Photograph by D.J. Zeigler The geographically informed person must understand the spatial organization of the economic, transportation, and communication systems that support networks of trade in raw materials, manufactured goods, capital (human and monetary), ideas, and services. Resources are unevenly distributed on Earth, and no country has all of the resources it needs to survive and grow independently. Thus, people must trade with others in increasingly complex global networks. Show
Therefore, Standard 11 contains these themes: Economic Activities, Location and Spatial Patterns of Economic Activities, and Connecting Economic Activities. Economic activities depend upon capital, resources, energy, labor, information, and land. The spatial patterns of resources create the networks of trade and economic interdependence that exist at local, regional, national, and international scales. Local and world economies mesh to create networks, movement patterns, transportation routes, communications systems, markets, and hinterlands. The spatial dimensions of economic activity are increasingly complex. Raw materials may be shipped to locations thousands of miles away for processing and then transported again over equally long distances for assembly or sale. Subsistence farming often exists side by side with commercial agriculture. In many developing countries, millions of people leave rural areas for cities in search of jobs, some of which have been outsourced from industrialized countries. Technology and telecommunications have freed many jobs from being tied to specific locations. Work can be done collaboratively in different locations, taking advantage of different time zones to increase efficiency. As world population grows, as energy costs increase, as time becomes more valuable, as resources become depleted or discovered, and as new products meet new demands, economic systems need to be more efficient and responsive. Students must understand world patterns and networks of economic interdependence and realize that traditional patterns of trade, human migration, and cultural and political alliances are being reshaped as a consequence of global interdependence. Understanding these themes enables students to appreciate the impact of global economic processes on places regardless of their size and location. Review Session #1: AP Human Geography Chapter 1: Basic Concepts (Unit I: Geography: Its Nature and Perspective) Chapter OutlineIntroduction: Geography is more than rote memorization: Geographers ask where things are and why they are where they are. They use concepts of location and distribution to do so. Especially important in the study of human geography is the tension between globalization and local diversity. Key terms introduced: Place, region, scale, space, connections. Key Issue 1. How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?Cartography is the science of making maps. Maps are used for reference (where things are located) and for communication of the distribution of some feature or features. Maps. Maps have been created for thousands of years, since at least the 6th century BC. Through the years maps have reflected new discoveries about places and the shape of the Earth. Scale is the relationship between map units and the actual distance on the Earth. Ratio or fraction scale gives the relationship as a ratio, e.g. 1:100,000 is that 1 unit on the map equals 100,000 units on the ground. In a written scale units are expressed in a convenient way, e.g. “1 centimeter equals 1 kilometer.” A graphic scale is given by a scale bar showing the distance represented on the Earth's surface. Maps are a planar (flat) representation of the Earth's curved surface. Thus, some distortion must result, especially at small scales (continental or whole-Earth maps). Cartographers must choose a projection that results in some set of distortions between shape, distance, relative size, and direction. U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785: The township and range coordinate system is another mathematical means of describing location and is important to the current and historic geography of the United States. Contemporary Geographic Tools. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) use satellites to reference locations on the ground. Remote Sensing is any technique for determining characteristics about the Earth’s surface from long distances—especially from airplanes and satellites. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are complex computer systems which store and can be used to analyze and present geographically referenced data. Key Issue 2: Why is Each Point on Earth Unique?Place: Unique Location of a Feature. Place names or toponyms are the most common way of describing a location. Place names sometimes reflect the cultural history of a place, and a change in place name is often culturally motivated. Examining changes in place name geography is a useful insight into the changing cultural context of a place. Site makes reference to the physical characteristics of a place. Situation describes a place in terms of its location relative to other places. Understanding situation can help locate an unfamiliar place in terms of known places, or it can help explain the significance of a place. Mathematical location describes a place’s location using a coordinate system such as latitude and longitude. Latitude is based upon the Earth’s axis of rotation, with the Equator describing a line of latitude halfway between the poles. Longitude is culturally defined as starting at Greenwich, England and measures degrees of arc east and west of that line of longitude, or meridian. The cultural landscape is a recurrent theme throughout this text. It represents the total sum of cultural, economic, and