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Chapter 1: Geography Matters

Chapter 1 Lecture

Kathryn PrattMacalester College

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• Geography Matters• Place Matters• Tools and Methods of Human Geography• Spatial Analysis• Regional Analysis• Geographical Imagination

Key Concepts

Figure 1.1 Heavy industry adjacent to a housing development.

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• Increasing geographic interdependence of the world• Instant global communications• Rapidly changing international relationships• Environmental degradation at local and global

scales• Uneven distribution of populations, wealth, and

resources• Places and regions

Geography Matters

Figure: Chapter 1 Opener - Flower Market in Karnataka, India.

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• Human geography is about recognizing and understanding the interdependence among places and regions, without losing sight of the uniqueness of each specific place.

Apply your knowledge: Why would a corporate employer value knowledge of geography in prospective employees?

Figure 1.2 Influence of place in a center city neighborhood, Boston.

Geography Matters (cont’d)

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• Geographic literacy– Lack of geographic understanding and knowledge among

Americans

• Places are dynamic and complex

Places Matter

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• Exert a strong influence on people’s well-being, opportunities, and lifestyle choices

• Become powerful emotional and cultural symbols• Are central to identity • Are sites of innovation, change, resistance, and conflict

Influence and Meaning of Places

Figure 1.3 Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, was the site of major anti-government demonstrations in 2011.

Apply your knowledge: How does place affect identity?

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• There have long been predictions that technology will put an end to the constraints of geography

• Some have said the world is becoming more “flat”• But even in a globalized world, wealth and power are

clustered• Location matters

A Flat or Spiky World?

Figure 1.A A spiky world.

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• Spatial organization of human activities• Relationships between people and their environments • How and why relationships are important• Geographers solve a variety of problems on scales from

local to global (marketing, GIS, international affairs, community development)

• Qualitative and quantitative data

• Maps and GIS are key tools

Studying Human Geography

Figure 1.4 Aerial photograph of the lower Connecticut river.

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Tools and Methods

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• A map scale is the ratio between linear distance on a map and linear distance on the Earth’s surface.

Visualizing Geography: Map Scales

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• Thematic maps are designed to represent the spatial dimension of particular conditions, processes, or events.

• Isolines (Isopleth maps)

Visualizing Geography: Thematic Maps

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• Systematic rendering of the Earth’s surface onto a flat surface

• Equidistant, conformal, azimuthal, equal-area– Distortion of distance, direction, shape, area

Visualizing Geography: Map Projections

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• Cartograms transform space according to statistical factors

• Distortions emphasize spatial variations

Map Projections (cont’d)

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• GIS allows us to store, access, and manipulate data and produce maps

• Data are linked to location• Allows different types of data from multiple sources

to be merged

Geographic Information System (GIS)

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• Geodemographic data• Market research• Land-use change• Resource management • Military

GIS Applications

Apply your knowledge: What are some advantages and disadvantages of the increasing use of GIS in society?

Figure 1.5 GIS technology used to map land cover in the United States.

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• Fixed coordinates of latitude and longitude• Global Positioning System (GPS)

Spatial Analysis: Location

Figure 1.6 Lines of latitude and longitude provide a grid pattern on the Earth.

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Spatial Analysis: Location

Figure 1.D Greenwich is the historic reference point for the standardized measurement of space and time.

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• Site refers to the physical attributes of a location• Situation refers to relative location

Spatial Analysis: Site and Situation

Figure 1.7 Denver, Colorado, is a major center for cable TV because of site and situation.

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Figure 1.8 Detail of Washington DC depends on this person’s experiences and perception.

• Cognitive images (mental maps) are based on perception and experience

Spatial Analysis: Mental Maps

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• The utility of a specific place is its usefulness to a particular person or group

Spatial Analysis: Distance and Space

Apply your knowledge: Provide three examples of the inhibiting effect that distance has on human activity.

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• Opportunity for interaction• Proximity• Distance and connectivity • Airline hub cities are moreaccessible than other cities

Figure 1.9 Metro map of Milan, Italy, is a topological map showing connectivity between points in the city.

Spatial Analysis: Accessibility

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• Movement and flows of human activity

• Spatial organization of activity is continually changing

• Economies of scale• Time-space convergence

Figure 1.10 The effects of changing transportation technologies, “shrinking” the world.

Spatial Analysis: Spatial Interaction

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• Complementarity• Transferability• Intervening Opportunity• Diffusion

Principles of Spatial Interaction

Apply your knowledge: Referring to spatial analysis concepts, discuss a national or international environmental issue. Relate complementarity, transferability, intervening opportunities, and diffusion.

Figure 1.11 The spatial diffusion of many phenomena tends to follow an S-curve.

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Figure 1.12 The Mormon cultural region.

• Regionalization– Functional regions– Regionalism– Sectionalism– Irredentism

Regional Analysis

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Figure 1.13 Landscapes can be symbolic of national identity as this landscape in Tuscany has for Italy.

Figure 1.15 Picturesque landscape in England is emblematic of the nation even though much change has occurred.

• Ordinary and symbolic • Many layers of meaning

Regional Analysis: Landscape

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• Insiders versus outsiders and lifeworld• Intersubjectivity• “Third places”

Figure 1.16 Routine encounters in Italy help develop a sense of community.

Regional Analysis: Sense of Place

Apply your knowledge: What are the most distinctive characteristics of your region? Describe the landscape and the sense of place.

Figure 1.17 A ‘third place’ The Five Bells pub, London.

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Figure 1.18 This German town was once a prosperous regional center, but now is isolated and economically disadvantaged.

• Allows us to understand geographic change

• Places and regions represent the cumulative legacy of successive periods of change– General effects and unique

outcomes

Geographical Imagination

Apply your knowledge: Describe the region in which you live. Which features can be said to be the result of general spatial effects ,and which are unique?

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Figure 1.19 Knowledge of the geography of population growth helps us predicthuman geographic patterns in the coming decades.

Future Geographies

Apply your knowledge: What are the likely future changes to the geography of your region?