WEEK ONE

Contact: jhopkins@uwo.ca
Office Hours:
● Tuesday 2:00 - 4:00
○ email to talk over the phone or zoom
LABS:
● #1004 SSC
● Attend own tutorial (can’t attend any other)
● Forum to explore, discuss & practice geography in small groups
● Due 7 days after ur lab on same day as lab, (by 11:59 PM)
● Automatic 3-day extension (no need to ask)

*No mid makeup

*Don’t miss LABS
*LEC different than textbook
*Consult TA for labs; LEC material consult prof
* MId & FINAL 50% textbook; 50% LEC

Introducing Human Geography Environments & Landscapes (Introductions & assorted

administrivia

1. Geography?
● ‘Human’ Geography
○ Rooted in Greek
○ Geo → the world
○ Graphei → to write
○ Geography means description of the world/writing about the world
○ Describes, writes about, studies the earth’s surface as the space within
which the human population lives
○ Human geography studies the distribution of humans and their
activities on the surface of the Earth and the processes that generate
these distributions.
■ What is where?
■ Why there?
■ Why care?
○ The Goal of Human Geography
■ Describing, writing about, studying the human world to increase
our understanding of it.
● Joy of knowing
● Promote our well-being
○ “Geography is the only subject that asks you to look at the world and try
to make sense of it. The field never stops being exciting, that’s what
 geography is all about—trying to make sense of the world.” (Lewis,
2002:4)
2. Humans?
● Adaptors
● Decision makers
● Preference makers
● Information processors
● Dynamic & diverse creatures
○ 195 countries; 6909+ languages
● Geographic entities
○ Occupy space
○ Have a volume
○ We are mobile
○ Life is a spatial search
■ When ur a baby you start to discover ur hand feet etc.
○ Space used to communicate (signify)
■ E.g.. fences, bodily distance, status

● Tool makers
○ E.g. brain & thumbs
● Creative/destructive force
● *Active agents shaping the environment (*important)
● Part of the environment

3. Environment?
● ‘Environs’ → to envelope
● The ‘environment’ is that which surrounds & sustains us
● Everywhere… & Everywhere is different
● Two overlapping types of environment
○ Physical environment
■ Primarily studied by Physical Geography
■ The study of the processes & patterns of the natural features of
the Earth’s surface
● E.g, Landforms, climate, rivers, glaciers, distribution of
flora & fauna
○ Built environment
■ Primarily studied by Human Geography
■ Human-made features or ‘cultural -creations’
■ Culture is the totality of all things human -made & practiced (E.g.
phone, language etc.)
● MATERIAL Environments
○ Physical, tangible matter
■ E.g. buildings, cars, phones etc.
 ● INMATERIAL Environments
○ Non-physical tangible matter
■ E.g. language, religion, ideas, values,
knowledge, gender, laws, political ideologies
etc.
○ Material & Immaterial Environments NOT mutually exclusive: one and
the same
■ What does this material cup tell you about immaterial values? (Tim
Hortons Cup)
● Language
● Sustainability
● Mobility
● Economic trade
● (all the perspectives)
4. Landscapes?

● Humans or Cultural Landscape arrangement in physical space of human-made

artifacts & activities
● Key concept to view & question human build environments
● ‘LAND’ - ‘environment’: that which sustains and surrounds us
● ‘SCAPE’ - representation or view of
● KEY LANDSCAPE QUESTIONS
○ How to VIEW the environment, its people, and places?
○ How to ORGANIZE what we see?
● Physical & Cultural Attributes
○ Natural Physical Landscape ←→ Cultural Human Landscape
● Ontario/ Thailand (residential structure)
● Many ways of viewing or ‘scaping’ a land or environment
● E.g. Nature, habitat, problem, wealth, history, system
○ More ways of seeing
■ More questions
■ More answers
● SUBFIELDS OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
○ (slide 53)
5. Places?
● A place is a space in built with human meaning (E.g. home)
● How to VIEW the environment, its people, and PLACES?
○ i. PLACE = LOCATION
■ A physical site or location of a material object in space
■ the physical and human characteristics of any location on Earth.
○ ii. PLACE → a site of felt experience
■ A space occupied over time by humans that give it immaterial
meanings…
○ ‘SENSE OF PLACE’:
 ■ Meanings, values, identities (E.g. home)
○ ‘Sense of place’ created through
■ 1. Direct Personal Experience/Observation (Home)
■ 2. Secondary Sources
● E.g.: Media, talk, books and/or …
■ 3. Intrinsic Characteristics of the site itself
● Grand Canyon; Old Montreal (Eiffel Tower)
○ PLACES MATTER
■ Setting for our daily lives
■ Hold meanings & values to us
■ Influence our actions & behaviours
■ Allow us to express ourselves
■ Help form personal & group identities
● E.g. political, economic, religious ideals
SUMMARY:
● Human Geography studies the complex interplay between humans & the places &
landscapes they create
● Geographers ask: What is where? Why there? Why care?
● The goal: write about the human environment to increase our understanding of it: Vital
to our well-being!

WEEK 2: HUMAN POPULATIONS: UPS, DOWNS, MOVEMENTS

Population… (outline)
1. Distribution & Patterns
2. Measures
3. Policies for Problems
4. Forecast Models
5. Movement & Migration
*popl’n = population

1. Distribution & Patterns

● Human geography → People → Population Geography
○ The study of the (spatial) component of demography (study of
populations)
● Issues of focus include:
○ Areal distribution of population
○ Reasons for & consequences of distribution
○ Implications for such distribution
● A. Growth by the numbers (2023)
○ World - ? (8.1 BIllion + 226,000 daily) (1.1% annual)
 ■ Video clip
■ （15,606 London, Ontario, at 519,000）
○ China - 1.5 Billion + 23,000 daily（0.61%）
○ India - 1.4 Billion + 42,000 daily（1.24%）
■ Will surpass China in April 2023
○ Canada - 38.5 million
■ 39 Canada in China
■ 1 Tokyo
■ (38th) most populous country
■ Will hit (45.7) million in (2050)
● B. World Population Growth over tIme
○ 20th century - “the century of population explosion”
○ WHY?
■ Urbanization allows population to grow
● More education, health care, better resources
○ *Overwhelmingly occurring in developing countries
● C. World Population Decline in late 21st century
○ Est.global popl’n will peak at about (9.7B) in 20(64), and then (steadily
decline) to (8.8B) by 21(00)
○ (Drops) will be in Europe, North America, China, and Japan
○ There has not been a drop in global population since the Black Plague
swept Europe in 1350s
● Qs: Why is the population declining?
○ Climate change
○ Less birth
○ Economic concerns
● Qs: Why does a plummeting population size concern economists?
○ Smaller tax base, more contribution to health care
○ Labour shortages
○ Capitalism is depending on expanding markets; and people are needed to
expand markets, this concern the economists
● D. World Population Distribution
○ Very uneven distribution pattern
○ (Some land areas are almost uninhabited)
○ (Others sparsely settled )
○ Still others show very dense concentration
○ Majority of population congregate at (low land areas)
○ Continental margins have the largest (concentration of people)
○ Most clusters ares:
■ E.Aia 25%
■ S.Asia 21%
■ NE U.S.A <1%
■ Europe 12%
■ SE Canada
 ○ Over (50%) of world population are (urbanites) [as of 2007] (68%)
estimated to be urbanities by 2050
○ Almost (90%) of people live north of the equator Between Tropic of
Cancer (23 degrees N) & (55 degrees N) London is 43 degrees N
○ A large proportion occupy a small land surface
■ 90% on less than 20% of the land
● E. Canada’s Population Distribution
○ Uneven distribution of Canada’s population
■ 70% South of 49th parallel
■ 87% Within 160 km of US border
■ 82% in urban centers
■ ⅓ or 13 M live in greater Toronto, Mtl, Van
○ Approximate land area above the line: ~6,200,000 km2
■ Only (1 Million ) live above this line
○ No humans reside in the green areas (no-ecumene)
○ Ecumene vs
■ Permanently inhabited
○ Non-ecumene
■ Uninhabited or sparsely inhabited

2. Measures of Population
● Core Measures
○ Population Growth/Decline
○ Fertility Mortality
○ Migration
■ Fertility → Population Growth/Decline → Mortality migration in
between fertility and mortality
● A. Fertility
○ I. Crude Birth Rate (CBR):
■ Total number of births in a given period (year) for every 1000
people already living
■ CBR = (# of live births in a year/total population) * 1000
■ 2013 World CBR = 18.9 births/1000 population (255 births/minute)
■ 2013 Canada CBR = 10.28 births/1000 population
■ 2013 China CBR = 12.25 births/1000 population
■ Issue: Does not consider who can give birth
○ ii.General Fertility Rate (GFR):
■ Actual number of live births per 1000 women in the fecund age
range:
● I.e those years in which a woman has the ability to
conceive (typically 15-49)
■ GFR = (# of live brights in one year/Mid-year number of females) *
1000
 ■ 2018 Niger GFR 6.98/1000 women (15-49)
■ Issue: Potential mothers only, does not factor in age
distribution
○ iii. Age-Specific Fertility Rate (ASFR):
■ Average # of children a woman in a 5 year age group will have
■ ASFR = (# of births to women in age group) /# of women in age
group *1000
■ Age ranges:
● 15-19; 20-24; 25-29; 30-34; 35-39; 40-44; 45-49
■ 2015 Canada: 100.6 for those 25-29 highest ; 0.4 for those 45-49
lowest
○ I.v. Total Fertility Rate (TFR):
■ Average # of children a woman will have as she passes through
the fecund/childbearing years (15-49)
■ TFR = [Sum of ASFR * # of years in each age group (5)] *1000
■ 2023 World TFR = (2.4 children/women)(0.41% decrease form
2022)
■ 2023 Canada TFR = (1.5 children/women)
■ 2023 China TFR (1.7 children/women)
■ Issue: Replacement Rate: 2.1-2.5
○ Different Measures Different Picture
○ Factors Affecting Fertility
■ Biological Factors
● (Age)
● (Nutritional well-being)
● (Diet)
■ (Economic) Factors:
● (Having children a cost-benefit decision)
■ (Cultural) Factors:
● Marriage
● (Contraceptive use )
● (Abortion )

