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Geography 1HA3 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Human Geography: Society and Culture
Readings:
Read introduction
Skim chapter 1
Read chapter 2
o Skim pgs. 40-50
o Read pgs. 57-67
Key Concepts:
Space, Location & Place
Distance
Distribution (spatial)
o Density, Concentration/Dispersion, Pattern
Space:
Measure of areal extent (how far an area goes)
o Two ways we measure this:
Absolute space = physically real
Definable boundaries
Objective
Most commonly seen in maps
Mathematical projections
Ex. Space of McMaster campus
Relative space
Subjective = open to interpretation
Will vary over time and from person to person
Not definable from one person to another
Topological maps (subway system) = distance
between places/ direction do not really matter =
getting from point A to point B
Distort directions and distances to express
point of the map
Ex. McMaster campus being big, small, expansive,
etc…
Ex. Room is cozy
Location:
Refers to specific position in space
Types of location:
o Absolute (mathematical) location:
GPS = latitude & longitude coordinates
Do not change
Can use topographic map
o Relative location:
Subjective
Position relative to something else
McMaster is 3h away from Toronto
o Nominal (or toponym) location:
A place name
Ex. Hamilton, Toronto, Southern Ontario
Can be contested = different groups use different
names for areas
Ex. Iqaluit vs. Frobisher Bay = different name for
same area
Gives locational understanding = “I know where that
is!”
Place:
Identity, meaning, significance
o Can be to individual or to group
Ex. Catholic Church is important to Catholics
Ex. My home is important to me & my family (especially
childhood house)
Location + cultural/human meaning
o Might not have been there but you still know what it feels like
there
o Ex. feeling spiritual about a Church that isn‟t your own
Sense of place = why it is important & feelings that you get when
you see the place
o Local and regional characteristics = “flavour”
Ex. going to an Irish pub
o Sacred places
Tend to be religious
Can be sacred based on their contribution to others (ex.
the airport can be sacred to people)
o Placelessness = places with little sense of place or none at all
Homogeneity & standardization
Ex. East Side Marios, Walmart, McDonalds, the suburbs
Distance:
Amount of space between two or more locations
Types of distance:
o Absolute/physical distance:
Measured by standardized units (ex. meters, paces,
etc.)
o Travel distance:
Distance for travelling (ex. an hour to Toronto)
Depends on mode of transport, traffic, etc…
o Economic/communication distance:
Transporting distance, phone minutes, sending a
package…
Measured in dollars
o Psychological distance:
When you are intoxicated a walk might seem different
than a walk when sober
Mindset in which you are travelling makes a difference
Distribution:
Things in space are organized in different ways
Distance & organization
Three forms of distribution:
o Density = frequency that the geographic phenomena exists
within space
Ex. how many apartments within 5km area
Ratio measure
o Concentration/dispersion = how something is spread over an
area
Organization pattern
Can be:
Clustered (agglomerated) = all together
Ex. Chinese restaurants in China town
Dispersed (scattered) = spread out
Ex. universities spread out over southern
Ontario
Dependent on spatial perspective
o Pattern = how objects are arranged in space
Linear
Random
Uniform/ordered
Tuesday, January 15th, 2012
Key Concepts:
Regions
Landscapes
Diffusion
Perception & Mapping
Readings: same as Friday
Regions:
Part of earth‟s surface that displays homogeneity and is relatively
distinct from surrounding areas according to some criteria/criterion
o Internal homogeneity
o External heterogeneity
People in the region behave similarly
Criteria:
o Human geographic = ex. language
o Physical geographic = ex. climate
o Or a combination of both
Regionalization = simplifying complex world into regions
o Locations are assigned into regions based on criteria
o Produces spatial pattern
Spatial scale/perspective matters:
o Ex. up the mountain or down the mountain, Westdale vs.
being in Hamilton, when looking in Hamilton…would not be
important when looking at important regions in Canada
Landscapes:
Outcome of interactions between people and their environments;
the visible human imprint on the land
Special characteristics of an area
Ways we impact the natural environment by modification
o Each cultural group imprints itself on the landscape in a
different way
Create different landscapes in different areas
Consider: Southern Ontario
o Country-side/rural areas = very straight roads, cut across
environment, divide land into rectangular fields, little town or
village
o Different than urban/suburban areas
Key: it is HUMAN impact on the natural environment
Diffusion:
Movement of a geographic phenomena across space over time
o Ex. spread of a disease (such as a pandemic)
2 main forms:
o Relocation = spread of ideas, cultural characteristics, etc.
from one area to another through physical movement by
people
Ex. immigration = bring language, religion, music, food,
fashion, etc.
Ex. consider Hamilton surnames in certain areas
British = Jones, Smith
Italian = Mancini, De Luca
Portuguese = Silva, Santos
Vietnamese = Nguyen, Pham
o Expansion = spread of innovations within a single area in a
snowballing process
Couple people spread word to a couple people, etc…
3 subtypes:
Hierarchical = Ideas or innovations leapfrog from
one important person to another, or from one city
to another, temporarily bypassing other people or
rural areas in between
Do not spread evenly from one person to
the next
Ex. goes from New York to California, then
to Florida, then to Denver, etc.
Contagious = the rapid and widespread diffusion
of a characteristic throughout the population
Ex. disease, video going viral
Does not depend on the person
Stimulus = spread of an underlying principle,
even though a characteristic itself fails to diffuse
Ex. Apple vs. IBM when computers came
out
o 1990s IBM takes over market
Apple basically was left behind
but mouse clicking still existed
People used some features of
Apple but did not use the
computers themselves
Innovations spread over area
Can be socially diffused = look at iPod
graph
Perception and Mental Mapping:
Much of our engagement with real physical or human environments
actually occurs through a personal lens
o Experiences are actually how we perceive them to be, rather
than how they actually are
o Determines how we interact with environment
o Mental map = personal representation of reality
Imperfect knowledge = based only on how we think of
world to be
Different between different people
Perceptions drive behaviors
Ex. taking different paths to school in order to avoid
certain obstacles
Friday, January 18th, 2013
Key Concepts:
What are maps?
o Scale
o Perspective
o Projection
o Map type
GIS
Reading: Chapter 2
Maps:
Two dimensional representation of the world
Depict spatial relationships
Communicate information to us
o What is where? Why there? Why care?
o Analyze spatial relationships (distribution, patterns, processes
that produce those)
Socially constructed = reflect perspective of the person/people who
produces them = cartographer
o Influence or instate power
o Means we need to look at map with a critical eye
Whether we believe it or not
o Ex. Argentinian stamp = indicates that they own a part of
Antarctica but they really don‟t
Telling Lies via Maps:
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
How to lie with maps:
o Different ways that cartographers can influence the reader of
the map by the way they represent things
Small scale map
Shows very large area of earth‟s surface
Obscures a lot of detail from particular areas
Ex. boundary between two countries
Lines
Area features
Two types of lies:
o White lies
o Big lies
Social & Cultural History of Maps:
Solving spatial problems
o Ex. pictograph
Navigational chart/map
o Key to human survival
Reflect current knowledge
Reflect the state of the current thinking and anxiety about the world
around us
o Ex. map as an art piece
Statement of power and authority
Represent data and have things you are supposed to be looking for
in maps to tell how to interpret them
Key Considerations in the Production and Understanding of Maps:
Scale = indicates the spatial relationship between real-world
locations, distances and areas and their representation on the map
o All maps are scaled representations of the real world
Cannot produce a 1:1 scale
o Typically expressed as a ratio (1:50000) or a representative
fraction (1/50000)
o Large scale vs. small scale
Representative fraction:
1/50000 is small number = 0.00002
1/250000 is an even smaller number = 0.000004
A map that is a 1/250000 scale is a smaller
scale map than one at 1/50000
o However a 1/2500000 shows a much
larger area of the earth‟s surface
Small scale shows large area and generally depict very
little detail
Large scale shows a smaller area and generally have
greater levels of detail
Perspective = how is the map oriented?
o Are there tools provided to help me orient myself on the
map?
Tend to put north at the top of the map
o “Antipocentric” map = upside down map, south is at the top
Have just chosen to put north at the top in most maps
Students in Australia tend to see this map more
Projection = how do you depict a 3D sphere into 2D?
o Mathematic technique for representing 3D into 2D
o Can have distortions = distance, direction & area
o 3 main types = varying levels of accuracy (pg. 70)
Azimuthal
Cylindrical
Conic
Map type = depends on the spatial data
o 2 primary purposes:
Accurately represent data
Solve spatial problems
o Ex. topographic map of Hamilton
o Ex. dot map = reveal patterns of spatial concentrations or
dispersion
o Ex. choropleth map = indicate graduated variations in data
(ex. population density)
o Ex. isopleth map = connect locations of equal data value (ex.
temperature
o Ex. cartograms = space is distorted to emphasize particular
attributes (ex. election map)
Population Geography
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
Outline:
Objective and introduction
o The Study of Population & Growth
History of Population Growth
Reading: Chapters 4 & 5
Objectives & Introduction:
Where do 7 billion people live?
What factors underlie this distribution?
What are the implications and consequences of this distribution?
Population Geography:
Demography = study of population
o Demos = people
o Graphe = to write about
Study of spatial components of demography
Of concern to population geographers:
o Growth/decline of population over time
Ex. Canadians having not enough children
Ex. not enough food to provide for big population leads
to decline
o Spatial differential growth or decline of a population
Ex. children growing up in third world countries or in
very rich countries – will they be able to sustain
populations?
o The causes, and consequences, of population change
Ex. political changes, aging populations, etc.
o Spatial distribution of the population and the consequences
with respect to global resources (water, energy, food)
History of Population Growth:
How have global population levels change over the past 12000
years? (the Holocene period = since last ice age)
o 12000 years BP
o 2000 years BP
o 1650 AD (~350 BP) = 500 million
o 1800 AD (~200 BP) = 1 billion
o 12000 years = 2 billion
o <50 years = 4 billion
o <25 years = 6 billion
What factors have contributed to these population
increases/decreases?
o Significant populations associated with:
First agricultural revolution (12000 years ago)
Mesopotamia (then Egypt, India, China &
Mesoamerica)
Keys:
Increases food production = food surplus
o Ability to grow your own food
Used to have to follow migrating
packs of animals, use harvests,
etc.
o Ability to raise animals, use irrigation,
germinate seeds
Increasing labour specialization
o Ex. bakers, machine operators, etc.
