‘WHERE are you wearing?’
‘Where are you wearing?’ –
Class set
brand/country – 2 in each
Clothing
SHOES
Technology
OTHER
(list)
Brand/country Brand/country Brand/country Brand/country
1.
2.
(you)
(partner)
1.
2.
1.
2.
1.
2.
A. Get a partner – check labels in an item of clothing, your
shoes, a source of technology and one other thing. Write
each item on your chart (yours, your partners)
B. Where?? /Why???
C. Where not??? / Why not???
D. Write/answer these questions on the back of your chart.
1. What continents
4. In what ways does
/regions dominate the this activity
chart?
demonstrate the
2. What other patterns
do you notice in this
activity?
3. What is
‘interdependence’?
concept in #3?
5. What kinds of
products are we
seeing diffused
here?

The spread of
phenomena over
space and through
time from a limited #
of origins/hearths…



The way things
spread…
Air freshener


One of the most
important aspects
of spatial
interaction and a
key to
understanding
geographic
change…
Disease outbreaks
Political
movements
New musical fads
Globalization and Diffusion

US $ is accepted
pretty much
everywhere…. A
global currency


Diffusion = to spread
TNC - Transnational
corporations –
Companies that have HQ in
1 country but factories,
resources in others…
– Also called MNC

EU?
 China?



Walmart
Nike
SPECIALIZATION OF
LABOR….look for regions
that have favorable
resources, labor units,
etc…
Specialization – a REGION or country
specializes in a certain product
CHINA
 MEXICO
 JAPAN
 BRAZIL
 VIETNAM
 INDIA
 RUSSIA


What sort of
generalizations can
be made about
these types of
nations??
‘BRIC’ – Up and coming economies
‘OECD’ – established economies
(Org for Economic Cooperation & Development)



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

More Developed
Country
MDC = Developed =
‘Ped’
$$, technology,
infrastructure (a
‘sacred word’ in HG)
NIC/Emer’GING’
country – some
characteristics of both
MDC/LDC
Less Developing
country (Less Developed)
LDC = Developing =
‘Ping’
manual labor, low
tech/infrast, lower pay

Map of LDC/MDC
Issues of Possibilism (Carl Saur) vs Environmental
Determinism…. (our WHAP buddy Jarrod Diamond)
Space/time compression issues






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STC means rapid diffusion
b/c of technology (sacred
word)
DISTANCE DECAY (as things
move from the source, their
impact lessens/decays) is not
such an issue b/c of
technology….
Dark Horizon well 24/7
9/11 – A shared the
experience
WDC earthquake slowed
twitter responses by half,
from 2 to 4 seconds…. An
‘eternity’ 
Texting….
ISS 16 sunrise/sunsets a
day…

Global culture


SIGNAGE –
the cultural
limits within which a
community allows advertising

Is the world becoming
too homogenized?


Corporate ‘Imprinting’
(baby ducks, McD…)


Starbucks all over
– Placelessness – ‘the
kit’ (BB, B&N, WM in
Cancun, etc…)
DEED
RESTRICTIONS and
ZONING
Keep a community
uniform, unique as a
place
H-town has no zoning
but has killer DR…
+/- of globalization
+++
 US?????


Thailand????
--- US?????


Thailand????
Basic world map with boundaries
Toys Exports

Toys Imports

What the heck is a hearth???

The origin of a trait or characteristic,
sometimes called a culture hearth :
Where something started from….
Diffusion is not random…
It occurs as a
function of
statistical
probability
 Based on
geographic
principles of
distance and
movement
 Results can be
shown as a wave….

First Adopters….do you stand in
line all night for the new Iphone?
Relocation vs Expansion Diffusion

Relocation – leaves

hearth
Actual physical
movement of an idea or
characteristic, moves
w/people…
Examples :
Geophagy
Okra/Africa
Ebola, SARS
Christianity

(Not AIDS as Rubenstein says…)

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http://www.corda.com/examples/go/map/sars.cfm
Relocation vs Expansion Diffusion

The global
distributions of
the male and
female genital
mutilations
among native, nonWestern peoples,
along with history
and archaeology,
suggest their
genesis/hearth in
the deserts of
Northeast Africa and
the Near East, with a
subsequent diffusion
outward into subSaharan Africa,
Oceania and possibly
even into parts of
the New World. They
have generally been
transmitted from one
region to another by
virtue of relocation
diffusion
Geophagy/Pica/Eating dirt


People at risk or who may
have Pica include but are
not limited to:
– People who are pregnant
– Those who have poor nutrition
(malnutrition) or vitamin
deficiency
– People who have ethnic customs or
live in cultures where this is
practiced.
– Individuals who live in poverty
– Mental Retardation
Expansion (3 types)

Spread by
snowballing >
passes thru
places BUT STAYS
@ hearth and
remains strong
–Hierarchical
–Contagious
–Stimulus
Cell phone usage
 Islam

Hierarchical
Rap
 Clothing Styles
 Slang



WAL-MART REVERSE
hierarchical (small
towns 1st…)
AIDS – jumped
from city to city….


Spread by a person
or power node, skips
city to city
Trickle down effect
HIERARCHICAL EFFECTS OF
DIFFUSION
Contagious
Rapid/widespread > nearest to hearth is
1st affected
 Like a wave > Rapid and widespread

– Religions such as Islam, Buddhism…
– H1N1 virus, Influenza that almost killed off
Edward Cullen (Yes, even Twilight is Geographic….)
– diseases in the new world…
CONTAGIOUS EFFECTS OF DIFFUSION
HIERARCHICAL EFFECTS OF CONTAGIOUS EFFECTS OF DIFFUSION
DIFFUSION
Stimulus Diffusion



Idea is adapted to fit the area, comes from another
culture or region
Industrialization – adapt ideas to the local area….
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge – challenge has changed as it
has diffused…
Barriers to Diffusion….
 Physical
– mtns, water
 Political – closed borders
 Time
& Distance –
further from hearth the
longer it takes to diffuse…Less likely for innovation to be
adopted
 Culture
–
allows for or prohibits birth control,
alcohol restrictions, food restrictions for example
 Economics
– LDC or MDC
Some models of diffusion
end
HOMEWORK >>

Create a chart
for 5 items at
your home (TV,
microwave,
phone, DVD,
car, computer,
vacuum….) and
the BRAND,
Country and
Continent for
each.
All

maps need >
Title, compass,
legend,
author/name


Map it!
Shade in the countries
that you have
products from
Write in the country
the type of products
that come from there