● B. Mortality
○ I. Crude Death Rate (CDR):
■ total # of deaths in a given period (year) for a 1000 people living
■ CDR = (# of death in one year/ total population) *1000
■ 2013 World CDR = 8 death/1000 population
■ 2013 Canada CDR= 7death/1000 population
■ 2013 China CDR= 7 death/1000 population
■ Issue: doesn’t consider that probability of dying is related to age
○ ii. Age Specific Mortality Rate (ASMR):
■ Average # of death within a 5 year age group
 ■ ASMR = (# of death in age group/ population in age group) *1000
■ All age ranges, usually divided by sex
■ Key point: useful for looking for trends in premature deaths, or a
rising population
■ Canada: Age Specific Mortality Rate (2009)
○ iii.Infant Mortality Rate (IMR):
■ # of death of infants under 1 year old per 1000 live births in a year
■ IMR = (deaths age 1 year or less/ # of live births in that year)
*1000
■ Note: IMR and Life expectancy (LE) is a reflection of overall
population health
● LE: average # of years to be lived from birth
■ Worldwide Distribution of Infant Mortality Rates (2022)
■ Factors Affecting Mortality & Life Expectancy
● Life Expectancy (LE) factors are more sensitive, driven by
socio-economic status (SES)
○ (Availability of food & good nutrition )
○ (Access to health care & medical facilities )
○ (Working Conditions)
○ (Sanitation)
○ (Level of Education)
○ Income
● Whereas it’s possible in principle for the human population
to attain a CBR of 0 for an extended period of time, the
same cannot be said for the CDR.
○ Iv. Rate of Natural Increase (RNI):
■ Rate of Natural Increases (RNI) determined by subtracting the
CDR from the CBR; thus it measures the rate of population
growth
● 2023:
○ world CDR 7.7
○ World CBR 17.4
○ World RNI of 9.7 per 1000
● Relatively constant in recent years
● A global measure only
● World Distribution of Rates of Natural Increase (2023)
3. Policies for Problems
● Issue: Too many babies or not enough?
● Some gov’ts have no formal policy:
○ Indifference
○ Public opinion mixed
● Other gov’ts actively:
○ Pro-natalist
○ Anti-natalist
● A. Pro-Natal Policies
○ Typically in countries…
○ Religious domination
■ E.g. Catholic or Islamic theology (italy vs Iran)
○ Ethnic majority numerically overtaken by ethnic minority
■ E.g. Israel
● where a larger population is perceived as necessary
economically or strategically (e.g. France, Canada?)
○ Larger popl’n for economic or strategic purposes
■ E.g. Canada, France
○ I. Pro-Natal Case Study: France
■ Video clip
○ Ii. Canada as Pro-natal
■ Universal Child Care Benefit: $100/month/child
■ Child Tax Credit: Up to $320/month/child
■ Supplements for low income: Up to ~$500/month/child
■ RESP Grants - $500 to start
■ Parental Leave - 1 Year
■ Canada Pension Plan credit for stay-at-home-parents
■ Subsidized day care (Quebec and others following)
● B.Anti-Natal Policies
○ Since 1960, many LDC have initiated policies designed to reduce fertility
○ Overpopulation is a real danger and (carrying capacity) has been
exceeded: max.popl’n that can be supported by a given level of resources
& technology
■ E.g. India, Bangladesh
○ Common assumption: certain areas too densely populated & best solution
is to reduce fertility
○ i.Anti-Natal Policies: Case Study - China
■ Combat Population Explosion
● 7% of world’s agricultural land but 23% of population
■ 1970’s - ‘Later,Longer,Fewer’
● Families encouraged to limit to 2
■ 1979 - One Child Policy (until 2015)
■ China’s Population Fall for First TIme Since 1961
● Has fallen for 1st time in 60 years
● Fell by 850,000 firn 2021
● BIrth rate has been declining for years, prompting a slew of
policies to try to slow the trend
● Can be found at CBC news
■ Anti-Natal Case Study: China
■ Video clip
4. Forecast Models
● A. S-Shaped Curve Model
○ Growth process begins slowly, then increase rapidly (exponentially,) then
levels out at a ceiling
○ Still possible that the history human population growth will reflect an
S-shaped curve by 2200
● B.Malthusian Theory (1798)
○ Two axioms
■ Food: necessary for human existence; food production increases
arithmetic rate i.e. 1,2,3,4,5
■ People have sex; population increases at a geometric rate, i.3.
1,2,4,8,16…note change
○ Hypothesis: Popl’n growth will always create stress on the means of
subsistence
■ Population Growth = Poverty
○ Only positive checks on Population Growth
■ War
■ Femaine
■ Disease
■ All cause increases in mortality rates & may decrease fertility rates
○ Other factors reducing fertility rates include:
■ Economic recessions → 2023
■ Public health concerns → COVID 19
■ Environmental concerns → Climate Crisis
○ CAVEATS → Technological Advances
■ More food same land
● Machinery
● Fertilizer
● genetic modification
● Crop rotation
● weather forecasts
■ Industrialization improved well-being
● Clothing
● Shelter
● sanitation
■ Transportation
● Improved accessibility to food other goods
■ Contraception
● Cheap
● Accessible
● widely acceptable

● Demographic Transition Model

 ○

5. Movement & Migration

● Mobility
○ The ability to move, either permanently or temporarily
■ E.g.. journey to work, permanent change of location

● Migration
○ The permanent movement or planned long-term relocation of residential
place & activity space.
○ Between countries typoes:
■ 1. Emigration: migration from a place to another (E=exit)
■ 2 Immigration: the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign
country (I=in)
○ Principal Migration Patterns
■ Inter-continental
● between continents or major world regions
■ Intra-continental
● Within countries, same continent
■ Inter-regional
● Within your region
■ Rural-to-urban
● From farm to city
● Inter-continental World Migration Patterns
● Why Migrate?
○ Push-Pull logic: People move from one location to another because they
consider the new location to be more favourable
■ I.e. place inequality
○ Can be sorted into 4 categories:
■ 1. Economic
 ■ 2. Political
■ 3. Cultural
■ 4. Environmental
○ Drivers of Current Migration
■ Communication revolution
■ Transportation revolution
■ The Rights revolution
○ Canada’s immigrant Population: 2023
■ *(23%) of popl’n are immigrants or permanent residents: 1 in 4
■ 2021 → 401,000 immigrants
■ 2022 → 405,000 immigrants
■ 2023 → 465,000 immigrants
■ 2025 → 500,000 immigrants
■ No.& % Immigrants to Canada 1871 - 2041
○ Q: Why admit so many immigrants?
■ Labour force
■ Economic reasons
○ Canada Needs Immigrants
■ Demographic
● TFR 1.5
○ not replacing ourselves
○ More >65 than <15 (2015)
○ Popl’n will shrink
■ Economic
● If pop’n shrinks, economy shrinks
● Workers
● Taxpayers
● Consumers
■ International Obligations
● Take refugees; e.g. 25K Syrians
● Makes news, small proportion
○ Canada - PR 860 - 2010
○ This means that if you are a Canadian citizen you have 1 of 3 identities
■ Indigenous (4.7% 2021)
■ Refugee
■ Immigrant

Lect #2: Summary Points:

● 1. Human populations are unevenly distributed

● 2. Birth — fertility —death —mortality — and movement —migration — are (the 3
factors comprising dynamics)
 ● 3. As a generalization, high birth/death rates are found in economically developing,
peripheral countries: low birth/death rates are in found in economically developed,
core countries
● 4. Global population is est. to grow just shy of (10) Billion and then (decline) in the latter
part of the (21st Century)
● 5. Some countries have (pro-natal policies, others anti-natal, and some no policies)
● 6.Countries like Canada address a low TFR through massive immigration to ensure
economic growth
● And now there are
○ Site

Today’s Agenda

WEEK 3: GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBAL INEQUALITIES

1. Inequalities, inequities & social justice
2. Less vs More developed worlds
3. Measurements of development
4. Causes of global inequalities
5. Solutions to global inequalities
6. Inequalities in Canada

Last Class recap:

1. Human populations are unevenly distributed on earth and within countries
2. Birth -- fertility -- death -- mortality -- and movement -- migration -- are the 3 factors
comprising dynamics
3. As a generalization, high birth/death rates are found in economically developing,
peripheral countries: low birth /death rates are found in economically developed, core
countries
4. Global population is est. to grow just shy of 10 Billion and then decline in the latter part
of the 21st Century
5. Some countries have pro-natal policies, others anti-natal, and some no policies
6. Countries like Canada address a low TFR through massive immigration to ensure
economic growth

1. Inequalities, inequities & social justice

● A) Difference
○ ‘Unlike’ ‘distinct’ ‘dissimilar’
○ A point or way in which people, things and/or locations are not the same
○ Spatial differentiation: the uneven distribution of any condition thing or
people
○ Image: # of ski resorts
 ■ NA: 644; South America: 35; Europe: 989; Africa: 7; Asia:104;
Australia: 44;
○ Each coloured area is approximately ¼ of Canada’s population (image)
■ Large population in one area may have raise some concerns: e.g.
health care
○ The spatial differential of a condition, thing or people may or may not be
viewed as…
■ Acceptable or unacceptable
■ and/or
■ Right or wrong
○ If the difference is deemed unacceptable or wrong this makes it a moral
issue
■ E.g. women earn less income than men in Canada
■ E.g. 1 in 5 Canadian children live in poverty
● B) Inequality = Difference
○ Unacceptable difference; a lack of equality
○ Lack of sameness, of similar kind, rank, value, size, number…’
○ Unequal & unacceptable
■ E.g. Any qualified person will be admitted to university (universally
fair) → unfair part: may not have enough money
● C) Equality = Sameness
○ Promotes fairness & justice by giving everyone the same thing
■ E.g. everyone 18+ adult citizen -- all vote
■ E.g. everyone ‘qualified’ to ender university is admitted
○ Only works IF everyone starts from the same place
■ E.g. can’t read, hard to vote…
■ E.g. can’t afford to attend, admission irrelevant…
● D) Equity = Fairness
○ Promotes fairness & justice by ensuring people get access to the same
opportunities
■ E.g. can’t read election ballet, someone assist person with voting
■ E.g. can’t afford to attend uni, provide student grants and interest
free loans
○ Our differences -- backgrounds, resources, circumstances -- may create
barriers to participation, so we must first ensure [EQUITY] before we can
enjoy and benefit from equality
 ○
● E) Inequality = Unfair
○ ‘Lack of equality’
○ ‘Lack of sameness, of similar kind, rank, value, size, number’
○ Inherent moral question of right or wrong
■ E.g. women earn less than men in Canada; 1 in 5 Canadian
children live in poverty
○ Spatial inequality: the unequal distribution of some particular kinds of
attributes -- income & other forms of material benefits -- among 【a
spatially defined population 】
■ HIgher levels of poverty in Newfoundland than in Ontario
● F) Social Justice
○ Justice:
■ fairness in the way people are dealt
○ Social justice:
■ Fairness in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities &
privileges within a society
○ Fairness?
■ An ideal against which we measure the practices of society
○ Q: Whose IDEALS does one use to ‘measure’ society’s practices
■ Parents; Friends; Religion (community); Lived experiences (what
you are exposed to); famous models; teachers (education
institutions); the courts; NGO (non gov organizations);
capitalism
○
○ Asks us to defend inequality or unequal, unfair treatment:
■ Inequities = image
○ If we can not justify inequalities -- differences -- or inequities -- unfair
treatment -- then we are morally obliged to rectify the situation
 ● E) Spatial Justice
○ How does space sustain & challenge inequalities & inequities?
■ We are interested in where
○
BIG QUESTIONS!
● How ‘socially just’ is a society?
● What is ‘fair’ treatment?
● What kind of inequalities can we accept?
● How does space sustain & challenge inequalities and inequities?
● At what scale do we begin?
● How do we even measure inequalities?
○ Global? National? Local?
● How might geographers help?
2. Less vs More developed worlds
● A) Less Developed World
○ Low standards of living
○ Low standards of social well being
○ Less developed economies
■ E.g. Afghanistan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia
● B) More developed World
○ High standards of living
○ HIgh standards of social well being
○ HIghly developed economies
■ E.g. USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan
● Image on P41
○ Why are we so wealthy?
■ Tourism industry; long history of colonialism/exploitation;
● Global Rich List
○ How much money will you make during your summer job --May to August
-- at Ontario’s minimum wage?
■ 16 weeks -- 40hrs/week -- 640 hrs = 9,920
● HH income of 9920 Cdn (You are in the richest 25.9% of the global population)
○ Better than 74.1 ppl in the planet
●
3. Measurements of development
● A) Various Economic Indicators
○ GDP
■ Image (total economic Production/Popl’n
○ GNI (Gross National Income)
■ Total National Income/Popl’n
○ PPP (Purchase Power Parity)
■ Buying Power of Average Income
● B) Various Social Indicators
○ Human Development Index (HDI)
 ○ (Health + Education + Income)
■ Combines:
● Health → Life expectancy
● Education → Years of child ed
● Income → GNI
○ Other Social Indicators
■ Gender equality/ gaps
● Gender Inequality Index (reproductive Health +
Empowerment + Labour Market) (image)
● Gender Gap in Politics
■ Infant mortality
● Image (Under 1 year old, rates per 1000 births)
■ Life expectancy
● The greater the wealth, the greater the life expectancy
(image)
Global Carbon Emissions
The Insane Scale of Global Wealth Inequality Visualized

