Geography 1100: Introduction to Human Geography - Midterm Review Vocabulary

Flashcards for Geography 1100 Midterm Review focusing on vocabulary terms and definitions.

Geography

The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these.

Physical Geography

The branch of geography dealing with natural features and processes.

Human Geography

The branch of geography dealing with how human activity affects or is influenced by the earth's surface.

Absolute Location

The exact position of a place on the earth's surface, expressed in terms of latitude and longitude.

Relative Location

The location of a place relative to other places and human activities.

Site

The immediate environment of a place.

Situation

The location of a place relative to its surrounding area.

Distance

A measure of the separation between two or more locations.

First Law of Geography

Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.

Absolute Distance

Objective measure of separation between two points.

Relative Distance

Expressed in terms of time, effort or cost.

Cognitive Distance

The distance that people perceive exists in a given situation.

Space

A bounded or unbounded area.

Absolute Space

Mathematical space described through points, lines, areas, planes, and configurations.

Relative Space

Site and situation, fixed by measures of time, cost, or social distance.

Cognitive Space

Gained through experience, awareness of people, places, and events.

Region

An area defined by one or more distinctive characteristics.

Symbolic Landscape

A collection of symbols expressing values, beliefs, and cultural meanings.

Palimpsest

A place made up of different layers of history.

Sense of Place

The personal and subjective meaning attached to a location by an individual or group.

Geographical Imagination

The capacity to understand changing patterns, processes, and relationships among people, places, and regions.

Map Projection

A systematic rendering on a flat surface of the geographic coordinates of the features found on Earth's surface.

Spatial Diffusion

The spread of something over time or space.

World-System Theory

An interdependent system of countries linked by political and economic competition.

Imperialism

Describes the dominance of a strong nation over weaker territories.

Colonialism

The formal establishment and maintenance of rule by a sovereign power over a foreign population.

Ethnocentrism

Belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

Social Darwinism

The theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals.

Environmental Determinism

The theory that the environment controls aspects of human life.

White Man's Burden

The idea that Europeans had a duty to civilize non-European peoples.

Scramble for Africa

The invasion, occupation, division, colonization, and annexation of African territory by European powers during the period of New Imperialism.

Neo-colonialism

The economic, political, and cultural control exerted by former colonial powers over their former colonies.

Contemporary Globalization

The increasing interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, environmental, political, and cultural change.

Core-Periphery Inequalities

The pattern of unequal distribution of wealth, income, and resources.

Fast World/Slow World

The idea that the developed world experiences rapid change while the undeveloped world experiences less change.

Digital Divide

The gap between those who have access to information technology and those who do not.

North-South Divide

The economic and political differences that exist between the wealthy developed countries (the North) and the poorer developing countries (the South).

Decolonization

The action or process of a former colony's gaining or regaining political independence.

Demography

The study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations.

Crude (Arithmetic) Density

The number of people per unit area.

Nutritional (Physiologic) Density

The number of people per unit area of agriculturally productive land.

Natural Increase (or Decrease)

The difference between the birth rate and the death rate.

Crude Birth Rate

The number of live births per 1,000 people in a year.

Total Fertility Rate

The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years.

Replacement Rate

The average number of births per woman to keep the population stable.

Infant Mortality Rate

The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births.

Crude Death Rate

The number of deaths per 1,000 people in a year.

Average Life Expectancy

The average number of years a person is expected to live.

Age-Sex Pyramid (aka Population Pyramid)

A bar graph depicting the distribution of a population by age and sex.

Dependency Ratio

The number of people who are too young or too old to work compared to the number of people in their productive years.

Demographic Transition Theory

A model of demographic change from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates.

Overpopulation

The condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash.

Malthusian Perspective

The idea that population growth will outstrip resources.

Population Policy

Governmental strategies to affect population size.

Economic Development

Processes of change involving the nature and composition of the economy of a particular region as well as increases to the overall prosperity of a region.

GDP, GNP, GNI

A measure of the size of an economy.

Informal Sector

Economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government.

Externalities

Effects not accounted for in the price of a good or service.

Human Development Index (HDI)

A composite measure of life expectancy, education, and income.

Gender Inequality Index (GII)

A composite measure reflecting inequality in achievements between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labor market.

Primary Sector

The part of the economy that extracts and harvests products from the earth.

Secondary Sector

The sector of the economy that transforms raw materials into manufactured goods.

Tertiary Sector

The part of the economy that involves services rather than goods.

Quaternary Sector

The sector of the economy that is based on knowledge and skill.

Foreign Direct Investment

An investment made by a foreign company in the economy of another country.

Transnational Corporation

A firm that has the power to coordinate and control operations in more than one country.

Trade Bloc

A group of countries that agree to reduce or eliminate trade barriers.

Commodity Chain

The organization of commodity production across borders.

Race to the Bottom

The phenomenon whereby countries lower their environmental standards in order to attract foreign investment.