World Regional Geography

Spring 2005

Chapter 1 Globalization and World Regions: Notes

 

Introduction

This class will examine the geography of the world based upon two fundamental ideas, 1) the exploration of the world through a regional approach and 2) the examination of these regions emphasizing the tools and paradigms of geography.

 

The goal is to learn to think like a geographer- using spatial analysis and relationship/interaction concepts.

 

Five themes of geography: Location, Place, Regions, Movement and Human-Earth interaction.

 

Chapter 1: Our focus

 

§         What is global vs. local

§         Dimensions of political, economic, cultural and environmental geography regarding the modern world.

§         Themes of geography

§         Regions of the world

 

Global, Regional, and Local Worlds

 

Global Focus: 9/11

 

What is the significance of the terrorist attack upon the US?  Think about the meaning of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attacks.  How was this a global issue?  Why would someone choose the World Trade Center as a target (versus the Pentagon, a military target.)  In terms of localization, how does a terrorist justify their actions (consider other areas of the world?)  Read the next section of notes and think about the answers to these questions.

 

Globalization and Localization

 

Globalization: represents the growing interdependence (increasing interconnections) of the people of the world.  This includes economies, technology and culture.  It also includes the collective action to solve social, economic, political and environmental problems.

 

Localization: the differentiation of places with increasing demands for local decision making and devolution of power.  Focuses upon the identity of people and places.

 

Approach this by examining flows of information, ideas, people, money and technology.

 

Facets of Globalization (flows of ideas, people and goods):

§         Ideas, technologies and diseases

§         Goods from places of manufacture

§         Migration of people (immigration to tourism)

§         Spread of media (TV, internet, news, etc.)

 

Facets of Localization (local voices and needs):

§         Political nationalism

§         Local customs and practices

§         Intensification of ideological, religious or political beliefs

§         Religious differences

§         Resistance to economic penetration (demonstration, etc.)

 

Most world problems contain global and local conflict.  Consider how 9/11 and the recent tsunami are indicative of this.

 

Diverse Worlds

 

Political Activity: Countries Act

Countries remain as the main global actors.  They tax, provide and engage in defense, support trade and make agreements.  Know the First (US, Europe, Japan and Australia), Second (Soviet Union) and Third world definitions.  The Soviet Union disbanded in 1991.

 

End of the Cold War (a time of East vs. West)- Current world problems often fall outside country jurisdiction.  This includes terrorism, gun/slave/drug trade, and pollution.  Will the future be a North vs. South divide?

 

Economic Activities: Global Trends

 

Brandt Line: a grouping of countries, proposed by German Chancellor Willy Brandt in the 1970's that depicts the separation between the rich north and the poor south.   

 

Capitalism:  Foundation of the world economy.  It is an economic system that emphasizes the private (corporate) ownership of business and investment.  The existence of countries maintains this system.  Governments provide support for their country’s businesses by providing infrastructure (this includes education.)  This provides the basis for a global world order.

 

Core vs. Periphery (Important and not in the book)

 

Geographic arrangement of national economies based upon a country's economy.  Successful countries (the core) are wealthy and use advanced technology and have high labor costs.  They import raw materials and manufactured goods from the poorer (periphery) countries and sell them high-end goods and services.  Core countries trade and invest in each other.

 

Issues of the poor: deprived of acceptable income, education, health care, housing, clothing, food and jobs.  Former Soviet Union and Africa, South of the Sahara, see increasing poverty.  East Asia is decreasing.  (Consider that the US is not exempt- Twenty-five percent of Texans do not have health insurance.)

 

NIC: Newly Industrialized Country

 

Economic ways and culture- Asian way (free-market economy that works through family ties with government-business links) vs. the European way (social welfare is provided to people unable to benefit from advanced economic activity.)

 

Cultural Activities: Major Regions, Local Voices

 

Culture: the ideas, beliefs and practices held in common by a group of people (Used to define the regional groupings in this book.)  Learned behavior in the ideas, beliefs and practices of a people- two main defining characteristics are; 1) Religion and 2) Language.  Consider issues of ethnicity, class, gender and politics regarding culture and local problems.

 

One World: idea that Western culture (democracy, individuality and human rights) should be extended to the world, built upon a capitalistic system.  Negative view of this is that it emphasizes materialism, consumerism and superficial values lacking in ethics and spiritualism- "Cocacola-ization."  (Does this relate to the Muslim dislike of American culture?