4. Causes of global inequalities

● A） World Systems & Dependency THeories (pp 97-98)
○ Development of Capitalism
○ 1st worlds ‘core’
○ Developing world ‘periphery’
○ World Economic System (image)
■ Core,Semi-periphery, Periphery
○ This is in no small part due to European colonialism of much of the world
from 1600 to present
○ ‘Colonialism’(1914):
■ The establishment & maintenance of rule -- dominance -- for an
extended period of time, by a sovereign power -- an
independent, self-ruling state -- over a subordinate & alien people
that is separate for the ruling power
■ “The Sun Never Set” -- British Empire
● Able to run around in the world
● You rule the sea; you rule the world
● B) Famine (pp 98-106)
○ Qualified as…
■ 20% + popl’n <2,100 Kcal/day
■ 30%+ popl’n acute malnutrition
■ 2+ deaths per 10,000 ppl or 4+ deaths per 10,000 children per day
○ Caused by…
■ Wars
■ Political conflict
■ Economic decline
 ■ Bad government
■ Weather (e.g. drought)
■ Climate change !
5. Solutions to global inequalities
● Pp 118-124
○ Primary requirement to address these problems?
■ Ppl supporting; have empathy;
6. Inequalities in Canada
● Wealthiest Individuals & Families in Canada (net worth in US billions); the highest
is 48.8; lowest is 4.4 （image）
● How much is $48.8 billion?
○ At minimum wage of $15.50 you would need to live 1,221 lifetimes, and
work from birth to age 80, 40 hours per week every week to make 48.8
billion
● Canadians Financial Health (2022)
○ 54% say they are now living paycheque to paycheque as the cost of living
crisis continues to squeeze budgets
○ The # of working Canadians with credit card debt climbed to 42%, which
is a 13% increase from 2021
○ Canadians are saving less than they were a year ago in 2021
○ 1 in 2 Canadians believe they;d fail to manage a sudden expense of more
than 1000
● Cdn Debt to Income Ratio
○ Households Debt to Income in Canada averaged 131.74 % from 1990
until 2022, reaching an all time high of 182.60 % in the second quarter of
2022
■ E.g. of good debt: student loan; mortgage
■ E.g. of bad debt: Uber eats
● Poverty Rates Fell 2015 - 2021
○ Based on data from the 2021 Census of Population, the poverty rate in
Canada was 8.1% in 2020, down from 14.5% in 2015
○ Poverty declined among all ages, but especially so for children. In 2020,
the poverty rates of children aged 0 to 5 years (9.1%) , 6 to 10 years
(8.5%) and for youth aged 11 to 17 years (7.9%) were all less than half
their levels in 2015.
○ Declines in poverty were driven by higher government transfers in 2020,
including the enhanced Canada Child Benefit (CCB) and temporary
pandemic relief benefits.
● 60% of London’s homeless are chronically homeless, report finds Fewer people
are using the city’s emergency shelters but they’re staying longer, city report
reveals (11.06.2017)
● Global declines in
○ Global Poverty
○ Global Infant Mortality Rates
 ○ Sharp Gains in Literacy
Lec #3: Summary Points:
1. Wealth is not distributed [evenly nor equitably across the Earth or within
countries]
2. Some parts of the world have more resources & thus more [wealth than other
parts]
3. Wealth & poverty are sustained by politics (power, colonialism) and [economics]
(capitalist exploitation & wealth concentration)
4. There are solutions to inequities and poverty: political will to address them vital
5. Good news: global and Canadian poverty levels have dropped pre COVID
6. If you are reading this slide, you are in the top economic tier of the world: you are
in Canada attending university: how privileged are we?

Today’s Agenda

WEEK 4: Environmental Impacts

1. Human-Environment Relationship
2. Humans as tool makers
3. Technology,Machines, techniques
4. Major technological leaps & environmental impacts
5. Systems, ecology, sustainability
6. Climate Change, culture change
Reading: CH12

Lec Summary:
● 1. Inequalities are morally unacceptable
○ Differences in size, rank, number or conditions
● 2. Less vs More Developed countries measured used economic and/or social well-being
measurements
● 3. Causes of global inequalities: “World System & Dependency (pp 97 - 98), Colonialism,
Famine (pp 98-106)
● 4. Solutions to global inequalities (pp 118 - 124)
● 5. Inequalities in Canada exist:
○ Wealth distribution skewed
○ Most live paycheque to paycheque
○ 20% children live in poverty
● 6. Good news for 2021
○ Global poverty down to 10%
○ Global deaths of children under 5 down
○ Global literacy rates highest ever
1. Human-Environment Relationship
● Humans
 ○ Are part of
○ Dependent upon
○ Are impacted by
○ And are themselves impacting,
● The Environment: that which sustains and surrounds us
● The Sphere of Earth
○ The Atmosphere
■ The air
○ The Lithosphere
■ Earth crust
○ THe Hydrosphere
■ Water
○ The Biosphere
■ All 3 summed up
■ Averages about 20 km thick: ocean bottoms to highest mountain
tops
a. Human-Environment Interactions
● Environment impacts human activity
● Every human activity has an impact
○ CBC news Canadians produce more garbage than anyone else
● Humans can be blind to their impact
○ E.g. Donald Trump “The concept of global warming was created by and
for the chinese in order to make USA manufacturing less competitive”
● Humans have become the active and dominant agents of environmental change
● Human beings have acquired enormous technological muscle power, and
coupled with our numbers and our soaring consumption, we are now having an
impact on the planet that no other species ever had (David Suzuki, 1999)
b. Anthropocene (pg 446)
● Humans are now transforming the earth on a geological scale
● Began 1 July 1945 1st nuclear detonation
● Replaces the ‘holocene’ of last 12,000 years (last ice age)
c. Human Impact…
● Humans & Environment
○ Vegetation
○ Animals
○ Land
○ Soil
○ Air
○ Water
○ Climate
2. Humans as tool makers
a. Humans are tool makers
● Unique brains & hands
○ We use our brain to make the intangible tangible
 ● Not the only tool makers
○ E.g. birds, frogs, elephants etc.
b. Tool Making is a Technical Process
● I. Discovery
○ Through recognition & observation of nature
■ E.g. the scientific method
● Ii. Invention
○ A mental process of creating a tool

Which tools could you not live without?

● Smartphones, tables etc.
3. Technology, Machines, Technique
a. Technology
● Mental Activity
● Physical Activity
● Change
● Environment
● Individual or collective action
Tech can be a lot of things: E.g. paper clips, clothes etc.
b. Goal of Technology
● Extend & improve material & immaterial culture
○ To make our lives better and easier
c. How so?
● i.Use of identifiable ‘resource’ be they natural objects, phenomena or
forces
○ E.g. natural log deck, electricity etc.
● Ii. Invention & use of Machines
○ Combination of parts
○ Specialized function
○ Human control
○ Perform work
○ Diminish/replace human energy expenditure
■ E.g. body doesn’t have to work as hard to keep body
warm; winter jacket minimize effort I have to do to generate
heat
d. Technique
● The organization & arrangement of technology
○ I.e. how the labour is used; the mode of its execution
■ 1.5 billion cars in the world (2023)
● How many cars are there in the world in 2022
○ N.A: 251M
○ Europe 405M
○ Middle East: 49M
○ Africa: 26M
 ○ S.A: 83M
○ Asia: 532M
○ Antarctica: ~50
○ World Vehicle Operation
■ Been going up
■ Prediction that peak car
e. Unintended Consequences
● Exacerbates speed & intensity of resource extraction → depletion
○ Extracting resources speed is veli veli fast
● Increases the amount of waste we generate in the form of land, air, water
pollution
○ More we consume, the more things we make
● Most machines & tools demand energy, much of which is fossil fuel →
carbon emissions
● Ability to transform the natural environment at a global scale
○ London electricity generated by nuclear power plant
4. Major technological leaps & environmental impacts
a. Organized Human Labour
● The 1st mega-machine, ancient idea
● Energy to transform landscape on huge scale
● 19,780,000 employed in Canada (2023)
b. Mechanical Clock (10th C)
● Synchronized human activity: focus energy
○ E.g. Having time organize ppl in a certain space is veli profound,
veli efficient.
■ E.g. We agreed to meet here at 10:30am
● Greater work done, greater changes
c. Electricity
● Telegraph (1837 USA & England)
○ Early it’s used for communication of railway stations
● Telephone (1876 A.G.Bell)
● Power and light (1840s - 1880s)
● Effects of electricity
○ Overcame tyranny of space: communication
○ Overcame tyranny of darkness (expanded work day)
○ Increased location choices
■ Before electricity, firms usually located near rivers
○ Boom for industry and commerce
*Less human energy expenditures
d. Combustion Engine → Automobile
● 1859 France
● 1866 Germany first commercial motor vehicles
○ Henry Ford; specialization
 ● World automobile production by continent and some large emerging
countries
● Electric Cars
○ Even if we stop production of fossil fuel now, take 25 years
● Effects of Automobile
○ 1. Changed the Natural Physical Landscape
■ Polluted air, water, land
■ CO2 major contributor to Climate Change
■ Built paved roads, bridges
■ Literally altered the physical world
■ Youtube: Climate Change Explained
○ 2. Changed the human Built Landscape
■ Changed design of cities (cars not people)
■ 20%-40% space for cars
■ Suburbia
■ Traffic congestion
■ Urban sprawl
■ How we live, work, shop, play, socialize…
■ Pros of Automobile
● Spatial mobility
● Access to health, education, jobs
● Car industry jobs
● Seeming convenience
● Freedom to simply go
● Status sign
● Many others…
■ Cons of the Automobile
● Environmentally toxic
● Cars dominate our public places
● Space pigs
● Deaths and mutilations
● Big expense
● Oil dependent
■ 300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
e. Computer Telecommunications
● 2007 Iphone, cloud, big data
● Transforming spatial relations
● Increased environmental awareness and knowledge base
○ E.g. climate change
f. Serendipitous Inventions
● Teflon
○ Used for cooking
● Ivory soap
○ Floating soap
 ● Micro-wave ovens
● Viagra
○ Nutrition for plants
g. Unintended Consequences
● DDT
○ 60,70s; detrimental to birds
● CFC
○ Ozone depletion
● Three Mile Island
○ 70s; nuclear plant bombed
● Asbestos
○
● Many others…
Keep in mind…
“Everything is related to everything else”
One cannot change one aspect of nature the environment without directly or indirectly affecting
other aspects

● One quote

5. Systems, ecology, sustainability

a. Systems Definition: sets of interrelated parts linked together to form a unified
whole
● Useful to describe a wide range of phenomena & wide range of
phenomena & offer a simplified description of what is usually complex
reality
b. Ecology Definition: from the Greek - ‘eco’ comes oikos, house or place to live,
and ‘logy’ meaning ‘study of’, comes from the logos
● ‘Study of house’, study of organisms in their homes
c. Ecosystem: a community of living organisms (plants, animals, microbes) in
conjunction with the non-living components of their environment (air, water, soil)
interacting as a system.

