The Cultural Landscape: Distribution, Identity, and Connectivity in Human Geography

Scale: Global and Local Economic and Cultural Change

• Scale refers to the relationship between the portion of Earth being studied and Earth as a whole. Geographers focus on the contrast between the local scale and the global scale.

• Globalization is a process or force that involves the entire world, resulting in making something worldwide in scope. This process effectively makes the world "shrink" in the sense that individuals, objects, and ideas can interact more easily across vast distances.

• At the global scale, uniform cultural preferences lead to a "global" landscape. Material artifacts and values become standardized. Examples include fast-food restaurants, service stations, and retail chains that utilize a consistent visual appearance so customers have predictable expectations regardless of location.

• Globalization of culture results in uniform beliefs, especially regarding religion and language. For example, many people in Africa have shifted from traditional religions to adopt Christianity or Islam. The English language has increasingly become a common form of communication worldwide.

• Interaction with global social customs, such as wearing jeans and Nike shoes, consuming Coca-Cola or McDonald’s hamburgers, and using cell phones, can threaten the survival of unique characteristics in local cultures.

• Despite standardization, cultural differences persist and flourish. The communication revolution allows for the preservation of diversity; while cable and satellite TV once had limited channels, they now offer hundreds of programs in multiple languages, allowing individuals to choose specific cultural values.

• Economic globalization is driven by transnational corporations (or multinational corporations). These entities conduct research, operate factories, and sell products in many countries, not just where their headquarters and shareholders are located. Examples include Ford and McDonald’s.

• The global economy encourages local specialization based on assets assessed by corporations. This results in a spatial division of labor where workers in specific regions specialize in particular tasks (e.g., research, parts production, or management) based on local skill levels, wage rates, and union attitudes.

Distribution Properties: Density, Concentration, and Pattern

• Distribution is the arrangement of a feature in space. Geographers use spatial thinking to understand these arrangements and identify three main properties: density, concentration, and pattern.

• Density is the frequency with which a feature occurs in space ($\text{number} / \text{land area}$). High numbers do not always mean high density. For instance, China has approximately $1.4 \times 10^9$ people and a density of $148$ persons per $km^2$ across its $9.6 \times 10^6$ $km^2$. In contrast, the Netherlands has only $1.7 \times 10^7$ people but a much higher density of approximately $511$ persons per $km^2$ because its area is only $42,000$ $km^2$.

• High population density is not inherently related to poverty. The Netherlands is wealthy with a high density of $511$ persons per $km^2$, while Mali is poor with a low density of $16$ persons per $km^2$.

• Concentration is the extent of a feature's spread over space. If objects are close together, they are "clustered"; if they are far apart, they are "dispersed".

• Major-league baseball teams in North America provide an example of changing concentration. In $1952$, all $16$ teams were clustered in the Northeast. Between $1960$ and $1998$, the league expanded to $30$ teams and several original teams moved West and South, resulting in a more dispersed distribution.

• Pattern is the geometric arrangement of objects in space. This can be linear (houses along a street), or grid-based (streets intersecting at right angles). The U.S. Land Ordinance of $1785$ established a grid pattern of townships and ranges visible in many agricultural areas.

Geographic Thought and the Geography of Inequality

• Geographers use three main approaches to study cultural identity and space: poststructuralist, humanistic, and behavioral geography.

• Poststructuralist Geography examines how powerful groups dominate less powerful ones and how these power dynamics shape space based on the ideologies of ruling elites. An example is the Flint, Michigan water crisis ($2014$), where $100,000$ residents (over $50.00$ percent African American, $25.00$ percent unemployment, and low median income) were exposed to lead-poisoned water after a cost-cutting change in water source.

• Humanistic Geography emphasizes the symbolic meanings individuals give to places. For example, the Castro District in San Francisco is perceived as an LGBTQ-friendly space offering acceptance through inclusive policies.

• Behavioral Geography focuses on the psychological basis for human actions in space, observing how distinctive spatial patterns are constructed by the attitudes of cultural groups.

• Uneven Development describes the increasing economic gap between "core" regions (North America, Europe, and East Asia) and "periphery" regions. Core regions possess high technology and capital, while peripheral regions often have limited access to wealth and power.

• Economic inequality within countries is also rising. In the United States, the wealthiest $1.00$ percent held $24.00$ percent of the national income in $1979$; by $2017$, this share reached $40.00$ percent. Sasha Trubetskoy mapped that half of U.S. economic activity is clustered in less than $1.00$ percent of the land area.

