Human and Physical Connections

1
Human and Physical Connections

• The Global Village
• Interdependence
• Interconnectedness

2
The Global Village

• Marshall McLuhan coined the Global Village
• What he meant was electronic devices such as
  televisions, telephones, computers have the
  effect of shrinking time and space by greatly
  speeding up communications between different
  parts of the world.
• People used to be only aware of what happened in
  their own neighborhood
• Now we are connected to the world via technology

3
The Global Village (contd)

• Earth itself is not shrinking, but
  telecommunication technologies have made it seem
  smaller and brought people around the world
  closer together.
• We have great knowledge of the living conditions
  of people in other parts of the world
• The Global village also means that our activities
  will impact on other parts if the Earth, and
  affect many people in many other areas of the
  world.

4
Interdependence

• McLuhan also used the term Interdependence
  specifically electronic interdependence
• Electronic devices have allowed people to
  communicate across the world almost
  instantaneously bringing them closer together.

5
Interdependence (contd)

• At the same time widely separated groups realize
  how dependant they are on each other
• A decision made in one part of the world can have
  serious repercussions in a distant land (I.e.
  Kathie-Lee Gifford and child slave labour.)
• Our consumer oriented culture is to some extent
  made possible by the low standard of living and
  low wages paid to workers in less developed
  countries.

6
Interconnectedness

• Interconnectedness refers to how phenomena
  (things, events, etc.) are involved with each
  other, often in complex ways.
• Our activities have significant impact on the
  Earth
• The Earths environment has significant impact on
  us

7
Interconnectedness (contd)

• An example of interconnectedness is the link
  between education levels, economic development,
  and standard of living in most countries
• There is a direct connection between economic
  development and education levels
• As a country increases its number of
  well-educated people, its economy strengthens and
  its standard of living tends to improve.
• The opposite is also true

8
Activity

• Thinking Like a Geographer p.23, Questions 1
  and 3 (submit answers to folder)
• Working together p. 26 27, questions 4a, b,
  c, d, e, f, and g. (submit your copy of your map,
  and your answer to part g)