● Link together through nutrient cycles & energy flows

● Ecosystems as network of interaction
○ Can be any size but exists as an overlapping web-no distinct
boundary
○ ‘Everything is connected’ = planet ecosystem
d. Humans as Simplifiers of Ecosystems: Humans are active & dominant agents of
environmental change
● Any human change to an ecosystem is usually a simplification, & a
simplified ecosystem usually is vulnerable
○ Human activities include
 ■ Farming
■ Building of dams
■ Building cities
■ Oil or energy exploration
○ E.g. Monoculture
● One of the most urgent issues facing humanity is the need to change the
way we live inside our ecosystems
○ We are overwhelming the Earth’s ecosystems by
■ Excessive pollution of air, land, water
■ Extraction & use of fossil fuels

e. Sustainability
● Introduced in the late 1970s
● Refers to the idea that our current way of life can't not continue
indefinitely & that we will have to find a more sustainable way of life
● A system approach to life wherein environmental inputs/outputs are
balanced
● Requires major change in thinking & doing
6. Climate Change, culture change
● Natural Environment Physical Geography ←→Built Environment Human
Geography
● 1. Climate change is real, human-induced, & a dire threat to humanity &
other life if unchecked
○ Objective, empirical evidence indicates the planet is warming at an
unprecedented rate
■ Image of empirical evidence
○ CO2 Emissions mirror temperature rise
○ 4C increase by 2100 in global average temperature
● 2. We know what causes it & what to do about it
○ Anthropocentric → Human beings
■ Bring fossil fuels
● Produces CO2 → Greenhouse effect
■ Deforestation of land to farmland
● 3. The problem is not climate change per se, but the necessary cultural
changes needed to minimize its worst impacts. We need to change our
cultures: our way of viewing, thinking & doing within & to the environment.
○ Totality of a shared, learned ‘way of life’ ways of viewing doing thinking
○ Totality of a shared learned ‘way of life’: ways of viewing, doing thinking
○ Anything and everything made or thought and shared by human beings =
cultural ways of seeing & gazing the human environment relationship…
○ “To reduce CO2 requires an alteration in nearly every facet of the
economy, and therefore, nearly every facet of our culture. To recognize
greenhouse gases as a problem requires us to change a great deal
about how we view the world and ourselves within it”
 ■ Economic-Social-Political-Psychological Geographical Problem
● 4. At the macro scale we need structural changes to our economic &
energy systems
○ Economic & Energy Structures
■ Capitalism is premised on infinite growth
■ Views the planet as a storehouse of resources to be commodified
-- placed on the ‘market’ -- for sale, profit, employment -- to satisfy
human needs/desires
■ ‘Consumerism’ encourages excessive consumption
■ Runs primarily on cheap fossil fuels
○ How do we break this chain?
■ Refer to slide 71 - 74
● End Capitalism? Revise capitalism through regulation,
‘going green’, reduce material consumerism? Wait for
capitalism to collapse? (we can change what we prioritize)
■ Switch to renewal ‘green’ energies: wind, tidal, nuclear, batter
technologies, more energy efficient products, re-design
auto-dependent, low-density suburbia/cities
● 5. At the micro-scale we can each do our part by lowering our carbon
footprints in our everyday geographies by making better, more mindful
choices
● Canada’ pretty high; 18 ton/capital
○ 5 ton global avg
○ 2.5 tons goal

○ STUFF YOU BUY…

■ ‘Consumer Culture’
● Economy premised on ‘excessive’ consumption to satisfy
desires not just needs
■ Alternative Cultures
● Religions
● Simple Living
● Frugal Hedonism
● Minimalism
■ Transportation:
● Going Electric
○ GM 2035
○ Ford Europe 2030
○ VW Europe 2033-2035
○ China & Canada, 2035
○ France 2040
○ Montreal banning gas cars in core 2030
*Need to invest in public transportation
*Build higher density, pedestrian cities
 ● Drive less
● Carpool
● Walk, bike, bus
● Telecommute
● Live locally
● Get rid of the 2nd car
■ Food:
● UN encourages less meat & diary, more plants
Greenhouse gases contribution by food type in avg.
N.American diet…

● 6. There is reason to be cautiously optimistic about avoiding worst case

scenarios -- cultural change is happening -- but it’s slow and won’t be
easy…
○ Increased awareness
■ Election issue
■ Part of news cycle
■ Books, documentaries
■ Scientists are speaking up
■ CEOs voicing concerns (Gates)
○ Deniers are diminishing in number
■ Were once the vast majority
● 1956, 1936, 1912, 1986
■ 78% Cdns concerned about CC （climate change)
○ Increased action by business, gov’ts and institutions
■ Carbon tax
■ USA: Climate corps, like peace corps
■ London’s Climate emergency declaration (terminated widening of
wonderland rd)
■ Car industry
■ Food industry: plant-based opinions booming
■ UWO climate policy Action
■ Geography’s Climate Change & Society
○ Society has overcome immense challenges and changed cultures in the
past--we adapt--so why not now?
■ Slavery
■ Women’s right to vote
■ WW II
■ Moon landing
■ Ozone depletion
■ Same sex-marriage
○ Today’s youth will not accept the status quo. They are demanding
change; they want a future…
■ Survey Young People Worried
 ● 50% thought humanities is doomed
○ Finally, there is hope……
■ Hope is not a passive condition “Let’s hope for the best..”
■ Hope is a verb, a call to action, for our children, & their children
■ So let us earn our hope, let’s be hopeful, let’s get busy…

WEEK 5: Geographies of Culture & Landscape

Content:
1. What is ‘Culture’
2. Characteristics
3. Cultural landscapes
4. Multiculturalism in Canada

Midterm 1:
● 30% of final course grade
● 10:30 - 12:20; online access & submission
● Content: Lec #1-#6
● Chapter #1 - #5 &#12
● 60Qs:
○ 30T/F
○ 30 MC
○ Open book BUT many question will ask you to think not just affirm a fact

Let’s get sustainable: Environmental Impacts

Summary:
- Humans and Environment is a complex system
- Humans are the dominant agents of environmental change
- Simplification of Ecosystem-bad news
- Key for energy future Renewable + Reduction
- Major impacts on vegetation, animals, land, soil, water, climate
- If we change our individual & collective political-economic behaviours we can achieve
sustainability
- Sustainability: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.”
1. Climate change is real, human-induced, & a dire threat to humanity & other life if
unchecked
2. We know what causes it & what to do about it
3. The problem is not climate change per se, but the necessary cultural changes needed to
minimize its worst impacts. We need to change our cultures: our ways of viewing,
thinking & doing within & to the environment
 4. At the macro-scale we need structural changes to our economic & energy systems
5. At the micro-scale we can each do our part by lowering our carbon footprints in our
everyday geographies by making better, more mindful choices
6. There is reason to be cautiously optimistic about avoiding worst case scenarios --
cultural change is happening -- but it’s slow and won’t be easy…

1. What is Culture?
● Why bother to ask?
○ Necessary step in ‘critical thinking’:
■ I.e. reflective & reasonable
● Various Definitions of ‘Culture’
○ Culture as - ‘
■ highbrow’
- Elite
- Formal
- British
Images:
Artistic & intellectual product of elites
System of shared belief
Capabilities & habits acquired by members of a society

● Sign system -- codes -- in all human creations

○ Codes
■ As set of rules or guidelines; formal or informal
○ Q: E.g. of a ‘culture code’?
■ E.g. language, dances, food, dress, how we interact
● Clothing
● Food
● Bodies (positioning & gestures)
○ E.g. beauty
○ E.g. ‘body language’
● Hall’s 4 spatial zones
○ Intimate skin - 46cm
○ Personal 46 cm - 1 m
○ Social 1-3m
○ Public 3-8m
● Touching in Cades
○ San Juan; 180Xs/hr
○ Paris: 110 Xs/hr
○ Gainesville, Florida 2 Xs/hr
○ London, England 0Xs/hr
● Manner of etiquette
○ E.g. what constitutes as being professional
 ● And a final example of a cultural code…
○ Landscapes:
■ Literally learn to read, interpret or de-code the arrangement in
space of human activities & actions
● I.e. how you/others behave in certain spaces
● And still other definitions of ‘culture’
○ Totality of a shared, learned “way of life”: doing & thinking
■ Religion?
■ Language?
■ Gender?
■ Food?
■ Ethnicity?
■ Skills?
■ Place attachment?
● “...the specialized behavioural patterns, understandings, adaptations &
social systems that constitute a people’s learned way of life”
● Q: What does this mean?
○ Specialized:
■ Particular kind
■ Vary over space
○ Behavioral patterns
■ Recurring human actions; but sometimes different
● E.g Birthday
○ Understandings:
■ What/how we know
○ Adaptations
■ Changing ourselves & our environment to address new challenges
○ Social systems
■ Relations & practices of individuals, groups, organizations &
institutions
○ A people’s learned way of life
■ Nurtured not natural
● Goal of studying culture
○ To (describe) and (explain) the (processes) creating culture & cultural
landscapes
○ ……and in so do doing learn about and from (humanity) toward
respecting (differences) and promoting (peace & social justice)
○ The alternative is (violence)
● What is Culture?
○ Video

2. Characteristics of ‘Culture’
● Human Creation:
 ○ Invented, practiced, changed, maintained by ppl
○ Fewer Canadians bothering to marry
● Dynamic & Constant
○ Change vs tradition
■ Q: Example?
● Scale Varies: global to local (earth globe pic)
○ E.g. family traditions, McDonalds, jeans
● Plurality:
○ Many cultures within & across societies
● OverLap:
○ Sub-cultures overlap creating still other sub-cultures
● Q: WHich cultures do YOU belong to?
○ Belong to many cultural groups
● Medium of Expression:
○ Everything human know, use or invented Material or immaterial --
expresses or reveals smth about humanity, about culture
■ E.g, how ppl treat animals, prisoners etc.
● Spatial:
○ How space is used, organized, arranged & ascribed meaning or identity
by ppl reveals culture
○ Space is a medium of cultural expression
■ E.g. space is power
● Political:
○ Cultural expressions are ‘sites of struggle’: who’s culture is acceptable?
Where? When? By whom?
■ E.g of a cultural struggle? France vs Hijabs; sexual identity;
different types of food
● Battleground issues in the ‘culture wars”
○ Abortion
○ Media bias
○ White privilege
○ ‘Race’ & intelligence
○ Sex ed in schools
○ Censorship
○ Capital punishment
○ Same-sex marriage
○ Gender
○ Sexualities
○ Cloning
○ Religion vs Secularism
○ Political correctness
○ Euthanasia
○ Religion vs state
○ Creation vs evolution
 ○ Pub vs Priv.Health care
○ Global warming
○ Family values
○ Genetically altered food
○ AI
Rank this cultural creation
● Beer or Champagne
● Wrestling or ballet
● Pop music or classical
● King lear or derry girls
● paris , Fr or Paris, Ont
● Carnivore diet or Plant-based
POINT: culturally relative
● Relative but contestable
○ Relativity → fair interpretations
■ Similar but different
○ Contestable → not every ‘way of doing or thinking’ is acceptable
■ Different & unacceptable
○ On what grounds?
■ Need to build a sound argument: CRITICAL THOUGHT!
3. ‘Culture’ Landscapes
● We know:
○ Plurality of cultures
○ Built or Human environments (lands) & ways of seeing (scapes)
■ Are ‘ Cultural creations’
● Given those premises, we know:
○ Plurality of cultural landscapes
■ Plurality of
● Cultural groups
● Sites, areas, places, regions
● Ppl & activities
● Artifacts, mentifacts & sociofacts
● Plurality of ‘ways of seeing’
● Each Cultural group has a landscape
○ Ethnicity, religion, class
● Cultural Landscapes may
○ Be separate in space
■ Cultural regions
■ Gender
■ Political borders
● Overlap in space:
○ Multiple Ethnicities
○ Conflict in space
● Please ponder this statement…
 ○ “Environment sustains us as creatures, Landscapes renewal us as
cultures” (D.Meinig)
■ Environment is dependent of us, and what we defines it, how we
relate to it, defines us as culture (what do we grow, how do we
organize that etc. )
■ Different cultures organize them in different ways
● Dominant Theme of ‘New’ Cultural Geography
○ Cultural Politics
■ Which markers of cultural identity are acceptable to whom?
● Where?
● Why?
● How
● Q: Which ‘Identities’ of culture to study?
○ Primary identities of culture as expressed in, over and through space?
■ ethnicity/ ‘race’
■ Religion
■ Gender
■ Age
■ Language
■ Class
■ Sexuality
■ Body
○ E.g. class, level of education, gender identity,
● The spatial is emphasized:
○ How is space used, organized, arranged & ascribed meanings and
identities by people?
○ Theses are the cultural landscapes of contemporary cultural geography
■ ethnicity/ ‘race’
■ Religion
■ Gender
■ Age
■ Language
■ Class
■ Sexuality
■ Body
● Space is medium of cultural expression
○ Example: E.g. stereotypical male space: sports bar; female stereotypical
space: nail salon
4. Multi-Culturalism in Canada
A) A Fact
● Demographically we are diverse
○ Aboriginals First Nations
○ Charter Groups: English (British) & French
○ Others
 ● Diversity due to immigration
○ Demographic needs (1.5 TFR)
○ Economic needs (growth)
○ International obligations (refugees)
● We need immigrants: will become more diverse
○ 23% of Canada’s current popl’n born outside of country
● Immigrants per year?
○ 2017-2025 targets:

