APHG Unit 1

Pattern

The observable, geometric arrangement of objects, features, or human activities across Earth’s surface.

World Systems Theory

A model that divides the global economy into a three-tiered hierarchy.

MDC/Core country

A wealthy nation with high industrialization, advanced technology, and a high standard of living.

LCD/Periphery country

A national at the bottom of the global economic system.

Developing country/semi-periphery country

A middle-income, industrializing nation that bridges the gap between wealthy core countries and poor periphery countries.

BRICS countries

An acronym for a coalition of major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.

Primary Sector

The portion of an economy that extracts or harvests natural resources directly from the earth.

Secondary Sector

The part of the economy where raw materials from the primary sector are processed, transformed, and manufactured into finished, usable goods or products of greater value.

Tertiary Sector

The part of the economy that provides services to people and businesses in exchange for payment, rather than extracting raw materials or manufacturing physical goods.

Site/absolute location

The exact, fixed position of a place on Earth’s surface.

Situation/relative location

The location of a place in relation to other places, and its connection to surrounding trade routes, resources, and human networks.

Space

The abstract, physical gap, distance or area between and around locations.

Location

The position of something on Earth’s surface.

Concentration

The extent of a feature’s spread over a geographic space.

Scale

1. Map scale is the mathematical ratio between map distance and real ground distance

2. Scale of analysis is the geographic level- like local, national, global- used to study a phenomenon or data

Density

The frequency with which something occurs in a specific space or land area

Distribution

The arrangement of a feature across Earth’s surface such as people, cities, or farms

Region

An area of Earth’s surface defined by one or more unifying physical or human characteristics, or by patterns of activity.

Formal region

An area defined by one or more measurable, shared physical or human characteristics that are consistent and present throughout the entire area.

Functional region/nodal region

An area organized around a central focal point, or node, and defined by interactions, connections, and the flow of goods, information, or people.

Perceptual region/vernacular region

An area defined by people’s shared feelings, attitudes, and cultural identity rather than by objective, measurable data.

Homogeneous characteristics

A shared uniform, and measurable trait that is consistent throughout a specific geographic area.

Regionalization

The process of dividing Earth’s surface into smaller, manageable areas or regions based on shared unifying characteristics or patterns of activity.

Uniform landscape

The spatial expression of a popular custom in one location being similar or identical to another.

Globalization

The process by which economic, political, cultural, and social systems across national borders, making the world more connected and interdependent.

Localization

The emphasis, strengthening, or return of local and regional identities, cultures, economic practices, or political control in response to or resistance against the forces of globalization.

Local diversity

The unique cultural traditions and economic practices that distinguish a specific geographic area from the rest of the world.

Distance decay

People, ideas, and goods blend or trade less often the farther apart they are located.

Cultural landscape

The visible, tangible imprint of human activity and culture on the physical environment.

Environmental determinism

Represents an older viewpoint where nature is seen as the primary architect of human civilization.

Possibilism

The theory that the physical environment may set limits or offer challenges, but human culture, technology, and decision-making determine how a society develops.

Placelessness

The loss of local uniqueness in a cultural landscape so that one place looks and feels just like another.

Sense of place

The subjective, emotional attachment and distinct identity that people give to a location.

Friction of distance

The core idea that distance creates a barrier, cost, or penalty (in time, money, and energy) to movement and communication.

Space-time compression

The reduction in the time it takes for people, ideas, and goods to travel between places.

Sustainability

The use of Earth’s renewable and non-renewable natural resources in ways that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Diffusion

The process by which a phenomenon, idea, innovation, disease, or cultural trait spreads from its point of origin-known as a hearth-outward across space and time.

Expansion diffusion

The process where an idea, innovation, or cultural trait spreads outward from a hearth (point of origin) to new areas while remaining strong and active at the source.

Hierarchical diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion where an idea, trend, or innovation spreads outward from nodes of power, influence, or high connectivity down to smaller or less connected people and places.

Relocation diffusion

The spread of cultural trait, idea, or disease through the physical movement of people from one place to another.

Contagious diffusion

A form of expansion diffusion where a cultural trait, idea, or disease spreads rapidly or widely from a central source (hearth) through direct, person-to-person contact, moving outward in a wave-like pattern to nearby individuals and places regardless of social or economic hierarchies.

Stimulus diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle or idea, even though the specific characteristics or form changes to fit the local culture.

Reverse hierarchical diffusion

The spread of a cultural trait or innovation from smaller, less influential communities or lower social classes upward to larger cities and elite groups.

Hearth

The geographic point of origin or place where a cultural trait, idea, innovation, or technology first develops before it diffuses or spreads outward to other regions.