GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

In 2011, one of the AP Human Geography Free Response Questions focused on identifying if the rank-size rule applied the urban hierarchy of a country (Mexico), or if a primate city dominated the network of metropolitan regions.  To prepare people to understand the rubric, I put together this presentation, based primarily on my time researching in Mexico City (download the PPT file).  The problems with primate cities are hardly unique to Mexico City; this additional BBC article bemoans Britain’s lack of a true second city, arguing that London’s shadow looms too large for sustained national development outside of the primate city. 

Tags: APHG, urban,  unit 7 cities, megacities.

This 6 minute clip is a preview of the movie “Million Dollar Arm.”  It looks to be a fun movie, but what I find academically interesting about the movie is the portrayal of one of the countless fascinating cultural and economic mergers created by globalization.  The story is about the economic forces motivating baseball scouts to seek out untapped labor pools in areas such as India that were previously not a part of baseball’s cultural reach (and the really cool global lives of these individuals). 

Tags: sport, globalization, popular culture, economic, labor, India.

We have known that pro-Russian forces have taken control of government buildings in part of Ukraine, and that forces on both sides have been mobilizing along the border.  It is hard to make sense of all the news reports but this map helps to bring the reality on the ground into sharp focus.  

Technological change demands linguistic change.  The technological world in which our societies are immersed changes our lived experiences and aspects of culture such as language. For example, vinyl disks were simply called records until compact discs, audio tapes and digital files flooded the music market.  An artist may still cut a record today, but the record probably won’t be available in vinyl.   Vinyl, then, is a ‘retronym’ to now describe what was once called a record, which now has other meanings and connotations. This list has 14 other examples of retronyms, which exemplifies the cultural patterns and processes that create pop culture.  

Tags: language, culture, popular culture, technology.

We like to think that the Earth beneath our feet is solid and that the configuration of the landforms in our neighborhood will be unchanging.  This a dramatic reminder that Earth’s physical processes don’t ever stop–even if we’ve built a city in that spot.

Tags: physical, geomorphology, erosion, landforms, weather and climate, urban ecology.

The World Bank has produced a report entitled “Prosperity for All.”  In this the extremely poor are defined as making less than $1.25 a day.  Two thirds of the extremely poor live in just 5 countries (India, China, Nigeria, Bangladesh and DR Congo). 

Tags: poverty, development, economic, globalization, labor, NGOs.

I enjoy activities that challenge students to map out vernacular regions since it forces them to establish some criteria and consider the attributes of particular places.  So what does your ‘South’ look like? 

Tags: mapping, the South, regions.

This article is highlights what we already know; China is a dominant force in global trade (although the map should be centered on the Pacific to show China’s real shipping lanes and interregional connections).  Containers are symbols of global commerce that enable economies of scale to be profitable and the outsourcing of so many manufacturing jobs to developing countries (almost 90% of everything we buy arrives via ship).  The invention of these containers have changed the geography of global shipping and the vast majority of the world’s largest ports are now in East Asia. 

Tags: transportation, globalization, diffusion, industry, economic.