Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Traffi cking
When a family sends a child or an adult to a labor re-
cruiter in hopes that the labor recruiter will send money, and the family
member will earn money to send home.
Transhumance
A seasonal periodic movement of
pastoralists
and
their livestock between highland and lowland pastures.
Unilateralism
World order in which one state is in a position of dom-
inance with allies following rather than joining the political decision-
making process.
Unitary (state)
A
nation-state
that has a centralized government and
administration that exercises power equally over all parts of the state.
Universalizing religion
A belief system that espouses the idea that
there is one true religion that is universal in scope. Adherents of univer-
salizing religious systems often believe that their religion represents uni-
versal truths, and in some cases great effort is undertaken in evangelism
and missionary work.
Urban (area)
The entire built-up, nonrural area and its population,
including the most recently constructed suburban appendages. Provides
a better picture of the dimensions and population of such an area than
the delimited municipality (central city) that forms its heart.
Urban hierarchy
A ranking of settlements (hamlet, village, town, city,
metropolis) according to their size and economic functions.
Urban morphology
The study of the physical form and structure of
urban
places
.
Urban realm
A
spatial
generalization of the large, late-twentieth-
century
city
in the United States. It is shown to be a widely dispersed,
multicentered metropolis consisting of increasingly independent zones
or realms, each focused on its own
suburban downtown
; the only ex-
ception is the shrunken central realm, which is focused on the
Central
Business District (CBD)
.
Urban sprawl
Unrestricted growth in many American
urban
areas
of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of
land, with little concern for urban planning.
Urbanization
A term with several connotations. The proportion of a
country's population living in urban places is its level of urbanization.
The process of urbanization involves the movement of people to, and
the clustering of people in, towns and cities—a major force in every
geographic realm today. Another kind of urbanization occurs when an
expanding city absorbs the rural countryside and transforms it into sub-
urbs; in the case of cities in the developing world, this also generates
peripheral
shantytowns
.
Variable costs
Costs that change directly with the amount of produc-
tion (e.g. energy supply and labor costs).
Vectored disease
A disease carried from one host to another by an
intermediate host.
Vertical integration
Ownership by the same fi rm of a number of
companies that exist along a variety of points on a
commodity chain
.
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
The
fi rst international convention aimed at addressing the issue of ozone
depletion. Held in 1985, the Vienna Convention was the predecessor to
the
Montreal Protocol
.
Voluntary migration Movement
in which people relocate in re-
sponse to perceived opportunity, not because they are forced to move.
Von Thünen Model
A model that explains the location of agricultural
activities in a commercial, profi t-making economy. A process of spatial
competition allocates various farming activities into rings around a cen-
tral market city, with profi t-earning capability the determining force in
how far a crop locates from the market.
Washington Consensus
Label used to refer to the following fundam-
netal principles of free trade: 1) that free trade raises the well-being of all
countries by inducing them to devote their resources to production of
those goods they produce relatively most effi ciently; and 2) that compe-
tition through trade raises a country's long-term growth rate by expand-
ing access to global technologies and promoting innovation.
Wisconsinan Glaciation
The most recent glacial period of the
Pleistocene, enduring about 100,000 years and giving way, beginning
about 18,000 years ago, to the current interglacial, the Holocene.
World city
Dominant
city
in terms of its role in the global political
economy. Not the world's biggest city in terms of population or indus-
trial output, but rather centers of strategic control of the world economy.
World-systems theory
Theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein
and illuminated by his
three-tier structure
, proposing that social
change in the developing world is inextricably linked to the economic
activities of the developed world.
Zero population growth
a state in which a population is maintained
at a constant level because the number of deaths is exactly offset by the
number of births.
Zionism
The movement to unite the Jewish people of the
diaspora
and to establish a national homeland for them in the promised land.
Zone
Area of a
city
with a relatively uniform land use (e.g. an indus-
trial zone, or a residential zone).
Zoning laws
Legal restrictions on land use that determine what types
of building and economic activities are allowed to take place in certain
areas. In the United States, areas are most commonly divided into sepa-
rate zones of residential, retail, or industrial use.
