Human Geography Review Expanded

Human Geography

How humans create, organize, and contest space through culture, politics, economies, and movement.

Human Geography: Space Creation

The study of how humans create space through culture, politics, economies, and movement.

Human Geography: Space Organization

The study of how humans organize space through culture, politics, economies, and movement.

Human Geography: Space Contestation

The study of how humans contest space through culture, politics, economies, and movement.

Environmental Geography

How human societies change environments and how environments shape social possibilities.

Environmental Geography: Human Impact

How human societies change environments.

Environmental Geography: Environmental Shaping

How environments shape social possibilities for human societies.

Space (Geographical Concept)

Abstract geometric location without emotional meaning.

Characteristics of Space

Abstract, geometric, and lacking emotional meaning.

Place (Geographical Concept)

Space that has meaning, identity, and lived experience.

Transformation of Space to Place

Space gains meaning, identity, and lived experience to become a place.

Sense of Place (Tuan)

Emotional connection that forms belonging or home.

Tuan's View on Belonging

Sense of Place involves an emotional connection that forms belonging.

Placelessness (Relph)

When spaces lose identity through globalization.

Cause of Placelessness

Globalization, leading to spaces losing identity.

Example of Placelessness

Airports, malls, and Starbucks looking identical everywhere.

Landscape (Geographical Definition)

Visible layers of cultural and physical processes across time.

Landscape: Cultural Processes

Visible layers of cultural processes accumulated across time.

Landscape: Physical Processes

Visible layers of physical processes accumulated across time.

Cultural Landscape (Sauer)

Every landscape reflects cultural values, labor, power, religion, economy, and identity.

Elements Reflected in Cultural Landscape (Sauer)

Cultural values, labor, power, religion, economy, and identity.

Scale (Geographical Analysis)

The level of analysis that shapes conclusions about geography.

Impact of Scale on Conclusions

Different scales (e.g., neighborhood vs region vs global) give different answers and shape conclusions.

Spatial Interaction

Connections across space such as migration and trade.

Examples of Spatial Interaction

Migration, trade, and digital flow across space.

Distance Decay

The concept that interaction decreases as distance increases.

Mitigation of Distance Decay

Technology can cancel the effect of interaction decreasing as distance increases.

Globalisation

Increasing interdependence in economies, labor, culture, technology, migration, and communication.

Globalisation: Economic Interdependence

Increasing interdependence in economies.

Globalisation: Labor Interdependence

Increasing interdependence in labor.

Globalisation: Cultural Interdependence

Increasing interdependence in culture.

Globalisation: Technological Interdependence

Increasing interdependence in technology.

Globalisation: Migration Interdependence

Increasing interdependence in migration.

Globalisation: Communication Interdependence

Increasing interdependence in communication.

Time–Space Compression (Harvey)

The phenomenon that distant places feel closer due to advancements in technology.

Mechanisms of Time–Space Compression

Planes, the internet, and finance making far places feel closer, collapsing barriers of distance.

Network Society (Castells)

The idea that real power runs through networks rather than states.

Examples of Power Networks (Castells)

Banks, fibre cables, and influencer markets as conduits of real power.

World Systems Theory (Wallerstein)

A theory that wealth moves upward from periphery to core.

Role of the Core in World Systems Theory

Core regions profit as wealth moves upward from the periphery.

Role of the Periphery in World Systems Theory

Periphery regions supply cheap labor and resources to the core.

Uneven Development (Neil Smith)

The assertion that inequality is necessary for capitalism to function.

Capitalism and Geographical Inequality (Neil Smith)

Capitalism needs geographic winners and losers to function, creating inequality.

Dependency Theory

The theory that poor states remain in poverty due to exploitation by rich states.

Mechanism of Dependency (Dependency Theory)

Rich states extract resources and labor value from poor states, keeping them in poverty.

Commodity Chains Defined

The analysis of the process whereby products are produced and the power dynamics involved.

Power Dynamics in Commodity Chains

Following a product shows power, such as a cocoa farmer starving while chocolate branding profits.

Post-Development (Escobar)

The critique that development often destroys local cultures and ecologies by forcing Western norms.

Escobar's Critique of Development Harm

Development often destroys local cultures and ecologies by forcing Western norms.

David Harvey: Cities & Capitalism

Cities are shaped by capitalism; space is used for profit (rent gaps, finance, displacement).

Harvey: Space Utilization for Profit

Space in cities is used for profit, leading to rent gaps, finance manipulation, and displacement.

Doreen Massey: Concept of Space

Space isn’t a container, it’s relationships and flows.

