1. INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Chapter 1

2. What Is Human Geography?
The study of
How people make places
How we organize space and society
How we interact with each other in places
and across space
How we make sense of others and
ourselves in our locality, region, and world

3. Globalization A set of processes that are Increasing interactions
Deepening relationships
Heightening interdependence
without regard to country borders
A set of outcomes that are
Unevenly distributed
Varying across scales
Differently manifested throughout the world
Impact of individual, regional, national scales on processes
and outcomes of globalization

4. What Are Geographic Questions?
The spatial arrangement of places and
phenomena (human and physical)
How are things organized on Earth?
How do they appear on the landscape?
Where? Why? So what?
No place “untouched by human hands” or activity
Human organization of communities, nations, networks
Establishment of political, economic, religious, cultural systems

5. Spatial Distribution Spatial distribution and pattern
Processes that create and sustain a distribution
Map of Cholera Victims
in London’s Soho District
in 1854
Patterns of victim’s homes and water pump locations key to the source of the disease

6. Five Themes of Geography
Location
Human-environment interaction
Region
Place
Movement

7. Place
Sense of place: Infusing a place with meaning and emotion Perception of place: Belief or understanding of what a place is like, often based on books, movies, stories, or pictures

8. Perception of Place Where Pennsylvanian students prefer to live
Where Californian students prefer to live

9. Movement
Spatial interaction: The interconnectedness between places, depending upon
Distance
Accessibility
Connectivity
Elizabeth J. Leppman

10. The visible human imprint, the material character of a place
Cultural Landscape
The visible human imprint, the material character of a place
Religion and cremation practices spread with Hindu migrants from India to Kenya

11. Sequent Occupance
Layers of imprints in a cultural landscape reflecting years of differing human activity
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: African,
Arab, German, British, Indian “layers.”
Apartments replaced earlier single-
family houses
Apartments in Mumbai, India

12. Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us?
Types of maps
Reference maps
Locations of places and geographic features
Absolute locations
Thematic maps
Degree of an attribute
Pattern of distribution
Movement
Relative locations

13. Reference Map

14. Thematic
Map

15. Location Absolute location Relative location
Precise location using a coordinate system
Latitude and longitude most common
Measured by geographic positioning systems (GPS)
Relative location
Location in relation to something else
Changes over time with changing circumstances

16. Mental Maps
Maps we carry in our minds of places we have been and places we have heard of
Activity Spaces
The places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity

17. Remote Sensing and GIS Satellite image Photograph
Hurricane Katrina, 2005: Area of impact
and destruction

18. Geographic Information System (GIS) Computer hardware
and software that
permit storage and
analysis of layers of
spatial data

19. Why Are Geographers Concerned with Scale and Connectedness?
Scale: Territorial extent of something
Varying scales of observations
Local
Regional
National
Global

20. Scale

21. The Power of Scale
Influence of processes operating at different scales
Context of a phenomenon in what is happening at different scales
Political use of scale to change who is involved or how an issue is perceived

22. Regions
Formal region: Defined by a common characteristic, whether physical or cultural, present throughout
e.g., German-speaking region of Europe
Functional region: Defined by a set of social, political, or economic activities or interactions
e.g., an urban area, city and suburbs

23. Regions
Perceptual Region: Ideas in our minds, based on accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness”

24. Culture
The whole tangible lifestyle of peoples, but also their prevailing values and beliefs
Cultural trait: A single attribute of a culture
Cultural complex: A combination of traits
Cultural hearth: Area where a culture began and from which it spreads
Independent invention: A culture trait that began in several places

25. Diffusion or Cultural Diffusion
The process of the spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth to other areas
Factors that slow or prevent diffusion
Time-distance decay – the declining level in acceptance of an idea or innovation with increasing time & distance from its point of origin
Cultural barriers – Prevailing (existing) cultural attitude rendering certain ideas unnacceptable or unadoptable in that culture

26. Types of Diffusion
Expansion diffusion: Idea or innovation spreading outward from the hearth
Contagious: Spreads to next available person – by contact from person to person
Hierarchical: Spreads to most linked people or places first
Stimulus: Promotes local experiment or change – a cultural adaptation is created

27. Contagious Diffusion

28. Contagious Diffusion

29. Hierarchical Diffusion

30. Stimulus Diffusion

31. Stimulus Diffusion

32. Stimulus Diffusion

33. Types of Diffusion
Paris, France
Relocation diffusion: Movement of individuals who carry an idea or innovation with them to a new, perhaps distant locale
Kenya
: H .J. de Blij
: A. B. Murphy

34. Types of Diffusion
Relocation diffusion: Movement of individuals who carry an idea or innovation with them to a new, perhaps distant locale
Kenya
: H .J. de Blij
: A. B. Murphy

35. What Are Geographic Concepts, and How Are They Used in Answering Geographic Questions?
Ways of seeing the world spatially that geographers use in answering research questions
Old approaches to human-environment questions
Environmental determinism (has been rejected by almost all geographers)
Possibilism (less accepted today)
New approaches to human-environment questions
Cultural ecology
Political ecology