Geog 120
Terms
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- Globalization
- The increasing interconnectedness of people and places throughout the world through converging processes of economic, political, and cultural change.
- Demographic transition
- Four-stage model of population change derived from the historical decline of the natural rate of increase as a population becomes increasingly urbanized through industrialization and economic development.
- Cultural imperialism
- The active promotion of one cultural system over another, such as the implantation of a new language, school system, or bureaucracy. Historically, this has been associated primarily with European colonialism.
- Centrifugal forces
- Those cultural and political forces, such as linguistic minorities, separatists, and fringe groups that pull away from and weaken an existing nation-state.
- Ethnic religions
- A religion closely identified with a specific ethnic or tribal group, often to the point of assuming the role of the major defining characteristic of that group. Normally, ethnic religions do not actively seek new converts.
- Culture
- Learned and shared behavior by a group of people empowering them with a distinct “way of lifeâ€; culture includes both material (technology, tools, etc.) and immaterial (speech, religion, values, etc.) components.
- Nation-state
- A relatively homogeneous cultural group (a nation) with its own political territory (the state).
- Centripetal forces
- Those cultural and political forces, such as a shared sense of history, a centralized economic structure, or the need for military security, that promote political unity in a nation-state.
- Sustainable development
- A vision of economic change and growth seeking a balance with environmental protection and social equity so that the short-term needs of contemporary society do not compromise needs of future generations. The operational scale of sustainable development is local rather than global.
- Anthropogenic
- An adjective for human-caused change to a natural system, such as the atmospheric emission from cars, industry, and agriculture that are causing global warming.
- Biome
- Ecologically interactive flora and fauna adapted to a specific environment. Examples would be a desert or a tropical rain forest.
- Green Revolution
- Term applied to the development of agricultural techniques used in developing countries that usually combine new, genetically altered seeds that provide higher yields than native seeds when combined with high inputs of chemical fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides.
- Water stress
- An environmental planning tool used to predict areas that have-or will have-serious water problems based upon the per capital demand and supply of fresh water.
- Subsistence agriculture
- Farming that produces only enough crops or animal products to support a farm family’s needs. Usually little is sold at local or regional markets.
- Total fertility rate
- The average number of children who will be borne by women of a hypothetical, yet statistically valid, population, such that of a specific cultural group or with a particular country. Demographers consider TFR a more reliable indicator of population change than the crude birthrate.
- Universalizing religions
- A religion, usually with an active missionary program, that appeals to a large group of people regardless of local culture and conditions. Christianity and Islam both have strong universalizing components. This contrasts with ethnic religions.
- Universalizing religions 23
- Attempts to appeal to all peoples regardless of location or culture; these religions usually have a proselytizing or missionary program that actively seeks new converts.
- Continentality 51
- Term describing inland climates with hot summers and cold, snow winters such as those found in interior North America or Russia.
- Population pyramids
- Term comes from the form assumed by a rapidly growing country such as Kenya when data for age and sex are plotted graphically as a percentage of its total population.
- Urban structure
- The distribution and pattern of land use, such as commercial, residential, or for manufacturing within the city. Often commonalties are found that give rise to models of urban structure characteristic of the cities of a certain religion or of a shared history, such as cities shaped by European colonialism.
- Barrios
- Urban Hispanic neighborhoods often associated with low-income groups in North America.
- Ethnicity
- A shared cultural identity held by a group of people with a common background or history, often as a minority group within a larger society.
- Gentrification
- A process of urban revitalization in which higher-income residents displace lower-income residents in central city neighborhoods.
- G-7 (Group of 7)
- A collection of powerful countries that confers regularly on key global economic and political issues. It includes the US, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and sometimes Russia.
- Megalopolis
- A large urban region formed as multiple cities grow and merge with one another. The term is often applied to the string of cities in eastern North America that includes, DC, Baltimore, Phila., NYC and Boston.
- Cultural assimilation
- The process in which immigrants are culturally absorbed into the larger host society.
- Location factors
- The various influences that explain why an economic activity takes place where it does.
- Sectoral transformation
- The evolution of a labor force from one highly dependent on the primary sector to one oriented around more employment in the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary sectors.
- Urban decentralization
- The process in which cities spread out over a larger geographical area.
- transnational corporations
- companies that span the borders of many countries
- Formal regions
- regions that divide the world using pre-existing political boundaries. For example, NATO.
- Functional regions
- delimited without regard to political boundaries⬦the sahara desert
- Demographic transition model
- Stage 1: high birth and death; Stage 2: death rate declines and birth rate remains high; Stage 3: birth rates decline and population growth declines; Stage 4: birth and death rates low.
- Extreme variations in temperatures⬦
- continentality
- Maritime climates are⬦
- close to large bodies of water
- Bioregion
- assemblage of plants and animals in a region.
- Shatterbelt
- describes a region of conflict and instablility