Cultural Geography Lab Geog 212

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Cultural Geography Lab(Geog 212)

• Gregory Bryan
• 2108 LeFrak Hall
• gbryan_at_geog.umd.edu

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What is Geography?
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What is Geography?

• Duh States and Capitals!
• Geo-Graphy - Writing the earth in Greek
• Study of spatial variation, of how and why
  things differ from place to place on the surface
  of the earth and how they vary through time.
  Geits, Intro. To Geography 10th ed.
• Studies the relationship between humans and the
  environment. Dr. Geores

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What is Geography?
A definition of geography from Peet
(1998) Geography is the study of relations
between the society and the natural environment.
Geography looks at how society shapes alters and
increasingly transforms the natural environment
creating humanized forms from stretches of
pristine nature and then sedimenting layers of
socialization one within the other, one on top of
the other until a complex natural-social
landscape results. Geography also looks at how
nature conditions society, in some original sense
of creating the people and raw materials which
social forces work up into culture and in an
ongoing sense of placing limits and offering
material potentials for social processes like
economic development. Thus the synthetic core
of geography is the study of nature-society
interrelationships.
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What is Geography?

• Spatial Science examines how, why, and where
  interaction between humans and the environment
  occurs.

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What is Geography?

• Geography means the study of the earth.
• Studies natural or human phenomena through
  space, scale, and time.

Natural Phenomenon
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Space

• Geography is the science of place (location) and
  space.
• Place- For place the central issue is difference
  relative to other places (relationship).
• -Relative location the location of a place
  relative to other places.
• -Absolute location the exact location of a
  place on the surface of the earth.
• Space- When we discuss space (cf. place) often
  concerned with movement through space (distance
  and time).
• What kind of questions Geographers can ask about
  space and place?
• -Where are things located and why are they there?
• -How are people and their activities distributed
  in space?
• -How do people perceive space?
• -How do people create spaces?nt?

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Scale

• Geographic scale is the dimension of how we
  examine a physical or human phenomena.
• Different social and physical processes operate
  at different scales (coarse and fine).
• -Global (macro)
• -Region
• -Nation or State
• -Community, county, city, etc. (micro)
• Many processes interact across various scales.

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Time

• Temporal scale- The historian has no exclusive
  right in the telling of stories in time. But the
  historian hopes to bring a special understanding
  to such story-telling.
• Equally the geographer can claim no exclusive
  right to the telling of space stories, space
  futures and space legends.
• But the geographer should hope to tell such
  stories with special insight.
• -Compare two different places at a specific
  period.
• -Compare a place through history.
• -Why two cities have evolved differently over
  time.

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Tools

• Remote sensing

Cairo
San Francisco
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Tools

• Geographic Information System

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Tools

• Cartography

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Disciplines in Geography

• Physical Geography- is concerned primarily with
  the physical processes and the relationship
  between humans and the physical environment. Ex.
  geomorphology, climatology, ecology, biology,
  etc.
• Technique- Cartography, Remote Sensing, and
  Geographic Information System.
• Human Geography - Not too fast! We have all
  semester to discuss this!

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Human Geography

• Studies the spatial analysis of human population,
  their culture, and activities.
• Examines patterns, distribution, interaction, and
  location of human phenomenon.
• Observes the relationship between the physical
  environment and humans how we respond to change,
  and interact with the physical world.
• It is sometime referred as cultural or social
  geography, although these terms usually refer to
  sub-fields.

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Interaction between Human and Physical Environment

• In what aspects would a Physical Geographer would
  be interested in a hurricane?
• - Force of the winds
• - Precipitation
• - Path of the hurricane
• - Atmospheric pressure
• - Water temperature

• In what aspects would a Human Geographer would be
  interested in a hurricane?
• - Property damages
• - Landfall
• - Fatalities
• - Migration
• - Economic effect

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Sub fields of Human Geography

• Cultural Geography
• Population Geography
• Political Geography
• Urban Geography
• Economic Geography
• Medical Geography
• Historical Geography
• Social Geography

• Anthropology
• Demography
• Political Science
• Urban Studies
• Economics
• Medicine and Health
• History
• Sociology

Check the following website for additional
specialty groups http//www.aag.org/sg/sg_display.
cfm
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Points to Ponder

• Why are you a Geographer?
• What interests you?
• What sub field of geography would like to
  concentrate?