Two Maxims
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where to find
information on it
Intelligence is not the ability to store information but the ability to find it
My Interests – as a Geographer
For the most part my intellectual interests are descriptive, attempting to document how
the U.S. landscapes has evolved by focusing on the institutional forces that provide
the framework for virtually all human behaviors
• How societies organize
• space – basic divisions and evolution
• behavior – basic principles and evolution
• How entities – individuals, groups of individuals, governments – with the right to use
land, landowners, exercise those rights to produce goods and provide services and
thus create landscapes – the visible effects of human behavior
Pedagogy - PowerPoint presentations
My lecture notes, which you may not fully understand without my narrative
Practical way of organizing my thoughts
Convenient method of displaying the information I think is important – taken from a
variety of sources
A bibliography for the class
You will notice that I concentrate on certain aspects of public policy
What I talk about represents what topics I find interesting, topics not covered or not
covered “appropriately” in other geography courses
The nature of landscape
(A)ny landscape is an artifact - an object made by man. Its condition, rightly seen,
reveals a society's culture as directly as does a novel or a newspaper or a Fourth of
July oration because today's environment, the "natural part included, is synthetic
(Roderick Nash The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation, 1968 ix)
Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or
aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and
blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day
qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look
for them
(Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald
Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979 23)
The nature of landscape
(A)ny landscape is an artifact - an object made by man. Its condition, rightly seen,
reveals a society's culture as directly as does a novel or a newspaper or a Fourth of
July oration because today's environment, the "natural part included, is synthetic
(Roderick Nash The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation, 1968 ix)
Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or
aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and
blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day
qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look
for them
(Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald
Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979 23)
Landscapes are political statements representing the outcome of
rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments
Landscapes are political statements representing the outcome of
rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments
To truly appreciate landscapes and places – particular landscapes in particular
locations – we must understand;
 How governments reach consensus about their role and responsibilities and so
organize behavior and space and
• Enact statutes – the legislative process
• Promulgate rules – the administrative (regulatory) process
• Issue judicial opinion – the judicial process (litigation)
Landscapes are political statements representing the outcome of
rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments
To truly appreciate landscapes and places – particular landscapes in particular
locations – we must understand;
 How governments reach consensus about their role and responsibilities and so
organize behavior and space and
• Enact statutes – the legislative process
• Promulgate rules – the administrative (regulatory) process
• Issue judicial opinion – the judicial process (litigation)
 How individuals, organizations, and governments
• Help formulate the consensus and statutes, rules, and judicial opinions
• React to the statutes, rules, and judicial opinions
A Heuristic Device
How the various branches of the federal
government reach consensus
How such consensus gets articulated into
public policy
How individuals, corporations, and other
governments contribute to policy
How individuals, corporations and other
governments react to policy
How can we explain the behavior of dairy farmers and milk
producers? A simple suggestion
Federal Government
• Statutory Law regarding milk
production, marketing, and consumption
• Administrative Law regarding milk
production, marketing, and consumption
• Case Law regarding milk production,
marketing, and consumption
Milk Producers – dairy farmers, dairy
companies
Milk, Butter, Cheese Consumers
Deconstruct Landscape
 The visible evidence of human activities on the “land surface” – most usually
associated with a particular sort of behavior – “land use”
 Carried out under the impetus of law/public policy
Activities – farming
Artifacts – structures, installations, facilities
Collection of artifacts – farms, dairy farms, cities, military bases
Goods produced – automobiles, drugs, cosmetics, weapons of mass
destruction, paperclips
• Services provided – banking, mass transit, education, transportation, public
safety
•
•
•
•
A Paradigm for Landscape
Activity
Goods
Service
Artifacts
Landscape
Dairy Farms
Activity - dairy farming
Cows, milk (hay, corn)
Barns, fences, silos, corn cribs …
Deconstruct Public Policy – Law – a social construct for effecting
behavior
•
•
•
Defines goals – establishes a reason for specific types of behavior
Defines, promotes, and rewards certain types of behavior
Defines, prohibits, and penalizes – implicitly or explicitly – other types of behavior
Provides
•
•
A context in which individuals, corporations, and governments decide to behave
and subsequently act
Cues for subsequent rational behavior – provide opportunities and impose
constraints
A Paradigm for Landscape
Federal Legislation
Federal Regulation
Federal Judicial Opinions
Law
Public Policy
Activity
Goods
Service
Artifacts
Landscape
Primary Sources for the Geography of the United States
Statutes at Large (GPO)
Statutes at Large (Hein Online
United States Code (GPO)
United States Code (Legal Information
Institute)
Primary Sources for the Geography of the United States
Federal Register (GPO)
Code of Federal Regulations (GPO)
Code of Federal Regulations (Legal
Information Institute)
Primary Sources for the Geography of the United States
Supreme Court opinions
How we explain the behavior of dairy farmers?