Permanent settlement
o No more migration to follow animals
o Ex. farms, communities, businesses
Industrial revolution (18 & 19 century)
Keys:
Increasing food production
o Use of machinery in the agricultural
world (ex. tractors)
o Fertilizers
o Types of seeds
Increased standard of living
o Better housing, clothing, heat
o Stabilizes population
Declining death rates (prior to changes in
birth rate)
o Population growth
o Due to food production & standard of
living
Epidemics (ex. the plague) = population would
grow and then a large chunk of population would
be wiped out by epidemic/pandemic
Grow & fall model
“One step forward two steps back”
Population Distribution & Density:
Distribution = how things are spatially arranged
World population distribution:
o Asia vs. all other areas
Areas of population concentration
Large areas of planet are sparsely populated
Density = frequency with which a geographic phenomena occurs in
a certain area
o The spatial scale used affects the density:
Consider Canada:
3.1 persons/sq.km.
Southern Ontario: 85 persons/sq.km
Most dense area in Canada
Variation in different areas
Factors that affect distribution & density:
o Physical factors:
Some areas more suited for human habitation than
others
Ex. desert vs. Southern Ontario
In general:
Temperature
Water availability
Physiography
Soil quality
o Human factors:
Cultural and economic factors
State formation = politics
Health care systems
Economic system = communism, capitalism, etc…
Friday, January 25th, 2013
MISSED LECTURE!
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Population Growth Theory: Malthus
Wrote “An Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798)
Argument = two key things going on over time:
o Food supply increase – linear
Steady increases in food supply with ability to cultivate
the land
o Population increase – exponential
3 time periods we need to be thinking about:
o Food > population
Ample supply to feed population
o Food = population
Assumed this occurred in about 1800
o Food < population
Concerning time period
Central to Malthus‟ ideas about population
Preventative “checks” on population:
o Cultural changes will effect population
Ex. getting married later = fertility rates decline
Positive checks on population = positive in the sense that it lowers
the amount of population
o War = insufficient food leads to global combat
o Famine = people dying of hunger
o Environmental issues
o Disease
Neo-Malthusians = current people who agree with Malthus &
rehashing his argument
Is his theory true?
o Inability to predict what would actually happen with the food
supply
Not linear
Since 1800, there has been an exponential increase in
food supply
Still have more food than we need at this point in time
Industrial revolution & agricultural revolution
Demographic Transition Theory (DTT):
Fertility and mortality are the important part of population
dynamics
o Have economical impacts
o Changes in population over time
Over time crude death rates and crude death rates change
DTT Diagram:
o Stage 1 High BR & High DR
Equilibrium
War & disease cause fluctuations in death rate
o Stage 2 High BR & Declining DR
Economic development
Increased standard of living (ex. industrialization)
Better food, housing, health care, life, etc…
Sanitation introduced = better water
Population explosion
o Stage 3 Declining BR & Low DR
Children are expected to live = fertility rates decrease
o Stage 4 Low BR & Low DR
Equilibrium
Canada‟s current stage
To what extent does this matter?
o Developed world = matches perfectly with experiences of all
richer countries in the world
Model was based primarily on countries like Canada,
US, Britain, etc..
o Developing world = fit less well to the DTT but still similarities
Many countries are in stage 3
Fertility Transition Theory:
Explains experiences going on in developing world
Developed world (19th-20th century) = fertility declines
o Connected to economic development = increased standard of
living
Developing world (20th century) = fertility is declining
o More about social and cultural changes, not economic
Ex. contraceptive use
85% of people using are using modern forms (ex.
condoms & the pill)
Result of public education messages sent through
media and governments in attempt to change
cultural behaviors
Control the growth of the population
Large families = no longer a need for large families
o When death rates were high, people had more kids because
they knew that many of them would not survive into
adulthood
Social safety net = have kids so then they can support
parents when they are older
Social status
o Especially for women = dramatic shift in last couple of
decades for empowerment of women
Right to chose whether they want children/not and how
many they want
Cultural transition = changing and resulting in decline in fertility
rates
Role of government in affecting fertility:
o Role in changing levels of fertility and population dynamics
o 3 main ways to alter population:
Increase/decrease births:
Pro-natal policies = want more babies
Ex. lowering marriage age, Canada‟s baby
bonus
Anti-natal policies = design to decrease about of
births
Ex. Africa‟s sterilization project
Decrease (or increase) deaths:
Via health care, etc…
Encourage/discourage migration:
Via immigration laws
Ex. hard to migrate out of Cuba
Population Structure:
Draw connections between government policies, the changes in
population (migration, birth & death), etc…
Population pyramid = representation of age and sex structure of a
population
o Expanding population = fertility rates are high
Each level of the pyramid is bigger than the one above
it
Each couple is having enough children to increase
population
o Diminishing population = fertility rates are low
More people in the post-reproductive stage than in the
pre-reproductive stage
Not enough children to replace dying population
Friday, February 1st, 2013
MISSED LECTURE!
Social and Cultural Geography 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Outline:
Intro
Culture & society
Defining culture
Folk & popular culture
Cultural regions & landscapes
Reading: Chapter 6
Introduction:
Routines of daily life and commonalities between people =
attributed to culture = Cultural Attributes
o Ie. Religious beliefs, languages spoken, ethnic/ancestral
origin, age, gender, and individual personality
Dominance in our society
Other parts of the world = different cultures
o May not be key in other parts of world
o Consider:
Culture of London, England vs. New Guinea
Would they be familiar with your culture?
Would you be familiar with their culture?
Would they be more or less familiar with your
culture than you are with theirs?
Culture = way of life of members of a society
o Varies over geographical space
o Tied to beliefs, values, lifestyles, etc…
o The emergence and history of culture = “civilization”
o Subculture:
Ex. ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, teenagers
Is there a distinct Canadian culture?
o Or do we share common culture with others?
o Canadian vs. American culture:
Shared traits:
Same language
Same form of governments
Same economic system (capitalist)
Broad sweep of religions
Interests in pop culture
Unique traits:
Different cultural symbols
Different role in global politics
Peacekeepers vs. fighters
North American culture:
o Related to nations and nationalities
Cultural geographers = spatial distribution of cultural activities,
their health areas, and the process of diffusion across space
Forms of Culture:
Non-material:
o Mentifacts = key attitudinal elements/values
Ex. religion, language
o Sociofacts = involved in group formation
Social norms that govern interpersonal relationships
Ex. respect for elders
Material:
o Artifacts = all tangible elements related to how people live
their lives
Ex. modes of transit, housing, clothing, etc…
o 2 categories based on scale:
Folk culture = cultural practices and material culture
associated with usually relatively small and isolated
cultural groups
Group is homogenous
Small amounts of interaction
Popular culture = cultural practices and material culture
not associated with small groups or isolated groups
Heterogeneous = different across population
Wide spread spatial distribution = large group
High amounts of interactions
Ex. wearing jeans
Communication:
o Very important role today
o Stops isolated groups from being so isolated
o Exposed to cultural phenomena from other cultures
o Ex. internet, phone, media, etc…
o Folk culture is becoming less significant because popular
culture keeps growing
Cultural Regions and Landscapes:
Cultural region = spatial area in which cultural practices are
dominant
o An area with a degree of homogeneity in cultural
characteristics
o Spatial scale matters
Ex. McMaster map = different regions on campus
because of different faculties
Ex. Hamilton map = McMaster turns into an academic
area, vs. residential, industrial, etc. areas
o Regionalization is important = varies from one person to the
next
Cultural landscape = outcome of interactions between people and
their environments; the visible human imprint on land
o Reflect human modifications
o Region & landscape are interrelated
Cultural adaptation = adjustment by people and cultures, to the
challenges posed by the physical environment
o As cultures change, they produce a new landscape
o Ex. clothing choices reflect environmental circumstances in
which we live
Clothing space in closet for cold weather, as well as hot
weather
o Each culture becomes more and more different
o Not a static process = constantly changing and adapting
o Physical environment is always changing (ex. climate change)
o Modify physical landscape based on needs of culture
o Evolution constantly
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Outline:
Introduction
Language
o Different types
o Classification and regionalization
o An example
o Global Dominance of English
o Dialects & accents
Reading: Chapter 6 – pg. 226-235
Introduction:
Mother tongue = language that you first learn
Languages spoken by Canadians/Hamiltonians:
o Canadian:
19 million = English
7 million = French
6.6 million = other
o Hamiltonian:
379k = English
7k = French
118k = other
Language and Cultural Groups:
Important cultural variable
Can study the regional extent of language groups
Fundamental way that cultural groups differentiate themselves from
one another
Survival of cultural groups is very much connected to the survival of
languages
o Ever evolving Quebec sign law = use of English on their signs
= believe very strongly that they need to preserve their
language = do not want English to take over so then they
have their own cultural group
How many languages are there:
o Best estimate = 7000 languages prior to period of European
colonization
Today = less than 6000 languages
o Is the loss of language a problem?
Negative = if languages are connected to cultural
identity, then cultural diversity is being lost
Positive = fewer languages = chances of us all being
able to communicate is stronger
o Language family:
A group of closely related languages that likely
originated from the same ancient origin
2 biggest:
Indo-European:
430 languages
2.5 million speakers
Sino-Tibetan
Within a language family there are language branches:
A subset of a language family, and with a more
recent origin
Ex. Indo-European:
Romance languages (ex. French, Spanish,
Italian, etc.…)
Germanic languages (ex. English, German,
Dutch, etc.…)
Classification and Regionalization:
European colonization = Indo-European languages diffused to other
parts of world
o Isolation and diffusion
o Brought English and French to North America
o Mainly Spanish to South America
o …List goes on
An Example: Indo-European Languages:
English = a global family
One source started it and then diffusion led to spread of language
o In and around the Black Sea
Cultural groups adapted to their local environment and by doing so
created new languages
o Adapted cultural practices and over thousands of years made
new languages
o As population diffuses, the languages change more
English = mixing of many other languages = very complicated
language
o 3 times as many words in English as there are in German,
and 5 times as many as French
Global Dominance of English:
Is there a global language?
o English vs. Mandarin
About a billion people who speak Mandarin
Vast majority live in a single country
Very isolated language
About 340 million people speak English
English is spoken around the world
Geographical distribution around the planet
Official language of 50 governments
What other evidence do we have for the dominance of English?
o Air travel
Ex. Polish pilot speaks to French pilot in English
o Media
News, radio, pop culture
o Internet
Projections looking like the early part of the next
decade that there will be more Chinese speaking
internet users than other languages
Dialects & Accents:
Micro-scale variations in languages
Dialect = regional variation of a particular language
o Vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation
o Connected to cultural adaptation
o Ex. English in England vs. North America
Loo vs. washroom
Lorry vs. truck
o Ex. within North America
Washroom vs. restroom
Interstate vs. highway
Zee vs. zed
Textbook Notes (Ch. 1,2,4,5)
Chapter 1: What is Human Geography?
