Human Geography And Development Studies

Globals, Locals, and Mobals: In the book “The Power of Place,” Harm de Blij introduces a new viewpoint of geography. Geography is much more than the terrain and physical makeup of the world. It is the culture, education, conditions, foods, politics, language, and opportunities. These things make people and places unique, and capture the true meaning of Human Geography.

Chapter one in the book, Human Geography, gives a timeline of the changes that have occurred since the creation of planet Earth. The author, John Rennie Short, explained how truly powerful the earth itself is. It has the ability to wipe out humanity. We often blame nature when natural disasters happen, but perhaps the human race may have something to do with the cause of environmental hazards like volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

History and geography are undividable; they represent two fundamental dimensions of the same phenomenon. History is the broader field, which involves human experience from the perspective of time. Geography's concern is narrower; its main focus is on human interaction with the physical environment from the perspective of space. Therefore, it can be said that these dimensions of time and space are in a perpetual interactive feedback loop in which one dimension is affected by the other one. History is as much shaped by geography as it is by almost any other factor. The physical geography of any region is the stencil upon which its history is drawn. Knowing what the features of the stencil are, it fluently allows us to understand the history more quickly and easily.

Geography plays a big part in the history of Africa because it has made the continent the cradle of human kind wherein the discovery of human kind and the origin of many civilizations and cultures happens here.

“Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future”. This is a quote by one of the most successful and innovative men to ever live, Walt Disney. He was successful because he constantly kept looking to make a better future for himself and others. He did this through interactions with the world and everything around him. Interactions such as these can push mankind forward. They lead to innovations that revolutionize the world we live in. It only takes one great idea to change the world and make it a better place for everyone. Human geography deals with how human actions influence and impact other humans and the world’s environment.

Spatial segregation has created low-income communities, which have a weak structural base due to the scarcity of the economic and human capital resources necessary for ascertaining and safeguarding community interests. These vulnerabilities will impact the insertion of these individuals’ status in society (Souza, Xavier, Rican, de Matos, & Barcellos, 2015). Spatial segregation generated poverty, which has impacted the world in many ways. High destitute levels have affected society by creating breeding grounds for ethnic hatred, inter-communal violence, and religious extremism in areas of low education. The lack of economic opportunities in poor regions has resulted in terrorism and revolutions across the globe. Poverty has created areas of poor sanitation due to the using of natural water supplies as latrines and waste dumps, which shrink the drinkable water supply. These communities suffer the harmful toxic effects of burn carbon-intensive fuels for cooking and heating. These communities suffer greatly in maintaining a strong foundation of human capital due to the lack of education and high infant mortality (Polak & Warwick, 2013). This problem, in turn, has resulted in areas contaminated with an increase of people with health issues (mental and physical), increased crime, lack of resources and education.

Geography is an important factor to consider when you look at this worlds past, present, or future. So whether it be the earths physical geographic features, the geopolitics stirring up trouble across the globe, or the economics of growing or shrinking countries; geography plays a major role. In todays society, geographic knowledge is one of the most important and valuable tools to possess. Without it, we are victims of ignorance and endanger ourselves, others, and the world. This ignorance, possessed by many, is posing a great risk of self-destruction. The author of “Why Geography Matters More Than Ever”, Harm de Blij, makes many strong points on this matter, but occasionally makes unsupported and unclear statements which tend to stray off topic.

From the effects natural geography we can see that people could be doing in this picture is: They can swim, they can boat, they can build they can grow a farm, they can take people to other places.

“I get to go overseas to places like Canada.”(Britney Spears) Most people, especially Britney Spears, need to know more about the history of people on this earth and where these people are located. She needs to study human geography. Human geography is the form of geography dealing with the issue of how people got to where they are and how we affected the earth. How did they get there? How did they affect the earth? Jared Diamond, a famous scientist and author, deals with this question in his book Guns, Germs and Steel. The book goes back as far as basic human life forms and goes deep through human history to the major topic or argument of the book.

