GEOGRAPHY MATTERS(So what is human geography, anyway?)

A way of looking at the world

Human Geography is a WAY of studying the world, not a set of topics

Geography looks at how places in the world are created, inhabited, and connected

Geography focuses on interdependence

Geography is the study of the spatial organization of human behavior, and people’s interactions with their environments.

Place is CONSTRUCTED

People transform the natural environment to make places that are physically distinct and enable diverse ways of living.

Places may have different social meanings to different groups

Place is CONSTRAINING

The spaces and places we live limit what we can do.

Limits come from the natural environment, and the built environment.

Scale matters Places are

interdependent at different scales.

New York migration: Haiti and NYC are connected (even though they are at different scales) by large scale migration

Core, periphery, and semi-periphery defined by density of connection

Globalization Increasing

interconnectedness of different parts of the world.

Common processes of economic, environmental, political and technological change

Uneven connections: who is the US’s biggest trading partner?

Three Views of Globalization

Hyperglobalist

Skeptical

Transformationalist

Hyperglobalist View*Neoliberalism

*Limited role for the state, barriers to movement of money, goods and information should be low.

*Corporations more important than states

“Open markets and free trade will make everybody more prosperous.”

“A rising tide lifts all boats”

Skeptical View Globalization is

nothing new. The nation-state

is not going away.

The world economy is just regionalizing as it did before, not truly globalizing

Transformationalist View

Globalization is a huge historical change---it’s new

It profoundly transforms societies.

Change is unpredictable

Increased social stratification

Key Issues of Globalization

Environmental issues Climate change Desertification Pollution

Health Global pandemics HIV

Security Terrorism Rogue Nukes

Spatial Analysis Location: where is it and why is it there?

Absolute space: latitude and longitude Relative space: technology shapes

distance Tbilisi and Gori

Cognitive space: where things seem to be. (the “hell yes” line)

Spatial Analysis Distance:

Friction of distance

Distance/decay function

Spatial Analysis Space

Topological space: connectivity Accessibility Spatial interaction: movement and flow Complementarity and Transferability Time/Space Compression Spatial Diffusion

Questions?