LEARNING OBJECTIVES - Chapter 1: Concepts of World Geography LEARNING...

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.1

Chapter 1: Concepts of World Geography

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Identify the different components of globalization, including their controversial aspects • List several ways in which globalization is changing world geographies • Describe the conceptual framework of world regional geography • Summarize the major tools used by geographers to study Earth’s surface • Explain the concepts and metrics used to document changes in global population and settlement patterns • Describe the themes and concepts used to study the interaction between globalization and the world’s cultural geographies • Explain how different aspects of globalization have interacted with global geopolitics from the colonial period to the present day • Identify the concepts and data important to documenting changes in the economic and social development of more and less developed countries (MDCs and LDCs)

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Converging Currents of Globalization

A. Globalization: One of the most significant challenges in the 21

st century is globalization—the increasing interconnectedness of peoples and places

• Economic forces may be driver of globalization, but consequences affect all aspects of land

and life

• Globalization is ubiquitous but it also reflects diversity
• Economic Globalization: major component of globalization; refers to economic reorganization
• Attributes of Economic Globalization
• Global communication systems
• Transportation systems
• Flexible forms of capital accumulation
• Global agreements promoting free trade
• Transnational business strategies
• Dominance of market economies and private enterprises
• Abundance of planetary goods and services
• Economic disparities between rich and poor regions
• Significant international migration systems
• Globalization and Changing Human Geographies
• Economic changes trigger cultural changes
• Significance of spread of Western consumer culture
• Cultural globalization is not one-way
• Globalization has demographic dimension
• New forms of migration are emerging
• Criminal element of globalization
• Terrorism, drugs, pornography, slavery, prostitution
• Geopolitics and Globalization: not restricted by territorial or national boundaries
• Globalization may have weakened political power of individual states
• Power of regional economic and political organizations may have strengthened
• Environment and Globalization: globalization is creating and intensifying environmental

problems (Diversity Amid Globalization World Regions, Environment, Development 6e Rowntree Lewis, Price Wyckoff ) (Solution Manual all Chapters) 1 / 4

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.2

• Local ecosystems disrupted
• Worldwide environmental problems aggravated
• Climate change
• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Energy issues
• Deforestation

F. Controversy about Globalization: both supporters and critics

• Pro-Globalization arguments: logical, inevitable; promotes growth and development; will

result in economic convergence

• Critics of Globalization: not a ‘natural’ process; increases disparities between rich and poor;

free-market is a myth; system is inherently unstable

• A Middle Position: holds that claims of proponents and critics are exaggerated; argue that

economic globalization is unavoidable; globalization holds both promises and pitfalls; globalization can be managed

• Diversity in a Globalizing World: Although some argue world is becoming blandly

homogenous, others find marked differences and vast diversity

• Politics of diversity demands attention

H. Flat and Spiky Worlds: metaphors to describe today’s globalized world

• World becoming flat: metaphor for ability of financial capital and production to flow easily

from place to place

• World is spiky, consisting of peaks and valleys: metaphor that some locations are privileged

(peaks) whereas others are not (valleys) II. Geography Matters: Environments, Regions, Landscapes: geography—to describe the world; different conceptual approaches, including physical and human geography; systematic/thematic and regional geography; approaches are complimentary

• Areal Differentiation and Integration
• Areal differentiation: description and explanation of differences that distinguish one piece of

the world from another

• Areal integration: the connections between different places and how they are linked
• Global and Local: all scientific inquiry has sense of scale; although geographers may work at

different scales, they don’t lose sight of interactivity and connectivity among scales

• Regions: Formal, Functional, and Vernacular: regions—units of spatial similarity

1. Formal regions: defined by some aspect of physical or cultural geography

2. Functional regions: defined by certain activity

• Vernacular regions: defined solely in people’s minds as spatial stereotypes
• The Cultural Landscape: Space into Place: Humans transform space into distinct places that

are unique and loaded with meaning and symbolism

• Cultural landscape: the visible, material expression of human settlement; the tangible

expression of the human habitat III. The Geographer’s Toolbox: Location, Maps, Remote Sensing, and GIS: Geographers use different tools to analyze the world

A. Latitude and Longitude: universally accepted coordinate system

• Lines of latitude, called parallels, run east-west and used to locate places north or south of

equator

• Lines of longitude, called meridians, run north-south and used to locate places east or west of

prime meridian (located at 0 degrees longitude in Greenwich, England 2 / 4

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.3

• Parallels of latitude used to mathematically define the tropics
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS): absolute location on Earth is achieved through satellite-

based GPS

• Map Projections: different ways maps are projected onto a flat surface; hundreds of map

projections have been created in attempt to find best and most accurate way of mapping the world

