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chapter 3
Term | Definition |
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Unity of place | The great German natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt’s notion that in a particular locale or region intricate connections exist among climate, geology, biology, and human cultures. This laid the foundation for modern geography. |
indigenous people | Aboriginal or native; an example would be the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. |
altiplano | High-elevation plateau, basin, or valley between even higher mountain ranges, especially in the Andes of South America. |
land alienation | One society or culture group taking land from another. |
liberation theology | A religious movement that arose in South America during the 1950s, and subsequently gained followers throughout the global periphery. At its heart is a belief system, based on a blend of Christian faith and socialist thinking. |
cultural pluralism | A society in which two or more population groups, each practicing its own culture, live adjacent to one another without mixing inside a single state. |
commercial agriculture | For-profit agriculture. |
subsistence agriculture | Farmers who eke out a living on a small plot of land on which they are only able to grow enough food to support their families or at best a small community. |
remote sensing | The indirect capture of images by specially equipped, Earth-orbiting satellites. |
uneven development | The notion that economic development varies spatially, a central tenet of core-periphery relationships in realms, regions, and lesser geographic entities. |
supranationalism | A venture involving three or more states—political, economic, and/or cultural cooperation to promote shared objectives. |
rural-to-urban migration | The dominant migration flow from countryside to city that continues to transform the world’s population, most notably in the less advantaged geographic realms. |
informal sector | Dominated by unlicensed sellers of homemade goods and services, the primitive form of capitalism found in many developing countries that takes place beyond the control of government. The complement to a country’s formal sector. |
barrio | Term meaning “neighborhood” in Spanish. Usually refers to an urban community in a Middle or South American city. |
favela | Shantytown on the outskirts or even well within an urban area in Brazil. |
megacity | Informal term referring to the world’s most heavily populated cities; in this book, the term refers to a metropolis containing a population of greater than 10 million. |
central business district | The downtown heart of a central city; marked by high land values, a concentration of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. |
gini index | A measure of inequality within a given area, ranging from 0 to 100. A value of 0 indicates that income is equally distributed across an area’s population; a value of 100 indicates that all income is concentrated in the hands of a single recipient. |
dependencia theory | theory Originating in South America during the 1960s, it was a new way of thinking about economic development and underdevelopment that explained the persistent poverty of certain countries in terms of their unequal relations with other rich countries. |
insurgent state | Territorial embodiment of a successful guerrilla movement. The establishment by antigovernment insurgents of a territorial base in which they exercise full control; thus a state within a state. |
failed state | A country whose institutions have collapsed and in which anarchy prevails. |
neoliberal policies | Policies adhering to an ideology or development strategy that advocates the privatization of state-run companies, lowering of international trade tariffs, reduction of government subsidies, cutting of corporate taxes, & deregulation of business activity. |
landlocked country | An interior state wholly surrounded by land. Without coasts, such a country is disadvantaged in accessibility to international trade routes, & the scramble for possession of areas of the continental shelf and control of the exclusive economic zone beyond. |
human development index | A UN index that is a composite measure of life expectancy, education, and income per capita. It is used to rank countries within a four-level classification under this name. |
triple frontier | The turbulent and chaotic area in southern South America that surrounds the convergence of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Lawlessness pervades this haven for criminal elements. |
primate city | A country’s largest city—ranking atop its urban hierarchy—most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not in every case) the capital city as well. |
viticulture | The growing of grapes for the production of wine. |
elongation | In political geography, refers to the territorial configuration of a state that is at least six times longer than its average width. Chile is the most prominent example of this shape on the world map. |
buffer state | A country or set of countries separating ideological or political adversaries. In southern Asia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Bhutan were parts of a buffer zone set up between British and Russian-Chinese imperial spheres. |
entrepot | A place, usually a port city, where goods are imported, stored, and transshipped; a break-of-bulk point. |
forward capital | Capital city positioned in actually or potentially contested territory, usually near an international border; it confirms the state’s determination to maintain its presence in the area of contention. |
cerrado | Regional term referring to the fertile savannas of Brazil’s interior Central-West that make it one of the world’s most promising agricultural frontiers. Soybeans are the leading crop, and other grains and cotton are expanding. |
negative externalities | Undesirable side-effects and/or byproducts of an action. In our case, the downside consequences of dam construction in Brazil’s Amazon Basin in the form of further deforestation, other environmental degradation, & displacement of existing communities. |
growth-pole concept | An urban center with a number of attributes that, if augmented by investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland. |