Geography 111:
Human Geography
Office hours
PROFESSOR ZOLTÁN GROSSMAN
258 Phillips Hall
10:00-10:50 MWF
Tel. 836-4471
E-mail: grossmzc@uwec.edu
Web: www.uwec.edu/grossmzc
Geography is not just about...
• Memorizing place names and boundaries.
(though you need to learn context through maps)
• Where things and people are located
(though you need basic descriptive background)
Geography is about...
• Why things and people are where they are.
• How people, things and places interact
with each other.
Fields of Geography
• Physical Geography
• Human Geography
• People/environment interaction
Geography crosses the
human-nature border
Geography compares
different places
Paris-sur-la-Seine
Eau Claire-sur-le-Chippewa
Geography compares
different scales
Geography studies reality
on the ground, over time
Hayward
Geography studies anything
related to place
Zoltán
“Zoltan, Hound
of Dracula”
Zoltar
in “Big”
Zoltan, Imperial
Commander of
the Space Nerds
Hungarian for “Sultan”
(from the Ottoman Turkish
occupation of Hungary, 1526-1686)
Geography breaks
down boundaries
• Can cross nature-human border.
• Can compare different places/regions.
• Can compare different scales (local, national, global)
• Can study reality on the ground, over time.
• Can study anything related to place(s).
Human Geography studies…
• How human beings organize our activity
spatially, and interact with our environment.
• How and why places are made and remade,
and how our home places shape who we are.
• How different places interact spatially.
What Human Geographers Do
• Human Geography involves the investigation of
the relationship between people and place.
• “The Earth as the home of human beings.”
• (Yi-Fu Tuan)
• “Writing the earth”: ‘to write” (graphien) the
earth (geo)”.
Making Space into Place
Space is abstract,
geometric, empty,
like an impersonal
location on a grid
Place is constructed by
human beings, and given
meaning through social
interaction/memories.
What is a Place?
• LOCALE
(physical attributes of place)
• LOCATION
(relationship to other places)
• SENSE OF PLACE
(feelings evoked by place)
Lambeau Field as a place
• LOCALE
(turf, players, stands, fans)
• LOCATION
(part of National Football
League)
• SENSE OF PLACE
(Green & gold, Memories
of Lombardi. Starr, etc.)
Gettysburg as a place
• LOCALE
(grassy hills, forest, cannons,
visitors)
• LOCATION
(part of Civil War strategy,
part of National Park Service)
• SENSE OF PLACE
(Many soldiers buried,
turning point in war, Lincoln
speech)
Earth as a place
• LOCALE
(physical geography)
• LOCATION
(in solar system; Sun effects
weather, crops)
• SENSE OF PLACE
(mental map)
Why Place Matters
•
All social activity is embedded in place
• Places therefore provide the settings for
people’s daily lives .
• Social interaction in turn shapes the place.
Human Geography Today
• Studying the relationship of place to
people as…
– Social beings
– Consumers
– Producers