Download Introduction to Human Geography

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY
Chapter 1
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
•How we make sense of others and
ourselves in our locality, region, and world
Globalization
A set of processes that are
• Increasing interactions
• Deepening relationships
• Heightening
interdependence
without regard to country
borders
A set of outcomes that are
• Unevenly distributed
• Varying across scales
• Differently manifested
throughout the world
• These are the impacts/effects
Impact of individual, regional, national scales on processes
and outcomes of globalization
What Are Geographic
Questions?
• The spatial arrangement of places and
phenomena (human and physical)
– How are things organized on Earth?
– How do they appear on the landscape?
– Where? Why? So what?
• No place “untouched by human hands” or activity
• Human organization of communities, nations,
networks
• Establishment of political, economic, religious,
cultural systems
Spatial Distribution
• Spatial distribution and pattern
• What processes create and sustain a distribution?
Map of Cholera Victims
in London’s Soho District
in 1854
Patterns of victim’s homes
and water pump locations
key to the source of the
disease
Pandemics can be studied
through spatial distribution
Five Themes of Geography
• Location
• Human-environment
interaction
• Region
• Place
• Movement
Place
Sense of place: Infusing a
place with meaning and
emotion
Perception of place: Belief
or understanding of what
a place is like, often
based on books, movies,
stories, or pictures
Perception
of Place
Where Pennsylvanian
students prefer to live
Where Californian students
prefer to live
Movement
Mobility of people,
goods, ideas
Spatial interaction: The
interconnectedness
between places,
depending upon
• Distance
• Accessibility
• Connectivity
Elizabeth J. Leppman
Cultural Landscape
The visible human imprint, the material character of a
place
Religion and
cremation
practices spread
with Hindu
migrants from
India to Kenya
Sequent Occupance
Layers of imprints in a cultural landscape reflecting
years of differing human activity
Apartments in Mumbai, India
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: African,
Arab, German, British, Indian “layers.”
Apartments replaced earlier singlefamily houses
Why Do Geographers Use Maps,
and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Types of maps
• Reference maps
– Locations of places and geographic features
– Absolute locations
• Thematic maps
– Degree of an attribute
– Pattern of distribution
– Movement
– Relative locations
Reference
Map
Thematic
Map
Location
• Absolute location
– Precise location using a coordinate system
– Latitude and longitude most common
– Measured by global positioning systems (GPS)
• Relative location
– Location in relation to something else
– Changes over time with changing circumstances
Mental Maps
Maps we carry in our minds of places we have
been and places we have heard of
Activity Spaces
The places we travel to routinely in our rounds
of daily activity - more accurate
Remote Sensing
Satellite image
Photograph
Hurricane Katrina, 2005: Area of impact
and destruction
Geographic
Information
System (GIS)
Computer hardware
and software that
permit storage and
analysis of layers of
spatial data
Why Are Geographers Concerned
with Scale and Connectedness?
• Scale: Territorial extent of something
• Varying scales of observations
–
–
–
–
Local
Regional
National
Global
Scale
Regions
Formal region: Defined by a common characteristic,
whether physical or cultural, present throughout
e.g., German-speaking region of Europe
Functional region: Defined by a set of social, political,
or economic activities or interactions
e.g., an urban area, city and suburbs
Regions
Perceptual Region: Ideas in our minds, based on
accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that
define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness”
Wilbur Zelinsky
Culture
• The whole tangible lifestyle of peoples, but also their
prevailing values and beliefs
• Cultural trait: A single attribute of a culture
• Cultural complex: A combination of traits
• Cultural hearth: Area where a culture (innovations)
began and from which it spreads
• Independent invention: A culture trait that began in
several places simultaneously
Diffusion
• The process of the spread of an idea or innovation
from its hearth to other areas
• Factors that slow or prevent diffusion
– Time-distance decay
• Remote areas
– Cultural barriers
• McDonalds in India slow to develop
Types of Diffusion
• Expansion diffusion: Idea
or innovation spreading
outward from the hearth
– Contagious: Spreads to next
available person (disease)
– Hierarchical: Spreads to
most linked people or places
first (crocs)
– Stimulus: Promotes local
experiment or change
(burgers in India) often
includes adaptation
(stimulated change)
Types of Diffusion
• Relocation diffusion:
Movement of individuals who carry
an idea or innovation with them to a
new, perhaps distant locale
Kenya
: H .J. de Blij