Basic Geographical
Concepts
1st Unit of the AP Curriculum!!
Ways Geographers Gather Info.
1. Remote Sensing
– Pictures taken from above Earth’s crust (usually in satellites)
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
– http://mashable.com/2013/08/26/space-photos-satellite/#gallery/xamazing-satellite-images-from-space/5234f9ff12d2cd4bd0002fd5
A. GPS (Global Positioning System)
– Precise location
– Navigation primary purpose
– Surveillance?
– Used in GIS
B. GIS (Geographic Information System)
– Super-accurate maps w/ diff. layers
– Used to study relationships b/t diff. data sets
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8RhDpuLPl0
– Google Earth https://maps.google.com/?mid=1380026569
– http://www.google.com/earth/explore/showcase/
Another GIS
ARC View GIS
Food and Environment Atlas:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-environmentatlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx#.UkI7JFNc_7k
ArcGIS from ESRI, Featured Maps:
http://www.arcgis.com/home/gallery.html
Ways to Collect Data cont.
2. Field Studies/Case studies
3. Census Data
http://www.census.gov/2010census/
– Taken
every 10 yrs. in U.S.
– Capital Intensive – $6.5 billion
– Uses
• Reallocate House of Rep. #s
• Federal funding amounts
• Statistical information
– Problems:
• Corruption
• Undercounting of homeless
• People who move can be counted twice or not at all
Surveys
4. Surveys: Assume that it is biased!
Questions to ask:
– Who paid for the survey?
– Who was surveyed and who wasn’t?
– How many were surveyed? +/- 3% accuracy
– How was the question phrased?
• Types of bias
– Under-coverage
– Non-response bias
– Leading questions
Eco Footprint Survey http://www.myfootprint.org/
Places in Geography
• Name = toponymy
– Variety of sources for naming places…
– Mianus, CT; Hooker Point, FL; Slickpoo, ID; Suckerville,
ME; Hell, MI, TruthorConsequences, NM; Monkey’s
Eyebrow, KY; Phuket, Thailand; Intercourse, PA
• Location
– Absolute location
• latitude/longitude
• Benefits of GPS
• NEVER changes (in your life time)
– Relative location
• Location determined by what is closest around you
• Demonstrates focal points of the people
• Constantly changing
– Site vs. Situation of place
• Site (New Orleans below sea level)
• Situation (New Orleans on the mouth of the Mississippi and Gulf
of Mexico)
Regions
• What makes each place different?
• Cultural landscape =
– Combo of physical environment & human influences on
earth (built environment.) Sauer
– What features in the cultural landscape are the same in
almost every major urban area?
• Types of regions
– Formal (uniform region/homogeneous region)
– Functional (nodal region)
– Vernacular (cognitive region/perceptual region)
• Mental maps  demonstrate “activity space”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGVSIkEi3mM
How is your 24 hour day/7 day week different from the other
gender?
• Mental Map of your house….., community (mall, house, school)
Scale
• Small scale vs. large scale
• Global scale vs. local scale (Globalization vs. Glocalization)
• Scale is VERY important to geographers
– Globalization http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n9zRi7JGKw&feature=c4overview-vl&list=PLHFlHpPjgk713fMv5O4s4Fv7k6yTkXwkV
• ideas, values, beliefs, cultural traits are becoming increasingly
shared throughout the world as interconnectedness increases
– Local diversity
• There are differences that are maintained around the world
between places/cultural groups no matter how much
globalization spreads
– These forces often compete throughout the world
• Pop culture vs. Islam
• English lang vs. minority languages
• Global organization (U.N.) vs. individual countries (U.S.)
– VERY important theme throughout the course
Globalization and Glocalization
Bangalore, India, March 2012
Culture
• MANY definitions
– The way a particular group of people live, what they
practice in death, what they believe, what they value,
how they dress…
• Cultural hierarchy:
–
–
–
–
–
Cultural trait (most specific)
Culture complex
Culture system
Culture region
Cultural realm (least specific)
• Cultural hearth – origin of a particular cultural trait
• How does culture spread???
Acculturation
• Acculturation
– Dominant culture forces
traits on subjected
peoples
– Dominant culture will
take on traits of weaker
culture
• Spanish/Aztecs
• Europeans/Africans
• Wife domesticating her
Husband.
Assimilation
Distinct cultures become indistinct
• “3rd Generation Rule” (non-religious)
• Ex. Jeans are EVERYWHERE
• Ex. African business men dressing in suit and tie
• Ex. Can you pick out which people in the U.S.
came from which European countries i.e Ireland?
Italy? Germany?
• Handshakes in Asia or business cards?
Sequent Occupance
• Several different cultural groups have
occupied that territory so you will see
different layers in modern culture
• Several cultural landscapes evident
• Ex. Romans  Arabs  Spanish in Spain
• (Aqueducts  Mosques  Plaza Mayór)
• Baptist Churches with
Star of David stained glass
windows in Harlem, NY
Mt. Olive Baptist Church
Harlem, NY
New Hope Baptist Church
Washington Heights, NY
How do I understand
Diffusion?
Spatial Interaction
Movement of people, ideas,
commodities within and
among areas
Examples?
Truck hauling goods
International telephone calls
Immigration into the US
Two Types of Diffusion
• Expansion
– Stays strong in the core
• Relocation
–Gets weaker in the core
Expansion Diffusion
• EXPANSION DIFFUSION
– Spread of an innovation/idea … in such
a way that the # of those influenced
grows continuously larger, resulting in
an expanding area of adoption.
