GEO 1200 Exam Notes PDF

Week 7: Social Geography The New Cultural Geography/Cultural Turn: - Individuals experience places differently based on their race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, etc. - Culture is not necessarily a shared experience based on our individual social identities. Social Iden...

Week 7: Social Geography The New Cultural Geography/Cultural Turn: - Individuals experience places differently based on their race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, etc. - Culture is not necessarily a shared experience based on our individual social identities. Social Identities & place: Social categories: - race, gender, ethnicity, faith, ability, age, class, sexual orientation, citizenship The social groups to which a person belongs is the basis of their social identity. Social differences shape identity. Identity is “how we make sense of ourselves” (G. Rose). Different social identities are marked, in part, by different ‘rules’ of appearance. Intersectionality: - Human life cannot be explained by taking into account single social categories. - Identities are based on multiple social categories. - For example, a person might be a heterosexual, Latino woman or a gay, black man. Social relations are the connections and disconnections between and among people belonging to different social categories. Social geography is concerned with social differences and the built environment. It investigates the spatial variation of social relations and identities. Connecting Social Identities and Place to the New Cultural Geography: - Places have meanings. - Within a diverse group of people,there will be contention over meanings. - Whose meanings are given toplace? - Culture & social identities expressed in place are constituted in a wider political context of power & politics. Meanings given to place can, therefore, be contested. Place is shaped by social identity. Identities are shaped by place(place affects who we are). Social geographers are interested in understanding the ‘place’ of different social groups: - What role does place play in constructing social identities? - How do places shape identities and social relations? - How do places become associated with particular identities? - How are place associations to identity challenged?  Heteronormativity assumes the normal is heterosexual, white, middle-class and male. Home is usually associated with the nuclear family (heteronormative view). Families with two dads (for example)challenges the heteronormative view of home. Place associations to identity are challenged. Geographies of Identity: Identities intersect with space; certain spaces are associated with certain identities. These spaces can provide individuals with a sense of belonging. Places can be key to understanding an individual's identity. Cultural markers in the landscape associate the space with certain identities. Sexuality and Space: - provide a sense of belonging - spaces of support, acceptance and freedom - some might be afraid of the space - cultural markers in the landscape Gender: a category that reflects the socially constructed differences between men and women. Ethnicity: an affiliation or identity within a group of people bound by a common ancestry. Social Identities, Power and Place: Social relations occur and identities are defined within the context of power. Power is about social inequality reinforced through social differences Power varies between dominant and subordinated groups/identities. The ‘other’ is: - a person labeled as belonging to a subordinate social category - excluded from persons who ‘fit the norm’ - needed to define ourselves as ‘not other’ - different from ‘us’ - creates and maintains social divisions There is power embedded in: - hetero-normative assumptions of gender and sexuality; - patriarchal assumptions that favour men over women; - nationalist sentiments towards how some people feel about immigrants and refugees. People can be oppressed, marginalized and excluded based on social divisions. Marginalization is to treat a person or group that is different as insignificant or unimportant to keep them in a powerless position in society.  Social geographers are interested in the power relationships that play out by reinforcing differences in place. Spaces of social exclusion: Spaces that deny access to people based on their identity. Place and Belonging: Belonging in place is based on a set of socially created systems of rules about who belongs and who does not belong based on actual or perceived commonalities. Week 8: Economic Geography I What is an Economy?: An economy is a system governed by institutions, laws, rules and norms that organizes land, labour, capital, distribution and consumption to meet the wants and needs of consumers for products and services. Economics is concerned with: - what is produced - how it is produced - who gets what is produced (product allocation) The economy is made up of two parts: - Producers: people who harvest and manufacture products or provide services - Consumers: people who use products and services An economic system arranges and organizes material provisioning based on these two components: production and consumption. Informal Economy: - Formal economy = the legal economy that governments tax and monitor. - Informal economy = the illegal economy that is not counted or taxed by governments. Informal Retail Spaces: - permanent feature of the built environment but temporary in nature - many operate illegally - prices are not fixed, but negotiated (customer involvement) - less predictable - of greater significance to the developing world - central to livelihood strategies/important source of employment Classic Economic Geography:  Friction of Distance: the inhibiting or deterring effects of distance on human activity; it is a reflection of the time and cost in overcoming distance: an increase in time and cost with increasing distance. Von Thunen Model (1800s): - examined how distance affects agricultural land use patterns - as you move away from the town