Key Concepts in Human Geography II

Key Concepts in Human Geography II

• Human geography examines society, culture, and environment.
• The concepts of regions, landscapes, diffusion, and mental maps are crucial parts of this study.
• Regions are areas with internal similarities but possibly different from surrounding areas.
• Criteria for defining regions can be human/cultural (how people live) or physical, or a combination of both.
• A region is a distinct part of the world's surface, different from the rest of the world.
• The United States can be divided geographically, with different regions based on climate characteristics like cool, temperate, hot-arid, and hot-humid.
• Other countries also have distinct regions, like China, India, and the United Kingdom.
• Scale is a way to understand how society operates at different levels, ranging from global to household.
• Policymakers use various scales to address issues and problems.

Landscape

• Landscapes are visible features of land or area.
• Landscapes can be natural (physical) or a mix of human and natural elements.
• Landscapes are used to differentiate regions.

Cultural Landscape

• Cultural landscapes are a result of interactions between people and their environments.
• Each cultural group has a visible impact on the landscape.
• South-Western Ontario is an example to analyze cultural landscapes.
• Cultural groups modify landscapes to meet their specific needs.
• The modifications can be subtle or extensive.

Diffusion

• Diffusion is the spread of phenomena (like ideas or trends) across space and time.
• Diffusion can come from culture or health.
• Two types of diffusion are relocation and expansion.

Relocation Diffusion

• Relocation diffusion involves the physical movement of people.
• Immigration is an example of relocation diffusion.
• People moving to new regions bring and share their culture (language, attitudes, beliefs, food, dress, religion, customs, pastimes).
• Examples of groups who have diffused their culture via relocation are 19th-20th century British, Irish, and Scottish immigrants to Canada, post-war Italian, Greek, Serbian, and Polish immigrants to Canada, 21st century immigrants to Canada from Pakistan, China, India, and Bangladesh, etc.

Expansion Diffusion

• Expansion diffusion does not require people to relocate.
• Two types: hierarchical and contagious.
• Hierarchical diffusion moves "leapfrog" style from places of importance (key individuals, cities) to others, while the "leaping" might skip over some places.
• Contagious diffusion rapidly spreads throughout an area, moving outward from the center.
• An example of a new trend spreading via expansion diffusion, using the internet, is the wearing of socks on one's ears.

Mental Maps

• Mental maps represent a person's unique view of reality.
• They reflect personal perceptions and experiences of space.
• Mental maps are not objective representations of reality.
• They are personal and subjective.
• Mental maps display things differently depending on who you ask.
• Mental maps differ even within people from the same cultural background and area. This means a child's mental map will differ from an adult's mental map of the same place.
• Children's cultures influence their perception of their environments.