This was because of the process of globalization faced by Third World states and the economic results of globalization caused surplus labour from the rural areas to move into the urban areas, contributing to the growth of overurbanization and the creation of slums. This illustrated by the United Nations’ Human Settlements Programme’s report, The Challenge of the Slums which, unlike classical assumptions of the causes of the Third World urban poverty, acknowledges globalization and urban inequality as contributors. Urbanization of Poverty Davis notes the difference between the traditional and modern ideas of slums – the decaying inner cities as the former and the dynamic variety of informal settlement as the latter; lack access to general public services and many of slum dwellers are less than 20. This makes the inhabitants of slums dependent on local officials, which can lead to

For most of my life, I thought I wanted to find a cure for cancer. I thought that would be my contribution to the world, but then I took AP Human Geography. My teacher shocked me with statistics, images, and videos on how people in less developed countries (LDCs) live, and the effects that has on their health. I couldn’t believe how many people had shorter life spans because they suffered from easily cured diseases. It seemed so unbelievable to me that the flu, a disease can be efficiently prevented and cured in the US with our medical care, could mean death for someone else. So I decided to switch my goal in life:

All of the stuff stated before may just seem like nonsense but it all ties the thesis statement, it shows that geography was the source of most inequality in the world by letting certain places advance and others not. Like the people of Papua New Guinea even in the present day are living like they are in the stone age because they never had spare time to advance in tools or technology or structures this all took place because all their time was taken up by constantly have to harvest food such as sago. Although the people of Eurasia had more time then they knew what to do with they could just sit back while their wheat grew and advance their houses, tools, and technology they got a very easy start to move up on the hierarchy of needs and they were able to move up quite

The Earth is a diverse place in which places (locals), humans, and resources are unevenly distributed. The country or group of people who control or distribute resources have the power. The Earth’s diverse natural resources provide opportunities for humans to progress. The Earth is made up of various bodies of water and varying land masses. Different regions demand that people develop ways to survive. For example, the inhabitants of mountain valleys from the Andes to the Balkans and from the Caucasus to Kashmir live in desolation from the rest of the world, which means that they live similar to their ancestors. As a result, their lifestyle, religion, education, language, and health patterns are exactly like those who have lived in the isolated area for generations. The primary difference between people who live in separate parts of the world has to do with the “wealth gap.” Consequently the term “place” determines whether a person or group of peoples benefits from the environmental, cultural, social, and political geographies that make up the “power of place.” Place determines whether you drive your car on a highway or whether you are fetching water from a river and standing next to a cow. Place determines whether you become an immigrant or find a job in a high tech industry in a place that you grew up in. Structural improvements will create access to mainstream modernization and create a different lifestyle from one in which our ancestors were

Pattinson hoped “that through a widened willingness to conceive of and discuss the field in terms of these traditions, geography will be better able to secure the inner unity and outer intelligibility” (W. Pattinson, 1964). This approach to geography aimed to quell the discourse that was prevalent within geography and tried to pave a clearer way for geographies future. On the other hand, thinking in such a law-based manner, restricts dynamic thinking, which is where human geography draws its strengths. I felt that Pattinson still asked more how than why but he certainly helped promote the growth of geography.

Social and cultural geography is an area of study that has become increasingly popular within Geography. With the expansion of multi-cultural societies and the increased diversification of cultures in addition to cultural practice, globally research into social and cultural geographies has boomed. These two diverse fields have risen in popularity among geographers and academics; meaning there is a significant amount of research and academic papers on this broad area of study. The fact is since the evolution of post-structuralist ideas in the mid 20th century, in addition to postcolonial, and feminist study around the 1990s. A shift from an emphasis on identity to difference in geographical literature has become apparent. Geographers have since engaged more frequently with gender, sexuality, ‘race’, and class differences, by investigating how they are constituted in relation to peoples and places. This has brought about vast levels of research casing all social identities. However for the purpose of this essay, I will be focusing on the social identities of Gender and Race as both social and cultural attitudes in these areas have transformed immensely in the last century. As previously mentioned there is a vast amount of