center, one type of crop or commodity gives way to another - assumes equal terrain, soil, environmental conditions - transportation costs dictate land use - at a certain distance it becomes unprofitable to produce certain goods (because transportation costs become too high). - analyzes the spatial character of economic activity What is a commodity?: Something useful that enters the market and is available for purchase to consumers. What is a supply chain?: - Commodity chains link the process, people and places of extraction/harvest (raw material), manufacturing/processing, distribution, retail, consumption and post consumption/disposal. Patterns of Location: - What factors determine or greatly influence where an economic activity is located? - Which factors are not relevant to where an economic activity is located? - In other words, what is the location criteria for economic activity? Uniqueness of Place: - A place is a unique collection of human and physical features on the earth's surface. - This includes environmental conditions, physical and human landscapes, cultural practices, political institutions, social life, and economic activities.  - The following are all human activities that give rise to unique characteristics of particular places, which may vary greatly between places: forms of government religious traditions linguistic groups norms relating to gender roles architecture & technology artistic expression ways of interacting with other people levels of wealth and inequalities of wealth the types of work that people do the shops, restaurants, bars, and cafes that exist and the things that they sell Spaces are linked economically through: 1. Firms and production networks (corporate systems) 2. The environment (e.g. deforestation, climate change) 3. The global capitalist system Standards: - Standards can take many forms. For example: codes of conduct, labels on finished goods, technical standards - Standards can apply to certain commodity chains, sectors, or be generic Transnational Corporations: a firm that controls and coordinates the activity of other firms in more than one country involves headquarters in one country and branch operations in more than one foreign country since the 1960s, firms from industrialized economies have increasingly taken production across borders Myth of the Global Corporation: - The organizational makeup, corporate behavior and or business will be the same in different places and geographical contexts - Place has limited influence on TNC’s - Businesses are standardized for more efficient organization - Unlimited/enormous financial capital, massive productive capacity, huge levels of employment, access to technology and knowledge In reality: - Having a global presence does not mean that organizing on a global basis is easy, efficient or the same everywhere; - TNC’s need to configure their functions to different local economies and places. Transnational Corporations: Operate in the context of GPN’s Organize and coordinate different activities that link different actors: - Global partners (other TNC’s) - Suppliers - Service providers (financiers, management consultants, logistics) - Customers Global Production Networks are (GPNs): A GPN is a network system that is coordinated and controlled by a globally significant TNC and involves a vast network of overseas affiliates, strategic partners, key customers and non-firm institutions. Bringing Commodities Together: Contemporary transport & digital technologies = faster, cheaper commodity chain logistics Fragmentation and separation of production processes over space Space shrinking technologies enable capitalists to speed up the spatial circulation of capital in their pursuit of profits. The contemporary world economy depends on a wide range of space-shrinking technologies. Transportation systems = the means by which material goods and people are transferred between places. Air Technology: - Increased the circulation of goods and people - Influenced the development of the tourism industry Containerization: - Wide scale adoption of the standardized 20 and 40 foot long metal containers for land and sea freight - Container shipping is an indicator of the spread of economic globalization. - It is estimated that containers account for 90% of the world's traded goods by value. Simplifies transportation and trans-shipment (e.g. transfer from ship to ship for from ship to train/intermediary stop) of a huge range of commodities Logistics refers to the process of planning, implementing and managing the movement and storage of raw materials, components and finished goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Logistics connect the globally dispersed elements of the commodity chain. Includes: shipping, planning, warehousing, inventory management, export documentation customs clearance  This logistics system is based on ‘lean distribution’ and the flexible delivery of smaller volumes of goods Logistics not only include airport/seaport to airport/seaport carriage of goods, but also land based operations including the transport of products to and from airports and the management of warehouses adjacent to airports to maintain timely and efficient air transportation. Transportation terminals: terminals constructed that can operate at very high levels of turnover. Port facilities are included here. Distribution Centers: - Rapid turnover of goods - Designed for throughput - Specialized loading and unloading bays - Sorting equipment E-commerce: - The activity of buying or selling online - New marketplaces created by the Internet has reshaped business to business and business to customer relationships - e.g. Amazon and eBay Commodity Disconnections: The Role of Advertising: - Conceals or misrepresents the origins and social relations of production - Give meaning to products that are far removed from the realities of their production. The capitalist system hides the dimensions (i.e. people, processes and places) of production. Also hidden from the consumer are the social relations and environmental impacts of production. Consumers are disconnected from producers. The Social Relations of Commodities: A social relationship is a relationship between two or more individuals.  