2. Election 2000: Regional Differences
Fig. 1-10: Presidential election results by county and state illustrate differences in regional voting patterns.

3. Types of Regions Formal (uniform) regions (p.20-21)
Area where everyone has one or more distinctive characteristic in common.
Example: Montana
Functional (nodal) regions (p.22)
Area organized around a node or focal point.
Example: the circulation area of a newspaper
Vernacular (cultural) regions (p.22-23)
Place that people believe exists b/c of their cultural identity.
Example: the American South

4. Formal and Functional Regions
Fig. 1-11: The state of Iowa is an example of a formal region; the areas of influence of various television stations are examples of functional regions.

5. Vernacular Regions
Fig. 1-12: A number of factors are often used to define the South as a vernacular region, each of which identifies somewhat different boundaries.

6. Spatial Association
A region can be constructed to encompass an area of widely varying scale, from a small portion of Earth to a large portion of Earth.
Different conclusions are drawn depending on the region’s scale.
Ex. Death rates from cancer (p.23-24)

7. Spatial Association at Various Scales
Fig. 1-13: Death rates from cancer in the U.S., Maryland, and Baltimore show different patterns that can identify associations with different factors.

8. Culture
When looking at the distinctiveness of regions, geographers look at culture. (p.24-25)
Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for”
Two aspects:
What people care about
Beliefs, values, and customs
What people take care of
Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and shelter

9. Cultural Ecology
The geographic study of human–environment relationships
Two perspectives:
Environmental determinism: Study of how the physical environment causes (controls/limits) human activities.
Possibilism:
Modern geographers generally reject environmental determinism in favor of possibilism
The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust.
Determined by a group’s values:
Crop selection determine by environment
Vegetarian vs Non-vegetarian
Cremation versus burial

10. Physical Processes 5 Climates: Tropics, Dry, Warm, Cold, Polar
Climate=the long-term average weather condition at a particular location.
Vegetation/Biomes: Forest, Savanna, Grassland Desert
Soil: 12,000 soil types
Landforms: flat to mountainous
Influences most human activities
Humans have limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation levels.
Climate, precipitation, temperature * Vegetation, plant life * Soil, nutrients to allow plant life to grow, erosion * Landforms, steepness measured by slope

12. Physical Processes
Soil-thin layer between air and rocks containing nutrients
Concerns over soil include erosion and nutrient depletion
Landforms-study of landforms is called geomorphology
Explains the distribution of people and economic activities at different locations
Studied through topographic maps

14. Modifying the Environment
Examples
The Netherlands
Polders: creating land by drainage
The Florida Everglades
Not so sensitive environmental modification/ unintended environmental/social consequences
13th century polder initiative. Dikes, Zuider Zee & Delta Plan to prevent flooding by the north sea. Leader in renewable energy and conservation
Figure 1-21

15. Key Issue 3
Why Are Different Places Similar?

16. Scale: From Local to Global
Globalization-a force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope; means the scale of the world is shrinking
Economic globalization (see p.31-32)
Transnational corporations
Has led to more specialization and has heightened economic differences among places
Cultural globalization (see p.32-33)
A global culture?

19. Globalization of the Economy
Fig. 1-17: The Denso corporation is headquartered in Japan, but it has regional headquarters and other facilities in North America and Western Europe.

20. Space: Distribution of Features
Distribution-the arrangement of a feature in space
Density-frequency that something occurs in space
Arithmetic-total # of objects in an area (p.34)
Physiological-# of people per unit of arable land
Agricultural-# of farmers per unit of farmland
Concentration-extent of a feature’s spread over space
If objects are close together, they are clustered
If objects are far apart, they are dispersed
Pattern-geometric arrangement of objects in space

21. 40. Diffusion
The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time
Hearth = source area for innovations
Two types of diffusion
Relocation: idea spread by people
CONCENTRATION IS THE EXTENT… key difference…

22. Relocation Diffusion:
1) HIV/AIDS 2) release of a coin….(37)
Relocation Diffusion:
Diffusion through physical movement of a person from one place to another
Figure 1-31

23. Expansion Relocation “snowball” diffusion Three types:
Hierarchical: top down or centers of power
Contagious: diffuses regardless of the origin (person or place)
Stimulus: diffusion in which one people/ receives a culture element from another but gives it a new and unique form
3 types of of expansion: H: Government Initiative: Innovations… Urban to Rural… source outward C: no specific source…. An idea on the World Wide Web. Simultaneous access.. Going Viral! S: diffuses but fails in its initial form and is modified to another form.

24. 41 – 44. Diffusion of Culture & Economy
the hearth of C&E primarily in USA, Europe, & Japan.
Africa, Latin America, and Asia on the periphery of global investment
Resulted in uneven development
what do you see with this map? Is it accurate? What do you think most geographers depict the diffusion of culture and economics like this?

25. Space–Time Compression
Figure 1-29

26. Density, Concentration, and Pattern
Fig. 1-18: The density, concentration, and pattern (of houses in this example) may each vary in an area or landscape.

27. Density and Concentration of Baseball Teams, 1952–2000
Fig. 1-19: The changing distribution of North American baseball teams illustrates the differences between density and concentration.

28. Spatial Interaction Transportation networks
Electronic communications and the “death” of geography?
Distance decay
Figure 1-30

29. Airline Route Networks
Fig. 1-21: Delta Airlines, like many others, has configured its route network in a “hub and spoke” system.

30. Diffusion
The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time
Hearth-source area for innovations
Two types of diffusion
Relocation-spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another; ex. Language, religion, ethnicity
Expansion-spread of a feature from one place to another
Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

32. Diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion-spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places; ex. Hip hop, rap, and jazz music
Contagious diffusion-rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout a population; ex. Diseases or use of the Internet
Stimulus diffusion-spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently refuses to diffuse; ex. Apple vs. IBM, Windows

33. AIDS Diffusion in the U.S., 1981–2001
Fig. 1-22: New AIDS cases were concentrated in three nodes in They spread through the country in the 1980s, but declined in the original nodes in the late 1990s.