Purpose = to describe the world
Classical Geography:
o Greeks = first to become geographically mobile and establish
colonies
o Aristotle = developed possible relationships between latitude,
climate and population density
o Eratosthenes = father of geography
Longitude = angular distance on the earth measured east and west
of the Prime Meridian
o Runs through Greenwich, England = 0 degreees
Latitude = angular distance on the surface of the earth measured
north and south of the equator
Topography = refers to local areas within countries
Contemporary Geography:
o 7 major trends:
Increasing separation of the physical and human
components of geography
Revitalized landscape approach
Revitalized regional geography
Ongoing interest in spatial analysis
Recognition of the need for a global perspective
Increasing concern with applied matters
Increasing emphasis on technical content
o Physical and Human Geography:
Tend to teach and research the two separately
o Contemporary Landscape Geography:
Considered with symbolic features and visible features
Focus on human experience of being in landscape
Reflect culture, social, politics and economic processes
o Contemporary Regional Geography:
Emphasizes the understanding and description of a
particular region and what it means for different people
to live there
Reflects at least 3 general concerns:
Regions as setting or locals for human activity
Uneven economic and social development
between regions
Ways in which regions reflect the characteristics
of the occupying society and in turn affect that
society
o Contemporary Spatial Analysis:
Theoretical constructs used to explain locations are
somewhat limited
Tends to emphasize generalizations and not specifics
Chapter 2: Studying Human Geography
Human Geographic Concepts:
o Involves two basic endeavors:
Need to establish facts
Need to understand and explain facts
o Space:
Areal extent; a term used in both absolute (objective)
and relative (subjective) forms
Absolute space = exists in the areal relations
among phenomena on the earth‟s surface
Objective
At the heart of mapmaking
Relative space = socially produced and therefore
unlike absolute space is subject to continuous
change
Perceptual
Spatial separatism (fetishism) = human geography
based on spatial analysis focuses on space alone as an
explanation of human nature
Treating space as a cause without reference to
humans
o Location:
Refers to a specific part of the earth‟s surface; an area
where something is situated
Absolute location = position with reference to an
arbitrary mathematical grid system such as
latitude and longitude
May not be as meaningful as a relative
location, which do change
Can be described by reference to its place name or
toponym
Ex. Canada, Manitoba, Winnipeg, Portage Avenue
Site = local characteristics of a location
Ex. map of Winnipeg
Situation = location relative to another location
Ex. Winnipeg plotted on a map of Canada
o Place:
Location; in humanistic geography, „place‟ has acquired
a particular meaning as a context for human action that
is rich in human significance and meaning
Values that we associate with the location
Is not about where we live, is about how we live where
we live
Sense of place = attachments that we have with
location with personal significance
Sacred space = landscapes that are particularly
esteemed by an individual or group, usually for a
religious reason
Placelessness = identify landscapes that are relatively
homogenous and standardized
Ex. tourist landscapes, commercial areas, and
suburbs
Move evident in industrial world than post-
industrial world
Topophilia = „love of place‟
Positive feelings that link humans to particular
environments
Topophobia = dislike of a landscape that may prompt
feelings of anxiety, fear or suffering
o Region:
Regionalization = process of classification in which each
specific location is assigned to a region
Types of regions:
Functional (nodal) = area with locations related to
each other or to a specific location
Distribution of city newspaper
Formal (uniform) = area with one or more traits
in common
Ex. area with German-speaking people
Vernacular = regions perceived to exist by people
either within or outside of them
Ex. Bible belt in U.S.A
4 applications of the concept of regions:
Regionalization is a valuable simplifying tool;
exercise of classifying in itself may be a valuable
aid to understanding of landscapes
Delimitation of formal regions was central the
chorological approach that dominated during
much of the first half of the 20th century
Delimitation of functional regions was important
for spatial analysis
Many contemporary geographers see vernacular
regions as crucial to our understanding of human
landscapes
o Distance:
Quantifiably measurable = important for spatial analysis
Spatial dimension of separation
Distribution = pattern of geographic facts within an area
Everything is related to everything else, but near things
are more related than distant things
Distance decay = declining intensity of any pattern or
process with increasing distance from a given location
Friction of distance = measure of the restraining effect
on distance on human movement
Time and cost involved in overcoming distance
Accessibility = variable quality of a location, expressing
the ease with which it may be reached from other
locations
Indicates relative opportunities for contact and
interaction
Interaction = movement, trading, or other form of
communication between locations
Agglomeration = situations in which locations are close
in proximity to one another
Spatial grouping of humans or activities to
minimize the distances between them
Deglomeration = spatial separation of humans or
activities so as to maximize the distances between them
Can be measured in economic, temporal, cognitive or
social terms = relative
Can be measured by a standard unit of measure =
absolute
o Scale:
Resolution levels used in any human geographic
research; most characteristically refers to the size of
the area studied, but also to the time period covered
and the number of people investigated
Spatial, temporal and social
Choice of scale depends on question being posed
Use concept of scale in two different ways:
Ratio of distance
Maps of large areas are small scale and
maps of small areas are large scale
To decide whether locations in a given area are
clustered, or dispersed
o Diffusion:
Spread of a phenomenon over space and growth
through time
Ex. migration of people
3 important ideas:
Neighborhood effect = situations where diffusion
is distance biased = phenomenon spreads first to
individuals nearest its place of origin
Hierarchal effect = first diffuses to large cities
then to centres of decreasing size
S-Shaped curve = diffusion proceeds slowly at
first, then very rapidly, then slow again
o Perception:
Process by which humans acquire information about
physical and social environments
Mental images and maps are important for 6 different
reasons:
Mental images of other places and people are
always changing
Research into mental maps demonstrate that
humans have varying perceptions of their
environment
The mental maps of particular individuals are of
great importance
Serious problems can arise when people in
positions of power have distorted mental maps
Mental maps do change
Mental maps of relatively unknown areas are
especially subject to error
o Development:
Refer to a process of becoming larger, more mature,
and better organized
Often referred to in economic manner
o Discourse:
“speech”
Refers to way of communicating, in speech or writing,
that serves to identify the person communicating as a
member of a particular group
o Globalization:
Complex combination of economic, political, and cultural
changes that have long been evident that have
accelerated markedly since about 1980, bring about a
seemingly ever-increasing connectedness of both
people and places
Bring separated people and places together
Increases quantity of goods, information and people
Techniques of Analysis:
o Cartography:
Science of map-making
Communicate information
Portray spatial data
Scale is always found on a map
Type of map depends on data
Dot map = towns, wheat farming, cemeteries,
etc…
Choropleth = thematic map using colour to
indicate density of a particular phenomenon in a
given area
Isopleth = map using lines to connect locations of
equal data value
Ex. equal time, transport costs, etc…
o Computer-Assisted Cartography:
Digital mapping
Allows us to amend maps by adding in new and revised
data
o Geographic Information Systems:
Computer based tool that combines several functions =
storage, display, analysis, mapping
Come from Canada = 1960s
Vector approach = describes the data as a collection of
points, lines, and areas and describes the location of
each of these
Raster approach = divides the area into numerous,
small cells and pixels, and describes the content of each
cell
o Remote Sensing:
Variety of techniques used for acquiring and recording
data from points that are not in contact with the
phenomena of interest
o Qualitative Methods:
Set of tools used to collect and analyze data in order to
subjectively understand the phenomena being studied;
the methods including passive observation, participation
and active intervention
o Quantitative Methods:
Set of tools used to collect and analyze data to achieve
a statistically description and scientific explanation of
the phenomena being studied; the methods include
sampling, models, and statistically testing
Chapter 4: A Crowded Home
Demography = science that studies the size and makeup of
populations
Fertility:
o All aspects of human reproduction lead to live births
o 2009 – population =6.8 billion
o 2025 – population = 8.0 billion
o 2050 – population = 9.4 billion
o Fertility & mortality equation:
P(now) = P (original) + B – D
o Fertility, mortality & immigration:
P (now) = P (original) + B – D + I – E
o Crude birth rate = total number of births given in a given
period per 1000 people already living:
CBR = number of births in one year / mid-year total
population * 1000
Range from 10-55
May be misleading because births are related to total
population, not the population that can conceive =
fecundity
o General fertility rate = actual number of live births per 1000
women in the fecund age range (15-49)
# of live births in a one year period / mid-year # of
females aged 15-49
o Total fertility rate = average number of children a woman will
have
5 * sum number of women in age group A in a given
period / mid-year # of females in age group A
„A‟ refers to the seven five-year age groups
o Replacement level fertility = 2.1-2.5
o Factors affecting fertility:
Biological factors = fecundity
Begins at about age 15, peaks at about age 20
Affected by nutritional well-being
Related to diet
Economic factors = modern society favors small families
Cultural factors = marriage, contraceptive use, abortion
Nuptiality rate = # marriages in one year / mid-
year total population * 1000
o Variations in fertility = modernization and economic
development have prompted lower levels of fertility
Mortality:
o Mortality measures:
Crude death rate:
# deaths in one year / mid-year total population
*1000
Range from 5-50
Does not consider J-shaped characteristic of age
Infant morality rate:
# deaths under age of 1 / # births that year *
1000
Range from 1.3-163
Sensitive to economic conditions, declining with
improved medical and health services and better
nutrition
Natural rate of increase = CBR – CDR
o World population is still increasing but at a decreasing rate
Government policies:
o All policies have the same objective = decrease mortality
o Pro-natali= typically in places dominated by a certain culture
and in countries where a larger population is perceived as
necessary for economic or strategic reasons
o Anti-natal = less developed countries have initiated policies
designed to reduce fertility
Happens when faced with overpopulation
Composition of a Population:
o Age and sex structure:
Population pyramid = diagrammatic representation of
the age and sex composition of a population. By
convention, the younger ages are at the bottom, males
are on the left and females on the right
More males compared to females
Chapter 5: An Unequal Home
Race and Ethnicity 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
Outline:
Introduction
Race and Ethnicity
o Ethnicity
o Race
o Ethnicity vs. Race
o Spatial distribution
Reading: Chapter 7 – pg. 268-281
Introduction:
Citizenship – nationality
Identity – ethnicity
Ethnicity & Ethnic Groups:
Hard to define
Ethnicity = an affiliation with a group whose racial, cultural,
religious or linguistic characteristics, or national origins distinguish
it from the rest of the population
Ethnic group = a group whose members perceive themselves as
different from others because of a common ancestry and/or shared
culture
o Ex. my family is Korean
o Based on belonging to a group
o Linked to ancestors and to specific cultural traditions
o Element of minority status
Individual and group identity
o Ex. my family is Irish so I connect to things that are Irish, but
I also have connection with others who are Irish
Important components = ethnicity, religion & language = express
culture
o Ex. the cultural landscape
o Ex. the built landscape = neighborhoods
Reflect identity of group that lives in that area
Stores, interior design, traits, habits, etc…
Pride vs. discrimination & conflict
o Pride = proud of culture around certain times
Ex. Italians and the world cup
o Could be conflicts between groups of different ethnicities
o Discrimination based on past events
Globalization = erasing local diversity
o Ex. language and religion
Ethnicity = immutable = cannot change it
o Cannot change your ancestry or the origin of your identity
o Much more permanent and powerful element of cultural
identity
Ethnicity = dilutable
o Ex. parents are of two different ethnic groups = mixed = lose
sense of both of them as compared to if parents were from
the same place
o No clear sense of where you are from
Canadian Census recognizes the multidimensionality of ethnicity
o Incorporates language, race, religion, ancestral origin
o All a part of what ethnicity is
o 3 major components of ethnicity:
Origin/ancestry = where are your family roots
connected to?