Commodities result from social relations amongst capitalists, workers and consumers. Commodities represent a system of connections between different groups of people in different places that have enabled the consumer to make a purchase. Social relations involved in commodity production: - Working conditions - Gender relations - Worker and management relations TNC’s and Anti Globalization Movements: - Protests in Seattle (1999): start of an anti-globalization movement. - Participants opposed trade liberalization and the deregulation of financial markets. - June, 2010, G-20 Toronto: NGOs (non-government organization) and civil society groups staged a wide range of protests on issues. - Counter-pressure on the seemingly unlimited expansion of TNC activity. Nike and Labour Conditions: - Nike has faced criticism for the working conditions of their factories. - The delegation of Nike’s labour standards to subcontractors creates a circumstance for labour abuses and poor working conditions. - A partnership has since been established with the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities. Maquiladoras: - Maquiladoras = EPZs in Mexico, located directly across the US border. - Export Processing Zones (EPZ’s) = regions that offer favorable tax, regulatory, and trade arrangements in order to attract investments from foreign firms. - Products can be shipped from the zone into the United states free of import taxes - Produce electronic equipment, electrical appliances, automobiles, textiles, plastics and furniture. - Controversies: Low wages, no benefits, repetitive work in questionable environments. Companies avoid employment and environmental regulations. Week 9: Economic Geography II Defining Development:  Development is a process of change, economic growth, and socio-economic transformation. A country that is developing is making progress or advancement in technology, production and socio-economic well-being. Development is evident in: - Infrastructure - Global Connectivity (trade, technology communication) - Improved standard of living Uneven Economic Development: How can we explain this pattern of unevenness? 1. The environment (environmental determinism) 2. Just a point in time (modernization theory) 3. Societal structures, like government, trade regulations, and economic decision making (political economy/capitalism) Environmental Determinism: a stream of thought that sees physical surroundings as major (or maybe the main) determinant of how a society functions. Modernization Theory: Emerged out of decolonization in the 1960s; developed by Walter Rostow. Questioned how newly independent countries in Africa would survive. Assumes all countries develop following the same stages. A stream of thought that says impoverished countries will evolve towards a Western industrial model, and given enough time, will achieve similar development standards. Economies can develop if they adopt the appropriate policies and strategies. Suggests that uneven development is a temporary condition that will naturally be overcome. Criticism of Walter Rostow’s Modernization Model: - Does not consider the larger context of development. - Not all countries will follow the same path to development.  Political Economy: A stream of thought that sees uneven development as a product of capitalism. What is Capitalism?: Capitalism is an economic system where exchange happens using money and the purpose is to accumulate individual surplus wealth. Private property, private capital (e.g., machinery) and wage labour are central in this structure. A market economy (free enterprise): - The government has a very limited role in the economy but provides essential services. - Individual producers determine the production, distribution and consumption of goods. - Businesses are motivated by profits. - Customer demand affects supply as well as the price of products. - There is a high potential for inequality in society. Thinking Structurally: - Goes behind the everyday processes in which we participate. - Asks about the underlying logic of how economic relationships are organized (i.e. how is the economic system structured?). - Goes beyond thinking about the motivations and experiences of individuals. How is wealth created?: - Use value: the benefit we get from having or consuming something. - Exchange value: the monetary worth of a good or service traded in the market economy. - Capitalism involves the creation of value in waged labour and the private ownership of property and assets. Capitalist: owns the ‘means of production’ (property and capital) and buys labour power from individuals to execute the production process Worker/labourer: does not own the means of production but sells his/her labour to the capitalist production process. Surplus Value: - Growth rests on the exploitation of labour (surplus value extraction). - Surplus value: the amount of value that a person produces in access to what he or she is paid. - Example: A waitress works a 5 hour shift and sells $1000 worth of food. The waitress earns $6.95/hr earning $34.46, in total. The difference ($1000-$34.46 =$965.54) is PROFIT for the restaurant employer.  