environmental forces combining to make distinctive landscapes across Earth. A region is an area differentiated from surrounding areas by at least one characteristic. Formal regions are regions with a predominant or universal characteristic; formal regions commonly have well-defined boundaries. Functional regions are defined by an area of use or of influence of some feature. Often used in economic geography, functional regions have “fuzzy” boundaries as the influence of the central feature decreases over distance. Vernacular regions are the most ambiguously defined as they rely on a mental conception of a place as belonging to a common region for complex cultural reasons. Culture is divided into “What people care about,” or beliefs, values, and customs, and “What people take care of,” or material culture. The first definition is covered in Chapters 5, 6, and 7, on language, religion, and ethnicity. The second is covered in Chapters 4, 10, 11, 12, and 13, especially as it relates to variation in material culture by level of development. This chapter’s section on culture introduces the concept of more and less developed countries (MDCs and LDCs) as a fundamental partition of world regions. There are two schools of examining human-environment relationships, or cultural ecology. Environmental determinism, largely dismissed by modern geographers, states that physical factors cause cultures to develop and behave as they do. Possibilism recognizes the constraints of the physical environment while also crediting human cultures with the ability to adapt to the environment in many ways—including by changing it. Physical processes: Climate, Vegetation, Soil, and Landforms. This section gives a brief outline of physical geography and relates it to the questions that human geographers ask about the surface of the Earth and its cultural ecology. The final section of Key Issue 2 contrasts the case of Netherlands with southern Florida for two different cultural ecologies of environmental modification. Global Forces, Local Impacts: Hurricane Katrina. The Hurricane Katrina disaster still serves as an outstanding example of the value of a geographic perspective to consider the interaction of human and physical geography. Key Issue 3: Why are Different Places Similar?Scale: From Global to Local. Globalization of economic activities has come as a result of increasing connections between places and the rapid movement of goods and information around the world. Transnational corporations are often seen as emblematic of this globalization and many of its positive and negative effects. Economic globalization is matched with an increasing global influence and spread of some cultures, resulting in more uniform cultural landscapes across the world. Groups with distinctive local cultures may feel threatened by the globalization of culture, causing conflict or a sense of loss. Space: Distribution of Features. Geographers measure the arrangement of features in space as part of their study of the Earth. Density, concentration and pattern are all measures of distribution. Density measures the number of features per area of land. Other measures, such as physiological or agricultural density, are based on a subgroup of people or a subtype of land. Concentrationrefers to the spatial clustering or dispersion of features. Pattern describes whether features are arranged along geometric or other predictable arrangements. Humans often arrange their activities in space along ethnic or gender divisions. Most concepts of difference among humans are culturally constructed and changes in cultural conceptions of difference are sometimes reflected in changing geographic arrangements, as when women make up an increasing percentage of the workforce. Spatial Interaction. Some places are well-connected by communications or transportation networks, others are not as much. The shape of a network and barriers to interaction determine the level of spatial interaction. Diffusion refers to the spread of anything from a cultural trait, people, things, or ideas from some point of origin (a hearth). Relocation diffusion is caused by the movement of people. Expansion diffusion refers to the growth of an idea to new areas through a hierarchy (hierarchical diffusion), popular notions or even contact (contagious diffusion), or the spread of an underlying idea divorced from its original context (stimulus diffusion). Economic activities and dominant cultures diffuse unevenly around the world as part of the process of globalization, resulting in economic inequality (uneven development). Unit I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives—Basic Vocabulary and Concepts
Unit I Key Terms: Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
What does spatial mean quizlet?Definition. 1 / 75. Spatial approach studies the geographical way events are mapped out. Things such as movement of people and things, changes in places over time and human perceptions of space and place are all elements of spatial approach.
What is the term used to describe the spatial expression of a popular custom in one location that is similar to another?Uniform Landscape. the spatial expression of a popular custom in one location that will be similar to another.
Which of the following describes the perspective of environmental determinism?Which of the following BEST describes environmental determinism? It is the belief that the physical environment affects social and cultural development.
Which of the following describes the perspective of environmental determinism quizlet?Which of the following describes the perspectives of environmental determinism? A former scientific viewpoint stating that factors within the physical geography of a region shape the local population's culture and behaviors.
|