World geography

Chapter 1
Globalization and World Regions

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Different and similar world

If you compared places, you would find
what the different is.
what the common is.

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People

Xiongnu
Germanic

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Roman Emperor, Leo I

Food
Chinese food

Pasta

Pizza
Italian Food

Japanese

English food (Fired! Fired! Fired!)

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Turkish food (Donser Kebap )

Landscape

Vancouver
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Taipei City

Different and Changing Worlds

Political, economic, and social
experience and expectations are rapidly
change nowadays.
The physical shape of world isnt change.
But connecting among people bring
places closer as cooperation,
competition, and conflict with other
peoples become more intense.
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9/11

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9/11
The 911 event alerted Americans government
You can not dominate another county
arbitrarily
Whats different from Muslims and Americans?
Environment Society, Economics, Politics
Oil Economics Political Power Cultural
decline, poverty, belief conflict reaction

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4 geographic levels to see Earth

Global
views from spacecraft show the contrasts
between continental land areas and ocean
waters.

Major World regions

are whole or large parts of continents and are
the division used in this text for the regional
chapters.

Countries

are the building blocks of major world

regions.

Local regions

are parts of countries and the places where

many individuals voice their concerns.

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Globalization vs. Localization

Globalization
Globalization is increasing level of
interconnections among people throughout
the world.
The speed and intensity of globalization, in
terms of world trade and the flow of
financial investments, increased markedly in
the 1990s.

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Globalization vs. Localization

Localization is both response to and the
outcome of globalization.
On the one hand, global exchanges and flows of
information, ideas, people, money, and technology
move us toward worldwide political solutions,
economic exchanges, cultural attitudes, and
environmental concerns.
On the other, localization focuses on distinctive
identities of places or people in regions, countries,
or local areas.
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Facets of Globalization
Increasing connections take place through
intensified flows of ideas, goods, and
people:
Ideas, technologies, and diseases;
Goods from many place of manufacture;
People migrations for work, political asylum,
family consolidation, and long-distance
tourism;
The spread of images and message through
the media of TV, film, the Internet and print.
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Facets of Localization
Local voice remain loud in our consciousness
and ensure that global trends are often far from
being fulfilled.
Political nationalism maintains separation countries
and of groups within countries. Ex. Basque, Aceh

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Facets of Localization
Despite globalization force, many local customs and
practices preserve local identities. Ex. Pop music
Changes and intensification of ideologies, especially
religious or political beliefs. Ex.
Religious difference among Christian, Muslim,
Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu countries continue to be
signification.
Demonstrators resist the visible economic
penetration of countries around the world by global
media and corporations such as CNN, the Murdoch
group, McDonalds, Starbuck, Toyota, and Nike.
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Figure 1.3

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Despite of globalization, the World

remained diverse
Political activity: Countries Act
1950-1991 Cold war
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) vs. Soviet
Union
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) vs.
Communist governments
Southern Africa Development Coordination (SADCC)
vs. apartheid
UN become a world-wide level arbitrator

Inside vs. Outside

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Economic Activities: Global Trends

The numbers people living on < $1 per day
900 m (85%)(1820)1.4 b (30%)(1980) 1.2 b (20%)(2000)
In the 1990s, the uneven spread of expanding global
economic activities caused group of countries to enter into or
revive regional economic agreements, mainly through trade.
European Union (EU)
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Mercosur (southern South America)
Association of South East Asian Countries
South Africa Development conference
US, the countries of western Europe and Japan Controlled
nearly all the investment, production, and consumption of
goods.
China, India and Brazil increased their contribution.
Wealthier people vs. Poorer people
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Cultural Activities: Major Regions,

Local Voice
One world culture? Did these wiped out the
local cultural difference

Cocacola-ization of eating and drinking habits

the spread of Western TV, movies, pop music
global markets for some consumer goods
Ex. India

Western cultural norms

democracy, individual ,and human rights
Materialism, consumerism, and superficial value
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Civilizations (World Cultures)

Figure 1.6

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Environmental issues at varied

scales
Earth is marked by a variety of natural
environments that create differences among
regions
Natural environments affects human events at
global, world regional, country, and local scales.
world regional, country, or local scales: Prediction of
hurricanelike storms, effects of acid rain, and
damage from river floods and volcanic eruptions
global scale: global warming, El Nino, the ozone hole
over Antarctica, and the destruction of tropical rain
forests
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992), Kyoto, Japan (1997)
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What is geography about?

Geography is study of
where and how human and natural feature
and events (political, economic, cultural, and
environmental) are distributed on Earths
surface,
the relationships among them,
how their distributions change over time,
and how those features and relationships
affect human lives.
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Subject matter
The tensions among globalization,
localization, and the continuing
significance of country governments
provide a basis changes and move toward
either greater interdependence or
conflict.
Thus, geographers compare places and
assess the interactions among them at
different levels of geographic scale.
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Geographic methods

Location
Place
Human/Environment interaction
Movement
Region

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First, geography is about place

Place might be a

Individual place
Small town
Large city
Rural area
Another state
Another country

Place might be perceived as points on a map or

as large area.
However, they all have different relationships to
each other in terms of location, direction,
distance, and size.
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Latitude and Longitude

Figure 1.8

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Distance and Direction

Meridian and parallel is the basic of time, distance and direction

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Map and Scale

Size of Scale Representative Franction (RF)
Large Scale
1:25,000 or larger
Medium Scale
1:1,000,000 to 1:25,000
Small Scale
1:1,000,000 or smaller

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Next, geography is about explaining

the difference among place
The two basic geographic concepts of place and
location are combined in three main approaches
to geographic information gathering and
explaining
Regional geography
A region is a area of Earths surface with
similarities within and between defined
areas, or regions, of the world.
Spatial analysis
Human-environment relationship
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Regions and Globalization

Regions are defined by
A high degree of uniformity
Limited variability
More-or-less lasting boundaries

Regional boundaries may include physical

features, political boundaries, or economic
characteristics.

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Regions dynamic features

Regions are also dynamic geographic entities
that have distinctive internal and external flow
patterns of such phenomena as people, goods,
and ideas.
Nodes are key features of regions, being
specific places from which flows begin or
through which of a set of nodes may define the
boundary of a region.

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Flow feature
Flows within and among
regions include population migrations
information from the media, Internet, or
publications
movements of money
technology innovations in manufacturing
process, information processing, or new
transportation modes
and ideology through political and regions
within world regions
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The flows of geographic levels

The dynamic elements of such flows
within and among regions affect the
prominence
of regions within a countries
of countries within world regions
of world regions within the global system

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The characteristics of flows

The variety of these flows is generated by
path
speed
direction and the different relationship to social
structure imposed by governments and other
institutions.

Breaks or interruptions in the flows may result

in social problem such as
inequities,
injustices,
and underresourced livelihoods at the local level.
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Changes in dynamic regions

People create regions

Regions shape peoples activities
People remake regions
Regions interact with other regions
Regions are used by those in power

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Major world regions

Europe
Russia and Neighboring Countries
East Asia
Southern Asia and South Pacific
South Asia
North Africa and Southwestern Asia
Africa South of the Sahara
Latin America
North America
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Figure 1.11

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Development of world regions

Early history (about 5000 B.C)

Settle Farming
City-State and Empires (2500-1000 B.C.)
Trading Empires and Classical Civilizations
(1000 B.C.- A.D.600)
Disruptions, Migrations, and Feudalism (A.D.
600 - 1450)
The modern, globalizing world
Explorations and colonies ( around A.D. 1450)
Industrialization (mid-1700s)
Globalization, Countries, and Protectionism (1450early 1800s)
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