New Citizenship
between knowledge
and solidarity
Citizenship in a global city
Literature: Human Geography 5th Edition,
Landscapes of Human Activities, Jerome
(university of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Fellmann. Arthur Getis (San Diego State
University). Judith Getis, pg 33-92
How the forces of cooperation and conflict among
people influence the division and culture of the earth’s
surface. Now this gives the opportunity to mention to you
the solidarity part. We know that solidarity is defined as a
pattern that allows a group of people in society to come
together to either support what they feel strongly about to
advance its social impact or destroy what they do not like to
be specific the solidarity social movement that was
happening in Poland to support the right to work for people.
Ukraine
Christabel Mwango Chanda
9/12/2013
Mwangochristabel33@gmail.com
C
onsidering the new world order that countries are forming, becoming a new citizen in
another country has tests and trials for ones solidarity to both the new ground and the
former so as not to be clothed with unknown espionage terms that will be difficult to
understand. So knowledge of laws of citizenry and Solidarity between Experiences In the
globalized cities will be the only weapon one can use to stand the ground, to defend himself,
to proclaim what one believes in and better still use it to remain loyal to both actions.
solidarity can not be without knowledge and knowledge may derive from solidarity. Global
citizenship is grounded on knowledge which promotes the commitment for solidarity to a
new dignity and meanings.
Certainly there is a strong relationship between ctizenship and solidarity. In a successful
society, city, and or country, for example one would suspect that, the demands on citizens, if
they are good citizens, comes from some common ground of understanding values thus
would seem to create a sense of
solidarity or unity among the members
of society, more so if the
common values are strongly
held among the members of
the group,perhaps less so in
a society that is more
diverse without such a
clear, single set of
values and practices.
Human Geography deals with the
I will begin by
exploring the roots
world as it is and what the world
and meaning of
culture,
as it might be made to be,litigous
establishing
the
observed ground
and non litigous , free and not so
rules and laws os
spatial behaviour
free, discovered and exploited and
and examine the
areal varriations
not yet exploited and discovered.
in patterns of
population
It places emphasis on people,
distribution and
population
what they are, where they are ,
change. These set
the stage for the
how they interact over space and
following separate
discussions
of
what kind of landscapes of human
spatail patterns of
language
and
use they erect upon the natural
religion,
ethnic
distinction, folk and
land they occupy
popular culture. These
are
the
principle
expression of unity and
diversity and of areal
differention
among
the
peoples and societies of the
earth’s surface.
The meaning of culture is big and by that I mean it is transmitted within a society to
succeeding generations by immitations, instructions, examples and so on. In short we are
simply saying culture is not biological it is something we all learn , it has nothing to do with
instincts or genes and it can also be broken if there is no persistent and per petual figure to
simulate and immulate and this I mean, now, we have terms like westernised culture and or
english culture which means that, some people are willing to forsake their own way of life to
adapt to their new homes as new citizens in other countries.
As members of a social group, individuals acquire sets of behavior patterns,environmental
and social perceptions and knowledge of existing technologies, of neccesity each of us learns
the culture in which we are born and reared but we need not indeed, cannot learn its totality.
Age ,sex, status and occupation may dictate the aspects of the cultural whole in which an
individual becomes fully indoctrinated.
With the entrance of a new ‘evil’ of globalism, new values, new ideas, norms and strange but
acceptable behavious are introduced in to society. To some extent this is mitigated to the
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extent of the new players who are willing to modify the existing behavoirs and also
accomodate the local expectation, but such accommodation cannot be complete, and often
(maybe always the global interloppers) bring new things or institutions a vivid example is the
springing up of ‘McDonalds’that the locals have to deal with.
Therefore depending on the basis of the belief system that underlies the recieving societies
norms, the insertion of these new things can be of anything or lets just say is welcomed in
anyway they want, that is interestingly, curiously, and at times mildly annoying all the way to
being heretical and morally reprehensive. For example in the middle of last year 2012 the
General Secretary of the United Nations Mr Ban Kimon was in my home country to talk
about the now much talked about LGTB and I have to bring to your attenton that this issue
was largely critised, politicized and at the end of his tour, his left with no succees at all,
because my home country has different belief system and anything that disturbs the
conservativeness of its welfare is not welcomed nicely. In every case though by introducing
new ideas, globalism must to an extent threaten solidarity of the previously insular society.