Issues:
How far back do we go?
Mixed origins
Public opinion on that ethnicity
o Ex. dramatic change around WWII
with amount of people who admitted
that they were German = not
favorable in Canada so they didn‟t
mention what nationality they were
o Ex. New Berlin renamed as Kitchener
Race = based on genetically imparted physiogenomical
features of an individual
Mostly facial features such as skin colour
Physical elements of appearance
Issues:
Social construct = does not exist as a
meaningful thing
Change over time = conceptions of time
o Ex. in U.S.A. race is a big political
issue (black vs. negro vs. African
American)
Terminology for race can be ambiguous for
some people
o Ex. Caucasian vs. white = can obscure
responses
Identity = a self-identification of how an individual
perceives themselves, rather than their ancestors
Issues:
Many different ways to identify yourself
o Language, race, nationality, etc…
o Ex. Quebec thinks that they are
French Canadian = some other
element of identity = language
Depends on what you consider yourself as a
part of a cultural group
Race:
One of the most problematic concepts that exists in the social
sciences
Usually divide population into subgroups based on physical
appearances
o Ex. height, skin colour, eye colour, hair colour
Purely socially constructed concept
No such thing as distinct races within our spaces
Race = genetically distinct group of a species
o Do not exist in the human population
o All come from the same ancestor
We are all members of the human race
Race vs. Ethnicity:
Race and social-human interactions
o Physical appearances influence how you perceive and interact
with others
Ex. racism
Perceived race = proper term
o No scientifically based reason
o How we look at other people influences how we act around
them
African-American, Asian-American, etc.
o Considered a significant element of society in the U.S.A.
o These are not racial groupings
o Ethnic groupings of people
Shared cultural experience with ancestral origins
Spatial Patterns of Ethnicity in the U.S.A:
Major ethnic groups n the U.S have different spatial distributions
o Hispanic-American = 15%
o African-American = 13%
o Asian-American = 5%
o American Indian = 1%
Regional patterns:
o Based on migration and proximity to origin regions
Ex. Hispanics close to Mexico
o Misleading?
Ex. Hispanics would prefer to identify themselves based
on their ancestry such as Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican,
etc.. instead of being grouped as one
Grouping all people together is misleading
Patterns within cities:
o Central parts of large American cities
o Where we see more patterns is in the larger cities because of
migratory patterns
Ex. African-Americans in 20th century went from south
to major cities of west and urban centers of mid-west
Abolition of slavery, urbanization, economic
means, etc.
Ex. Detroit = 85% of people are of African-American
descent
Other places in Michigan = 7% African-American
Profoundly concentrated in Detroit
Ex. Chicago = similar pattern to Detroit
Within city of Chicago, there are clustered areas
of African-Americans and Hispanics
Outside of city, there are mostly white people
What are the consequences of what is going on?
o Role of spatial interaction between different groups in the
same area
o North American immigrant experience
o Diversity of immigrants = changed in mid-late 19th century
Residents were mostly British & from north-western
parts of Europe
At the end of the 19th century = less people wanting to
migrate from Europe
North America solicited people from other parts of the
world
Started with other parts of Europe, then looked to
Asia, Latin American, Africa, etc…
Mixing of people with different backgrounds =
heterogeneous
Spatial patterning wasn‟t as heterogeneous
Different groups isolated themselves =
homogeneity
Could be a result of discrimination or other
reasons
Creation of distinct neighborhoods/ghettos
Reflects patterns
Ex. Greektown, Little Italy, Corktown (Irish)
Cultural & Symbolic Landscapes 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Introduction:
Recall key concepts
o Location = position in space
o Place = location with particular meaning
Individual
Collective
Cultural Landscapes:
Landscape = visible human imprint on the land
o Natural/physical environment
o Human environment
Urban, rural, suburban, etc.
Ex. straight concession roads in the country
Ex. arrangement of buildings in downtown
Toronto
Cultural landscape = outcome of interactions between people and
their environments
o Process of adapting environment to practices
o Result of cultural adaptation
o Meaning & significance transcend to cultural groups
Symbolic landscape = symbols of a culture and what it stands for
7 Wonders (Ancient):
o Bucket list of things you need to see before you die
Greek scholar = Herodotus ~ 2500 years ago
o Spatially concentrated
Center of Western civilization at that time
Modern 7 Wonders:
o Many lists exist
o Identify places of cultural importances
o Architectural, underwater, etc…
o Modern wonders = more spatially dispersed and reflect many
cultures
Taken by online survey
100 million votes were cast for the most recent 7
(+1) modern sites
+1 = Pyramids of Giza
7 wonders:
Great Wall of China
Monastery of Petra
Mayan City of Chichen Itza
Machu Picchu
Colosseum of Rome
Taj Mahal
Christ the Redeemer
Rural Settlement 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
Outline:
Introduction
Rural settlement
Forms of rural settlement
Rural issues
Rural vs. urban ways of life
Introduction:
Culture = way of life of a group of people
Cultural groups adapt to their local environment
o Where and how they live their lives
o Settlements = rural and urban
Many different types of settlement
Ex. rural hamlets, towns, cities, mega-cities,
etc….
Urban and rural settlements are usually defined in relation to one
another
o Whatever is not urban, is rural & vice-versa
o Urban is easier to define than rural
Large population
Densely settled
Why study rural settlement?
o Global population
Distribution = how do the 7 billion people live their
lives?
Currently at a point in time where 50% of population
lives in rural areas
Africa & Asia = 2/3 of population
Oceania, Europe, North & South America = ¼
population
Shifting from more rural to more urban
o Urbanization
Cities are a recent innovation
Cities only around for about 5000 years, but we‟ve been
living in them for only a couple hundred of years
o Forms of settlement = culture and cultural adaptation
See how different cultural groups experience/modify
environment
Patterns of Rural Settlement
2 types:
o Dispersed:
People living in relative isolation from each other
Distance between each individual family/family unit
Exists a lot in agricultural areas & land-ownership
Connected to forms of capitalist agriculture
Canadian pioneer experience
Settling prairies
Different kinds of patters = geometric vs. irregular
patterns
Field patters
o Clustered:
Nucleated
Planned vs. organic development
Planned = developed as a communal place for
exchange of commodities
Organic = happens over time with people moving
near roads/intersections
Sizes can vary
Can be like a city but most people are engaged in
agricultural activity
Follows river/roadway
Look at slides for hamlets, villages, grid plan
Issues of Rural Settlement:
Depopulation:
o Rural depopulation:
Movement of people from rural areas to non-rural areas
Increasing urbanization
Ongoing for the last 100 years in Canada
Farmers do not need as many employees
Can farm larger areas with less labour
Demand for jobs in the city
o Farm depopulation:
People leaving farms because it is not benefitting them
economically
Farms will be bought by larger companies
o Small towns:
Small town grows and is no longer a small town = rare
Small town/villages/hamlets disappear all together
Become ghost town
Result of rural depopulation
Ex. nobody going to school = bye bye school
Repopulation or counter-urbanization:
o Rural population gets bigger
o Very small circumstances
o Ex. tele-commuting = continue to live at the cottage but can
work from there
o Ex. decentralized industrial activities = some factories set up
in rural areas
Some people move to rural areas to work at these
institutions
o Ex. aging population and retirement communities = choose
quiet rural life
The Rural-Urban Fringe:
o Transitional zone between outer regions of suburbs and the
near edges of the agricultural zone that surrounds the city
o “Next suburban center”, “Next site”, etc… = always under
transition
o Urban sprawl = areas turn into shopping centers, residential
communities, etc…
Ruins agricultural areas
Rural vs. Urban:
Ways of life?
In what ways are they different?
o Gemeinschaft = small town/communal ways of life
Strong personal connections between people and
families
Neighborliness
o Gesellschaft = depersonalized lifestyle
Is there such thing as an urban way of life that is somehow distinct
from the rural way of living?
o Louis Wirth = urbanism as a way of life
3 characteristics of cities that make them different from
rural areas:
Incorporate large populations
Living in close proximity = high density
Population is heterogeneous = mixing of people of
different cultural experiences
Textbook image 11.10
Urban Social Geography 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Outline:
Ethnicity & identity
Ethnic areas and social spatial segregation
Segregation & congregation
Assimilation & acculturation
Reading: Chapter 13
Introduction:
Recall social and cultural differences
o Race, perceived race, language, ethnicity, etc.