D. Map Scale: mathematical ratio between map and surface area being mapped

• Representative fraction: numerical value of map scale; large-scale maps cover small areas in

great detail; small-scale maps cover large areas in less detail

• Graphic or linear scale: visually depicts in horizontal bar distance the relationship between

map and surface area being mapped

• Map Patterns and Legends

1. Reference map: shows location of certain features

2. Thematic map: displays spatial phenomena

3. Choropleth map: map different levels of intensity of data or movement

4. Legend: provides details to help understand map

• Aerial Photos and Remote Sensing
• Much information derived from electromagnetic images taken from aircraft or satellites
• Technology has many scientific applications
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): spatial databases used to analyze geographic problems

IV. Themes and Issues in World Regional Geography: Present text-book adopts regional perspectives; each 12 regional chapters employs same five-part thematic structure—physical and environmental; population and settlement; cultural coherence and diversity; geopolitical framework; and economic and social development

• Physical Geography and Environmental Issues: The Changing Global Environment; provides

information on physical geography of regions and environmental issues VI. Population and Settlement: People on the Land; different rates of population growth; various forms of population planning; importance of migration

• Population Growth and Change
• Natural population increase: Rate of natural increase (RNI) provides annual growth rate of

country or region as percentage; produced by subtracting deaths from births in given year

• Crude birth rate (CBR): gross number of births per 1,000 population in given year
• Crude death rate (CDR): gross number of deaths per 1,000 population in given year
• Total Fertility Rate: synthetic number that measures the fertility of statistically fictitious yet

average group of women moving through child bearing years

• Young and Old Populations: indicators of momentum for continued population growth;

common statistic is percentage of population under age 15

• Population Pyramids: graphic representation of age and sex distribution of country or

region; used to illustrate rapid, slow, or negative population growth

• Life Expectancy: average length of a life expected at birth of typical male or famel in

specific country

• Demographic Transition: conceptual model used to track changes in birth rates and death

rates over time; commonly depicts five ‘stages’ of population growth 3 / 4

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.4

• Global Migration and Settlement: considerable changes in volume and geography of

international migration; various factors contributing to migration

• Net Migration Rates: statistic that indicates whether more people are entering or leaving a

country; positive figure means population is growing because of in-migration; negative figure means population is declining because of out-migration

• Population Density: average number of people per unit of area; conveys important

information about settlement patterns

• An Urbanizing World: Focal points of contemporary, globalizing world are cities

a. Urbanized population: percentage of country’s population living in cities

VII. Cultural Coherence and Diversity: The Geography of Change and Tradition; entails an examination of both tradition and change, of tensions and conflict, of global patterns and unique local customs

• Culture in a Globalizing World: basic definition of culture—culture is learned, not innate, and

is behavior held in common by a group of people, empowering them with a ‘way of life’; culture has abstract and material dimensions—speech, religion, ideology, value systems, housing, food, music; culture is a process, not a condition

• When Cultures Collide: cultural change often takes place within context of international

tensions; active promotion of one cultural system at expense of another is cultural imperialism; reaction against cultural imperialism is cultural nationalism—process of protecting and defending a cultural system against diluting or offensive cultural expressions

• Cultural Hybrids: blending of forces to form a new, synergistic form of culture
• Language and Culture in Global Context: language is major characteristic that differentiates

and defines one cultural group from another; language folds together many other aspects of cultural identity, such as politics, religion, commerce, and customs

• Languages: linguists have grouped languages in families and subfamilies; dialects are

associated with specific regions and places; lingua franca are common tongues that facilitate communication

• Geography of World Religions: religion as important defining trait of cultural groups
• Universalizing religions: attempt to appeal to all peoples, regardless of location or culture;

usually entail proselytizing or missionary program that actively seeks new converts

• Ethnic religions: identified closely with specific ethnic, tribal, or national group; normally

do not actively seek new converts; people are born into ethnic religions

• Christianity: world’s largest religion in both areal extent and number of adherents; many

different branches

• Islam: entails many different branches; two major groups include Shi’a Islam and Sunni

Islam

5. Judaism: parent religion of Christianity and closely related to Islam

6. Hinduism: closely linked to India

• Buddhism: originated as reform movement within Hindusim; two major branches include

Theravada and Mahayana

• Secularism: people consider themselves either non-religious or outright atheistic
• Gender and Globalization
• Gender: sociocultural construct linked to values and traditions of groups regarding the two

biological sexes; central is notion of gender roles—cultural guidelines that define appropriate behavior for each gender within specific context

• Sports and Globalization: all sports inform us about world’s diverse cultural geography;

influence of American sports abroad; global sports television

• / 4