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Chapter 1: Geography and Development in an Era of Globalization. What is Geography?. Spatial distribution of any given phenomenon. Geography Defined. Where people are located Where activities are located Provide a regional framework for development and underdevelopment
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Chapter 1:Geography and Development in an Era of Globalization
What is Geography? • Spatial distribution of any given phenomenon World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
Geography Defined • Where people are located • Where activities are located • Provide a regional framework for development and underdevelopment • Geography is fundamentally the study of location • Physical features • Economic activities • Human settlement patterns • Anything else a person finds on a map • Three Questions at the Most Basic Level • What is located where? • Why are things located where they are? • What is the significance of location? World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
TOPONYMS • SAN JOSE • MILAN • RIO • CAIRO • GOOFY RIDGE • BUZZVILLE • WIMPYVILLE
MAPS & MAPPING • Cartography • Visual representation of reality • Scale
T & O world map World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
Ortelius’ World Map World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
Relationship with Other Disciplines • Holistic discipline • Synthesizes knowledge from many World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
GIS Explosion • Digital representation of earth’s surface • Can describe landscape features • Roads • Boundaries • Mountains • Rivers • Like a whole atlas in a single computer presentation • Ability to relate different pages to each other World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
Widening Use of GIS • Government • Track power lines • Mapping for disasters • Demographic profiles • Businesses • Locate markets • Facilitate markets • Law Enforcement • ID “hot spots” • Criminal geographic profiles • Politics • Demographic targeting • Remember Red v. Blue states? World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
Geography and Everyday Society • Multifaceted analytical approach lends to different kinds of work • Education • Business-related professions • Government • Helps to understand change in economy and society • Three Patterns of Change • Economic Growth and Decline • Land Use/Land Cover Change • Environmental Change World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 1 What Is Geography and Should We Care?
Types of Geographic Studies • O & D studies (Origin and Diffusion) • Migration patterns • Transportation studies • Population trends • Cultural Impact World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 2 Geography and Development in an Era of Globalization
Special Aspects of Culture • Language • Religion • Political Ideology World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 3 Nature, Society, and Development
What is this? World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 3 Nature, Society, and Development
Name this sandwich World Regional Geography (Clawson et al.) - Ch. 3 Nature, Society, and Development
Defining Development • More than just an economic component • One of many terms applied to processes of change, or lack of change, to describe economic and political circumstances of different countries.
A Tyranny of Definitions • Underdevelopment–Suggests an absence of characteristics associated with modern economies and societies • Less developed countries • Avoids negative connotations • More benign/clinical term • Assumptions • Predominantly drawn from Western, North American/European ideas–May not work everywhere. • Processes of change are not necessarily synonymous with economic growth. • Sustainable in the dual sense that changes in human welfare should not harm future generations • Particular sensitivity to environmental concerns • Four components • People • Natural environment • Culture rules • History remains.
Human Transitions & Development Processes • Revolutions • Change that occurs rapidly and massively. • Leads to a fundamental transformation of society to its core • Ramifications • Economic • Political • Social
Agricultural Revolution • How land is tilled and food is produced • Surpluses • Producing more than consumption • Not everyone needs to be involved in food gathering. • Partially led to rise of towns and cities. • 17th century Europe • Technological • Process • 20th century • Mechanization • Ended the family farm as dominant • Gave rise to the corporate-owned farm.
Industrial Revolution • Mid-18th century • Fundamentally, a shift in the way goods were made • Factories • Machinery replaced muscle power. • Inanimate energy replaced animate energy. • Mass production • Volume production • Didn’t happen everywhere. • Europe and North America • Japan, elsewhere later • Led to other revolutions • Transportation • Labor displacement
Information Revolution • How information is produced, stored, accessed, and applied • Two broad drivers • Microprocessors • Telecommunications • Both good and bad impacts • More information • “Super-empowered angry people” (Friedman) • Impact on development • Will the cost advantages of digital technology to corporations help or hurt employees in developing countries? • Cost–benefit of location decisions–Wrapped up in globalization
Where Does Population Change Fit in? • Dynamic behavior of human populations produce some of the most pronounced and enduring transformations. • Global population patterns • Predominantly now an urban world • Urban growth is growing exponentially in the global South.
Distribution and Density of Population • Indicators • Population distribution–Spatial distribution of people • Population density–The number of people per unit area • Physiologic density–The number of people per square mile of arable (farmable) land • Show strong similarities with the past • Dense population • Indian subcontinent • Eastern China and adjacent areas • Europe–Predominantly urban • Indonesia, Maya Peninsula, Japan, the Philippines, and parts of the Middle East–Pockets of density • Parts of urban areas of Latin America–Locally dense areas
Demographic Transformation Theory • Based on Europe’s transformation • May not be generalized.
Population Growth: Stages 1 and 2 • State 1–Agrarian society with high birth and death rates becomes stable and population slowly grows. • Stage 2–While cultural customs and birth rates remain high, death rates decline.
