Copy of Unit 1 - Terms and 5 Themes - 09_13.pdf

5 themes of geography and unit 1 terms

1. Geography: Nature
and Its
Perspectives
Unit 1

2. What Is Human Geography?

The study of how:
•people make places
•we organize space and society
•we interact with each other in places
and across space
•we make sense of others and ourselves
in our locality, region, and world

3. Geographic Questions and
Key Takeaway


• Questions:
–How are things organized on Earth?
–How do they appear on the landscape?
– Where? Why? So what?

• There is no place “untouched by human hands” or
activity:
– Human organization of communities,
nations, networks
– Establishment of political, economic,
religious, cultural systems

4. Why Are Geographers
Concerned Scale?

•Scale: is the territorial extent of
something
• The observations we make and the context
we see vary across scales, such as:
–Local - city/state
–Regional - region of the country
–National - country
–Global - the world

5. Scale is a powerful concept
because:
●Processes operating at different scales
influence one another.

●What is occurring across scales
provides context for us to understand
certain phenomenon (think of COVID
data)

●People can use scale politically to
change who is involved or how an issue
is perceived.

6. Five Themes of
Geography
•Location
•Place
•Movement
•Human-environment
interaction
•Region

7. 1.Location - Where is it?
•Absolute location
–Precise location using a coordinate system
–Latitude and longitude most common
–Measured by global positioning systems (GPS)
•Relative location
–Location in relation to something else
–Changes over time with changing circumstances
–Connectivity - how well two locations are tied
together by roads or other links
–Accessibility - how quickly and easily ppl from one
location can interact with those in another location

8. 2. Place - What is it like
there?
Focus on Human and Physical characteristics that
make a place unique.
•Perception of place:
Belief or
understanding of what
a place is like, often
based on books,
movies, stories,
pictures
•Sense of place:
Infusing a place
with meaning and
emotion due to
personal experience

9. Site & Situation
Two other ways to refer to a place:
•Site - refers to the characteristics
of the place (soil type, climate,
human structures)
•Situation - refers to the location
of a place relative to its
surroundings and other places
Ex. The situation of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is
the center of the Arabian Peninsula

10. Toponyms
•refers to a places name
•usually references something
having to do with what the
place looks like, or how
people want that place to be
perceived (can be deceiving)
–ex. Rolling Meadows, Windy
City, Empire State

11. 3. Movement - How do
people, goods, ideas
spread?
Spatial interaction: The
increasing connection
between places, based
on contact, movement
and flow of things
between locations.
*connections can be
physical or through
information.
Elizabeth J. Leppman

12. Importance of Distance
•Distance - measurement of how far or near things are from
each other
•Proximity - refers to degrees of nearness
•Distance can be measured in length or time:
–Time-Space Compression - refers to the shrinking of
“time distance” between locations as a result of improved
transportation methods and communication (this is what
has spurred globalization and the pushing out of western
culture to other parts of the world)
–Friction of distance - the idea that when things are
farther apart from each other they tend to be less well
connected because the thing that connects them loses
“power” the further away it is from them this concept is
called Distance-Decay

13. 4. Human Environment
Interaction
•This theme focuses on the ways in which humans change
or adapt the landscape and environment around them
•Will deal with: sustainability, pollution and other
environmental issues
•Two key and opposing theories on how, why and to what
extent humans adapt to their environment:
–Key idea #1 - Environmental Determinism belief
that landforms and climate are the most powerful
forces that shape human behavior and societal
development (we are who we are because of where
we live)
–Key idea #2 - Possibilism - belief that human
culture plays a larger role in shaping human
behavior and societal development

14. 5. Regions - formed by a group of places
(determined by what characteristic is being focused
on.

1.Formal region: Defined by a common characteristic,
whether physical or cultural, that is present throughout.
*you know when you enter it or leave it
*usually defined the same by everyone
*boundaries can be physical [like mts] or cultural
Ex. Chinatown in Chicago

2.Functional region: an area defined by a set of social,
political, or economic activities or interactions that
occur within it (must serve as a hub for a specific
activity/purpose)
Ex. an urban area, city, mall, schools, transportation
system like a highway

15. 3. Perceptual Region (AKA vernacular): Ideas in our
minds, based on accumulated knowledge of places and
regions, that define an area based on our ideas of
“sameness” or “connectedness”
*these regions can be a bit fuzzy because they will be
different based on who you ask
-Ex. The South, The Middle East, out West,
Latin America
Wilbur Zelinsky