Regional Analysis

1. Regional Analysis Chapter 1, section 3

2. Regions • Regional studies: each region has its own distinctive landscape that results from a unique combination of social relationships and physical processes. • important to the principle: people are the most important agents of change of Earth’s surface • Regions are the equivalent of scientific classification for geographers • Regions are determined through the cultural landscape • Three types of regions: • Formal • Functional (nodal) • Perceptual

3. Formal Regions • Also a uniform or homogenous region. • Shares one or more distinctive characteristics • Could be cultural, economic, environmental • Example: Montana • Has recognized boundaries and shares a common set of laws • Formal regions help explain broad global or national patterns such as variations in religions and levels of economic development.

4. Functional Regions • nodal region, it is organized around a node or focal point. • Used to display information about economic areas • Example: circulation of a newspaper

5. Formal and Functional Regions The state of Iowa is an example of a formal region; the areas of influence of various television stations are examples of functional regions.

6. Perceptual region • vernacular region, is a place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity. • Example: the “south” How do you know you are in the south? -driving from New York down I-95 -waffle house? -grits? -sweet tea?

7. Vernacular Regions A number of factors are often used to define the South as a vernacular region, each of which identifies somewhat different boundaries.

8. Regionalization • Sectionalism • Feelings that develop into an extreme devotion to regional interests and customs • Irredentism • Assertion by the government of a country that a minority living outside its formal border belongs to it historically and culturally. • Often leads to war • Ex. Serbs in Croatia • Regionalism • Used to describe situations in which different religious or ethnic groups with distinctive identities co-exist within the same state boundaries, often concentrated within a particular region and sharing strong feelings of collective identity. • Often ethnic groups who aims for autonomy from a national state • Ex. Serbs in Croatia

9. Landscapes • Landscapes reflect people’s dreams and ideas as well as their material lives • Messages embedded in the landscape can be read as signs about values, beliefs, and practices • One task of geographers is to interpret the meaning of landscapes • Ordinary Landscapes • Vernacular landscapes • Everyday landscapes that people create in the course of their lives together • Symbolic Landscapes • Represent particular values or aspirations that builders and financiers want to impart to a larger public • Ex. Washington, D.C. • Some landscapes become powerful sense of national identity • Ex. West Irelend

10. Sense of Place • For insiders: • Sense of place develops through shared dress codes, speech patterns, and public comportment. • lifeworld • Intersubjectivity • Shared meanings that are derived from everyday practice • For outsiders: • A sense of place can be evoked only if local landmarks, ways of life, etc. are distinctive enough to evoke a significant common meaning for people who have no direct experience of them • Refers to the feelings evoked among people as a result of the experiences and memories they associate with a place and to the symbolism they attach to that place. • Can also refer to the character of a place as seen by outsiders

11. Geographical Imagination • Allows us to understand changing patterns, processes, and relationships among people, places, and regions • Examples: • Industrial Revolution • Introduction of the Railroad

12. Future Geographies • Places and regions are in constant state of change • Today, because of a globalized economy and globalized telecommunications and transportation networks, places have become more interdependent