Year Immigrants

2017 300,000

2018 310,000

2019 330,000

2020 340,000

2021 401,000

2022 411,000

2023 465,000

2024 485,000

2025 500,000
Demographers: 1% of popl’n size OR 1% of 38 million or 380,000
Political tightrope for gov’t: need vs public opinion

Toronto’s Diversity
● 49% born outside of Canada
● 43% self-identify as ‘visible minority’
● Top 4 visible minority groups
○ Chinese: 10.6% of total TO popl’n
○ South Asian 10.3% of total TO popl’n
○ Black 8.3% of total TO popl’n
○ Filipino 3.5% of total TO popl’n
● 22% are new immigrants since 1991
● Over 100 dialects and languages spoken
Immigration Pop Quiz: T/F
Q: Visible minorities now make up about half the Cdn popl’n
False - 30.2%
Q: The largest # of newcomers are arriving mainly from Muslim countries: numbered all source
False: Chinese have outnumbered them
Q: Professionals -- e.g. doctors -- get into Canada Faster than any other category of immigrants
False - 68 month
Q: The fastest way to become a PR is to claim refugee status
False
B) An Ideology
● A set of beliefs celebrating diversity and commensurate with the principles of
freedom, tolerance & respect for individual differences
● Underlying assumptions:
○ Society is diverse and wishes to remain so
○ All cultural groups equal
○ No one group is superior
○ Accommodation & mutual understanding will promote social harmony
○ Diversity must be actively managed, not simply tolerated
C) A government policy
● Initiated by Trudeau in 1971
● Entrenched as gov’t policy in 1988
● Everyone is entitled to …
○ Equal treatment
○ Protection from racial discrimination
○ Equality of opportunity
○ The right to remain culturally different
D) A Process
A ‘political’ process
● Through which minority’ ethnic groups compete with central authorities and
dominant cultural groups for achievement of certain goals and aspirations
○ Sometimes blood is spilled in the street, BUT usually resolve din court
○ An on-going process to resolve cultural conflicts
○ The alternative would be……? (violence)
● The Multi-Cultural Conundrum
○ How much diversity can a society incorporate without losing the social
cohesion needed to function?
○ How might we best & peacefully share our spaces?
○ Can culture be used as a defense?
■ To beat your spouse?
■ To smoke in public?
■ To deny daughters an education?
○ Limits will be drawn: by whom?
■ Legislative assembles (laws) and the courts
● Video on Is Multiculturalism a Myth?
○ No time

Slide 12: Ans:

13.
23.
35.
36.
38
Summary Lecture #5

WEEK 6: Geographies of Identities & Differences

1. Cultural Identities & Cultural Politics
2. The role of Space & Place
3. Class
4. Race
5. Ethnicity
6. Gender
7. Sexuality
8. Toward Social & Spatial Justice

1. Cultural Identities & Cultural Politics

● Review:
○ Plurality of cultures, cultural groups, cultural landscapes
○ Individuals -- like you have multiple cultural identities: religion,
nationality, language, class ethnicity, gender, sexuality
○ Cultural identities are context dependent: rise and fall in importance
depending upon the place: the social & spatial setting →
● E.g. In which context might these identities be relevant or irrelevant

Relevant Irrelevant

Religion E.g. religious institution E.g. lecture

Sexuality E.g. travelling E.g. In a lecture

Nationality

Language

● B. The SPATIAL is Emphasized

○ Space takes on the identities of its occupants
○ E.g.s of cultural landscapes based on identities of occupants:
■ Ethnicity
■ Religion
■ Gender
■ Age
■ Language
 ■ Class
■ Sexuality
■ Body
○ How is space used, organized, arranged & ascribed meanings & identities
by people?
● C. Identities are POLITICAL
○ Whose cultural identity is acceptable?
○ Which cultural group’s meanings, values, ways, will be deemed
acceptable or not, in whole or in part?
■ Where? By whom? Why not? When? WHy? Who gets to say?
○ These answers involve the exercise of … → power
● D. POWER
○ An asymmetrical or unequal social relationship
○ The ability to influence, if not determine, how people act:
■ I. DIrectly
■ Ii. Indirectly
○ The capacity of some persons to produce intended & foreseen effect on
others
○ Exercising power
■ subtle to direct
■ covert to overt
■ gentle to violent
■ convincing to threatening
○ Spatial Strategies of Exercising power
■ Exclude
● E.g. ur not allowed (borders)
■ Include
● Pass certain requirements and we are included
■ Contain
● Put ppl in one particular spot
● E.g. educational institutions
■ Expel
● If you offended some laws, gonna expel u, we don’t want u
here anymore
* Not Mutually exclusive
E.g. Chinese Head tax -- example of racializing others and
excluding others from space
● E. Sites of STRUGGLE
○ Since cultural landscapes are expressions of cultural identities, & power is
necessarily involved, landscapes & identities are ‘sites of struggle’
○ Q: E.g.s a cultural struggle?
■ Class,, ‘race’/ethnicity, gender, sexuality……
○ Battleground issues in the ‘culture wars’
■
 ● F. Culture is (POLITICS)
○ Social & therefore power relationships are created & practiced in, over &
through space
○ In other words, cultural landscapes & cultural identities are
politically-charged
*Worst case scenario, you can be killed by ur identity

2. The role of Space & Place

● A. Sites of STRUGGLE (again)
○ Because ‘culture’ is a dynamic process, a medium, made up & made
from people of different social-economic-political identities, these
identities -- these cultural groups & their cultural landscapes -- ‘sites of
struggle’
○ The ‘struggle’ is over key questions:
■ Whose cultural identity is acceptable?
■ Which cultural group’s meanings, values, ways, will be deemed
acceptable or not, in whole or in part?
■ Where? By whom refer back to sites of struggle
- Theses cultural differences are
● Contested
● Negotiated. and/or
● SUSTAINED
○ By differing cultural groups in, over & through space, within
a context of uneven power
○ Q: What does this mean?
● B.Difference Spaces
○ Various individuals, groups & institutions occupy different spaces of
social-economic-political-cultural-power
○ By ‘differing spaces’ is meant 3 possibilities
■ I. Place in (Physical) space:
● I.e. Location
● E.g. border between Mexico & US
●
■ Ii. Place in (Social) Space:
● I.e. Status
● E.g. Male doctor vs female clerk
■ Iii. Place in (Lived World):
● I.e. experience
● E.g. lifestyle of the well off vs not so well off
● E.g. money in household, education level etc.
● C.Dominant & Subordinate Groups
○ Because different cultural groups occupy different ‘places’ of power,
certain cultural individuals & groups (dominate) & impose or privilege
their meanings & values -- their culture -- the (dominant culture)--upon
 other less powerful individuals & groups -- (Subordinate groups) -- and
their marginalized (subordinate/subordinant culture).
■ Examples?
● Stereotypical someone who has a lot of power:
○ White, middle age man, see further +-
● The opposite:
○ Women of colour, see further +-
○ Cultural groups, artifacts may range range from most dominant to most
subordinate along a SCALE of CULTURAL POWER
■ +: white, middle-age, male, hetero, married
■ -: black, young, female, homo, single
○ Subordinate groups my wish to
■ Remain subordinate
● E.g. Hell’s Angels
■ Strive to become dominant
● E.g. the religious right or socialist left
■ Strive for Acceptance by dominant group
● E.g. lesbians, transgenders, the mentally challenged
○ Dominant groups my wish to
■ Remain Dominant
● E.g Liberal Party
■ Strive to increase dominance
● E.g. transnational corporations
■ Strive for inclusion of subordinate groups
● E.g. NGO’s for development
○ Class; ‘race’ Ethnicity, gender, sexuality -- Different cultural groups
occupy different spaces, places, & degrees of power
● You are free to agree to disagree or agree with these concepts: do need to know
them
○
3. Class
● A. Position in Cdn’s Capitalist Economy
○ I. Capitalist Class or ‘Bourgeoisie’
■ Approx. 3% of Cdn popl’n
■ Owners of material capital:
■ 1000 people own 80% of all corporate stocks & bonds; proper
owners
● E.g. Brofmans, Westons, Eastons
○ Ii. Middle Class or ‘Petty Bourgeoisie’
■ About 17% of Cdn popl’n
■ Salaried employees (6 figures)
■ Workplace ‘autonomy’ → self-directed
■ Professional occupations using their intellectual/knowledge
capital:
 ● E.g. doctors, lawyers, accountants, bank presidents,
upper-level administers
○ Iii.The Working Class or ‘Proletarian’
■ Approx. 80% of the Cdn population
■ Largest & most occupationally diverse: semi-professional to
minimum wage
■ Salaried or paid hourly for labour
■ Little or no workplace autonomy
■ Most jobs need no post-secondary ed.
■ Many in denial: think they are middle class
4. Race
● A.Definition: Social NOT Biological
○ The belief that human beings can be readily divided into a series of
discrete races -- Mongoloid, Caucasoid, Negroid -- is now widely
regarded as fallacious. Instead, races are now widely regarded as a
political and social construction rather than a biological fact, the
product of racism rather than of human genetics.
○ Bill Nye Quote
● B. Racism
○ Actions, attitudes & policies that attribute social, cultural & cognitive
characteristics to people based solely on arbitrary physical criteria
■ E.g. nose, hair, eyes, skin colour
● C. People are Racialized
○ People are ‘racialized’ through social practice in economics, political &
cultural context (i.e. spaces & places)
○ Used to label, rank, & thus demean others on a racist scale of superiority
to inferiority
○ An intellectually lazy way of labelling others
● D. Consequences of Racism
○ Discrimination
○ Inequality
○ Superior/inferior rankings
○ Oppression
○ Genocide: racial extermination
● We learn so see ‘race’ and practice racism or not…
5. Ethnicity
● A. Traditional Def’n
○ A group of individuals sharing a common language, religion, culture,
nationality, heritage or origin
■ E.g. Jews, greeks, French
● B.Spatially Dependent
○ Becomes important marker of identity when
■ I. Existing group is overtaken by another, making them a minority
in their own space -- E.g. Aboriginals in Cdn
 ■ Ii. Existing group enters another’s space, making them a minority
in this new space -- E.g. Mid-20th C italians in Cdn
● C.Politically Motivated
○ Becomes important marker of identity when
■ I. Perceived belief that their group's traits, practices & beliefs --
culture -- are at risk by a dominant other
■ Ii. A means to keep ‘ethnic’ identity alive
● E.g. Enclaves of Little Italy, chinatown
6. Gender
● A.’Sex’ is biological
○ ‘Female’
○ ‘Male’
○ A bodily function traditionally based on reproductive capacities……
(traditionally developed)
● B. ‘Gender’ is cultural
○ A socially constructed identity
○ We learn how to be ‘masculine’ males: ‘Men’
○ We learn how to be ‘feminine’ females: ‘Women’
○ Gender is between the ears
○ Sex is between the legs
● C. Gender is plural, fluid & changing
○ Numerous ways to be a ‘man’
○ Numerous ways to be a ‘women’
○ Could be a ‘feminine’ male
○ Could be a ‘masculine’ female
● Q: How many ‘genders’ are there in our society?
○ 14+
○ Agender, I prefer not to answer etc.
7. Sexuality
● A. Sexuality is Socially Constructed
○ Sex is biological
○ Gender is cultural as in sexuality
○ How one expresses, practices & experiences one’s gender, orientation,
attraction, intimacy & desires is socially determined
○ We learn to express our sexualities & interpret those of others
● B. Sexuality is Plural & Fluid
○ Numerous sexual identities
■ ‘Homo’ ←→ ‘Bi’ ←→ ‘Hetero’
○ Fluid and changing over
○ Time
■ E.g. What is acceptable now may not be acceptable before
○ Location
■ E.g. some homo deemed punishable in certain countries whereas
in some, they can get married
 ○ One’s stage of life
■ E.g How you practice your sexuality now can be different as ur
taste and priorities change
● Q: How many ‘sexualities’ are there in our society?
○ 9+
8. Towards Social & Spatial Justice
● A. Key Questions about Identities
○ Who or what dominates?
○ Who or what benefits?
○ Who or what does not?
○ Why? How? Where? Role of space & place?
○ Is there a more just & fair landscape we might build?
○ How might we share space with the ‘other’?
○ Class;’Race’;Ethnicity, gender ,sexuality -- different cultural groups
occupy different spaces, places, degrees of power; How to share? Why
bother?
● B. Cultural Justice & Cultural Rights
○ I. Justice:
■ An ideal against which to measure the accomplishment, the
practices, the aims of society
■ Q: Whose IDEALS does one use to ‘measure’ society’s practices?
○ Ii. Rights:
■ Justice usually defined in terms of
● The individual
● And rights pertaining to the individual -- i.e. human rights
● C. Inequities & Differences
○ Social Justice complex us to defend inequality & unequal, unfair
treatment: ‘inequities’
○ If we cannot justify inequalities -- differences -- or inequities -- unfair
treatment -- them we are morally obliged to rectify the situation
● D. Spacital Justice:
○ Compels us to ask:
■ How does space sustain & challenge inequalities & inequities?
● (E.g. back in canada, hard to find a place where gay man
can meet gay man)
● The struggle for ‘cultural justice’ -- the rights to cultural differences and to be a
minority is part of the struggle for Human Rights
● And this struggle necessarily involves space & place
○ I. The right to ‘be in space’
■ E.g. Gay & Straights in Public
○ Ii. The right to ‘occupy the same place’ as the majority
■ E.g. Marriage, CEO of a business
○ Iii. The right to ‘be different’ within, over, and through space
■ E.g. Ethnic identity: Chinatown
 ● All of these rights come with obligations:
○ Respect the ‘other’
○ Question authority
○ Strive for equality
Final Thought:
Yes we have differences of identities
But recognize that our similarities far outweigh our differences
We are all human beings
We may choose to demonize the ‘other’
Or we may choose to humanize the ‘other’