(de Blij/Murphy – 7th ed., page R-20)
Expansion Diffusion
• This occurs when an idea or trait
spreads from one place to another.
Kinds of Expansion Diffusion
1. Hierarchal Diffusion – spread of an idea
through an established structure usually
from people or areas of power down to
other people or areas
– Urban areas to other urban areas and then
spread to surrounding areas
•
•
Rap music
High-end fashion trends
– Wealthy people to middle class to lower class
•
Any technological invention
This is a map of the diffusion of
_______?
Expansion Diffusion
2. Contagious Diffusion – spread of an
idea/trait/concept through a group of
people or an area equally without regard to
social class, economic position or position
of power.
•
•
•
Flu epidemic
Gossip in school??
Your book says information on the web is
Contagious… do you agree???
Diagram of Contagious Diffusion
• ‘A’ is a diagram of
contagious diffusion.
Notice virtually all
‘adopt.’
• ‘B’ is a diagram of
hierarchical diffusion.
Notice the
leapfrogging over
some areas.
Expansion Diffusion
• Stimulus Diffusion – the spread of an
underlying principle even though the new
groups “remix” your idea
OR
• Stimulus Diffusion - involves the transfer of
an underlying concept or idea, without the
specific accompanying traits due to some
cultural or other barrier to the movement of
the idea
Stimulus Diffusion ex. (Michael Ayres)
• McDonald’s in India  “Maharaja Mac”
• Sesame Street  OVER 30 Countries have
adopted principles of this show
Coca Cola and its
different tastes
around the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VM2eL
hvsSM
Maharajah Mac
Bangalore, India, March, 2012
http://www.buzzfeed.com/eing6888/check-out-this-new-mcdonalds-promotionalmenu-in-77we McDonald’s new menu in Thailand.
McDonald’s commercials from a global perspective:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/culture-lifestyle/food-drink/130709/10amazing-mcdonalds-commercials-international
The World According to
Sesame Street
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/worldaccordingtosesamestreet/
RELOCATION DIFFUSION
Sequential diffusion process in which the
items being diffused are transmitted by
their carrier agents as they evacuate the
old areas and relocate to new ones. The
most common form of relocation diffusion
involves the spreading of innovations by a
migrating population.
Relocation Diffusion
• This occurs when the people
migrate and take their cultural
attributes with them.
• De Blij pg. 28 vs. Rubenstein pg. 38
Relocation and Expansion –
In Review
• ‘A’ is relocation diffusion
as the person goes.
• ‘B’ is expansion diffusion
as the idea/trait moves or
transports.
AIDS and Relocation Diffusion
• Some authors suggest AIDS diffuses
through relocation diffusion. This is true by
the fact that the diffusers “take” the disease
with them. However, AIDS is not contracted
by everyone in its path. More importantly,
the pattern of AIDS diffusion is more
classically hierarchal (and therefore
expansion).
Migrant Diffusion (a form of
Relocation Diffusion?)
•
•
•
•
1. Idea enjoys strong, (perhaps brief,)
adoption in hearth
2. Idea travels elsewhere (& thrives)
3. Idea fades out back in the hearth
Ex. Disco in Egypt
Ex. “Baywatch” in Europe
Ex. Communism
Ex. Old cars
One more look…Wal-Mart as both
___________ and __________diffusion –
WHY?
Diffusion of Wal-Mart, Target
and Costco
What type(s) of diffusion?
Interactive maps of the evolution of retail from Flowing Data:
Wal-Mart: http://flowingdata.com/2010/04/07/watching-the-growth-of-walmart-now-with100-more-sams-club/
Target: http://projects.flowingdata.com/target/
Costco: http://projects.flowingdata.com/costco/
BARRIERS TO DIFFUSION
• CULTURAL BARRIERS
• Some practices, ideas, innovations are not
acceptable/adoptable in a particular culture
• Cultural taboos e.g. pork, alcohol,
contraceptives
• PHYSICAL BARRIERS
• Physical barriers on the surface may
prohibit/inhibit adoption
• Not as relevant today b/c of technology
• TIME-DISTANCE DECAY
• Farther from the source & the more time it
takes, the less likely innovation adopted (more
likely the same trait will develop differently)
• Technology makes this less important
Distance Decay Graph
• Learn to think about
distance decay in a
“spatial” context
• Think of distance
decay in terms of an ‘x’
and ‘y’ axis
Random Thoughts on Diffusion
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Expansion Diffusion
Contagious
does not necessarily have a not a specific pre-existing structure for transmission
disease contagion is a prime example
the spread of products from a forest fire(particles/gases/heat) dissipate from the
source(the fire) throughout the adjacent atmosphere.
Measurement system - System International (Metric)(meters/grams) has spread from
Europe throughout the world except for the US(and a couple small countries) US
retains its modification of the British Imperial system of measurement (miles/pounds)
Hierarchical
requires a pre-established structure to channel the flow ie 'chain of command'
International Business hierarchy, National, Regional, Local
Relocation Diffusion
Movement of people and things
Europeans moved to the Americas and brought their culture with them
• Same
bulldozer!!
Satellite Orbits! It’s all about TIME!!
More examples of
Hierarchical Diffusion
• AIDS is typically viewed as hierarchical
because of its historically distinctive
URBAN to URBAN diffusion pattern
• “Blackberries” have diffused
hierarchically. Blackberries, though
becoming cheaper, are too expensive
for most consumers to buy; therefore
diffusing hierarchically.