Capitalism is profit-oriented: Growth is essential for profit. Social Classes: Capitalism is about the relationships between different social classes: a capitalist class that owns the means of production (including private property) and a working class that owns the labour it sells to the capitalist. Production Processes and Their Geographies?: Production processes are about how products are made; bringing together labour (workers) and capital (buildings, machinery, computers, telephones, etc.) Technology has transformed the production process and revolutionized the world economy. The transformation is captured in comparing Fordist to Post-Fordist modes of production. Fordist Production: - Henry Ford and the Model T. - Mass production. - Economies of scale: achieved when large production volumes reduce the cost of producing a single product. - division of labour = different work tasks are assigned to different groups of people, based on skill. - Standardized manufacturing process. - Assembly line and conveyor belt. Post-Fordist Production: - Production processes are more flexible. - Different components are made in different places and brought together for assembly. - ‘offshore production’: production facilities (branch plants) move to overseas locations. - Decentralization: a manufacturing process that takes place across multiple sites, rather than occurring in a single plant. - Export Processing Zones (EPZ’s) = regions that offer favorable tax, regulatory, and trade arrangements in order to attract investments from foreign firms. - Deindustrialization = the process by which companies move industrial processes to other regions (usually with inexpensive labour). - De-industrialized regions: UK – Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester lost industrial bases during the 1960s & 1970s. US – ‘Manufacturing Belt’ is now known as the ‘Rust Belt’. Profit, in part, is based on cheap labour.  At a global scale, this translates into corporations moving production to places in the world with the cheapest labour supply. Global Division of Labour: - Global Division of Labour = Companies in the developed world take advantage of cheap labour in the developing world. - The global division of labour is a function of capitalism’s drive for profit in a capitalist economy by reducing costs. Week 10: Food and Agriculture Agriculture is the cultivation of animals and plants used to sustain human life (and profit), and generally relies on techniques to expand and maintain lands that are suitable for growing crops and raising domesticated species. Agriculture Around the World: Plantations are a type of agricultural system based on a large estate owned by one farmer or corporation. Countries engaged in growing illegal drugs: - Mexico (Cannabis) - Columbia, Bolivia, Peru (Coca) - Afghanistan, Myanmar (opium poppies) Countries engaged in large-scale cattle ranching: - Canada - United States - Mexico - eastern Brazil - Argentina - New Zealand - South Africa Countries engaging in Mediterranean Agriculture: - shores of the Mediterranean Sea - parts of California and Oregon - central Chile - South Africa's Cape - Southeast/South Australia 1st Agricultural Revolution (10 000-5 000 BC): The first agricultural revolution is the domestication of plants and animals; reproductive success depends on human intervention.  Planned Cultivation: - Food can be reproduced by planting seeds. - A process to ensure a future for agriculture. The domestication of plants and animals gave rise to a sedentary human civilization (vs. nomadic). Had the following: - Permanent dwellings - Specialization in crop types - Intense physical labour - Dependency on harvest times - Increased vulnerability to the weather (due to crops) Subsistence Farming: Subsistence Farming is self-sufficient farming where producing food is meant for local consumption as opposed to trade. Shifting Cultivation = a system of agriculture in which plots of land are cleared (generally through ‘slash and burn’ methods) and cultivated temporarily before they are abandoned for another plot, and allowed to regenerate nutrients in the soil. Swidden: land cleared through slash and burn and ready for cultivation. Pastoralism: Pastoralism involves the breeding and herding of animals to satisfy the human needs of shelter, food and clothing. Pastoralism can be sedentary in which farmers live in settlements and herd animals in nearby pastures. Nomadic pastoralists travel with their herds over long distances, never remaining in any one place. Week 11: Political Geography Geopolitics: Geopolitics is:  - Interested in the links between political power and space (spatial dimensions of power). - The study of international politics from a geographic perspective. - Came from Halford Mackinder, a British Geographer. - Emergence coincides with the expansion of the British Empire. - Land power vs. sea power. Mackinder’s Theory: - “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island(Eurasia); who rules the World-Island controls the world”. - For Mackinder, heartland within the Eurasian landmass meant that whoever occupied it could exert a dominating influence over world politics. Geopolitical World Order: - A period of time in international politics. - One power(e.g., country) will dominate with respect to economic and political supremacy(hegemony). - Geopolitical theory influenced international relations when the soviet union emerged at the end of WWII, giving Moscow control over much of Eastern Europe. A Bipolar Geopolitical World Order: Warsaw Pact: - Soviet Union - Affiliated communist nations in Eastern Europe North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): - Western Europe - Canada and USA Supra-National Organizations: - European Union (EU), 1992. - United Nations (UN), Approx. 193 member states. Multilateralism: countries work together to find solutions to common problems (vs. operating unilaterally). States: The political unit for organizing the world inter-state system (synonymous with independent country. Occupies territory defined by boundaries: - Territory = the land belonging to the state. - Territoriality = a sense of attachment towards, and defense of, a territory. - Poorly defined borders - City-states, tribes, kingdoms, principalities. Ruled by an established government Have a permanent resident population Total authority to govern itself (sovereignty) Antarctica: - Not a state - No permanent population or established government - Parts are claimed by certain countries The Treaty of Antarctica (1961): States may establish research stations but may not have a military presence. Peace of Westphalia (Treaty), 1648: - Series of peace treaties - First major agreement in international law - Ended the wars of the region - Laid the foundations for europe