Visualizing Human Geography Chapter 1 Terms – Flashcards
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Actor-Network Theory
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A body of thought that emphasizes that humans and nonhumans are linked together in a dynamic set of relations that, in turn, influence nonhuman behavior.
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Complimentarity
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A situation in which one place or region can supply the demand for resources or goods in another place or region.
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Cultural Ecology
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A subfield within human geography that studies the relationship between people and the natural environment.
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Cultural Landscape
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The collection of structures, fields, or other features that result from human transformation of the natural environment; any landscape created or modified by people.
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Culture
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A social creation consisting of shared beliefs and practices that are dynamic rather than fixed, and a complex system that is shaped by people and, in turn, influences them.
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Distance Decay
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The tapering off of a process, pattern, or event over a distance.
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Distribution
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The arrangement of phenomena on or near the Earth's surface.
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Environmental Determinism
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A theory maintaining that natural factors control the development of human physiological and mental qualities.
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Formal Region
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An area that possesses one or more unifying physical or cultural traits.
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Functional Region
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An area that is unified by a specific economic, political, or social activity and possesses at least on node.
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Geographic Information System (GIS)
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A combination of hardware and software that enables the input, management, analysis, and visualization, of georeferenced (location-based) data.
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Geographic Scale
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Broadly, a way of depicting, in reduced form, all or part of the world, or a level of analysis used in a specific project or study.
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Global Positioning System (GPS)
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A constellation of artificial satellites, radio signals, and receivers used to determine the absolute location of people, places, or features on Earth.
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Globalization
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The greater interconnectedness and interdependence of people and places around the world.
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Glocalization
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The idea that global and local forces interact and that both are changed in the process.
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Human Geography
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A branch of geography centered on the study of people, places, spatial variation in human activities, and the relationship between people an the environment.
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Intervening Opportunity
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A situation in which a different location can provide a desired good more economically than another location.
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Nature
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In one sense, the physical environment that is external to people, but also a social construction derived from ideas that people have about the physical environment.
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Nature-Culture Dualism
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A conceptual framework that separates nature from culture (nature is not culture, and vise versa) and is rejected by many scholars today.
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Perceptual Region
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An area that people perceive to exist because they identify with it, have an attachment to is, or imagine it in a certain way.
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Place
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A locality distinguished by specific physical and social characteristics.
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Political Ecology
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An offshoot of cultural ecology that studies how economic forces and competition for power influence human behavior, especially decisions and attitudes involving the environment.
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Possibilism
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A theory that people use their creativity to decide how to respond to the conditions or constraints of a particular natural environment.
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Raster Data
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A grid based format for storing location-based data in a geographic data such as land cover or elevation.
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Regional Analysis
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The study of the cultural, economic, political, physical, or other factors that contribute to the distinctiveness of geographical areas.
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Remote Sensing
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A means of acquiring information about something that is located at a distance from you or the sensing device, such as a satellite.
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Site
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The physical characteristics of a place, such as its topography, vegetation, and water resources.
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Situation
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The geographic context of a place, including its political, economic, social , or other characteristics.
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Space
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A bounded (absolute)or unbounded (relative) area. Absolute space can be precisely measured; relative space is shaped by contingency.
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Spatial Association
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The degree to which two or more phenomena share similar distributions.
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Spatial Diffusion
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The movement of a phenomenon, such as an innovation, information, or an epidemic, across space and over time.
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Spatial Interaction
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The connections and relations that develop among places and regions as a result of the movement or flow of people, goods, or information.
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Spatial Variation
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Changes in the distribution of a phenomenon from one place or area to another.
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Time-Space Convergence
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The process by which places seem to become closer together in both time and space as a result of innovations in transportation and communication that weaken the barrier or friction of distance.
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Transferability
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The cost of moving a good and the ability of the good to withstand that cost.
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Vector Data
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A format for storing location-based data in a geographic information system that uses latitude and longitude coordinates to represent geographic features with points, lines, and other complex shapes.