Cultural Identity: Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexuality in Space

• Geographers analyze how people sort themselves in space based on gender, ethnicity, and sexuality.

• Sex vs. Gender: Sex refers to biological features (typically male or female), whereas gender refers to social attributes, roles, and relationships assigned by society.

• Gender Spatial Patterns: Household movement often varies by gender. Families may locate homes to ease a husband's commute. A U.K. survey of people aged $30$ to $59$ showed women take $17.00$ percent more trips per year than men, often for shopping, school runs, or visiting friends, while men take more commuting trips.

• Gender Inequality: Average income for women is around $55.00$ percent that of men worldwide ($58.00$ percent in developed countries; $49.00$ percent in developing countries). No country has been found where women's average income exceeds men's.

• Sexual Orientation: LGBTQ individuals may seek "safe spaces" to avoid discrimination. In the U.S., LGBTQ populations vary from $6.20$ percent in San Francisco to $2.60$ percent in Birmingham. Globally, $72$ countries criminalized LGBTQ people in $2017$, with $8$ imposing the death penalty: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen.

• Ethnicity and Race: Ethnicity is tied to cultural traditions of a location; race is a social construct based on physiological traits like skin color. Historical segregation, such as Apartheid in South Africa, legally separated races (White, Black, Colored, Asian) into distinct areas. In post-Apartheid Johannesburg, income disparities remain: Whites earn $\$30,000$, Asians earn $\$18,000$, Coloreds earn $\$12,000$, and Blacks earn $\$6,000$ on average annually.

Connections: Diffusion and Spatial Interaction

• Diffusion is the process by which a feature spreads from a hearth (place of origin) across space.

• Relocation Diffusion is the spread of an idea through physical movement of people. Examples include the spread of Spanish and English to the Americas or the diffusion of Euro coins in $2002$ after they were minted in $12$ different countries.

• Expansion Diffusion is an additive process involving three sub-types:

  • Hierarchical Diffusion: Spread from authority figures or power nodes (e.g., Honda’s regional offices directed from Tokyo or hip-hop spreading from urban nodes).

  • Contagious Diffusion: Rapid, widespread diffusion analogous to a disease (e.g., viral internet memes like the "Alex from Target" Twitter post or the spread of electric scooters).

  • Stimulus Diffusion: Spread of an underlying principle even if the specific characteristic fails to diffuse (e.g., Apple iPhone features adopted by competitors).

• Distance Decay states that interaction diminishes with increasing distance. However, Space-Time Compression (the reduction in time it takes for something to reach another place) has made distant places feel more accessible. In $1492$, Christopher Columbus took $37$ days ($888$ hours) to cross the Atlantic; in $1927$, Charles Lindbergh took $33.5$ hours; and in $1962$, John Glenn orbited the globe in $5$ hours.

• Spatial Interaction occurs through networks, such as a hub-and-spoke airline network (e.g., WOW Air using Reykjavik, Iceland as a hub).

• Interaction Results:

  • Assimilation: Group cultural features are altered to resemble another group.

  • Acculturation: Two groups meet and change, but both retain distinct features.

  • Syncretism: Elements of two groups combine to form a new cultural feature.

Questions & Discussion

• Question 1: Which activity, proportionally, has the greatest difference between men's and women's trips? The least? Explain.

• Question 2: What does this comparison suggest about the relative equality of contemporary gender roles?

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.1: Give an example of a cultural activity or preference from another part of the world that has become popular among your friends or in your school.

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.2: Describe the distribution properties of your classroom (density, concentration, and pattern).

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.3: What sorts of places are the small red clusters on Figure 1-50? (Note: These are high GDP urban areas).

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.4: Using your own campus or school as the example, describe how movement across space varies during the day for students and faculty.

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.5: Describe the relationship between ethnicity and location or spatial distribution in the area where you live.

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.6: U.S. coins in general circulation are minted in either Denver or Philadelphia. Do you have more from the mint closer to you? Why might that be?

• Pause & Reflect 1.3.7: Is your nearest airport a hub? If not, to what hubs is your nearest airport connected?

• Debate It: Should GPS location services on cell phones be left on or turned off? Arguments for privacy emphasize personal security and hacking risks. Arguments for tracking emphasize law enforcement's ability to find and prosecute criminals involved in activities like drug sales.