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Chapter 1
Human Geography
Question | Answer |
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Geography | Study of the spaces and places people create on the ground and in their minds, and the ways in which people use and shape the environment. |
Human Geography | How we organize ourselves and our activities in space; how we are connected to one another and the environment; how we make places and how those places in turn shape our lives; and how we think about and organize ourselves locally and globally. |
Globalization | A set of processes that are increasing interactions, deepening relationships, and accelerating interdependence across national borders. Began as an economic movement rooted in free trade but has expanded to all areas of society. |
Fieldwork | Observations researchers make of physical and cultural landscapes with a focus on seeing similarities and differences. |
Patterns | Description of the spatial distribution of a human or physical phenomenon. |
Physical Geography | One of the two major divisions of geography; the spatial analysis of physical phenomena, including climate, environmental hazards, weather systems, animals, and topography. |
Spatial Distribution | Physical locations of geographic phenomena, usually shown on a map. |
Pandemic | An outbreak of a disease that spreads worldwide. |
Epidemic | Widespread, rapid diffusions of disease among a people in a particular location or region at a particular time. |
Spatial Perspective | Looking at where things occur, why they occur, where they do, and how places are interconnected. |
Geographic Concepts | Mental categories used to organize and analyze the world spatially. |
Location | Position of Earth, including both absolute location and relative location. |
Absolute location | Precise location of a place, usually defined by latitude and longitude. |
Relative location | The location of a place or attribute in reference to another place or attribute. |
Location theory | Understanding the distribution of cities, industries, services, or consumers with the goal of explaining why places are chosen as sites of production or consumption. |
Human-environment interactions | Reciprocal relationship between humans and the environment. (one of the five themes of geography). |
Environmental determinism | Set of theories that use environmental differences to explain everything from intelligence to wealth. |
Hearth | Area or place where an idea, innovation, or technology originates. |
Possibilism | Theory in geography that humans, not the environment, shape culture. |
Carrying capacity | The idea that land can hold a measurable amount of plant and animal life. |
Cultural Ecology | Study of the historical interaction between humans and the environment in a place, including ways humans have modified and adapted to the environment. |
Political Ecology | An approach to studying human-environment interactions in the context of political, economic, and historical conditions operating at multiple scales. |
Region | Area of Earth identified as sharing a formal, functional, or perceptual commonality that makes it different from regions around it (one of the five themes of geography). |
Formal Region | Area of land with common cultural or physical traits. |
Cultural traits | A learned belief, norm, or value passed down through generations in culture. |
Functional Region | Area of land defined as sharing a common purpose in society. |
Nodes | Connection point in a network, where goods and ideas flow in, out, and through the network. |
Perceptual/Vernacular Region | Area of land that an individual perceives as being similar. |
Place | Uniqueness of a location ( one of the five themes of geography). |
Sense of Place | Infusing a place with meaning as a result of experiences in a place. |
Perception of Place | How a place is envisioned. |
Movement | Mobility of people, goods, and services across Earth (one of the five themes of geography). |
Diffusion | Spread of an idea, innovation, or technology from its hearth to other people and places. |
Spatial Interaction | Degree of connectedness or contact among people or places. |
Distance decay | Decreasing likelihood of diffusion with greater distance from the hearth. |
Accessibility | Ease of flow between two places. |
Connectivity | Position of a place or area relative to others in a network. |
Expansion Diffusion | The spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth across space without the aid of people moving. |
Contagious Diffusion | Spread of an idea or innovation from one person or place to another person or place based on proximity. |
Hierarchical Diffusion | Spread of an idea or innovation from one person or place to another person or place based on a hierarchy of connectedness. Specific type of expansion diffusion. |
Stimulus Diffusion | A process of diffusion where two cultural traits blend to create a distinct trait. |
Relocation Diffusion | Spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth by the act of people moving and taking the idea or innovation with them. |
Cultural landscape | The visible human imprint on the landscape. |
Sequent occupancy | Imprints left on the cultural landscape by a series of successive societies. Each society contributed to the cumulative cultural landscape. |
Scale | Geographical scope (local, national, or global) in which we analyze and understand a phenomenon. |
Rescale | Changing the geographical scope at which a problem is addressed by engaging decision-makers and gatekeepers at another side. |
Context | The physical and human geographies creating the place, environment, and space in which events occur and people act. |
Cartography | The art and science of making maps. |
Reference maps | Maps showing the absolute location of places and geographic features. |
Thematic maps | A map that tells a story, typically showing the degree of some attribute or the movement of a geographic phenomenon using map symbols. |
Global Positioning System (GPS) | Satelite based system for determining the absolute location of places or geographic features. |
Mental maps | Maps of an area made from memory or experience by individuals or groups (also known as cognitive maps). |
Activity spaces | Places within the rounds of daily activity. |
Terra Incognita | Areas on maps that are not well defined because they are off-limits or unknown to the map maker. |
Remote sensing | A method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant from the area of study. |
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) | A system of computer hardware and software designed to show, analyze, and represent geographic data (data that have locations). |
Culture | Group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by people. |
Culture Complex | A group of interrelated cultural traits, such as prevailing dress codes and cooking and eating utensils. |