 

Our nine regions: African, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Japanese, Latin American, Orthodox, Sinic and Western. 

 

Environmental Issues at Varied Scales

 

World environmental conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992) and Kyoto, Japan (1997) adopted policies to avert environmental crisis.  Many countries agree to the protocols adopted in Kyoto.  The United States rejected them. 

 

Humans modify all landscape and systems- the number of people (based upon density), the type of activity and the resilience of the natural system determine the amount of impact.

 

Population rose from 1.6 to 6 billion in the 1900's.  We reached 6 billion in 2000.  We have reached a point where humans impact natural systems as much as the system by itself (local scales.)  By 2050 the population may be over 9 billion.  Most of this increase will happen in the poorest places of the earth.

 

Geography of a Diverse World

            What Is Geography About?

 

Geography means, "writing about the earth."  It is the study of relationships and connections between places or events and within space and systems.  It is the study of the distribution of objects (natural and human) upon the earth their relationships.  In another sense it is about the "forms" that we find around the planet (cities, transportation networks, mountain ranges, river valleys) and the "processes" that create them (economics, travel/dispersion/war, tectonic uplift, erosion.)

 

All forms are the result of processes.

 

Cartography: Science of map making

Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Computerized application that links databases to digital maps for spatial analysis and modeling.

 

Geography's roots are not just European:

Eratosthenes (275-195 BC)- Father of geography and director of Library of Alexandria (Greek, worling in Egypt.)

Islamic travelers: Arab scholars, al-Edrisi (1099-1154), ibn-Battuta (1304-1378) and ibn-Khaldun (1332-1406), were linked to the spread of the Muslim faith and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Tribute of Yu: 5th Century China.  Book that describes the world as concentric circles originating at the Imperial Domain.  China produced the world’s oldest map on a copper plate in about 325 B.C.

 

First, Geography Is About Places

Place: part of all our environmental experiences.  Through a sense of place we can develop abstract arguments concerning our environment, economy and politics.  It is a learned skill for understanding the world and how it is changing.  “Place” is part of the tradition of geography.  Places can reveal shared cultural traditions, activities, processes or disguise injustice. Military strategy includes the destruction of places to break the will of the enemy.

 

Geographical Sense of Place Teaches:

§         How to interpret the complex grammar of environment

§         How to look for elements of a place

§         The historical development of a place

§         Original context of a place

§         Understanding of the interactions of land use and social processes

 

Location - Latitude (measuring location north and south of the Equator (Parallels of Latitude)) and Longitude (measuring location east and west of the Prime Meridian).

Latitude - 0°- 90° North (North Pole) and 0° - 90° South (South Pole).

Longitude - 0° - 180° West; 0° - 180° East

Important latitudes:

§         North Pole (90 Degrees, N)

§         Arctic Circle (66.5 Degrees, N)

§         Tropic of Cancer (23.5 Degrees, N)

§         Equator (0 Degrees)

§         Tropic of Capricon (23.5 Degrees, S)

§         Antarctic Circle, (66.5 Degrees, S)

§         South Pole (90 Degrees, S)

Latitude measures angular distance from the equator.  Longitude describes time. The earth turns 360 degrees (longitude) in 24 hrs. This equals 15-degrees/1 hour.

 

 

 

Global Positioning System (GPS): A satellite based system to determine location on the earth’s surface.  Uses a radio receiver and a clock to determine position (in a handheld unit.)  The use of GPS is becoming ubiquitous in everything from vehicles to package tracking.  Tools such as this increase the need for geographic education.

 

Distance and Direction: Directions is shown as an orientation from a point (north, south, east and west.)  Distance requires "cost" to move.  Cost can be time (miles per hour), money (a plane ticket), energy (gravity, friction, etc.), fuel (gasoline) or other resource.  This cost is known as the "friction of distance" and is part of an important geographic concept known as "distance decay."

Movement: Consider the concepts of distance and distance decay.

Distance decay: the presence or impact of a phenomenon that impacts movement across a distance. 

Friction of distance is the effort of cost of movement.

 

Map: 2-D representation of some portion of the earth’s surface.  A map is a model.

