AP Human Geo Red and Yellow Terms

ancillary activities

economic activities that surround and support large-scale industries such as shipping and food service

backwash effects

the negative impacts on a region of the economic growth of some other region.

Break-bulk point

A location where large shipments of goods are broken up into smaller containers for delivery to local markets.

Bulk-gaining industries

Industries whose products weigh more after assembly than they did previously in their constituent parts. Such industries tend to have production facilities close to their markets.

bulk-reducing industries

Industries whose final products weigh less than their constituent parts, and whose processing facilities tend to be located close to sources of raw materials.

commodity dependence

When peripheral economies rely too heavily on the export of raw materials, which places them on unequal terms of exchange with more-developed countries that export higher-value goods.

cottage industry

An industry in which the production of goods and services is based in homes, as opposed to factories.

economic backwash

regions that fail to gain from national economic development

export-processing zone

Area where government create favorable investments and trading conditions to attract export-orientated industries.

footloose firms

Manufacturing activities in which cost of transporting both raw materials and finished product is not important for determining the location of the firm.

microlending

A provision of small loans to poorer people, typically women, to encourage the development of small businesses that are often community-oriented.

net national product

A measure of all goods and services produced by a country in a year, including production from its investments abroad, minus the loss or degradation of natural resource capital as a result of productivity.

offshore financial centers

Areas that have been specially designed to promote business transactions, and thus have become centers for banking and finance.

outsourcing

Sending industrial processes out for external production. The term outsourcing increasingly applies not only to traditional industrial functions, but also to the contracting of service industry functions to companies to overseas locations, where operating costs remain relatively low.

regionalization

the process by which specific regions acquire characteristics that differentiate them from others within the same country. In economic geography, regionalization involves the development of dominant economic activities in particular regions

spatially fixed costs

An input cost in manufacturing that remains constant wherever production is located.

spatially variable costs

An input cost in manufacturing that changes significantly from place to place in its total amount and in its relative share of total costs.

sustainable development

The idea that people living today should be able to meet their needs without prohibiting the ability of future generations to do the same.

world-systems theory

Theory developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that explains the emergence of a core, periphery, and semi periphery in terms of economic and political connections first established at the beginning of exploration in the late 15th century and maintained through increased economic access up until the present.

aggregation

To come together into a mass, sum, or whole

Azimuthal Projection

A map projection in which the plane is the most developable surface.

breaking point

The outer edge of a city's sphere of influence, used in the law of retail gravitation to describe the area of a city's hinterlands that depend on that city for its retail supplies.

cognitive map

An image of a portion of Earth's surface that an individual creates in his or her mind. Cognitive maps can include knowledge of actual locations and relationships among locations as well as personal perceptions and preferences of particular places.

friction of distance

A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between two places.

Fuller Projection

A type of map projection that maintains the accurate size and shape of landmasses but completely rearranges direction such that the four cardinal directions--north, south, east, and west--no longer have any meaning.

Functional Region

Definition of regions based on common interaction (or function), for example, a boundary line drawn around the circulation of a particular newspaper.

Geoid

The actual shape of Earth, which is rough and oblate, or slightly squashed. Earth's diameter is longer around the equator than along the north-south meridians.

Gravity Model

A mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other.

Isoline

A map line that connects points of equal or very similar values.

W. D. Pattison

Geographer who claimed that geography drew from four distinct traditions: the earth-science tradition, the culture-environment tradition, the locational tradition, and the area-analysis tradition.

perceptual region

Highly individualized definition of regions based on perceived commonalities in culture and landscape.

Proportional Symbol Map

A thematic map in which the size of a chosen symbol-such as a circle or triangle-indicates the relative magnitude of some statistical value for a given geographic region.

qualitative data

Data associated with a more humanistic approach to geography, often collected through interviews, empirical observations, or the interpretation of texts, artwork, old maps, and other archives.

remote sensing

The observation and mathematical measurement of Earth's surface using aircraft and satellites. The sensors include photographic images, thermal images, multispectral scanners, and radar images.

resolution

A map's smallest discernible unit. If, for example, an object has to be one kilometer long in order to show up on a map, that map's resolution is one kilometer

Robinson Projection

Projection that attempts to balance several possible projection errors. It does not maintain completely accurate area, shape, distance, or direction, but it minimizes errors in each.

Carl Sauer

Geographer from the University of California at Berkley who defined the concept of cultural landscape as the fundamental unit of geographical analysis. This landscape results from the interaction between humans and the physical environment. Sauer argued that virtually no landscape has escaped alteration by human activities.

site

The absolute location of a place, described by local relief, landforms, and other cultural or physical characteristics.

situation

The relative location of a place in relation to the physical and cultural characteristics of the surrounding area and the connections and interdependencies within that system; a place's spatial context.

Thematic Layers

Individual maps of specific features that are overlaid on one another in a Geographical Information System to understand and analyze a spatial relationship.

thematic map

A type of map that displays one or more variables-such as population, or income level-within a specific area.

Transferability

The costs involved in moving goods from one place to another

Acculturation

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.

Animism

Most prevalent in Africa and the Americas, doctrine in which the world is seen as being infused with spiritual and even supernatural powers.

artifact

Any item that represents a material aspect of culture

Cultural Complex

The group of traits that define a particular culture.

cultural imperialism

The dominance of one culture over another.

cultural relativism

understanding another culture in its own terms rather than judging it by the standards or customs of one's own culture

Diaspora

People who come from a common ethnic background but who live in different regions outside of the home of their ethnicity

Ecumene

The portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement.

environmental determinism

A doctrine that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions.

ethnicity

Refers to a group of people who share a common identity.