WEEK 7:
Overview：
Politics & Space: Political Geography
1. Key Concepts of Political Geography
2. Characteristics of States
3. Grouping & Forms of States
4. Boundaries & Boundary Disputes
5. Forces of States Cohesion & Separation
6. Geopolitics
7. Putin’s War in Ukraine

Politics & Space: Political Geography

Summary Lec #6:
● Do it later

1. Key Concepts of Political Geography

● Q: Remember ‘power’?
○ An asymmetrical or unequal social relationship
○ The ability to influence, if not determine, how people act:
■ I. direct
■ Ii. indirect
○ The capacity of some persons to produce intended & foreseen effects on
others
○ Exercising power
■ Subtle to direct
■ Covert to overt
■ Gentle to violent
■ Convincing to threatening
○ Spatial strategy of power
 ■ Exclude
■ Include
■ Contain
■ Expel
● A. Politics
○ …is the struggle for power
■ Specifically. The power to exercise control over people & spaces
they use (E.g. Federal law that applies to everyone in this room →
dress policy)
● B.Political Geography
○ Studies the spatial dimension of human conflict and cooperation on this
planet
○ Scale of study:
■ Traditionally at the state level
Meaning Political Geography studies the actions of governments and institutions
rather than those of actual people
○ Essentially Political Geographers are interested in how humans:
■ Group themselves into nations
■ How those nations can form the foundation of states
■ How states claim space as their territory
■ How states compete for territory and negotiate boundaries
between each other
○
● C.Key Concept
○ Human territoriality:
○ The strategy used by individuals, groups, & organizations to exercise
power over a portion of space and its contents
■ E.g. personal bubble to nation-states
2. Characteristics of States
● I. Nation:
○ A group of people sharing a common culture/trait/identity & an
attachment to some territory
■ I.e. a common mother tongue
● E.g. Welsh or Basque
■ A common ethnic ancestry
● E.g. Ojibway
■ A common religion
● E.g. Christianity
■ A common history
● E.g. Newfoundland

● Ii. State:
○ An area (as in ‘country’) & political institution (as in ‘the authorities’).
■ It covers a distinct space (the ‘territory’)
 ■ The limits of the territory are defined by boundaries to
neighbouring states
■ The territory is ruled by one government that exercises control
over the territory & those that live within it
○ Key facts about the ‘state’
■ A. Need a defined territory where its laws are enforced
■ B. Need a set of laws that are in force across the territory
■ C.Need a popl’n that enforces & follows the laws
○
● Iii. Nation-State:
○ A clearly-defined large group of people who self-identify as a group &
occupy a spatially-defined territory with necessary infrastructure, social &
political institutions
○ Note: there are a few ‘true’ nation-states
■ E.g. of ‘true’ nation-states:
● Japan, Iceland, Portugal, Italy (language often a marker)
● Iv. Stateless Nations:
○ Nations that do not currently have a state of their own
○ E.g.s.
■ The Basque living in Northern Spain & Southern France want to
form their own state
■ Kurds living is dispersed across Turkey, Iraq, & Syria -- pushing for
a sovereign state to be carved out of northern Iraq
■ Any others?
■ An example of a succession attempt by a stateless nation to
establish territorial sovereignty is the creation of Israel in 1948
● But problems arise
● V. Multinational States:
○ Where a state’s popl’n is formed by 2 or more distinct nations
■ E.g.s:
● Canada: French, Great Britain, Indigenous
● Switzerland - incorporates speakers of German, French,
and Italian
● Great Britain - comprises English, Scots, Welsh, Cornish
(the people of Cornwall), & the inhabitants of Northern
Ireland
○
3. Grouping & Forms of States
● I. Groupings:
○ United Nations 1945
■ 51 founding countries/now 197 (2021)
○ European Integration (Post WWII)
■ European Economic Community (1957)
■ Commission of European Communities (1967)
 ■ Large expansion of European Union (1994)
○ Most concern trade blocs.
■ E.g. NAFTA, ASEAN
● Ii. Forms of Government
○ Democracy: rule by the people
○ Monarchy: rule by a single person
○ Oligarchy: rule by a few, usually those in possession of wealth
○ Dictatorship: oppressive & arbitrary form of rule established &
maintained by force & intimidation
○ Anarchism: rejects the concept of state & associated division of society
into ‘rulers’ & ‘ruled’
● Iii. Principle Political Philosophies of States
○ Capitalism:
■ Free market
■ Limited gov’t intervention
○ Socialism:
■ Anti-capitalism
■ Planned economy
■ Powerful gov’t
■ Nationalistic
4. Boundaries & Boundary Disputes
● I. Boundary
○ Mark the limits of a state’s sovereignty
○ ‘Lines’ drawn where states meet or where states’ territorial waters end
○ Artificial in the sense that what is meaningful in one context may be
meaningless in another
● Ii. Forms of Boundaries
○ Physical
■ E.g. rivers, mountain range (Q: what if the river drives up?)
○ Cultural
■ E.g. language, region
○ Geometric
■ E.g. 49th parallel
● Iii. Types of Geometric Boundaries
○ Antecedent boundaries:
■ those that existed before the current cultural landscape was
established by the current population
○ Subsequent boundaries:
■ those that were drawn after the current cultural landscape was
established
○ Relic boundaries:
■ Those that are no longer functioning as such but are visible on the
cultural landscapes
● Iv. International Boundaries
 ○ Important because:
■ They separate states from each other to avoid conflict over the
extent of territorial space
■ They establish how far the territorial authority of a state extends
● V. Boundary Disputes
○ Various types:
○ Positional disputes:
■ States disagreement over:
● The interpretation of existing documents that define a
boundary
● The way the boundary was delimited
○ Territorial disputes
■ Dispute over ownership of a region (E.g. Kashir)
○ Resource disputes
■ Territorial conflict over resources (E.g. Oil reservoir known as the
Rumaila field was the source of the 1991 Gulf War)
○ Functional disputes
■ States disagree over policies to be applied along a boundary (E.g.
immigration policies)
5. Forces of States Cohesion & Separation
● I. State Stability
○ Centrifugal:
■ Forces that tear a state apart (E.g. Political Areas with
Nationalist/Separatist Movements in Europe
■ When it exceeds centripetal forces, a state is unstable
● E.g. internal divisions in language or religion; weak
institutions, separatist movements, etc.
○ Centripetal:
■ Forces that tend to bind a state together
■ When it exceeds centrifugal forces, a state is table
● E.g. extensive transportation and communication infra;
religion, history, language, strong ethnic identity, central
institutions etc.
● Ii. Failed States
○ Some countries have failed because they are either critically weak or no
longer functioning effectively (ungoverned or misgoverned)
■ E.g. Afghanistan
○ Failed states pose both national & global problems:
■ Global security:
● Safety havens for terrorist and ellicit drug production (Mali)
● Allow pirates to operate freely in busy shipping lanes
(Somalia)
● Iii. Exercising State Power
 ○ Capitalist countries: state power is exercised through various institutions
& organizations
○ State apparatus includes:
■ Political & legal systems
■ Military or police forces to enforce the state’s power
■ Mechanisms such as a central bank to regulate economic affairs
○ Critical issue:
■ Need for international cooperation in solving global environmental
problems
6. Geopolitics
● I. Geopolitics
○ ….is about the ways in which states, and institutions apply geographical
knowledge and principles to enhance their power vis-a-vis their
competitors
○ …phrased differently, is the application of geography for purposes of
increasing a state’s power
● Ii. Classical Theories of Geopolitics
○ a) Heartland Theory: (Halford Mackinder, 1919) Theory of world power
based on the assumption that the land-based state controlling the
Eurasian heartland held the key to world domination.
■ Summary:
● He who rules E. Europe commands the Heartland
● He who rules the Heartland commands the World Island
● He who rules the world Island commands World
○ b) Rimland Theory: (Nicolas Spykman, 1942)
■ Theory of world power based on the assumption that the state
controlling the area surrounding Eurasian heartland held the key
to world domination.
○ c) Geopolitik:
■ Study of states as organisms that choose to expand in territory in
order to fulfill their destinies as nation-states
● I.e. ‘survival of the fittest’
● Darwinist idea
● Iii. Exploration & Colonialism
○ a) Exploration
■ Most empires began as a result of exploratory activity, itself a
geographical endeavor
○ b) Colonialism
■ Economic, social, and political activity in explored areas that
became colonies were determined by and for the exploring power.
○ c) De-Colonization
■ Recently the number of states in the world has increased, from 70
in 1938 to more than 197 in 2021.
 ■ Most of these states have gained independence from a colonial
power
■ E.g. NEWEST COUNTRY South Sudan - declared independence
From Sudan on July 9, 20111, after a bloody civil war with
Sudan’s ethnically Arab north that had lasted decades.
● Iv. Elections, Voting & Place
○ a) Voting District Boundaries
■ An important factor in election results
● E.g.
■ ‘Gerrymandering’
● Any spatial re-organization designed to favour a particular
party
○ b) Voting & Place
■ Class: a dominant influence on voting behaviour, but place also
matters.
■ Local influences on voting: See Page 237 Text
■ Any successful political party needs to develop a strong social &
spatial base & a meaningful analysis of election needs to consider
both factors
7. Putin’s War in Ukraine
A. War
● I. Definition
○ The use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial
integrity, or political independence of another state. (U.N.)
○ “The continuation of politics by other means.” (Karl Von Clausewitz)
● Ii. Goal
○ To achieve or defend the goals of the nation by influencing the
orientations, roles, objectives & actions of other states use
○ By….imposing political will upon another by defeating the capacity to
resist (may involve bloodshed….)
● Iii. Causes
○ Previous wars：
■ E.g. WWI → WWII
○ Peace:
■ E.g. Putin’s war
○ Economics： real or perceived need for resources of the other
■ E.g. HItler’s ‘ living space’ or ‘lebensraum’
● Iv. A Geographical Endeavour
○ War is the most extreme of spatial conflicts: human beings suffer and die
○ Necessarily requires the mass movement of people, machines, and
resources over large areas and great distances
○ Necessarily involves controlling people by dominating space
● V. War is a Norm of Human Behaviour
 ○ Of the past 3,400 years, Humans at peace for only 268 of them, or just
8%
○ War occurred somewhere on Earth each year of the 20th C
○ 108 million people died in 20th C wars
○ USA at war 225 of 243 years (1776-2020) (92% of its existence)
B. Why this is Putin’s War in Ukraine
● Putin is the dictator of Russia
● He alone initiated the use of armed force by the Russian state against
the sovereignty, territorial integrity & political independence Ukraine
● To achieve his goal of influencing the orientations, roles, objectives &
actions of Ukraine by defeating its capacity to resist
C. Why Might Putin Do so?
● I. Putin claims Russia could not feel “safe, develop and exit” because of
what he claimed was a constant threat from Ukraine
● Ii. His stated goal is to protect Ukrainians from bullying & genocide from a
“militarized and Nazified” government
● I. Why feel unsafe and threatened?
○ Need to understand Soviet Union pre 1991 15 Republics part of
Soviet Bloc
● N.A.T.O.
○ 14 countries have joined since 1997; currently 30 countries
● Eurasian Union
○ 5 countries including Russia
● Ii. No evidence that genocide or bullying of Ukrainian people by their
government has occurred; the president of Ukraine is Jewish: one cannot
be both a Nazi and a Jew….
D. How Might This War End?
● Four scenarios dominant the discussion at present:
○ i. Worst Case Scenario:
■ Full scale war between Russia & NATO
○ ii. Best Case Scenario:
■ Putin is removed by his own people
○ iii. 2nd Best Case Scenario: Russian/Ukraine cease fire
negotiated
○ iv. Most Likely Scenario:
■ Russia occupies Ukraine with military force; Ukrainians
wage guerrilla warfare