Map Scale

§         Relationship between the dimensions of a map and the dimensions of the Earth

§         Expressed as a ratio between a distance on the map and a distance on the Earth (1:24,000)

§         One unit of distance on the map represents 24,000 of the same units of distance on the Earth (RF = Representative Fraction)

 

Large Scale Maps

§         A large-scale map is one in which a given part of the Earth is represented by a large area on the map

§         Large-scale maps show more detail than small-scale maps

§         Large-scale maps are used to show site plans, local areas, neighborhoods, towns and cities. 1:2,500 is an example of a large scale.

 

Small Scale Maps

§         A small-scale map is one in which a given part of the Earth is represented by a small area on the map

§         Small-scale maps generally show less detail than large-scale maps, but cover large parts of the Earth.

§         Maps with regional, national, and international extents typically have small scales, such as 1:1,000,000.

 

Regions and Globalization

            Defining Regions and Their Dynamic Features

Spatial Perspective:  Approach used by Geographers to study the why and how of places and events- "Space and Place"

Spatial System: Organization and identification of regions based upon functional integration.  An example is a city with suburbs and farmlands.

Formal Region: Regions with measurable and internal homogeneity.

Functional Region: A structured (such as- urban-centered) system of interaction.  It has a core and a periphery.  Based upon interaction (transactions) or flows

 

            Changes in Dynamic Regions

    1. Global Choke points (trade and military) a strategic node which could be closed or blocked to stop traffic.
      1. Maritime: Hormuz, Bab al Mendeb, Suez, Dardanelles, Bosporus, Gibraltar, Panama Canal, Beagle Passage, Malacca Straits etc.
      2. Land based: Khyber Pass, Bolens Pass, Celician Gates, Caspian Gates etc.

 

MUST READ NEXT TWO ARTICLES

Read this article on changing global choke point (Christian Science Monitor):

http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/12/15/text/p3s1.html

 

Check out Geography at About.com to define choke points:

http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa052597.htm

 

Major World Regions (The chapters of this book)

 

Europe - the European Union is the world's largest trade cartel (40 percent of world trade). Europe continues to exert strong influence in a wide range of global arenas as a result of the colonial era.

Commonwealth of Independent States (the old Soviet Empire)-continues in a state of flux and foment of ethnic and political unrest. No longer a major world power Russia seeks to re-define its' role as an economic and military leader on the Eurasian land mass

Eastern Asia - Dominated in part by China, East Asia today is one of the world's most rapidly expanding giant emerging markets and trade centers.

Southern Asia - An empire of the spirit, where religion and religious conflict dominates everyday events, now one of the world's most populated regions.

North Africa and Southwest Asia - Dominated by Islam (93% of population) dryness (from northwest India to Morocco) and Oil (60% of world's reserves found in and around the Arabian Gulf).

Africa South of the Sahara - the colonial era; Berlin Conference of 1884; World's poorest region; modern significance of Africa's vast mineral wealth.

Anglo America - characterized by economic prosperity, a plural society and global leadership, seeks to maintain a sense of purpose and cultural diversity. North America is rapidly moving to meet the challenge of global competitiveness with newly forged links with Latin America (Mexico) and Canada (NAFTA).

Latin America - characteristically divided between Middle America and South America is emerging as one of the world's great economic regions. Three of the world's larger giant emerging markets and found in Latin America: Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Latin America is the U.S.'s most important export market.

 

 

 

Development of World Regions

Early History: Early center of innovation in agriculture, writing and other technologies is known as a "cultural hearth."

            Settled Farming: Farming begins 9,000 BC

City-States and Empires: Agricultural surplus enables growth of empires.  These include Mesopotamia (Tigres-Euphrates- Iraq), Lower Nile (Egypt), Indus River (Pakistan) and Yellow River (China)

Trading Empires and “Classical” Civilizations: AD 200, Trade routes extend from Rome to China- Silk Road.  Classical civilizations- Persia, Greece, Rome, India, China, Southwest Asia, Europe, Central/Southern America and Egypt

 

 

Figure 1.11 (Page 17)

 

It is important that you understand the relationships between land, population and wealth as depicted in this chart.

 

ASSIGNMENTS!!!

 

Homework One: Due January 25

Online Class:           by January 28

 

Test One (Chapters One and Two):

 

Lecture Class:        February 8

Online Class:           by February 11

 

Make sure you understand which is your test date.  Many deadlines this semester have different due dates between Internet and Lecture sections of the class.  There is no excuse for getting your date mixed up with another sections.  Pay attention to the dates.  I do move them if I feel the class needs more time.