GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

“An overarching issue that is essential for understanding many pressing events of the day is the fraying standard geopolitical model of the world. This taken-for-granted model posits mutually recognized sovereign states as the fundamental building blocks of the global order. Many of these basic units, however, are highly fragile and a number have collapsed altogether. As a result, the next several posts will consider, and critique, the conventional state-based vision of the world. I am skeptical of the standard ‘nation-state’ model of global politics, as I think that it conceals as much as it reveals about current-day geopolitical realities. This model, evident on any world political map, rests on the idea that that the terrestrial world is divided into a set number of theoretically equivalent sovereign states.”

Tags: political, states, unit 4 political, geopolitics.

Source: www.geocurrents.info

An atlas of 592,130 trees right down to trunk size.

Though New York can sometimes seem like a drab warren of chain-link fence and oily pavement, the city actually has an impressive number of trees. On the streets alone—not counting private properties and parks—there were 592,130 at last reckoning, a leafy explosion you can now peruse in this great visualization of tree species.

Source: www.citylab.com

Satellite images show China is making progress on building an airstrip on a reef in disputed territory in the South China Sea, a report says.

Source: www.bbc.com

So that’s what they are up to…hmmmm.

Questions to Ponder:  Why is China building up this island?  What advantage would that give them?  Why aren’t other countries with competing claims stopping China?

Tags: borders, political, conflict, water, China, East Asia.

“The state transportation authority relies on federal guidelines that outline what it can put on signs, and these rules say signs must use only ‘standard English characters, so when we replaced the sign, we didn’t put the umlaut in.’  On Wednesday, the state’s governor put his foot down: The dots were coming back.”

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

The cultural landscape isn’t just passively ‘there.’  It is purposefully created, defended, protected and resisted by national, regional and local actors.  This example might seem laughable to the national media, but this was a serious matter to those locally that pride themselves on the town’s Swedish heritage.  Many want to preserve it’s distinctively Swedish characteristics as a part of it’s sense of place, but also it’s economic strategy to appeal to tourists. 

Tags: place, language, toponyms, culture, tourism, English, landscape.

“A founding member of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, standup comic Maz Jobrani riffs on the challenges and conflicts of being Iranian-American — ‘like, part of me thinks I should have a nuclear program; the other part thinks I can’t be trusted …'”

Source: www.youtube.com

This comedian doesn’t just get laughs; he uses stand-up as a platform for discussing important social issues and to foster greater cultural understanding.  His big goal is to break stereotypical perspectives of Muslims and Middle Easterners by showing that “there are good people everywhere.”  Here is another of his entertaining and educational TED talks.  

Tags: Middle East, TED, globalization, culture, Islam.

“For most of the world, the Armenian Genocide is the slaughter you know next to nothing about. But every year on April 24, Genocide Remembrance Day, we Armenians remember the injustice of a crime that is rarely acknowledged and often flatly denied. It was April 24, 1915, when the Armenian intellectuals, professionals, editors and religious leaders in Constantinople were rounded up by the Ottoman authorities — and almost all of them executed. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire killed three of every four of its Armenian citizens. The majority of Armenians alive today are descendants of the few survivors.”

Source: www.genocide-museum.am

“OTR A.D.O.P.T. transfers abandoned buildings to qualified new owners at reduced cost.  The catch? You must commit to rehabilitating the property and returning it to productive use. You must also demonstrate an ability to successfully complete such a project.  A.D.O.P.T.-Advancing Derelict and Obsolete Properties Through Transfer.”

Source: otradopt.com

This banner was spotted by Laura Spess, an urban geographer in Cincinnati in during the 2014 APHG reading.   The Over-The-Rhine neighborhood is very close to the reading, and the urban renewal here is quite controversial.  Many point to the economic positives and infusion of investments, while other see social displacement of the poor.  After the reading we were discussing the messages embedded the sign (and the urban landscape).  The OTR ADOPT organization conceptually thought of poorer neighborhoods as orphans and that the gentrification process should be likened to adoption.  While the merits and problems of gentrification can be debated, I find that particular analogy painfully tone deaf and wasn’t surprised to find the organizations website, well, derelict and obsolete.  

Questions to Ponder: Why might this analogy be problematic?  How might current residents of the community feel about the message? 

Tags: neighborhood, landscape, gentrification, urban, place, culture, economic, APHG, Cincinnati. 

A two-euro coin commemorating the bicentennial of Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat will not be widely released, after France objected to what it called a “negative symbol.”

Source: www.npr.org

Celebrating national history is great…but if your moment of greatest triumph comes at the expense of a country that is now in an supranational organization with you…well, then it can get awkward.

The government of the People’s Republic of China calls the country’s westernmost region Xinjiang, but the people who have lived there for centuries refer to their home as Eastern Turkistan. Many times when two groups do not refer to a place by the same name, it points to a cultural or political conflict, as is the case here.

Source: blog.education.nationalgeographic.com

Multiple names on the map can hint at bigger cultural and political fault lines.  Is it Londonderry or just Derry?  The Sea of Japan or the East Sea?  This article I wrote for the National Geographic Education Blog is on the always simmering tensions in the China’s westernmost province.  

Tags: Central Asia, toponyms, culture, political, conflict, governance, China, East Asia, religion, Islam, landscape.