Localized expressions of difference
o Ex. Ethnic neighborhoods
Ethnicity:
A group whose members perceive themselves as different from
others because of a common ancestry and/or shared culture
o Often a minority within a larger population
Ex. Italian-Canadians
o Share cultural traditions
Ethnic areas = a region or neighborhood that is occupied (to
varying degrees) by people of common heritage
o High concentrations of people of a certain ancestry
Can connect to cultural identity
Cultural Identity:
Personal or collective identity = tied to language, religion, shared
cultural past, ethnicity, race, etc.
o Consider St. Patrick‟s Day = people identify with this holiday
Inclusionary and exclusionary
o Positive = bonding
o Negative = social exclusion = minority may be excluded from
housing
Ex. excluded from employment because of language
barrier
Social Spatial Segregation:
Different social divisions exist in urban places
o Ex. socio-economic class, age, ethnicity, race, etc.
Each has its own spatial pattern in cities = social spatial
segregation
Ex. high to middle to low class throughout city
Ex. downtown Hamilton vs. Ancaster
Ex. ethnic neighborhoods
Why does this exist?
o Minimize conflict = if existing in the same area, they might
argue/fight
Ex. old people living in the same area as young people
o Preserve culture = allows population to exist and live the way
they want to live
Ex. Chinese people in Chinatown want to live in the
same area = close proximity
o Feeds fear of “others”
Negative = fosters hatred of other people
Able to preserve identity, but others aren‟t able to
interact with them
Concerned with the differential spatial distribution of minority and
charter groups
o Charter population = dominant population
Ex. English people in Hamilton
Dominant in terms of numbers
o Minority population = differently placed than charter
population
A broad term used to describe situations where minority groups are
not spatially distributed uniformly across residential space, in
relation to the charter group or other minority groups
The degree to which a minority group is spatially segregated from
the charter group
o Many variations
Ex. „Race‟ in the United States
o Blacks vs. Latinos vs. Asian-Americans
Blacks most segregated
Latinos less segregated than blacks
Ethnicity in European cities:
o South Asians most highly segregated
Income/economic class
o Ex. Toronto: very poor vs. very rich
Greater and greater segregation
Very poor living in very clustered neighborhoods =
under stress
Increasing polarization
Two forms:
o Congregation = residential clustering by choice
o Involuntary segregation = residential clustering by structural
constraints and discrimination
Ex. Westdale used to not let black/Jewish people live
there
Ex. the urban poor
Segregation of visible minorities vs. cultural minorities
o Visible = skin colour
Greater segregation
More clustered
o Cultural = ethnicity
Less segregated
Assimilation:
More homogeneous environment
The process where minority groups slowly, over time, adopt
identities, practices, etc. of the charter group and as a result
becomes less „different‟
o Once was a minority, now are more the same
o A process of cultural change and adaptation
o Depends on how different the minority is from the charter
population
o Those that look different are going to have a harder time
assimilating
Perceived difference between groups affects the pervasiveness of
the segregation
o Greater difference = slower assimilation
Two types:
o Behavioral assimilation = acquisition of cultural practices by
the minority group
Ex. kids start to play hockey, or learn English, or
celebrate Canada day
o Structural assimilation = penetration of social strata by the
minority group
Much more difficult
Charter groups often adopt certain minority practices too
o Ex. eat certain foods (Chinese food, etc.)
Assimilation occurs, the degree of segregation declines
o See minority group become assimilated within greater
population
Peach (1996) = a three generational model of assimilation
o Immigrants = ethnic ghettos
o Second generation = ethnic villages
Brought up in charter population
Start process of assimilation
Less spatially segregated
o Third generation = ethnic suburbs
Grow up in charter population
Lose sight of homeland
Assimilated
Much less segregated
o According to Peach, a strong geographical link exists between
where people live and their degree of culture
Acculturation:
Adaptation to the charter culture, but also preservation of minority
culture
Partially part of charter, but preserve cultural identity
Assimilation = perceived differences between charter and minority
are small
Acculturation = occurs when differences are greater
o Such as visible differences
Spatial propinquity = a measure of social cohesion and proximity
o The closer they live together, the less likely they are to
assimilate or acculturate
o More spatial spread = more likely to adapt charter cuture
Reading the Urban Landscape 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
Outline:
Diversity
Evidence of change in the present
Hamilton: Kirkendall
o History and background
o Sites of interest and importance
Reading historical landscape
Intro:
Diff between two urban landscapes = New York vs. Los Angeles
o Less skyscrapers in Los Angeles = earthquakes
o Natural landscape = canals in New York
Environment = palm trees in Los Angeles
o Los Angeles is less dense = less populated
New York very clustered = more dense
o Materials used in buildings
Reasons behind these differences?
o Period of settlement
New York colonized much early
Community in late 1700s
Los Angeles colonized in mid-20th century
o Dominant form of transportation:
19th century New York = foot & vehicles pulled by
horses/electric street cars
People needed to live closer together and closer
to employment
20th century Los Angeles = automobile
Can commute to work = sprawl
Availability of land = New York need to build up
because do not have enough land to expand for
population
Many different types of urban landscapes:
o Residential
Suburban vs. urban housing
Home-owner vs. rental
New vs. old
High density vs. low density
o Commercial
Retail vs. office
o Industrial
o Institutional
Religious
Court house, city hall
Government
Health
Education
o Public
Parks, malls, squares
Transportation related
o Neighborhoods
Grouping of people who have social/cultural/economic
homogeneity
“Sense of community”
Within each category there are more subcategories = diverse
The Role of Culture:
Different urban landscapes within one culture, there are
commonalities among many of them
o Slight diffs but general commonalities
Singular culture has produced that landscape
o Landscapes reflect the culture
Landscapes still change over time
o Some changes are subtle, some are dramatic
Reflection of social and cultural change
Never stagnant, always evolving
Ex. immigration slightly changes culture, etc…
Change physically and they change their relative meaning or
significance over time
o Ex. Yonge Street & Dundas, Toronto = famous intersection
Important for commercial activity = retail
South = Eaton Centre & Eaton‟s
Change = still retail but also has a major public focal
point
Landscape has physically changed = appearance
has changed
o Ex. Jackson Square downtown, Hamilton
Used to have a lot of storefront activity
Still some evidence of buildings, but they are not
thriving = rundown
Reflection of city of Hamilton decisions
Made internal mall vs. storefronts
Totally changed downtown experience = ruined it
for most people
Killed businesses in and around that area
o Ex. “The Point”, Pittsburg
Two major rivers both coming from north & merged at
The Point and flow to form Ohio River
Used to be a big industrial landscape
Has dramatically changed in last 100 years
Changed to commercial & high-rise area
o Ex. Westdale, Hamilton
No change in appearance, but change in culture
1930s-1940s = suburb for city of Hamilton
Culture around it has changed = not really a suburb
anymore
Position has changed in cultural context
o Similar transitions in many neighborhoods = changes
occurring all the time
Areas of decline/gentrification (neighborhood undergoes
“positive” change – ex. Kirkendall)
Evidence of Change in the Present Landscape:
As astute observer of the landscape can often find a great deal of
evidence of both the past and the future in the present landscape
o Not easy
o Need to be inquisitive
Ask yourself about why things look the way they do and
how they could have happened
Ex. picture of Locke St.
o Change in the orientation of the curb = extra lane wider
Why?
Had streets built wider to incorporate street car
lanes in the middle of the road
No evidence of the HSR but there is evidence that
it used to be there by street widths
Kirkendall: History & Background:
Some important features:
o Escarpment at south end
o Go train
o Reservoir Park at south end
o Find house between Aberdeen and escarpment
o Commercial stuff on Dundas
o Churches = tell us something about the culture of the
neighborhood = religious plurality
o Schools = primary and middle schools
o Historical plaques, cornerstones
History:
o Development over the end of the 19th and beginning of the
20th centuries
o Fully developed by 1920s into the west
o Many of the buildings from id-1800s
Locke St. = commercial core of the neighborhood
o Seen periods of decline
o Currently in good period
Many historical and culturally significant buildings and places can be
found
Distinct sub-areas within the neighborhood = particular form of
housing/land use
o Localized spatial area
o Consider size, style, cost, etc.
Social & Cultural Urban Issues 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013
Outline:
Urban Issues: More Developed World
o Suburbanization & urban sprawl
o Gentrification
o Poverty & homelessness
Urban Issues: Less Developed World
o Rapid urbanization
o Pollution
o Squatter settlements
Reading: Chapter 13
Introduction:
Cities are fantastic places
o Centres of cultural change, innovation, economic engine,
diversity, excitement
Can also be horrible places
o Produce waste
o Incubators of poverty, despair, unpleasant things
o Unhealthy = pollution, poverty, etc.
Especially in less developed world
Cities are both good and bad
o Major issues facing cities in both the More Developed World
(MDW) & Less Developed World (LDW)
More developed = Canada, U.S.A., Oceania, Japan,
parts of Asia & Europe, etc.
Urban Issues: MDW Cities
Suburbanization (& Urban Sprawl):
o Urban decentralization – periphery vs. centre
Cultural desire to concentrate people on the periphery
of city as opposed to in the downtown core
o Emergence of suburbs:
Post WWII suburban housing boom
Have been around since cities have been around
At the “city walls”
Ex. medieval times
o Transportation technology = changed the behaviors of
individuals
Able to travel a longer distance between where we live
and where we work
Able to commute
Result = new suburbs that are much more distant
Idea of urban sprawl
o Prevalent where:
Land is readily available
Planning regulations are weak
Development is done by contractors
Government does not have a huge impact on
regulating urban sprawl
Populations are wealthy and can afford large homes
Levels of physical mobility are high
Many cars, forms of public transit
o Sprawl = form of suburbanization
Occurring at a tremendous rate = no control of
suburban growth
o Conurbations = continuously built-up urban area
Sprawl occurring in adjacent municipalities
Ex. BosNyWash = from Boston to NY to Washington =
very famous example
Gentrification = Anti-Urban Sprawl:
o The process of transforming formerly derelict or low quality
housing into wealthy or desirable areas
o Neighborhood decline
o Become desirable for people with good finances
o “Flipping the house”
o Ex. Kirkendall = 20-30 years ago was very poor
Undergone a lot of change = renovations = increase
property values
Now Locke St. is changing to catch up
o Positives = transform to make nicer = increased values
o Negatives = people who were living in neighborhood could
rent there, but as it changes, the expenses go up as well
Some people get evicted
Poverty:
o Rapid expansion of urban industrial areas
o The spatial manifestation of poverty
Slum neighborhoods
Goes back to 19th century to present
o Slums clearance
History of planners and urban developers to address
poverty in cities
Ex. 1950s & 60s = go in an bulldoze houses and replace
with high rise apartment buildings
o Associated with prostitution, drug abuse, crime
o Not associated with the people, it‟s the area and the problems
within the area
o Lots of people who are homeless = read in textbook
Urban Issues: LDW Cities
Many of the problems we see are the problems that the MDW faced
around 200 years ago
o Same processes occurring in LDW that occurred in MDW
before they developed
Perceived benefits outweigh the real/potential costs
o People flood from rural areas to cities where the problems are
o People think that they can make a better way of life in the
city
Exact same thing that drove MDW
Rapid Urbanization:
o Within a human population, an increasing proportion living in
the cities
o Consequences:
Creation of slums = 30-70% of population living in
these areas
Highly congested, with sub-standard housing,
lacking any system of sanitation, and plagued by
insecurity
2005 – 1 billion people around world living in
slums around the world
Most in LDW
Urban Environment – Pollution:
o Polluting industries = transnational corporations have chosen
to relocate plants to parts of the world where labour is cheap
and where pollution regulations are weak
No environmental regulations to stop industries from
polluting
Will be right next to residential slum
Employment – but at what cost?