Understanding their spatial patterns and interactions goes far beyond and towards the
providing of the world views of citizenship is my prime objective, although our focus will
shift to the economic and organizational landscapes that the humans have created. We will
look at economic geography in a global city and also economic development, urban systems
and structures and patterns of a political system or political culture that influences the laws
that govern the understanding the knowledge of citizenary and finally we will return to the
underlying concern of all geographical studies of citizenship in a global city which is the
relationship between human geographic patterns of processes for both the present conditions
and future prospects of physical and cultural environments we have chosen to occupy , to
create and try to modify.
Before we go any further I would also like to define this human geography in my own way, it
deals with the world as it is and what the world as it might be made to be,litigous and non
litigous , free and not so free, discovered and exploited and not yet exploited and discovered.
It places emphasis on people, what they are, where they are , how they interact over space
and what kind of landscapes of human use they erect upon the natural land they occupy.
It encompasses all those interests and topics of geography that are not directly concerned
with physical environment or like cartography are technical in orientation. I would give an
example of the Middle East parts of the world, citizenry is marked by alot of constrains that
are both ridiculous,unimaginable and not easy to understand. Its contents provides integretion
for all the social sciences. It also draws the attention to analyses of identified subfields such
as behaviour, political, social and economic geography etc.
Now lets look at some of these terms I have introduced with concrete examples of real
citizens.
-Behaviour geography deals with psychology and economics, just try and imagine the
French. French people are mostly known to be very good in cooking and so they know it and
they behave like it, they add a mark to their custom that is known world wide, its
psychological.
-political geography deals with political science, political culture, public policy,
government patterns etc. The political culture of a nation influences the citizens that live in it
for example we all know that the USA is a democratic country and so every citizen is
oriented in such a way that you can not just trample him or her down because they know their
laws, they have studied their constitution in fact they learn the document from the very tender
age so as to protect themselves in their country and outside. Another example is the islamic
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nation, the culture is engraved in people so much because they learn it from child hood which
makes their solidarity strong to break.
-social geography deals with social things, languages of communication, religous studies
etc. I would give an example in my home counry, Zambia our social geography is so define
that even though there are 72 tribes spoken in this nation each tribe live together in one
location and even some churches are attributed to certain tribe and so on and so forth .
-economic geography deals with regional economies, national economies and the
economy of the global city. This is the interesting part, we have very rich countries in the
world that it is very difficult to go to these locations as a new citizen because they have
standards for example Switzerland its a small country but rich.
-population geography deals with demography, statistics, urbanization rural-urbanization
and globalization at large knowing this part of geography is very important because it gives
you knowledge as to which countries are densely populated or the opposit it makes you
choose your new location wisely.
-cultural geography deals with anthropology,sociology and history of the landscape
occupied by the humans. Another vital aspect is as a citizen you just need to know the history
of certain things. In this one case I would give an example of myself, I have been livivng in
another country which is rich in history and cultural heritage at times its annoying. But the
primary thing is I had to learn their history, I had to know things because it makes life easier
to flow with if you understand where people are coming from. Its also very easy to misjudge
their deeds, culture, food, dressing and the like if you do not take time time to learn about
their way of life and and before.
• social
geography
• economic
geography
• political
geography
experience
knowledge
citizenship
solidarity
• cultural
geography
Human geography admirably serves the objective of a liberal education abroad knowledge
that every good citizen whose solidarity is to stand should know. Because one has to make
comparisons between the new order of things here and there. It helps us to understand the
world we occupy and to appreciate the circumstances affecting peoples and countries over
their own land for example the Bible land (Syria and Israel). It clarifies the contrasts in
societies and cultures in the landscapes they have created in different regions of the world.
