Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Globalizing processes occur at the world scale; these
processes bypass country borders and include global
fi nancial markets and global environmental change.
However, the processes of globalization do not magically
appear at the global scale:
what happens at other scales (indi-
vidual, local, regional, national) helps create the processes of glo-
balization and shape the outcomes of globalization
.
Some argue that the impacts of globalization are exag-
gerated, but as geographers Ron Johnston, Peter Taylor,
and Michael Watts explain, “Whatever your opinion may
be, any intellectual engagement with social change in the
twenty fi rst century has to address this concept seriously,
and assess its capacity to explain the world we currently
inhabit.” We integrate the concept of globalization into this
textbook because processes at the global scale, processes
that are not confi ned to local places or national borders, are
clearly changing the human geography of the planet. At the
same time, as we travel the world and continue to engage in
fi eldwork and research, we are constantly reminded of how
different places and people are from one another—processes
at the individual, local, regional, and national scales con-
tinue to change human geography and shape globalization.
No place on Earth is untouched by people. As people
explore, travel, migrate, interact, play, live, and work, they
make places. People organize themselves into communi-
ties, nations, and broader societal networks, establishing
political, economic, religious, linguistic, and cultural sys-
tems that enable them to function in space. People adapt
to, alter, manipulate, and cope with their physical geo-
graphic environment. No environment stands apart from
human action. Each place we see is affected by and created
by people, and each place refl ects the culture of the people
in that place over time.
geography
asks similar questions about the natural envi-
ronment. Human and physical geographers adopt a similar
perspective but focus on different phenomena.
Geographer Marvin Mikesell once gave a shorthand
defi nition of geography as the “why of where.” Why and how
do things come together in certain places to produce particu-
lar outcomes? Why are some things found in certain places
but not in others? How do the characteristics of particular
places shape what happens? To what extent do things in one
place infl uence those in other places? To these questions, we
add “so what?” Why do differences across geographic space
matter? What role does a place play in its region and in
the world, and what does that mean for people there and else-
where? Questions such as these are at the core of geographic
inquiry—whether human or physical-and they are of critical
importance in any effort to make sense of our world.
If geography deals with so many aspects of our world,
ranging from people and places to coastlines and climates,
what do the various facets of this wide-ranging discipline
have in common? The answer lies in a perspective that
both human and physical geographers bring to their stud-
ies: a
spatial
perspective. Whether they are human geog-
raphers or physical geographers, virtually all geographers
are interested in the spatial arrangement of places and phe-
nomena, how they are laid out, organized, and arranged on
the Earth, and how they appear on the landscape.
Mapping the
spatial distribution
of a phenomenon
can be the fi rst step to understanding it. By looking at a
map of how something is distributed across space, a geog-
rapher can raise questions about how the arrangement
came about, what processes create and sustain the particu-
lar distributions or
patterns
, and what relationships exist
between different places and things.
Maps in the Time of Cholera Pandemics
In
medical geography
, mapping the distribution of a dis-
ease is the fi rst step to fi nding its cause. In 1854, Dr. John
Snow, a noted anesthesiologist in London, mapped cases
of cholera in London's Soho District.
Cholera is an ancient disease associated with diarrhea
and dehydration. It was confi ned to India until the beginning
of the nineteenth century. In 1816 it spread to China, Japan,
East Africa, and Mediterranean Europe in the fi rst of several
pandemics
, worldwide outbreaks of the disease. This initial
wave abated by 1823, but by then cholera was feared
throughout the world, for it had killed people everywhere by
the hundreds, even thousands. Death was horribly convul-
sive and would come in a matter of days, perhaps a week, and
no one knew what caused the disease or how to avoid it.
Soon a second cholera pandemic struck. It lasted
from 1826 to 1837, when cholera crossed the Atlantic and
attacked North America. During the third pandemic,
from 1842 to 1862, England was severely hit, and cholera
again spread into North America.
Imagine and describe the most remote place on Earth you
can think of 100 years ago. Now, describe how globalization
has changed that place and how the people there continue
to shape it and make it the place it is today.
WHAT ARE GEOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS?
Geographers study human phenomena such as lan-
guage, religion, and identity, as well as physical phenom-
ena such as landforms, climate, and environmental change.
Geographers also examine the interactions between
humans and environment. Human geography is the study
of the spatial and material characteristics of the human-
made places and people found on Earth's surface;
physical