Gives people jobs in local population
Still harming children and elderly population
o Industrialization and urbanization
Thousands/millions of people migrating into urban areas
that cannot support them
Waste builds up in these areas because there are
not enough resources to support everyone = lacks
infrastructure
o Squatter settlements = find on the periphery of the city
Uncontrolled, low-quality, unserviced, unsanitary,
crowded settlements on the urban periphery
Driven by rural-urban migrants
Cannot afford to rent home in the city, so
they have to settle in squatters
The crux of the problem:
People are not paying taxes
Therefore the government does not provide
services to these people
No hope for these neighborhoods to get better
because municipality and people cannot pay for it
Spatial pattern of wealth & poverty
Center of the city = wealthy
Outside areas of the city = poor
Reversal of the MDW
Ex. Mexico City = about 30 million people including city
and squatter settlements
One of the largest cities in the world
Has one of the worst air pollution problems in the
world
Ex. Calcutta = about 15 million people
Surrounded by millions of people living in
squatters (50%)
Generally regarded as the unhealthiest city in the
world
Ex. Sao Paolo & Rio = Brazil
Favelas = squatter settlements
Used to not have police
Controlled mostly by military = gangs
Rainy season = mud slides wash out huge chunks
Many people lose their lives
Not much choice of a place to live
Rio = hosting World Cup and Olympics soon = will be in global spotlight
Political Geography 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Outline:
Introduction
Political Geography: What is it?
Key concepts
Rise of the Modern State
Colonization and its Aftermath
Geopolitics
Reading: Chapter 8
Introduction:
Political units = basic division of the world
o Closely related to language, religion, etc.
o Reflection of culture
Why does the political map of the world look like this?
o Shifts in processes
o Colonizing in different parts of the worlds
o Change pattern of the globe = globalization, etc.
How and why does the map change over time?
What is political geography?
Political Geography:
The study of interrelationships between people, states and
territories
o At a variety of spatial scales (local, national, international)
o The uneven spatial outcomes of political processes
o The impact of spatial processes on politics
Interests:
o Organization of regional groupings
o Relationship between:
States and former colonies
States = geopolitics
o Function, demarcation and enforcement of territorial
boundaries
o The study of election results = electoral geography
o The creation of formal political units/territories
o The forces of conflict between political entities
Key Concepts:
Nation:
o Very much connected to culture
o Most cultural groups see themselves as having a national
identity
o Nation = group of people sharing a common culture and an
emotional attachment to some territory
Nations are cultural entities
Group of people sharing a common culture
o Nation = cohesive/singular grouping of people sharing an
attachment to an area
Nationalism:
o Sense of nationalism = an expression of belonging to a
nation
May take a variety of forms
Ex. flag, national anthem, music, literature, legends,
etc.
o Expression can become extreme and dangerous
Ex. Norwegian massacre (2011) = two particular
attacks in Norway killed 77 = driven by the concern for
the dilution of the Norwegian nation
Targeted at Muslim immigrants
No longer a singular nation
State and Territory:
o State = a political unit associated with an area with defined
boundaries
States are political entities and can take many forms
Canada = a state
o Territories = the geographic area of states; usually with
defined and acknowledged boundaries
May be contested
Ex. Kashmir
Between Pakistan, India, and China
o All believe they hold the territory
Disputed boundaries and territorial claim
Territory is a spatial/geographical entity
Countries/Sovereign State:
o A political construct whereby a population is governed by a
centralized government that has supreme and independent
authority/control over a geographic area
Ex. US, UK, Canada, etc.
Currently 206 countries
190 of them are sovereign states = no dispute
over sovereignty/geographic area
16 cases of significant dispute over independence
North Korea
South Korea
Israel
Palestine
Nation-State:
o When a state and a nation coincide geographically = nation-
state
o A political unit that contains one principal national group and
an associated territory
A particular form a country/sovereign state
Nation-state = state (politics) + nation (culture) +
territory (geography)
o Countries where the vast majority of the population comes
from a specific area
Ex. Egypt = 90% of people are Egyptian
Ex. Bangledesh = 98% of people are from there
Ex. Japan
The Rise of the Modern State:
Relatively fluid (i.e. many contain two or more nations)
o Sometimes leads to conflict and political instability
Not always
o Ex. Canada and the U.S.A.
Exploration and Colonialism:
15th-19th century = European empire building
o Colonized many different areas
o Ex. the British Empire
Involves colonization
o The imposition of economic, social and political power onto
another territory
Economic activities
Social, political, and economic constraints
Decolonization and Independence:
Since mid-19th century
Ex. Canada decolonized from British empire
Became their own sovereign states
Colonies were:
o Discontented with colonial rule
o Aspired to independence through expressions of nationalism
o In many cases, transition was violent, in others it was
peaceful
Geopolitics:
The study of relations among/between geography, states and power
Several important geopolitical dimensions exist:
o Cold War & superpowers
o Economic globalization and concentration
o Colonialism and development
o Cultural and economic imperialism
Friday, April 5th, 2013
Outline:
State Stability/Instability
o Ex. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia
o Centrifugal and Centripetal forces
Secessionist Movements (ex. Europe, Kurdistan)
o State Instability
Electoral Geographies
o Voting Patterns
o Electoral Bias
State Stability/Instability:
Modern countries = a series of geopolitical forces working over a
period of time
o Geopolitical forces result in:
Bringing together of potentially diverse nations into one
multinational state
Such as Canada and its provinces
Ex. Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.
Breaking apart of (potentially similar) nations into two
or more sovereign states
Ex. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, etc.
o Forces always present for every country
Centrifugal forces:
o Typically due to cultural homogeneity = countries tend to be
heterogeneous
o Cultural history = distinct nations within in the country break
apart based on different historical background
o Boundaries = can contribute to implosion force
Make it easier to break apart
o Czechoslovakia/Yugoslavia examples:
Broke apart into many different pieces
Each are distinct nations that have become their own
sovereign states
These geopolitical forces are known as Centrifugal
forces
Act to break apart a state into different nations
Centripetal forces:
o Bring nations together to make one sovereign state
State instability = results from divisions within the state
Internal divisions:
o Secessionist movements = nations within multinational states
that want to create their own separate state
Can happen when a country has a lot of small nations
within it that want separation from the larger state
Larger state might not want to let them go
Ex. Quebec, Wales, Belgium, Basque (Spain & France) –
tied to a strong sense of nationalism
o Also driven by circumstances whereby a nation has no state
of its own, but overlaps with several other states
Ex. Kashmir
Ex. The Kurds (Box 8.4) = living in Kurdistan
Ethnic/cultural group of 25 million people with no
state of their own
Almost the size of Canadian population
Overlap a number of different states
Would like to have their own state
o Ex. Africa:
Boundaries reflect colonial interests = European
Independence slower than elsewhere due to:
Dependence = impoverished colonies, too
dependent on colonial power
Africa struggles based on being too poor
Discordance between nations and colonial states
Disagreement between state boundaries
and cultural boundaries
Conflict has continued in Africa (longer than elsewhere)
due to:
Violent independence movement
Existence of incongruous boundaries
The cultural boundaries are not in
agreement with the state boundaries
As a result, civil wars are common
o Ex. Liberia, Sudan, etc.
Overlap over colonial map and ethnic group map
and there is a huge difference
Make huge multinational states
o Ex. Europe
Greater stability due to organic development over long
period of time (centuries)
Developed around certain national groups
Many pockets of conflict remain
Ex. Britain (Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales),
Belgium (Dutch, French), France (Brittany,
Alsace), Spain (Basque, Catalonia)
Looking for independence within their countries
Grouping of States:
o Examples of state integration as well as disintegration
Ex. European Economic Community (EEC) & European
Union (EU) = trying to bring Europe together
Ex. NAFTA: MERCOSUR, ASEAN, OPEC, etc.
All economic relationships within groups of
different countries
Can affect immigration, the environment, taxation
and subsidization
Electoral Geographies – Voting Patterns:
Are there spatial pattern to voting behavior?
o Examples:
Urban vs. Rural
Urban tend to be more liberal on the political
spectrum
Rural tend to be more conservative
Elite vs. Working-class
Native-born vs. Immigrants
Majority vs. Minorities
o Many different ways to look at it
o Very clear spatial patters
o Can look at different spatial scales = province, cities, within
cities
The Canadian political system:
o Political units elect representatives to government; „should‟
represent the opinions of the population of that area
Federal, provincial, municipal
o Heterogeneous vs. homogeneous?
In cases where people are homogeneous, the system
works great
In cases where the people have different opinions, the
person who gets the most votes are speaking for the
people of that group
o Political redistricting = redrawing of political boundaries in an
attempt to insure population homogeneity within each
district/unit
In cases of heterogeneity within an area
o Gerrymandering = the deliberate intention to create electoral
bias through the spatial reorganization of political units to
favour a particular group/party
Redraw lines to make the majority of people vote for
their party
Two techniques:
Concentrate opposition members into one area
Concentrate them so they will be in one
riding to win, but we have the rest of them
Ex. Derry (Northern Ireland) = is run by
Protestants, but is actually more Catholics
o Divided into 3 wards
Population not distributed
evenly
Catholic : Protestant not equal
in proportion
o Overall: Catholic = 61% of population
with 40% of reps, Protestant = 39%
of population with 60% of reps
Disperse opponents into a number of areas
Become a minority by diluting the votes
(ex. Mississippi)
Overview 9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Recall: What is Human Geography?