Its models and explanations of how things are interacted in earth space give us a clearer
understanding of the economies, socials and political systems within which we live and
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operate. its analyses of those spatial systems make us more aware of the reactions and the
prospects of our own society in an increasingly troubled and competitive world.
The study of human geography there fore can help us make better knowledgeable decisions at
persoanl, city, national and global level. More able to understand the important issues facing
our communities and our countries and better prepared to contribute to their solutions. During
my research of finding out what makes a citizen a good one I came accross 18 (Eighteen)
comprehensive but not exhaustive standards that a very good citizen should be able to know
and understand. Some will sound ridiculous but just remember that they are helpful at one
point or another.
 How to use maps and other geographical tools and technologies to acquire, process and
deduce and also report information from a simple spatial perspective.
 How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places and environments
in a spatial context
 How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places and environments of earths
space
 The physical characteristic of human places, diferrentiating the non occupied and the
occupied .
 That people create regions to intepret earths complexity. Demarcating continents from
each other at the least
 How culture and experience influences the peoples perceptions of places and regions.
 The physical processes that shape the patterns of the earth’s surface. For example you
need to know that there are places that are prone to tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions,
landslides etc
 The characteristics of spatial distribution of ecosystems on the earth, by now we all know
that there are many human factors that are not in good favor of protecting the ecosystem
to be specific China has been named the most dangerous country in the producing of
greenn houses gases that are polluting the earths environment thus destroying the
ecosystem, as a result theres a lot of money going in trying to counter attack these
activities and also in the education of people about the importance of ecosystem in our
lives.
 The characteristics and distribution causes of migration of human population which can
also be due to some of the reasons I have described above.
 The characteristic distribution and complexity of cultural mossaics
 The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on the earths surface
 The process patterns and functions of human settlement
 How the forces of cooperations and conflict among people influnce the division and
culture of the earth’s surface. Now this gives me the opportunity to mention to you the
solidarity part. We know that solidarity is defined as a pattern that allows a group of
people in society to come come together to either support what they feel strongly about to
advance its social impact or destroy what they do not like to be specific the solidarity
social movement that was happening in Poland to support the right to work for people.
These processes made so much history, as so many people were killed in the struggle for
standing up to what they wanted to achieve and the good news is even when the govern at
that time tried to break the solidarity they simply failed and ended up negotiating with the
ring leaders of the movement in giving the people what they wanted.
 How human actions modify the physical environment.
 How the physical systems affect human system meaning that were the land scape seems
viable for production, people will find a way of settling there and erecting cities, making
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rules and laws of how to take care of that space they have created and occupied. Another
example is the physical presence of conflict among each other such civil wars affect
people as well.
 The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
 How to apply geography to interpret the past, present and future. As illustrated by the
map below.
 How to apply geography to interpret the present and future.
CONCLUSION
I hypothesize that this clash of globalism and societal solidarity is worst in countries where
the social system is based on strongly held unwavering religious beliefs and teachings. It is
somewhat less difficult where the norms are more cultural and superstitious, but more
moderate than religion, for example in ukrainian culture it is not allowed to pass items to
another accross a threshold nor whistling while in the house, and less problematic in
countries that tend to support diversity already although I would contend that even though
these are not as open to new ideas as they like to think that way.
I wish I had the perfect way of explaining the topic ‘the new citizenship between knowledge
and solidarity. Rwanda Northern Ireland , the middle East do not give much hope so far that
solidarity and globalism are compatible concepts, unless one society can dominate the world
and impose its new world rules, laws, regulations and standards on each and everyone which
is far from becoming anything a reality.
In a global/city solidarity can not be without knowledge and knowledge may only bw gotten
from solidarity of held belief and experiences. Global citizenship is grounded on knowing
some of the few things I have writen though not conclusive which promotes the commitment
for solidarity to a new dignity and meaning.
New Citizenship in between knowledge and solidarity in a global city.
Writen by
Mwango Christabel Chanda
Volyn National University im lesya Ukrainka
(Eastern European National University)
Faculty of International Relations
Lutsk city Vinnichenka 22
Volynska Oblast
Ukraine
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