Federal Statutory Law regarding milk production, marketing, and consumption
• Dairy Market Enhancement Act of 2000 – one such statute, act
Administrative Law regarding milk
• Regulations of the US Department of Agriculture – regulations, rules
Case Law regarding milk
• Hillside Dairy Inc. et al v William J Lyons Jr., Secretary California Department of
Food and Agriculture et al 123 S. Ct. 2142 (June 2003) – one such court case
The actions of large milk companies – Land O’Lakes – and the federal law influencing
the way in which they behave
Deconstructing Public Policy – Law
Congress
Legislative Mandate
Agency
Legislation
Regulation
LAW
Deconstructing Public Policy – Law
Congress
Legislative Mandate
Agency
Legislation
Regulation
Courts
LAW
Deconstructing Public Policy – Law
Congress
Legislative Mandate
Agency
Legislation
Regulation
Courts
LAW
Deconstructing Public Policy – Law
Congress
Legislative Mandate
Agency
Legislation
Regulation
Courts
LAW
A Paradigm for Landscape
Federal Legislation
Federal Regulation
Federal Judicial Opinions
Law
Public Policy
Activity
Goods
Service
Artifacts
Landscape
Evaluation
Economic indices
Contingent value
Tobacco
A Paradigm for Smoking
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act 2009
Lobbying
FDA
FDA v. Brown &
Williamson Tobacco
Corp. 2000
Smoking
Lobbying
A Paradigm for Landscape
Federal Legislation
Federal Regulation
Federal Judicial Opinions
Organization of Space
Law
Public Policy
Activity
Goods
Service
Artifacts
Landscape
Organization of Behavior
Evaluation
Economic indices
Contingent value
The United States landscapes reflect
•
•
•
Multiple iterations of public policy – virtually each Congress – involving the
continuous often acrimonious debate about the role and responsibilities of
governments
Myriad decisions made by individuals, organizations and governments operating
within the framework of opportunities and constraints
• What goods to produce & how to produce them
• What services to provide & how to provide them
Relationships between individuals, organizations, and governments
All landscapes reflect a past and a present
All landscapes provide a basis for a future
They embody incredible details – about the past, present and
future – about our fears and aspirations
It’s hard to remember the objective was
to drain the swamp
At any one point in time landscapes are ambiguous and
contradictory
They only make sense in the appropriate temporal and spatial context
Muddling Through – Disjointed Incrementalism
We change our mind about the role &
responsibilities of government
Governments accept responsibilities that
the private sector is not willing or not able
to accept
Private sector provides services that
governments cannot fully provide –
private prisons, security overseas, school
bake sales
Vioxx
Drug Recalls
Wetland Protection
Bicycling
Smoking
DDT
Public Policy Outcomes
Artifacts – structures, installations, facilities
Goods and Services
The Male Love Affair with Petroleum!
Military Industrial Complex
Spatial distributions
Spatial distributions
Temporal distributions
Take-home Points
Landscapes are political statements
Landscapes embody the past and the present and are the basis for the future
Landscapes are the product of “shared” endeavors between governments and the
“private” sector (I’d call it a product of socialism but ….)
There may be no such thing as private enterprise in the United States
My Propositions
Need a way of thinking about landscapes because
•
•
•
There are a bewildering array of landscapes
There are an astounding variety of goods and services
They all contain elements of the past, present, and future
A Paradigm for Landscape
Federal Legislation
Federal Regulation
Federal Judicial Opinions
Organization of Space
Law
Public Policy
Activity
Goods
Service
Artifacts
Landscape
Organization of Behavior
Evaluation
Economic indices
Contingent value
Organization of Space
The Organization of Space
The Nature of Places – Jurisdictional Units, Governments
Organized spatially
United States
• Horizontally
• Vertically
Minnesota
Organized temporally
Metropolitan Council
• Boundary changes
Ramsey County
Historically
• Increasing number
• Decreasing size
St. Paul
White Bear Township
Organization of Space – Jurisdictions
What is the size of the United States?
What is the size of the United States?
Where would you look for information?
What is the size of the United States?
Where would you look for information?
“If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien, the rules
for filing income, estate and gift tax returns and for
paying estimated tax are generally the same
whether you are living in the U.S. or abroad”
Section
Township
Subdivision Plat
How do you choose a topic?
Your career goals
Your intellectual interests
Your other interests
USA.gov