Evangelical regions

Religion in which an effort is made to spread a particular belief system.

Isoglosses

Geographical boundary lines where different linguistic features meet. (you guys/y'all)

polyglot

A multilingual state.

Stimulus Diffusion

when a specific cultural element is diffused to another culture that gives it a new and unique form

Toponyms

the names of places (USA, Atlanta, Europe, England, Moscow)

Transculturation

The expansion of cultural traits through diffusion, adoption, and other related processes.

buffer state

A relatively small country sandwiched between two larger powers. The existence of buffer states may help to prevent dangerous conflicts between powerful countries.

Colonialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory. The expansion and perpetuation of an empire.

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Confederacy of independent states of the former Soviet Union that have united because of their common economic and administrative needs.

compact state

a state that possesses a roughly circular, oval, or rectangular territory in which the distance from the geometric center is relatively equal in all directions

Democratization

The process of establishing representative and accountable forms of government led by popularly elected officials.

Domino Theory

the idea that political destabilization in one country can lead to collapse of political stability in neighboring countries, starting a chain reaction of collapse

Federalism

A system in which power is divided between the national government and less powerful territories rather than concentrated within a central government (USA, Canada)

frontier

An area where borders are shifting and weak and where peoples of different cultures or nationalities meet and lay claim to the land.

Heartland Theory

Hypothesis proposed by Halford MacKinder that held that any political power based in the heart of Eurasia could gain enough strength to eventually dominate the world.

Imperialism

The perpetuation of a colonial empire's power and influence, often through expansionism

Irredentism

a policy of advocating the restoration to a country of any territory formerly belonging to it.

Lebensraum

Hitler's expansionist theory based on a drive to acquire "living space" for the German people

North/South Divide

The economic division between the wealthy countries of Europe and North America, Japan and Australia and the generally poorer countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Organic Theory

The view that states resemble biological organisms with life cycles that include stages of youth, maturity, and old age.

Prorupted State

A state that exhibits a narrow, elongated land extension leading away from the main territory.

Relic Boundaries

Old political boundaries that no longer exist as international borders, but that have left an enduring mark on the local cultural or environmental geography.

Rimland Theory

Nicholas Spykman's theory that the domination of the coastal fringes of Eurasia would provided the base for world conquest.

Shatterbelt

Region of persistent political fragmentation due to devolution and centrifugal forces

Territorial Organization

Political organization that distributes political power in more easily governed units of land.

Agribusiness

The set of economic and political relationships that organize food production for commercial purposes. It includes activities ranging from seed production, to retailing, to consumption of agricultural products.

animal husbandry

An agricultural activity associated with the raising of domesticated animals, such as cattle, horses, sheep, and goats.

capital-intensive agriculture

Form of agriculture that uses mechanical goods such as machinery, tools, vehicles, and facilities to produce large amounts of agricultural goods. A process requiring very little human labor.

Dairying

An agricultural activity involving the raising of livestock, most commonly cows and goats, for dairy products such as milk, cheese, and butter.

extensive agriculture

An agricultural system characterized by low inputs of labor per unit land area.

Horizontal Integration

a form of corporate organization in which several branches of a company or several commonly owned companies work together to sell their products in different markets

Intensive Cultivation

Any kind of agricultural activity that involves effective and efficient use of labor on small plots of land to maximize crop yield.

Pastoralism

A type of agricultural activity based on nomadic animal husbandry or the raising of livestock to provide food, clothing, and shelter.

Planned Agricultural Economy

An agricultural economy found in communist nations in which the government controls both agricultural production and distribution.

shifting cultivation

The use of tropical forest clearings for crop production until their fertility is lost. Plots are then abandoned, and farmers move on to new sites.

Specialty Crops

Crops including items like peanuts and pineapples, which are produced, usually in developing countries, for export.

Swidden

Land that is prepared for agriculture by using the slash-and-burn method.

Transhumance

The movements of livestock according to seasonal patterns, generally lowland areas in the winter, and highland areas in the summer.

Vertical Integration

A form of corporate organization in which one firm controls multiple aspects or phases of a commodity chain.

Action Space

The geographical area that contains the space an individual interacts with on a daily basis.

Beaux Arts

This movement within city planning and urban design that stressed the marriage of older, classical forms with newer, industrial ones. Common characteristics of this period include wide thoroughfares, spacious parks, and civic monuments that stressed progress, freedom, and national unity.

Blockbusting

As early as 1900, real estate agents and developers encouraged affluent white property owners to sell their homes and businesses at a loss by stoking fears that their neighborhoods were being overtaken by racial or ethnic minorities.

boomburg

A large, rapidly growing city that is suburban in character but resembles population totals or large urban cores

Borchert's epochs

According to the geographer John R. Borchert, American cities have undergone five major epochs, or periods, of development shaped by the dominant forms of transportation and communication at the time. These include sail-wagon epoch (1790-1830), iron horse epoch (1830-1870), steel rail epoch (1870-1920), auto-air-amenity epoch (1920-1970), and satellite-electronic-jet propulsion and high-technology epoch (1970-present).

edge cities

cities that are located on the on the outskirts of larger cities and serve many of the same functions of urban areas, but in a sprawling, decentralized suburban environment

Exurbanite

Person who has left the inner city and moved to outlying suburbs or rural areas.

Foward Capital

A capital city placed in a remote or peripheral area for economic, strategic, or symbolic reasons.

Galactic City Model

A circular-city model that characterizes the role of the automobile in the post-industrial era.