Social Science USAD

Human Geography

The study of how human activities vary across different locations; it examines spatial characteristics of human activities and analyzes interactions between humans and their physical environments.

Spatial Perspective

A geographic perspective that asks about the 'why of where,' considering reasons for phenomena in particular places, the relationship between nearby locations, and changes over time.

Cartography

The discipline and methodology of creating visual representations of the Earth’s surface through maps.

Absolute Location

The precise position of an object or place as determined by spatial coordinates within a grid system, typically using latitude and longitude lines.

Prime Meridian

An imaginary line that runs through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, representing the $0^{\circ}$ longitude mark.

Reference Maps

Maps that provide details about a location to help users identify landmarks and navigate, such as political, physical, road, and topographic maps.

Thematic Maps

Maps that illustrate specific variables, like population size or income, across a defined region to reveal patterns, trends, and conditions.

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that displays how data varies across locations by using different shades or colors to represent density and/or intensity.

Cartogram Map

A map that uses visual distortions imposed on the landscape to demonstrate relative variables, such as stretching the size of continents to show global population differences.

Mental Map

An individual’s internal, subjective perception of their surroundings used to navigate environments without a physical reference.

Absolute Distance

A measurable span between two locations using standardized units of length, such as miles or kilometers.

Distance Decay Effect

The reduction in interaction between two locations as spatial separation grows.

Time-Space Compression

The reduction in the impact of physical distances due to advances in technology and globalization.

Map Scale

A measure that determines the level of detail a map displays and the relationship between distances in its representation and distances in reality.

Geographic Information System (GIS)

A technology that superimposes layers of data onto a location to reveal connections and patterns.

Remote Sensing

The use of satellites and aircraft to gather spatial information, enabling the mapping of wide regions and monitoring of weather changes.

Cultural Landscape

The natural environment that has been altered by humans to reflect the distinctive characteristics of a specific culture or society.

Gerrymandering

The deliberate configuration of voting boundaries to favor a particular political party.

Relocation Diffusion

A type of diffusion that occurs when something spreads through the movement and migration of people, such as a language brought by immigrants.

Expansion Diffusion

A type of diffusion that grows outward from a single point of origin, including hierarchical, contagious, and stimulus diffusion.

Sustainability

The responsible and strategic use of the planet’s assets to fulfill the needs of the present generation without compromising future generations.

Environmental Determinism

The theory that nature determines which human lifestyles and levels of development are possible.

Environmental Possibilism

The framework that acknowledges environmental limits but contends that humans play a significant role in shaping what is possible through innovation and adaptation.

Formal Region

A region defined by consistent unifying characteristics, such as shared language, climate patterns, or political boundaries like the state of Ohio.

Functional Region

A region organized around a central node or hub that governs movement and activity, such as communication or transportation networks.

Vernacular Region

Also called a perceptual region, it is defined by shared cultural perceptions rather than strict boundaries, such as the Bible Belt.

Material Culture

Physical components of culture including items such as tools, ornaments, structures, documents, and religious imagery made or used by people.

Mentifacts

Shared ideals, values, and belief systems that shape culture, including religious, political, moral, and social points of view.

Cultural Hearth

The location where a certain culture first appeared.

Folk Culture

Culture characteristic of smaller, more isolated, and more culturally unified groups, such as rural populations and Indigenous tribes.

Popular Culture

Culture characteristic of larger, denser, and more diverse groups, spreading primarily through hierarchical and contagious diffusion from developed nations.

Sequent Occupancy

The cultural imprints that successive societies leave on a place, such as Mexico City reflecting Aztec, Spanish Colonial, and modern urban civilizations.

Centripetal Forces

Factors that unify a state and pull its population together, such as shared language, religion, and strong infrastructure.

Centrifugal Forces

Factors that divide a state and pull its population apart, such as social unrest, revolt, and political violence.

Balkanization

The fragmentation of a larger state or region into smaller, often hostile, and ethnically homogeneous units.

Physiological Density

A measure that divides the total population in an area by its total arable (farmable) land.

Dependency Ratio

The ratio of a population who are too old (over $65$) or too young (under $15$) to support themselves to the working-age population.

Natural Increase Rate (NIR)

The difference in the annual number of births and deaths within a particular country, expressed as CBR minus CDR.

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

A model representing demographic stages that track the progression from high birthrates and death rates to low birth and death rates over time.

Epidemiological Transition Model (ETM)

A trajectory of stages representing a progression from high mortality due to infectious diseases to lower mortality from chronic, degenerative diseases.

Malthusian Theory

The theory pioneered by Thomas Malthus that a population crisis occurs when exponential human growth outpaces the linear growth of food production.

Replacement Fertility Rate

The average number of children (usually about $2.1$) that must be born to a woman for her to replace herself and her partner in a population.

Stepwise Migration

A strategy where migrants move to their preferred destination in a number of incremental steps rather than making a single move.

Brain Drain

The loss of younger, more educated, and more skilled residents through migration, affecting a place's productivity.

Mobility Transition Model

Wilbur Zelinsky's theory that relates the types and patterns of migration in a country to its stage of development.

Refugee

An individual outside of their country of origin who has a well-founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a social group.

Internally Displaced Person (IDP)

A person forced to flee their home due to conflict or disaster who remains within their own country's borders.

Principle of Non-refoulement

The international legal principle that countries should not return refugees to their country of origin against their will.

Manifest Destiny

The nineteenth-century belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand across the entire North American continent.

Louisiana Purchase

An 1803 deal in which the U.S. purchased $828,800$ square miles of territory from France for $\$15\,\text{million}$, almost doubling the size of the nation.

Great Migration

The movement of approximately $6\,\text{million}$ African Americans from the rural South to industrial cities in the West, Midwest, and Northeast between 1915 and 1970.

The 'Last Million'

A term for the approximately $1.2\,\text{million}$ displaced persons remaining in Germany in September 1945 who refused to return to their homelands, many due to fear of the Soviet Union.

Partition of India

The 1947 division of British India into the independent nations of India and Pakistan, resulting in a mass migration of roughly $15$ to $18\,\text{million}$ people.

Bracero Program

A U.S. emergency labor program (1942–1964) that brought approximately $4.5\,\text{million}$ Mexican workers into the United States to work in agriculture.

Floating Population

A term used in China to describe internal migrants who have temporary status and are constantly on the move for work.

Schengen Area

A border-free zone in Europe established in 1985 to allow the free movement of citizens and workers across participating nations.