Let us remain hopeful It’s not over until it’s over Let us rise to be best of our humanity Be
thoughtful, kind and mindful toward others and ourselves Be grateful for what we have here:
Peace, food, shelter, friends, family, and the privilege of exercising hope
WEEK 8:
Overview:
1. Urbanism & Urbanization
2. Emerging patterns in the global urban system
3. Origins & purposes of cities
4. Models of internal urban structure
5. Suburbanization

1. Urbanism & Urbanization

● Permanent residence
● Size - Stats Can 5,000+
● Density
○ Toronto 2,450 p/sq/km
○ London 800 p/sq/km
○ HUron County 17 p/sq/km
●
‘Size’ of ‘Urban’ Varies
● France – 2,000+ people
● Portugal – 10,000+ people
● Canada - 1000+ ppl having a popl’n density of 400 or more per km^2
● U.S. – 2,500+ people with a popl’n density of at least 500 persons per square mile
● Japan – 50,000+

Density in Major Canadian Cities:

● High density better & apartment better
● Toronto > Toronto Suburbs>montreal>Vancouver>Canada Urban Average (measured on
level of ppl per square km)

Behaviours (ways of life)

- non-farming jobs
- ruling elites
- science & arts
- long-distance trade
- Material wealth & goods
- Technology
- Social organization complex
- Spatial organization complex
2021 Global mode of living (56%+ Popl’n)

Images:
● Percentage of global popl’n living in urban areas,
● Share of the urban population worldwide
● World Land Area
● City LIving 2002
○ Territory size shows the proportion of all ppl living in urban areas in the world,
that live in that territory

Distribution of the ‘urban condition’

● Varies over space (earth)
● Varies over time…
Images:
● % of Urban Population by Country, 2014
● The European Era - 1900
○ Largest cities 1900
■ London
■ NY
■ Paris
■ Berlin
■ Chicago
■ Vienna
■ Tokyo
■ St.Petersburg
■ Philadelphia
■ Manchester
■ Birmingham
■ Moscow
● Urbanism Shifts towards Asia - 1950
○ Largest cities 1956
■ NY
■ London
■ Rihneland (Germany)
■ Tokyo
■ Shanghai
■ Paris
■ Buenas Aires
■ Chicago
■ Moscow
■ Calcutta
■ LA
 ■ Osaka
● European Cities Gone from the Top - 1994
○ Largest Cities 1994
■ Tokyo
■ NY
■ SAo
● Mostly Asia, 1 each in N.&S. America, Africa = 2018

Urbanization (Process of becoming urban)

● People movement
○ To the city (inwards)
○ To city edges (area expands outwards)
Canadian Cities Population Growth (1991 -2001)
Population growth in Canada’s largest cities - 2016-2021
London tied with Ottawa for the 2nd fastest growing census metropolitan area (CMA) in the
country: growth 2.3% 2018/2019

City of London, Ontario Boundaries

● Lifestyle change (rural to urban)
○ Security
○ Public transportation
○ Increased consumer choice
○ Specialized services
○ Variety of ppl met
○ Increased commute times
○ Others?
■ Access to healthcare
■ Cost
○ Change in land use & features
■ Fields are to the world as smth to the smth
Current rapid global urbanization 20th century “march to the cities”
World Urban Popl’n 1950 - 2000 Projected to 2020
Distribution of the process of ‘urbanization
● Varies over space
● Vaires over time
World Land Area
City Growth 2002-2015’
● Territory size shows the proportion of all extra ppl that will start living in urban areas
between 2002 and 2015, in each territory
Most urbanism (condition):
● Developed world
○ U.S & Canada
○ Western Europe
○ Oceania (Australia, New Zealand)
 ● Most urbanizing (process):
○ South America
○ Africa
○ Asia
Urbanization in More Developed Regions:
● Industrial revolution provided the impetus for the rapid growth in the number & size of
urban centres
● Growth involved expansion of urban areas & creation of suburbs
● Urbanization had normal distribution of city sizes
Urbanization in Less Developed Regions:
● Urbanization started late—mid-20th C
● Cities are growing primarily through rural-urban migration as well as natural growth
● Urbanization largely due to rural to urban migration & natural popl’n increase without
economic growth of industrialization in West.
● Poverty a problem
● Urbanization is also characterized by a high level of primary (i.e. a particular dominant
city)
2. Emerging patterns in the global urban system
Unprecedented rates of urbanization have been associated with:
i.Growth of megacities
ii. Primacy cities (primate cities)
iii. World cities

I. Defining Megacities;

● A very large city - with a population of 10M or more characterized by both

primacy & centrality within its national economy
● Mega-Regions: series of large cities and megacities connected together

Mega-Cities or Many Cities?

● Urban growth is spread between mega-cities and many smaller cities
● There are an increasing number of mega-cities:
○ In 1950 there were 2 mega-cities: New York and Tokyo
○ By 1975 there were 4 mega-cities: Tokyo, NY, Shanghai, Mexico City
○ By 2010, there were 21 mega-cities
○ By 2029 projected to be 29 mega-cities
Mega Cities. 2003 & 2015

Reasons for increase in size of mega-cities

● 1. Personal migration choices
● 2. Corporate decisions
● 3. Government decisions (E.g. infrastructure creation)
● 4. Initial and locational advantages
Ii. Primacy Cities (Primate City):
 ● A condition in which the population of the largest city in an urban system is
disproportionately large in relation to the second-largest and third-largest cities in that
system
○ E.g. Seoul, S. Korea
○ 40% of country’s popl’n
Iii. World Cities:
● Cities in which a disproportionate share of the world’s most important businesses - i.e.
economic, political, and cultural activities are conducted.
● Economically, world cities:
○ 1. Have headquarters TNCs » Influence global patterns of trade,
communications, finance, & technology transfer
○ 2. Are key centres for financial institutions & producer services
○ 3. Serve as control centres for capital in the new international division of labour
○ World cities arose in response to and are a component of the process of
economic globalization and the declining friction of distance, and also as a
response to and component of the diminishing role of the state.
■ E.g. London in Western Europe
■ NY in N.A
■ Tokyo in Pacific Asia
○ Difference between mega city & World city?
■ Different labels
World Cities and Spheres of Influence
Current major economic functions of world cities:
● Tourism
● Commercial banking, investment banking, insurance, financial services
● Political power, locations for non profit institutions
3. Origins & purposes of cities
3 Technological phases of culture
● Hunting & Gathering Cultures
○ 9/10 ths of human history
○ Wandered ‘space’ for survival
○ Designed for ‘urban’ life?
● ‘Agri’ - cultures
○ ‘Farming’ cultures
○ 8000-15,000 years ago
○ Start to grow plants tend to animals
○ Required permanent space
○ Increase in material possessions
*Early animal domestication
● Urban Cultures
○ 6000 to 8000 yrs ago
○ Permanent settlements appeared
● WHY?
 ○ Increased food production allowed societies sot diversify labour & pursue
other ‘needs’ and wants

- Human survival improved through ‘advantages’ of urban way of life

Q: What are the advantages of the urban condition?
● Advantages of Urbanism
○ Economics
■ Practical & efficient means to produce and distribute goods & services for
survival
○ Administrative
■ Easier for gov’t, business, military, religion to organize/control masses
○ Social, Ed.& Medical Services
■ Ease of access to social, educational & medical services
○ Built Infrastructure
■ Roads, bridges, sewage systems, dams
○ Utilities
■ Water, sewage, electricity, natural gas, telephone, cable
○ Social Interaction
■ Human needs & want each other for biological, psychological and social
fulfilment
○ Cemeteries; Stone age cave paintings (15,000 -25,000 BCE)
Q: What Are the Dis-Advantages of the Urban Condition
Disadvantages or Urbanism
Spatial concentration key!
● Excessive size
○ stop/control growth?
● Administrative organization
○ Maintain order, health, fire & police,safety?
● Lack of built infrastructure
○ Pay & build roads, etc.?
Lack of housing
● 15% of humans live in slums or 927 M ppl (2011)
Social unrest
● 171,000 war dead (2002)
Environmental degradation:
● Air pollution (2014)
Other disadvantages?
Q: Cities were created because…?
● Economic
● Social
● Spatial
Q: Where was the first city?
● Babylonia
 ○ Ancient Mesopotamia, the major city of Babylonia appeared 4000-3500 B.C.E
with some 200,000 popl’n

Frome Herders to Urbanities…

● Commitment to space increased
● Occupied smaller & denser spaces
● Made & kept more & more material goods
● Increased transformation (damage) to natural environment

