicians – sailing routes
Greeks – became masters of cartography
Aristotle -1st to think world was round
Projection
Process of transferring data from a globe to a flat surface
4 types of projection distortions:
Size
Shape
Distance
Direction
Scale
The relation of a feature’s size on the map to actual size.
Small scale or small fraction maps show a large area on the earth such as 1/1,000,000.
More distortion
Large scale or large fraction maps show a small area on the surface such as 1/25,000 or 1/1000.
Categories of Maps
Cognitive Maps – Mental Maps
Drawn from memory
Reference Maps – boundaries, roads, mountains
Thematic Maps – Specific map or feature
Isoline
Choropleth
Proportional Symbol
Dot Density
Cartogram – show particular variable
Contemporary Mapping
Ways of looking at maps:
GPS (Global Positioning System)
Exact Location
GIS (Geographic Information System)
Layering
Remote Sensing
Space
Mash-up
Internet
Using the Data
Primary v. Secondary Data
Primary – Directly collected
Secondary – Collected earlier
Data Aggregation
“Coarser”
“Finer”
MAUP (Modifiable Areal Unit Problem)
Source of error