Human Geography: Test 1, Ch. 1
Ch. 1 Flashcards for Test 1 of Human Geography. Spring 2015.
40 Cards in this Set
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Accessibility
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The opportunity for contact or interaction from a given point or location, in relation to other locations; often affected by distance or travel time.
Example: A good mall is inaccessible in Chatsworth, Georgia because the nearest 'good' mall is in Chattanooga, TN.
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Capitalism
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A form of economic and social organization characterized by the profit motive and the control of the means of production, distribution and the exchange of goods by private ownership.
Example: We have a capitalist economy in the U.S.
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Cognitive Distance
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The distance that people perceive to exist in a given situation.
Example: It always feels like it takes longer to come home after a vacation than it did to arrive to your vacation locale - your perspective changed and made it seem like a longer trip.
OR
Bridges seem to decrease t…
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Cognitive Image
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Also known as mental maps; psychological representations of locations that are made up from people's individual ideas and impressions of these locations.
Example: Your home has memories for you, hopefully positive ones & has sentimental value -- to someone else, your home is just a ho…
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Cognitive Space
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Space defined and measured in terms of the nature and degree of people's values, feelings, beliefs and perceptions about locations, districts and regions; Behavioral Space.
Example: The way that landmarks or familiar paths alert you to where you are.
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Distance-decay function
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The rate at which a particular activity or process diminishes with increasing distance.
Example: The farther people have to travel, the less likely they are to do so.
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Economies of Scale
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Cost advantages to manufacturers that accrue from high-volume production, since the average cost of production falls with increasing output.
Example: Supermarkets can benefit from economies of scale because they can buy food in bulk and get lower average costs. If you had a delivery o…
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Formal Region
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Groups of areal units that have a high degree of homogeneity in terms of particular distinguishing features.
Example: If there was an area where people all practiced the same religion and followed all the economic/social/political rules, that would be a formal region -- In Chatsworth …
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Friction of Distance
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Inhibiting effect of distance on human activity.
Example: If a person has to travel 30 miles to see a dentist, they won't go visit the dentist.
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Functional or Nodal Region
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Regions with some variability in certain attributes (religion or income, for example) but with an overall coherence to the structure and dynamics of economic, political and social organizations.
Example: Places may have variability in religious practices, but they all adhere to school…
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Geodemographic Research
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Study of census data and commercial data (such as sales data and property records) about the populations of small districts to create profiles of those populations for market research.
NOTE: Census data can be biased in the cases of minorities, children and individuals with two home l…
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Geographical Imagination
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Allows us to understand changing patterns, changing processes and changing relationships among people, places and regions.
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Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
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Organized collection of computer hardware, software and geographic data that is designed to capture, store, update, manipulate & display geographically referenced information.
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Globalization
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Increasing interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, environmental, political and cultural change.
Example: Industrial Revolution
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Human Geography
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Study of the spatial organization of human activity and of people's relationships with their environments.
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Intersubjectivity
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Shared meanings among people, derived from their lived experiences of everyday practice.
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Irredentism
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Assertion by the government of a country that a minority living outside its formal borders belongs to it historically and culturally.
Example: The French and Haitians.
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Lifeworld
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Taken for-granted pattern & context for everyday living through which people live their lives.
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Neoliberal Policies
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Economic policies that are predicated on a minimalist role for the state, assuming the desirability of free markets as the ideal condition not only for economic organization but also for political and social life.
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Ordinary landscapes
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Also known as vernacular landscapes; everyday landscapes that people create in the course of their lives.
Example: Home, Dr.'s Office, School, Etc.
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Physical Geography
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Subarea of the discipline that studies Earth's natural processes an their outcomes.
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Place
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Specific geographic setting w/ distinctive physical, social & cultural attributes.
-Are socially constructed
-Have meaning based on your experiences there
-Provide an area to socialize children/families/groups
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Region
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Larger sized territory that encompasses many places, all or most of which share similar attributes in comparison w/ the attributes of other places.
Example: Southeastern United States
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Regionalism
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Feeling of collective identity based on a population's politico-territorial identification within a state or across state boundaries.
Example: In Georgia, many people are fans of the Georgia Bulldawgs. This is regionalism as it creates a collective identity. The Bible Belt is regional…
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Remote sensing
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Collection of information about parts of Earth's surface by means of aerial photography or satellite imagery designed to record data on visible, infrared & microwave sensor systems.
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Risk Society
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Contemporary societies in which politics are increasingly about avoiding hazards.
Example: In the U.S. we ask that children be vaccinated because of a fear that epidemic diseases will be spread otherwise.
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Sectionalism
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Extreme devotion to local interests and customs.
Example: Athens townies love the GA Bulldawgs - go dawgs.
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Sense of Place
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Feelings evoked among people as a result of the experiences and memories that they associate with a place and the symbolism that they attach to it.
Example: How I feel about my Granny's house - I feel that way because of the memories I have there.
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Site
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Physical attributes of a location.
Example: Terrain, soil, vegetation, infrastructure, etc.
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Spatial Analysis
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Study of geographic phenomena in terms of their arrangement as points, lines, areas or surfaces on a map.
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Spatial Diffusion
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Way that things spread through space over time.
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Spatial interaction
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Movement and flows involving human activity.
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Supranational Organization
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Collections of individual states w/ a common goal that may be economic and/or political in nature.
Example: NAFTA
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Time-Space Convergence
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Rate at which places move closer together in travel or communication time or costs; results from a decrease in the friction of distance as new technologies & infrastructure improvements successively reduce travel and communications time between places.
Example: Travel between NY & Atl…
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Topological Space
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Connections between, or connectivity of, particular points in space. Measured by the nature and degree of connectivity between locations.
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Utility
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Usefulness of a specific place or location to a particular person/group.
NOTE: How can I use this? Do the costs outweigh the benefits? Etc.
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World Region
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Large-scale geographic divisions based on continental and physiographic settings that contain major groupings of peoples w/ broadly similar cultural attributes.
Example: Latin America
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Situation
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What a place is because of how it relates to other places.
Example: Atlanta has a large airport so it’s a good place for business because it has easier access to global markets by airplane than other places.
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Projection
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When cartographers take the 3D sphere of Earth and place it on a 2D map; Always has distortions (often politically motivated); a type of cartography.
Example: Mercator Projection
Example of Projection Bias: Africa always looks MUCH smaller than what it is on maps, but Europe looks …
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Cartography
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The body of practical and theoretical knowledge about making distinctive visual representations of Earth's surface in the form of maps.
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Study Guide: Final Exam