Massey: Components of Space

Relationships and flows, such as migration, capital, and messages, constitute space.

Henri Lefebvre: Production of Space

Space is politically produced, not neutral.

Lefebvre: Mechanisms of Political Space Production

Zoning, prisons, and borders that represent power.

Yi-Fu Tuan: Space to Place Transformation

Space becomes place only after memory and emotional attachment form.

Edward Relph: Global Sameness

Global sameness erases culture through phenomena like identical coffee shop vibes worldwide.

Carl Sauer: Culture's Mark on Land

Culture leaves fingerprints on land.

Sauer: Visible Cultural Fingerprints

Churches, farms, and roads as visible manifestations of culture on land.

Saskia Sassen: Global Finance Cities

A few mega-cities control global finance networks.

Sassen: Examples of Global Finance Cities

NYC, London, and Singapore controlling global finance networks.

Manuel Castells: Networks vs. Borders

Networks of tech and finance override physical borders.

Neil Smith: Gentrification

Gentrification is not 'natural,' it’s an economic strategy of reinvestment.

Arturo Escobar: Critique of Western 'Help'

Western 'help' often harms local systems more.

Paul Robbins: Environmental Issues Core

Environmental issues are always tied to wealth and power.

Erik Swyngedouw: Cities as Metabolic Organisms

Cities function like metabolic organisms moving water, food, finance, and pollution.

Swyngedouw: Urban Metabolism Components

The movement of water, food, finance, and pollution within cities as metabolic processes.

Urbanisation Defined

The shift to cities for work, services, and lifestyle, leading to crowding and inequality.

Drivers of Urbanisation

Shift to cities for work, services, lifestyle, and education.

Consequences of Urbanisation

Crowding and inequality resulting from the shift to cities.

Primate City

A city that dominates others in terms of jobs, culture, and politics.

Megacity

A city with over 10 million inhabitants, often leading to infrastructure stress.

Challenges of Megacities

Infrastructure stress due to a population exceeding 10 million inhabitants.

Gentrification Process

The process by which wealthier residents replace original communities, leading to displacement.

Impact of Gentrification

Displacement of original communities by wealthier residents.

Urban Sprawl Defined

Development that spreads outward from cities, often leading to environmental issues.

Issues of Urban Sprawl

Increased emissions and isolation caused by cars and suburbs spreading out.

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)

A planning strategy that prioritizes public transport to create sustainable living spaces.

Benefits of TOD

Density and walkability achieved by building housing and life around trains, not cars.

Planetary Urbanisation

The concept that even rural areas serve cities through resource extraction.

Rural Role in Planetary Urbanisation

Rural spaces serving cities via mining, tourism, and agriculture.

Anthropocene Epoch

An epoch defined by significant human impact on the Earth's geology and ecosystems.

Human Impacts in Anthropocene

Human carbon, mining, plastic, and farming have rewired Earth’s systems.

Political Ecology Defined

The study of how political and economic factors shape environmental issues.

Political Ecology: Climate Effects

Climate effects are not random; they follow power and exploitation lines (e.g., pollution hits the poorest).

Environmental Justice Movement

The movement that addresses the disproportionate environmental burdens borne by marginalized communities.

Patterns in Environmental Justice

Racial and class patterns where some communities bear more toxic waste, heat, and floods.

Tragedy of the Commons

The situation where individual users deplete shared resources despite knowing it is against their long-term best interests.

Outcome of Tragedy of the Commons

Collective collapse of shared resources, such as fisheries or increased CO₂ levels.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size that an environment can sustain indefinitely.

Carrying Capacity Limits

Planetary limits to human extraction and waste, defining environmental sustainability.

Ecological Footprint

A measure of how much land and water a person's lifestyle requires.

Climate Migration

Movement of people forced to leave their home regions due to climate change effects.

Causes of Climate Migration

Drought, saltwater intrusion, and heat collapse forcing people to leave their homes.

Carbon Colonialism

The practice where wealthy nations exploit poorer countries to offset their own carbon emissions.

Mechanism of Carbon Colonialism

Wealthy nations having poor countries host carbon-offset forests or mines.

Hydropolitics

Political conflicts related to water resources that cross national borders.

Example of Hydropolitics

Rivers crossing borders, with power dynamics deciding who drinks first (e.g., Egypt vs Nile states).

Virtual Water

The concept of water embedded in products consumed, impacting global inequalities.

Virtual Water & Inequality

Eating beef uses hidden water from other nations, impacting global inequalities in water resource distribution.