INTRODUCTION
TO AP HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY
OBJECTIVES:
•To know what geography is and how to distinguish between
human and physical geography
•To know what the Five Themes of Geography are and to be
able to identify them when analyzing geographical issues
•To understand how and why geographers use scale and
connectedness to understand the world around them.
•To understand what geographical enquiry is and
how geographers use questioning
WHAT IS HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY?
Human Geography is the study of:
•how people make places and develop places
•how we organize space and society
•how we interact with each other in places and across space
•and how we make sense of others and ourselves in our
locality, region, and world.
Q: how is this different to physical geography? Are they
connected?
GEOGRAPHERS LIKE ASKING
QUESTIONS…
WHY DO PEOPLE MIGRATE?
WHEN WILL INDIA’S POPULATION EXCEED CHINA’S?
WHERE ARE CITIES LOCATED AND WHY?
WHO WILL BE LIVING IN THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE IN
50 YEARS?
WHAT ROLE DOES RELIGION PLAY IN POLITICAL
CONFLICTS?
HOW DO PLACES AFFECT PEOPLES IDENTITY?
You are now a geographer! What kinds of questions
would you ask about people and places?
GEOGRAPHIC INQUIRY
FOCUSES ON THE SPATIAL:
• the spatial arrangement of places and
phenomena (human and physical).
• how are things organized on Earth?
• how do they appear on the
landscape?
• why? where? so what?
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
What processes create and sustain the pattern of a
distribution?
Map of Cholera Victims
in London’s Soho District
in 1854.
The patterns of victim’s
homes and water pump
locations helped uncover
the source of the disease.
What other spatial distribution
patterns might we be interested in?
FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY
The Five Themes of Geography act as a foundation for our study of
people and the world we live in…
1. Location
2. Place
3. Human-Environment Interaction
4. Movement
5. Region
1. LOCATION
•How the geographical position of people and things affects
what happens and why
•Location Theory questions/predicts trends
2. PLACE
•A place is defined by it’s unique physical &
human/cultural characteristics.
•Allows places to develop a special/unique character
•People attach emotion to these places to create a Sense of
Place
•Perception of place: belief or understanding of what a
place is like, often based on books, movies, stories, or
pictures.
3. HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION
•Builds on spatial perspective to understand how humans
interact with their environment
•Recognize three key concepts:
• Humans depend on the environment.
• Humans adapt to the environment.
• Humans modify the environment.
Why are geographers concerned with this behaviour?
4. MOVEMENT
• the mobility of people, goods and ideas across
the earth’s surface
• Movement is an expression of the
interconnectedness of places or Spatial
Interaction. This depends on:
- Distance
- Accessibility
- Connectivity
5. REGION
•
Formal region: defined by a commonality, typically a
cultural linkage or a physical characteristic.
e.g. German speaking region of Europe
•
Functional region: defined by a set of social, political, or
economic activities or the interactions that occur within
it.
e.g. an urban area
•
Perceptual Region: ideas in our minds, based on
accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that
define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness.”
e.g.
the South
the Mid-Atlantic
the Middle East
APPLYING THE FIVE THEMES
Watch the video clip of flooding in North Korea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Yx7aC9cmQ
•How do the Five Themes relate to this story?
•What questions could you ask to learn more?
•Can you think of other issues in the news that we could
apply this model to?
•Are there any limitations of using the Five Themes model
when trying to understand an issue?
WHAT’S MISSING?
The Cultural Landscape…
•
the visible human imprint on the landscape
•
Layers of imprints from years of human activity
•
Changes in technology and cultural traditions
•
Occupiers use what they find and add to it
This is known as
Sequent Occupance
Can you think of a place that has imprints from different
types of human activity?
WHY ARE GEOGRAPHERS
CONCERNED WITH SCALE
AND CONNECTEDNESS?
SCALE
Scale is the territorial extent of something.
The observations we make and the context
we see vary across scales, such as:
- local
- regional
- national
- global
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 A PHENOMENON.
- PEOPLE CAN USE SCALE POLITICALLY TO
CHANGE WHO IS INVOLVED OR HOW AN
ISSUE IS PERCEIVED.
CAN YOU THINK OF ANY EXAMPLES OF
ISSUES IN THE NEWS WHERE
UNDERSTANDING SCALE IS RELEVANT?
ACTIVITY
In small groups of 2-3, study the resources for your given
topic. As a group, create a poster that highlights the
following:
-
What is your issue about? (What, where, when, why, how)
-
Can you apply the Five Themes to your issue?
-
Can your issue be viewed at different scales?
-
What geographical enquiry questions could you ask to
learn more about your topic?
GROUPS – ARTICLES
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/britishcolumbia/vancouver-looks-to-laneways-to-increasedowntown-density/article15514652/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/britishcolumbia/mines-await-mount-polleyassessments/article20129842/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29001596
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/08/things-about-burgerking-buying-tim-hortons/
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/1111192/gaybourhoodsare-losing-their-cultural-identity-ubc-researcher/
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