What is where, why there and why care? (Charles Gritzner)
o Description of the spatial organization patterns of people,
places, and human phenomena
o Explanation of the processes that produce these patterns
Interpretation of what these patterns mean
(significance of the patterns)
Human Geographic Futures:
Local and global issues; each of greater importance in the future
o Read conclusion for more information
Cultural diversity and change:
o Globalization of culture (ex. global languages, loss of religious
diversity, popular culture) vs. the diversity of culture (ethnic
religions, folk cultures, etc.)
Globalization = wiping out global diversity
Canada = multicultural = celebrate and acknowledge
cultural diversity
Cultural and political conflict:
o Political disintegration and political integration – cultural
causes
Disintegration = centrifugal
Integration = centripetal
o Issues of conflict = war, conflict, etc.
Population and health:
o Population growth and an uneven spatial distribution
Uneven amount of people being born in different areas
of the world
Canada would not survive without immigration
o Issues of population aging, global migration, and the unequal
health outcomes of cultural and economic change
Ex. no pension left when parents grow old because of
baby boom
Cities and urbanization:
o A majority of population now lives in cities – this represents a
significant cultural changes as the way of life differs in cities
vs. rural areas
Shift in ways of life
Around 70-80% for Canada, just over 50% globally
o Issues of sprawl and poverty
Issues = clear spatial dimensions – a geographical perspective
Purpose of the Course:
To provide an introduction to the theories, methods and concepts of
human geography
o An overview of human geography
o Foundation for subsequent geography classes
o Develop general understanding of global issues
Course Objectives:
Hands on experience in labs and assignments
Overview of key theories, concepts and issues in lectures
Discussion in labs
Spatial dimensions of issues
Tools to become aware of, understanding the nature of, and
recognize the significance of key global issues
Pg. 595 Human Geography Perspective
Culture and Society:
Spatial patterns and expressions of society, culture, and cultural
difference = linked to identity
o Collective identity and individual identity
Defined by:
o Language
o Religion
o Ethnicity
o Race
o Nationality
o Community
o Class (socioeconomic)
o Gender
o Etc.
These are all components of cultural; the meaning and significance
of which are socially constructed
These cultural elements are expressed geographically through
cultural landscapes
As a result: places differ, and thus geography matters
What Have We Covered?
The nature and history of human geography – Ch. 1
Basic concepts of human geography (maps) – Ch. 2
History, theory, and concepts of population and health geography –
Ch. 4 & 5
Society, culture, cultural landscapes and cultural regions – Ch. 6 &
7
Settlements and urbanization – Ch. 11, 12, 13
Political geography – Ch. 8
Also introduction and conclusion
Final Exam:
Wednesday, April 9am-12pm = 3 hours
40% of final grade
MDCL 1309
1/3 come from entire course, 2/3 come from material since
midterm
o Distribution of cities
Format = same as midterm with more questions
o Multiple choice = 50-75
o Definitions = 5
o Short answers, maps, etc. = 15-20
Differentiate
Give examples
Definitions
Tell the difference between them
Interpret the map
Locate stuff on the blank map
Sketch/draw and label diagrams
Review map/diagrams from lectures and
readings
Definitions (with example)
Explain or explain the significance of
List
Content = lectures, readings, labs/activities/videos
What to bring:
o Pen – red pen
o Pencil
o NO calculator/phone
Hints:
o Of the following 10 concepts, 5 will be on the exam
guaranteed in the short answer section in some form – it is
also likely that al will be on the exam in one form or another
Likely found in the definitions/short answer sections
Region
Culture - KEY
Language family
Gentrification
City – WHAT IS A CITY, HOW DO YOU DEFINE IT
Nation-state
Place – differentiate from a location
Urbanism
Cultural landscape
Diffusion
o Define and find an example of each!
o Global awareness? Maps? – will have to identify places on a
map
Possibly out of ten
Know the 5 most populous countries and the 5 top
places people want to visit
Exam Textbook Notes (Chps. 6-8, 11-13)9/6/2013 12:31:00 PM
Chapter 6: Cultural Identities and Landscapes
Human Identity and Culture:
o Culture = the way of life of members in a society
Non material culture has two components:
Mentifacts = those mental or non-physical
elements of culture; the values held by group
members
Attitudinal elements
Sociofacts = those elements of culture directly
concerned with interpersonal relations; the norms
that people are expected to observe
How groups form
Material culture = related to artifacts = the physical
objects created by culture for pleasure, work, living or
worship
Human Geography and Society:
o Society = cluster of institutionalized ways of doing things
Interrelationships that connect individuals as members
of culture
Recurrent attitudes and behaviors of people in a group
Cultural Regions:
o Areas in which there is a degree of homogeneity in cultural
characteristics; areas with similar landscapes
o Delimiting cultural regions requires decisions on at least 4
different points:
Criteria for inclusion
Date or time period (since cultures change over time)
Spatial scale
Boundary lines
The Making of Cultural Landscapes:
o Although cultures share basic similarities, the way that they
achieve these goals are different
o Cultural adaptation = changes in technology, organization,
and ideology that permit sound relationships to develop
between people and their physical environments
o Two aspects are particularly important in understanding our
human world: Language and Religion
Language:
o Probably the single most important human achievement
o Culturally variable = needed for communication of different
groups
Offered new physical environment experiences
Potential source of group unity
o Useful in delimiting groups and hence regions
Ensured continuity through time
Death of a language often leads to death of a culture
o Can lead to divisions of people
Much less interaction between groups that speak
different languages
o Spatial variations in language are caused in part by variations
in physical and human environments
o How many languages?
Used to be 7000 around 400 years ago, now ~ 6000
About 3000 languages are endangered, and about one
language dies every two weeks
Languages die for two reasons:
A language with few speakers tends to be
associative with low social status and economic
disadvantage
Because globalization depends on communication
between 2 previously separate groups, learning a
major language is important
About 96% of population, speaks 4% of world‟s
languages
Top spoken languages: Mandarin, English, Spanish
o Disappearing languages:
Culture loss
Might lead to a loss of cultural knowledge
o Why are some languages more successful?
Migration
Speaking a certain language might help economic
success
Prestige of a language = in some way impressive
o Language Families:
No new languages have been formed because:
Not enough time for this to happen has elapsed
The groups that have moved have remained in
close contact with their original groups
Dialects have occurred
Most spoken:
Indo-European
English = “language of the planet, the first
truly global language”
Sino-Tiberian
Niger-Kordofian
o Language and Identity:
A common language facilitates communication; different
languages create barriers between different groups
Language and nationalism:
Nationalism = the political expression of
nationhood or aspiring nationhood; reflects the
consciousness of belonging to a nation
Hard for a country to declare a common language
because there are so many
2 reasons why language is delimiting a nation:
Common language facilitates
communication
Language is a powerful symbol of groupness
Multilingual States:
A state in which the population includes at least
one linguistic minority
Ex. Belgium and Canada
Minority Languages:
A language spoken by a minority group in a state
in which the majority of the population speaks
some other language; may or may not be an
official language
Language plays a role in naming places = toponyms
Understand and give meaning to a landscape
Serves an important psychological need = to
name is to know and to control
Landscapes in Language:
Physical barriers tend to limit movement
Vocabulary of any language necessarily reflects
the physical environment in which its speakers
live
Religion:
o Serves a basic human need or awareness
o Set of beliefs and associated activities that are in some way
facilitates appreciation of our human place in the world
o Women make up majority of religious believers
Most major religious (except for Islam) have an
important female figure
o Four largest religions = Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and
Islam
o Religion, Identity and Conflict:
A person‟s sense of identity and community, and all that
this implies, can be often closely tied to religion
Has resulted in conflict and exclusion of some groups
Many military conflicts (ex. the Crusades)
o Religion and Identity Today:
In developed world, religious is not central to human
activity
Still a struggle between religions and lack of
o Religious Landscapes:
Three principle reasons that religion and landscape are
connected:
Beliefs about nature and about how humans
relate to nature are integral parts of many
religions
Many religions explicitly choose to display their
identity in landscape
Members of religious groups identify some places
and load them with meaning = sacred spaces
Summary:
o Culture = humans‟ ability to knowingly change physical
landscapes in directions suggested by experience
o Society = cluster of institutionalized ways of doing things
o Cultural regions = impact of culture on land and human-land
relationships
o Cultural adaptations = change in response to environmental
and cultural challenges
o Language = single most important human achievement;
essential to beliefs, behaviors and communication
o Religion = religion is the basis of life for many people
o Cultural globalization = increasing evidence suggests that
globalization is transforming our culturally divided world,
mainly through the diffusion of Western-derived attitudes,
beliefs and behaviors
Chapter 7: Social Identities and Landscapes
Geographies of Difference:
o Power, Difference and Inequality:
Power differences underlie a lot of human geography
Geography was not concerned with difference and
inequality before 1970 because it was mostly run by
middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied males
Ethnicity:
o Ethnic group = a group whose members perceive themselves
as different from others because of a common shared
ancestry and shared culture
o The Illusion of Race:
All humans are of the same species
Race is term commonly referring to outsiders whose
physical appearance does not accord with some
generally accepted norm
The visible divide is skin colour
Racism = particular form of prejudice; attributing
characteristics of superiority of inferiority to a group of
people who share some physically inherited
characteristics
Genocide = symbolic, and sometimes spatial, distancing
or separation of one group leads to victimization
Ex. Holocaust
Typically, victim groups are blamed for all social
and economic problems
o Ethnic Identities:
Some groups are generally regarded as minorities
either by themselves or by others because they are
different in some way from the majority
Common basis = language, religion, ethnicity, perceived
race, and recent immigrant status
Most groups who identify themselves as ethnic base
their ethnicity on one or both of the two principal
cultural variables = religion and culture
o Ethnic Areas:
Most immigrant ethnic groups experience an initial
period of social and spatial isolation and may lead to
low levels of well-being, relative deprivation, and the
development of an ethnic ghetto
Ghetto = residential district in an urban area with
a concentration of a particular ethnic group
New immigrants eventually experience assimilation or
acculturation
Assimilation = process by which an ethnic group
is absorbed into a larger society and loses its own
identity
Assimilation is dependent on the degree of
residential propinquity = if group members
live in close proximity, then the social
interaction with the larger society is limited
= less chance of assimilation
Acculturation = process by which an ethnic