being made up of territorially defined co-existing states - Brought together territory and sovereignty - The interference in the internal affairs of a country was the first offence of international law Spread of the Nation State, and Sovereignty: The European concept of the state and sovereignty was exported to much of the world through colonialism. The model established and defined the ground rules of the capitalist world economy and its interdependencies. Sovereignty: - Total authority of a state to govern itself. - The ability of a state to regulate their own internal and external affairs, without foreign intervention. - Recognized by international law and a principle of international relations. - Must be recognized by other states. - States must have sovereignty in order to participate in the international system. States that are not recognized as having sovereignty: - Somaliland - not recognized by any state - Cyprus - not recognized by Turkey or Northern Cyprus - Palestine - not recognized by Israel - Kosovo - not recognized by Serbia - South Korea - not recognized by North Korea Nations: - Community of people with common culture and ancestry - Occupy a particular territory - Bound by a strong sense of unity, shared beliefs and customs - Does not imply an independent political unit Nation-States: nation and state occupy the same space; there is a substantial degree of cultural homogeneity and unity. Ex: - Japan - Poland - Iceland - Denmark Stateless nations are nations without states! Ex: The Kurds are an ethnic group in the middle east that live in: - Turkey - Iraq - Iran - Syria Basques: This is an ethnic group that occupies territory belonging to both Spain and France. Quebec is also a Stateless Nation  Multinational States: - States with more than one nation within its borders. - The former Yugoslavia had more than one nation living within the borders but collapsed because of national differences. Nationalism: - Links people to territory - Expression of a nation’s identity - Requires feelings of belonging among a group of people - Associated with patriotism(love for one’s country), but is also about defense of national interests Imagined Community: Canada as an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 1991) is comprised of individuals who are strongly bonded to one another through a common identity related to territory. Centrifugal vs. Centripetal Forces: - Centripetal unifying forces that bind a country: language, religion, national culture. - Centrifugal forces of disunity that divide a country: more than one language or religion, political ideologies. Borders and conflict: Borders: - Separate individual states; primary source of political division - Regulate and control people and resources within a territory - Define who belongs and who does not - Often restricts contact among and the movement of people (and ideas/values) - Borders are social constructions - A layer of meaning that doesn’t exist without human interpretation - Established by international law - Have varying degrees of permeability Eastern Bloc: the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe (Soviet Union and countries of the Warsaw Pact) ‘Iron Curtain’: metaphor used to describe the boundary dividing Europe into ‘east’ and ‘west’ during the Cold War.  Gerrymandering: - A process of redrawing (manipulating) legislative boundaries of an electoral constituency for the purpose of establishing a political advantage for the party in power (i.e. more party voters within the district). - Named for Elbridge Gerry, Gov. of Mass. 1810-1812 - Signed a bill allowing redistricting = the redrawing of boundaries that separate districts. - New lines favoured Gerry’s political party - One of the districts he drew looked like a salamander– critic called it a gerrymander Conflict: Allocational (resource) Disputes: - Iraq invades kuwait, 1990 - Conflict over an oil reserve in the subsoil divided by the border Territorial disputes - Kashmir: 1947: Partition of British India into a Hindu (India) and Muslim (Pakistan) state Kashmir decides to join India and war erupts wars fought in 1965 and 1999 2003 ceasefire; 2014 violence again erupts Line of Control = military border which does not constitute a legally recognized international border Conflict - North/South Korea: 1910-1945: Japanese colony 1945: USSR invades the North USA backs the South 38th Parallel 1950-1953: Korean War Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Ethnic Disputes - Rwanda: Hutus (majority) vs. Tutsis (minority) Tensions strained during colonial period - Belgians favour Tutsis and create a legacy of tension 1962: Belgium grants independence and violence erupts - Hutus take control 1994: genocide of Tutsi population - April-June, 800 000 killed  The Role of Decolonization in African Conflict: - Divided unified regions - Unified hostile regions - Closed off migration routes Historical geopolitics have shaped and influenced contemporary political geographies. Week 12: Urban Geographies Urban Geography: Urban geography focuses on how cities function, their internal systems and structures, and the external influences on them. Urban geographers are interested in: - The location of cities - How cities are constructed - Interconnections between cities - Movements between and within cities - Sense of place - Impacts of urban processes A city is a conglomeration of people and buildings and infrastructure clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture and economics. Cities are also centers of: - administration and government - Technological innovation - Artistic achievement - Specialization - Interaction - Sources of news and information - Suppliers and service providers - Sports and entertainment Urban Space: Urban is a descriptor (adjective) that refers to the built up environment, infrastructure and population of a city. They are places that are highly developed and distinctly non-rural. Urban Sprawl: - Expansion into rural areas - Low-density housing - Limited public transportation - Environmental impact