Population Growth: Stages 3 and 4 • Stage 3–Continued urbanization, industrialization, and other economic trends started from Stage 2 • Birth rates decline. • Better access to birth control and family planning • Procreation not always seen as a positive in cities. • Rapid population growth • Better sanitation • Better medical treatment • Greater productivity • Industrialization • Labor specialization • Urbanity • Stage 4–Rapid population growth rates • Birth rates low • Death rates low • Urbanized population • Educated populace • Population density typically quite high
Malthusian Theory • Two promises • Humans tends to reproduce prolifically/geometrically. • The capacity to produce food and fiber expands more slowly, that is, arithmetically. Therefore, population will eventually exceed food supply unless population growth is checked. • Three stages • Stage 1–Human needs are not as great as production capacity. • Stage 2–Production capacity and increased human needs are roughly equal. • Stage 3–Population has grown to the point where its needs can no longer be met. • Assumptions • Malthus assumed that people would reject birth control on moral grounds. • He could not foresee the impact of the industrial revolution.
Population Development in Economically Developed & Developing Regions: 1750–2100
What Is Globalization? • A growing integration and interdependence of world communities through a vast network of trade and communication • Associated with a wide range of technological, cultural, and economic outcomes affecting our daily lives • Not a new phenomenon • Response to two major forces • Technology change • Global capitalism • Free markets • Rule of law
Major Players • Transnational corporations (TNCs) • Countries • Laborers • Consumers • Regulatory organizations and civil movements
Typical Criticism • Leads to “homogenization” • Denies place and history • Widens a divide between “haves” and “have-nots” • Doesn’t always lead to development • Leads to widening policy problems
Does Not Necessarily Mean Homogenization • Local cultures tend to “domesticate”, “indigenize”, or “tame” imported consumer culture–giving it a local flavor. • Many countries promote a consumer nationalism that encourages local goods over “foreign” goods. • Still, some “homogenizing” occurs–perhaps in a transnational, postmodern, or postnationalist culture.
Place and History Still Matter • Technology has changed the meaning of distance between places. • Functional proximity may be more important to people than physical proximity. • Not “the end of history” (Fukuyama), but “the return of history and the end of dreams” (Kagan).
Winners • World cities • Centers of finance • Corporate decision-making • Creativity • Consumers–Pay less for goods • Workers in the postindustrial classes– “transnational capitalist class” • Globe-trotting executives • Citizens of the world as well as their own countries • Countries that transform their low-wage economies into targets for industries that are higher wage
Losers • People who lose jobs due to economic transformation • Poor • Cannot afford to take advantage • Reside in terrible infrastructure • Migrants • Economically marginalized • Not uniformly accepted elsewhere • Isn’t this culturally relative?
Nature, Society, and Development • Two principal factors affect the level of living in an area • Physical environment • Political, environmental, economic, and social systems in place • First concern of people is with provision of food. • Land modification–Altering land to support societal and cultural needs
How Places Are Classified Environmentally • Ecosystems • Intricately interconnected elements • Produce corresponding variations in other components • Understanding forces in the natural world is extremely important. • Foundation upon which human livelihood and survival depends • Humankind’s pressure on the natural world intensifies whenever economic development works to accentuate/accelerate processes.
Climate • Affects ability to produce food and industrial crops required by humans • Two important elements • Temperature • Precipitation • Average annual precipitation • Tropics • Middle latitudes • Evatranspiration rate • Evaporation and plant transpiration as a result of high temperatures. • Plant growth is limited. • Frost-free period • Length of time is important. • Other controls of climate • Latitude • Marine exposure • Prevailing winds • Atmospheric pressure systems • Elevation
Vegetation • Closely associated with climate • Cold climate • Little woody vegetation • Growing season short/subsoil permanently frozen • Natural vegetation • What would be expected in an area if vegetation succession were allowed to proceed over a long period without human interference? • Greatly altered by humankind • Attitudes toward natural vegetation has begun to change dramatically. • Increasingly mindful that vegetation is significant in many aspects of life • Related to other components of life, such as soil and air • Forest vegetation especially becoming more mindful with greater amounts of lumber and paper consumed
Soils • Nutrients derived both from minerals in the earth and from humus–organic materials added to the soil by vegetation • Processes • Laterization • Podzolization • Alluvium • Sand Ridge State Forest
Laterization • Laterization • Process by which infertile soils are formed in the humid tropics • Plentiful rainfall leaches the soil; dissolves important minerals from the soil. • Decomposed organic material is only available if trees and other plant remains drop their leaves and branches on the forest floor.
Podzolization • Occurs in high latitudes characterized by cold, humid climates where seasonal temperatures are distinctive • Normal leaching restricted
Soil Degradation • Three kinds • Soil erosion–Closely associated with loss of protective vegetative cover as a result of deforestation • Salinization–Excessive build up of salts and minerals • Chemical contamination • Agricultural insecticides and herbicides • Chemical fertilizers • Sprays to control plant diseases
Water Impacts • Alluvium–Soil transported and deposited by water. • Loess–Soil transported and deposited by wind.