individual or group is absorbed into a larger
society while retaining aspects of its distinct
identity
Multiculturalism = a policy that ensures the right
of the ethnic groups to remain distinct rather than
to be assimilated into the larger society
Ex. Canada
Chapter 8: Political Identities and Landscapes
State Creation:
o Defining a Nation-State:
Nation = a group of people sharing a common culture
and an attachment to some territory; a term difficult to
define objectively
State = an area with defined and internationally
acknowledged boundaries; a political unit
Makes rules that govern the territory
o Nation-state = political unit that contains one principal
national group that gives it its identity and defines its territory
o The Rise of the Nation-State:
Nationalism = assumes that the nation-state is the
natural political unit and that any other basis for state
delimitation is inappropriate
Aspiring nation-state will argue that:
All members of the national group have the right
to live within the borders of the state
It is not especially appropriate for members of
other national groups to be residents of the state
The government of the state must be in the hands
of the dominant cultural group
Sovereignty = supreme authority over the territory and
population of a state, vested in the government; the
most basic right of a state understood as a political
community
Contributes to the emergence of independent
states
Introducing Geopolitics:
o The study of the importance of space in understanding
international relations
o Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces:
Centrifugal = in political geography, forces make it
difficult to bind an area together as an effective state;
in urban geography, forces that favour the
decentralization of urban land uses
Tear a state apart
Most common = internal divisions in language and
religion that lead to a weak state identity
Lack of long history in common and state
boundaries are subject to dispute
Centripetal forces = in political geography, forces that
pull an area together as one unit to create a relatively
stable state; in urban geography, forces that favour the
concentration of urban land uses in a central area
Most common = clearly and widely accepted state
identity
Long state history and boundaries that are clearly
delimited and accepted by others
o Boundaries = mark the limits of a state‟s sovereignty
o Unstable States:
Internal ethnic divisions often occur within a state
3 general situations may threaten a state stability:
Secessionist movements arise when nations
within multinational states want to create their
own separate states
Ex. Quebec
Nations within may want to link with members of
the same nation in other states to create a new
state
Irredentism involves one state‟s seeking the
return from another state of people and/or
territory formerly belonging to it
Elections: Geography Matters:
o Creating Electoral Bias:
Gerrymandering = the realignment of electoral
boundaries to benefit a particular political party
Works in two ways:
Concentrating supporters of the opposition
party in one electoral district
Scattering those supporters so that they
cannot form a majority anywhere
Deemed as a violation to the Constitution of the
United States
Chapter 11: Settlement Patterns
An Urbanizing World:
o Crossed from predominantly rural to predominantly urban in
2007
o Urbanization = the spread and growth of cities
Picked up when people started to move to work in
factories
o Defining Urban Centers:
Different countries have different ideas of what an
urban center is
Ex. Canada = incorporated cities, towns and
villages of 1000 or more inhabitants and their
urbanized fringes
More than one way to define a specific urban center,
with the result that population counts for that center
can often vary widely
o Urbanization of More and Less Developed Regions of the
World:
Industrial Revolution (1750s) provided impetus rapid
growth in the number and size of urban centers
Increase in people moving from rural to urban
areas
Involved expansion of the urban area and the
creation of suburbs = an outer commuting zone of
an urban area; associated with social
homogeneity and a lifestyle suited to family needs
Resulted in urban sprawl
Close relationship between rapid urbanization of the
less developed world and rural poverty
Notable changes:
The relatively high projected growth rate for the
urban population of the less developed world
The negative projected growth rate for the rural
population of the more developed world
The fact that the projected urban population
growth rate is about twice the projected total
population growth rate
o Locations of Cities:
Located on either coastlines or on navigable rivers with
access to a sea
Natural breaks in transportation
Europe = only place with cities located mostly inland
Several interior agricultural regions divided into
many countries and has several long rivers
Two large countries with non-coastal cities = Canada
and Russia = larger interior rivers and lakes
o Mega-Cities or Many Cities:
Urban population is increasing rapidly in numbers and in
relation to rural population
Concentrated in mega-cities and spread across
many cities
Population of mega-cities is increasing and more
are being created
Most of additional population growth is taking
place in smaller cities, some with fewer than
500000 people
Roughly half of all urban dwellers live in cities of
fewer than 500000 people
Mega-cities > 10 million people
Ex. Tokyo, Mexico City, New York
Play significant roles in controlling the
economy
Less than 10% of world population lives in
these cities
Rural Settlement:
o Patterns:
Range widely between the extremes of dispersion
(random or uniform) and nucleation (clustered)
Depends on physical environment, culture, social
organization, political influences and economic activities
A landscape feature often contributes to the character
of a place
Dispersion = development of this pattern reflected new
emphasis on land ownership (capitalism)
Can show power relations
Nucleation = historically, rural landscape was
dominated by these settlements
Basic need to communicate and cooperate with
others
Scarcity of good building land, a need to defend
group against others, the need for group labour to
construct and maintain a particular agricultural
feature, and political or religious imperatives
Favored over dispersion
o Changing Patterns:
Depopulation as a result of the spatial concentration of
economic activities in urban areas and the more over
the past half-century from family farming to factory
farms
Shift in economy from agriculture to manufacturing and
services
Counter-urbanization = a process of population
decentralization that may be prompted by several
factors, including the high cost of living in cites,
improvements in personal spatial mobility, industrial
deconcentration, and advances in information
technologies
Increasing appreciation for rural lifestyles
The Rural-Urban Fringe:
Urban sprawl = the largely unplanned expansion
of an urban area; typically discontinuous leaving
rural enclaves
o Changing Rurality:
A Rural Way of Life:
Gemeinschaft = a form of human association
based on loyalty, informality, and personal
contact assumed to be characteristic of traditional
village communities
Gesellschaft = a form of human association based
on rationality and depersonalization; assumed to
be characteristic of urban dwellers
Rural-urban differences are decreasing, especially
in the more developed world
Improved rural services
Proximity of urban employment
opportunities for many rural dwellers
reduces the distinctiveness of the rural way
of life
Access to mass media
Not able to sustain themselves economically
without the urban areas
Rural Gentrification:
A process of inner-city urban neighborhood social
change resulting from the in-movement of higher-
income groups
Changes in rural landscape resulting from
settlement by relatively well off people who
are choosing rural over urban areas for
reasons related to lifestyle preferences
Changing the meaning of the world „rural‟
Common to be in conflict with the local
people
Involve growth and change
Some people living in rural areas are those
who commute and cannot afford to live in
urban areas, and some people are seeking
alternatives to the perceived
unpleasantness of urban life
The Origins and Growth of Cities:
o Rise in capitalism since 1750
o 1850, major world cities were concentrated in the newly
industrializing countries
Most located in Europe and the United States
o Now, the majority of the world‟s cities are located in former
colonies in the less developed world
o Urban Origins:
Urbanism = urban way of life
Cities established in 4 ways:
Initially established in agricultural regions
Did not become possible until the progress
of agriculture freed some group members
from the need to produce food
Production of agricultural surplus
Established as marketplaces for exchange of local
products
Started as military, defence or administrative
centers
Ceremonial centers for religious activity
Chapter 12: Urban Form and Governance
Spreading Outward:
o In the more developed world, spatial organization has been
transformed in two general ways:
Number of people opted for homes outside of the
established urban area, a location decision made
possible by improved transportation and increased
private automobile ownership
Globalization processes that have contributed to world
city phenomenon have also worked to transform
suburbs and to initiate the growth of new cities beyond
established urban areas
o Suburbanization:
Mostly in response to changes taking place inside the
city, including the establishment of factories and rising
population densities
Places outside the city based on transportation routes
Dramatically affected by automobile
Form of decentralization
Prevalent where land is readily available, planning
regulations are weak, populations are wealthy and can
afford large homes, and levels of physical mobility are
high
Has become the characteristic urban experience
Heavy emphasis on consumption
Suburban numbers exceeded central city and rural
numbers put together
Ethnically varied and include many and varied economic
activities
o Urban Sprawl:
Residential landscape along with supporting commercial
landscape
Strip mall = leading component
Sprawl and consumption go hand in hand
Low population densities, frequency discontinuities in
land use and the creation of numerous single-use
locations that are not clearly linked to other nearby land
uses
Often blamed for destroying farm land and increasing
commuting times = deterioration of family life and
increased pollution
Lead to formation of conurbations = a continuously built
up area formed by the coalescing of several expanded
cities that were originally separate
Such regions grow at the expense of inner city
Reductions in city‟s tax base,
unemployment, underutilization of
infrastructure, and lower property values
Chapter 13: Living and Working in Cities
Neighbourhoods = a formal region inside a city. A part of the city
that displays some internal homogeneity regarding type of housing
that may be characterized by relatively uniform level of income
and/or ethnic identity and that usually reflects certain shared social
values
o Neighborhood effects = the assigning of behavioral norms to
people who live in a neighborhood and the claim that life
choices may either be severely constrained or enhanced
because of where someone lives
Gentrifying neighborhoods:
o Most cities are undergoing gentrification
o Involves upgrading of homes and changes in the
neighborhood character and identity
o Redevelopment and revitalization of a declining neighborhood
through rebuilding and other investment
Segregated neighborhoods:
o Used to be based on ethnicity and class
o Ethnic residential segregation = economic and cultural forces
Lower income = lower quality housing
Cultural forces:
Cohesion = strong when a group self-identifies
Desire of non-group members to resist spatial
expansion of the group
Slums:
o Overcrowding, poverty, disease, limited provision of services,
traffic, damaged environments, ethnic conflicts
o Expand so rapidly that their growth is not controlled =
premature urbanization
o The Growth of Slum Areas:
Much of rapid growth in less developed world
Spread of squatter settlements = a concentration of
temporary dwellings, neither owned nor rented, at the
city‟s edge, related to rural-to-urban migration
o Myths About Slums:
Slums serve no purpose
All slum dwellers are poor
Slum dwellers are to blame for slums
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