Regional Voting Patterns and Cultural Identity Analysis

2. Election 2000: Regional Differences Fig. 1-10: Presidential election results by county and state illustrate differences in regional voting patterns.

3. Types of Regions • Formal (uniform) regions (p.20-21) • Area where everyone has one or more distinctive characteristic in common. • Example: Montana • Functional (nodal) regions (p.22) • Area organized around a node or focal point. • Example: the circulation area of a newspaper • Vernacular (cultural) regions (p.22-23) • Place that people believe exists b/c of their cultural identity. • Example: the American South

4. Formal and Functional Regions Fig. 1-11: The state of Iowa is an example of a formal region; the areas of influence of various television stations are examples of functional regions.

5. Vernacular Regions Fig. 1-12: A number of factors are often used to define the South as a vernacular region, each of which identifies somewhat different boundaries.

6. Spatial Association • A region can be constructed to encompass an area of widely varying scale, from a small portion of Earth to a large portion of Earth. • Different conclusions are drawn depending on the region’s scale. • Ex. Death rates from cancer (p.23-24)

7. Spatial Association at Various Scales Fig. 1-13: Death rates from cancer in the U.S., Maryland, and Baltimore show different patterns that can identify associations with different factors.

8. Culture • When looking at the distinctiveness of regions, geographers look at culture. (p.24-25) • Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for” • Two aspects: • What people care about • Beliefs, values, and customs • What people take care of • Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and shelter

9. Cultural Ecology • The geographic study of human–environment relationships • Two perspectives: • Environmental determinism: Study of how the physical environment causes (controls/limits) human activities. • Possibilism: • Modern geographers generally reject environmental determinism in favor of possibilism • The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust. • Determined by a group’s values: • Crop selection determine by environment • Vegetarian vs Non-vegetarian • Cremation versus burial

10. Physical Processes • 5 Climates: Tropics, Dry, Warm, Cold, Polar • Climate=the long-term average weather condition at a particular location. • Vegetation/Biomes: Forest, Savanna, Grassland Desert • Soil: 12,000 soil types • Landforms: flat to mountainous • Influences most human activities • Humans have limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation levels.

11. http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/terrestrial-biomes-13236757http://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/terrestrial-biomes-13236757

12. Physical Processes • Soil-thin layer between air and rocks containing nutrients • Concerns over soil include erosion and nutrient depletion • Landforms-study of landforms is called geomorphology • Explains the distribution of people and economic activities at different locations • Studied through topographic maps

14. Modifying the Environment Figure 1-21 • Examples • The Netherlands • Polders: creating land by drainage • The Florida Everglades • Not so sensitive environmental modification/ unintended environmental/social consequences

15. Key Issue 3 Why Are Different Places Similar?

16. Scale: From Local to Global • Globalization-a force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope; means the scale of the world is shrinking • Economic globalization (see p.31-32) • Transnational corporations • Has led to more specialization and has heightened economic differences among places • Cultural globalization (see p.32-33) • A global culture?

19. Globalization of the Economy Fig. 1-17: The Denso corporation is headquartered in Japan, but it has regional headquarters and other facilities in North America and Western Europe.

20. Space: Distribution of Features • Distribution-the arrangement of a feature in space • Density-frequency that something occurs in space • Arithmetic-total # of objects in an area (p.34) • Physiological-# of people per unit of arable land • Agricultural-# of farmers per unit of farmland • Concentration-extent of a feature’s spread over space • If objects are close together, they are clustered • If objects are far apart, they are dispersed • Pattern-geometric arrangement of objects in space

21. 40. Diffusion • The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time • Hearth = source area for innovations • Two types of diffusion • Relocation: idea spread by people

22. 1) HIV/AIDS2) release of a coin….(37) Relocation Diffusion: Figure 1-31

23. Expansion Relocation • “snowball” diffusion • Three types: • Hierarchical: top down or centers of power • Contagious: diffuses regardless of the origin (person or place) • Stimulus: diffusion in which one people/ receives a culture element from another but gives it a new and unique form

24. 41 – 44. Diffusion of Culture & Economy • the hearth of C&E primarily in USA, Europe, & Japan. • Africa, Latin America, and Asia on the periphery of global investment • Resulted in uneven development

25. Space–Time Compression Figure 1-29

26. Density, Concentration, and Pattern Fig. 1-18: The density, concentration, and pattern (of houses in this example) may each vary in an area or landscape.

27. Density and Concentration of Baseball Teams, 1952–2000 Fig. 1-19: The changing distribution of North American baseball teams illustrates the differences between density and concentration.

28. Spatial Interaction Figure 1-30 Transportation networks Electronic communications and the “death” of geography? Distance decay

29. Airline Route Networks Fig. 1-21: Delta Airlines, like many others, has configured its route network in a “hub and spoke” system.

30. Diffusion • The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time • Hearth-source area for innovations • Two types of diffusion • Relocation-spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another; ex. Language, religion, ethnicity • Expansion-spread of a feature from one place to another • Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

32. Diffusion • Hierarchical diffusion-spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places; ex. Hip hop, rap, and jazz music • Contagious diffusion-rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout a population; ex. Diseases or use of the Internet • Stimulus diffusion-spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently refuses to diffuse; ex. Apple vs. IBM, Windows

33. AIDS Diffusion in the U.S.,1981–2001 Fig. 1-22: New AIDS cases were concentrated in three nodes in 1981. They spread through the country in the 1980s, but declined in the original nodes in the late 1990s.