Images:
● SLUM OCCUPANTS
● World Land Area
● SLUM GROWTH 1990-2001 (220 M more ppl)
○ Growth in poverty, lack of resources
● WAR DEATHS
● E.g. Artificial Night Sky Brightness
● Ancient Mesopotamia, the major city of Babylonia appeared 4000-3500 B.C.E with some
200,000 popl’n
4. Models of internal urban structure
● Text book, ‘Urban Systems & Hierarchies’ pp. 406 - 412
Classic models of internal land use (pg 286-94)
● Concentric Zone Model
● Sector model
● Multiple eNuclei Model
5. Suburbanization
● Text, ‘Suburbanization’ pp. 437-440
● DON MILLS, TORONTO
○ 1 ST planned, self-contained post-WWII community development in
Canada (North America)
○ Housing–Services–Shopping-Industry
● 1901-89
● Announced in
● Private developer
○ E.P. Taylor’s ‘Don Mills Development Corp’
● 8.35 sq km / 2,100 acres of existing farmland
● $200 million
● Critical & commercial success
● The ‘blueprint’ for subsequent ‘suburban’ development: WHY?
● First self-contained community
○ Residences
○ Employment (business, light industry, retail)
○ Shopping & services → mall
● Used consistent design principles and modernist design never before used in
Canada
Planning Principles (5)
i. The Neighbourhood Principle
● 4 quadrants of neighbourhoods
● Each with a school , church, park
● All surrounding a regional mall (Don Mills Centre)
Ii. Separation of Pedestrian & Vehicular Traffic
● Off-street paths to parks, schools & towns centre
● Curvilinear roads, T-intersections, cul-de-sacs to slow traffic
○ Grid, curvilinear image
Iii. Modernist Architecture & Aesthetic
● Developer controlled design, colours, materials of all buildings
● All architects adherents of modern design:
○ ranch style
○ Clean & geometric lines
○ unadorned aesthetic
Iv. Creation of a Green belt
● Green spaces linked to neighbourhood parks & parkland
V. Integration of Industry into the Community
● Live AND work in same community
● Avoid ‘bedroom community’
● Included high density rental townhouses & low-rise apts. To house industrial workers
Q: What is coming after the suburbs? What does your text say about emergent models of city
form?
● City forms
● Beyond notion of automobile deficiencies (or smth like this don’t trust this too much read
the textbook)
● Mainly in textbook

Points to Ponder…
● We are now primarily ‘urban’ animals
● Urbanization has & continues to transform the human-environment relationship
● Climate change & environmental degradation is primarily urban induced (urban culture)
● Urban forms have evolved in size, shape, and functions
Q: What is coming after the suburbs? What does ur text say about emergent models of city
form?
●
Images:
● Don Mills 1953
● Don Mills in Toronto
● Don Mills 1957 vs 2000 & 1957 vs 2002
● Toronto’s urban/suburban growth
● Vancouver’s Urban/Suburban Growth
● Montrreal’s Urban/Suburban Growth
● Pnew urbanism (mid 1990s - present)
Some other stuff:
● London popl’n growth skyrockets after quarter century of tepid gains
● While the region had averaged just under 1% growth since 2001, between 2017 &2018
it's popl’n grew by 2.4% and reached 532,984 last July
● It's the quality of life that we have in London because of the hospitals, uni, fanshawe
college,job growth etc.

WEEK 9:
Agriculture & Food
Overview:

1. Classifications of Economic Activity

● Categories of Economic Activity
○ 1.Primary
■ What are primary activities？
● Economic activities that are concern directly with natural
resources of any kind
○ E.g. Agriculture, fishing, forestry, gathering industries
extractive industries -- oil extraction
○ 2, Secondary
■ What are secondary activities?
● Economic activities that process, transform, fabricate or assemble
the raw materials derived from primary activities, or that
reassemble, refinish or package manufactured goods
■ E,g, Manufacturing, Processing, Construction, Power production
○ 3, Tertiary
■ What are tertiary activities?
● Activities where people offer their knowledge & time to improve
productivity performance, potential & sustainability
○ E.g. Wholesaling & retailing; financial services; personal &
professional services
○ 4. Quaternary
■ What are quaternary activities?
● Economic activities that deal with the handling and processing of
knowledge & information as well as distribution
 ○ E.g. education; IT; research; management
○ Development-Stage Model
■ Just read form pic

2. Origin & Diffusion of ‘Agri’-culture/ Hunting, gathering & the spread of ‘Agri’ culture
● 1. Settling & Spread of Human Activities
*Originated in areas of substance
*but specific origins & diffusions uncertain → human beings originated in Africa
and we move and spread out over the planet and adapted to new environment
(this came from image not on slide)
*First tools were “chippers” → hunting
Human -- Environment impact negligible
○ 1st evolutionary
■ Control of fire
■ Agent in Human - Environment Relationship
■ Warmth; cooking; improved mobility; night vision; stronger tools
● 2. Hunting & Gathering
○ Originally human food collectors not producers
○ Fire management impacted hunting/gathering
■ Affect animal movement
■ Reduced uncertainty in hunt
■ Cleared bush for better in visibility
■ Increased flora & fauna diversity
■ Smoked out animals
■ Food preservation
■ Reduced human energy expenditure (tools)
● 3. Early Agriculture
○ Originally food collectors not food producers; then systematic planting &
gathering of plants & the domestication of animals emerged
○ 8000-12,000 years ago
○ Meso-America, Mesopotamia, S.E. Asia
■ 12,000 Fertile Crescent (image)
● 4. Transformations by Agriculture
○ ‘Agri’-culture or ‘field’ - ‘ways of doing’
○ Permanent occupation of specific sites
■ I.e. ends nomadic lifestyle; necessary precursor to urban settlements
○ New tools invented:
■ Axes, fence, sickle, hoe, baskets, pots, permanent shelter
● Stage model
○ Population incr with more regular food
○ Demographic transition model
● Mesopotamia circa 2000 BCE
○ Reshaping of the natural environment: major change in human-environment
relationship
 ● 5. Pros & Cons of Agrarian Societies
- Advantages:
■ Less competition for food: more of it
■ Increased socializing (farming neighbours)
■ Increased material possession (not nomadic)
■ Bigger families needed & possible
- Disadvantages:
■ Hard work & lots of it
■ Territorial conflicts

3. Features of Contemporary Agriculture

● 1.’Agriculture’:
○ The science & practice of farming, including the cultivation of the soil & the
rearing of livestock
○ The most widespread & space-consuming human activity on Earth
○ Major employment sector of global labour
○ Image:
■ Agricultural Land (Green-Crops, Red Livestock)
■ Labour force in N.A (% of Canadians employed in farming (2020))
● 2. World Agriculture Types & Regions
○ Subsistence Farming
■ Primitive subsistence agriculture or “shifting” cultivation
○ Wet rice farming
○ Pastoral nomadism
○ Mediterranean agriculture
● Commercial Farming (produce for the putting the products on the market)
○ Mixed farming
○ Dairying
○ Plantation agriculture
○ Ranching
○ Large-Scale grain production
○ Image (plantation)
● World Agriculture Regions image
○ P.351;
○ saskatchewan, PEI, ottawa, saint lawrence lowlands

4. Farming in Canada
● Misleading generalization?
○ Canadian agriculture is most affected by the physical environment of the country
○ Agriculture plays an important part in Canadian life
● More useful generalization…
○ Canadian agriculture is now most affected by the globalization of trade
○ Agribusiness plays an important part in Canadian life
● Environment places some limitations on agriculture
 ○ Most productive agriculture land lies within 200km of U.S border
○ Total Canada’s occupied farmland in 2011 is 7%
○ Mostly in Prairie Provinces
■ Sask = 39%; Alberta = 31%; Manitoba = 11%
■ Why close to U.S border: warmest weather u could have + trade
(image of canadian Farming)
● Despite the importance of physical environment, political decisions influenced by
globalized trade greatly affects farming in Canada presently
○ Historical development of Prairie Agriculture
■ Government heavily involved in development of farming in Prairies (19th
century)
■ Including…
● Subsidized rail shipment
● Collective grain marketing & distribution (the Canadian Wheat
Board, est. in 1935) Why?
● Recent developments in Prairie Agriculture
○ Elimination of government subsidies in agriculture
■ E.g. “Crow Rate” abolished in 1995.
■ Wheat Board nearly abolished - lost monopoly in 2012
■ Effects – doubling of transportation cost
○ Why were subsidies eliminated -- various reasons, including…
■ To reduces overall budget deficit
■ To make the sector more competitive
■ Direct and indirect American pressure
● “Canadian agriculture in a precarious state”
○ 1941: total # of farms = 733,000
○ 1996: total # of farms = 277,000
○ 2001: total # of farms = 246,923 (i.e. decline of 11% since 1996)
○ 2006: total # of farms = 229,373 (i.e. decline of 7.1% since 2001)
○ % of Canadian pop. engaged in agriculture:
■ 1951: 21% 1991: 3% 2008: 1.8% 2020 1.4%
○ Farmers now comprise ONLY about 10% of total rural popl’n.
*2016:193,492 farms down 5.9% from 2011
*fewer farmers & incr in farms (economies of scale)
● What are the causes for these fundamental changes?
○ Globalization:
■ reduce subsidies and open market. Falling prices for commodities.
○ Subsidies:
■ relatively low compared to EU, Japan and USA
○ The ‘cash squeeze’
■ Increased cost of inputs (fertilizer, gas, machines, seed, labour).
○ Take over of (small) farms by supermarkets
○ Farm polarization - those able to compete pull away from the pack
○ Protection of farmland (ongoing)
 ○ Uncertainty:
■ GMO; diseases; access; prices; climate change;

5. Future of Farming in Canada

*increasing demand for grains form China & India
*Increasing demand from ethanol producers
*Increasing effects of climate change
*The rising costs of petroleum
● Options for the Future
○ Increasing the cost of food (currently Canadians spent less than 10% of their
after-tax income on food purchased in grocery stores. -- last year data)
○ Encourage farmers to develop forms of food processing (i.e. add value)
○ Promote organic or ‘niche’ forms of farming
● Promoting alternative uses for agricultural land (E.g. derelict barns for homes)

6. Issues of Food Production

● 1. Challenge of Location
○ Why are specific agricultural activities located where they are
○ Physical:
■ Climate change (e.g. temp, moisture etc.)
■ Soils (depth, texture acidity, nutrient composition)
■ Topographical relief
○ Technology
■ Advances in biotechnology have improve agricultural productivity
○ Cultural
■ E.g. religious beliefs, and ethnicity
○ Political
■ The state policies may influence farmer’s behaviour
- Supply and Demand
- Agricultural products are produced in response to market demand for
them (but note the difference between commercial and subsistence
farming)
- Competition for land
● Conventionally land is assigned to the use that generates the greatest
profits
● 2. Paradox: Hunger in a World of Plenty
○ Hunger: the distress associated with lack of food
■ Fewer than 1,800 calories per day
■ Globally on rise again after a decade of decline
■ Causes:
● conflict* - Climate Change - Pandemic
● 99.1 M ppl in 23 countries (2020)
○ About 10% of global popl’n (2022)
○ Est.811 M worldwide go to bed hungry
 ○ There is more than enough food produced in world to feed everyone on planet
○ Malnourishment:
■ Refers more broadly to both undernutrition and overnutrition (problems
with unbalanced diets)
■ Est. 14 million children under 5 worldwide suffer from severe acute
malnutrition
■ Image: % of population undernourished HUnger Map 2020
○ Overweight/Obese:
■ Abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health
■ A body mass index (BMI) over 25 is considered overweight, and over 30
is obese
■ Canda (2021): 29% of adults aged 18 years and older are obese, while
36% were overweight
● More than half of the world will be overweight or obese by 2035 (March 2, 2023)
○ The World Obesity Federation's 2023 atlas predicts that 51 per cent of the world,
or more than 4 billion people, will be obese or overweight within the next 12
years.
○ Rates of obesity are rising particularly quickly among children and in lower
income countries, the report found.
● Paradox: Hunger in a World of Plenty
○ Starving children (India) vs Obese Children (USA)
● World Food Production Trend 1961-2009
● Total = 925 M
● 3. GMO - Key Debate Issues
○ Arguments for
■ Feed the world
■ Stronger crops = less pesticides
■ Tampering for taste
■ Enhanced health
■ Say text pg 363 - 364
○ Arguments Against:
■ Environmental risk
■ Remember when smoking was harmless?
■ Big business eats small farmers
■ Nothing tastes better than nature
■ GMOs are dangerous to eat
● 4. Main Food Production Challenges
○ Climate Change (see next slide)
○ Crude prices affecting farm inputs, transpt. Etc.
○ Removal of gov subsidies
○ Trade liberalisations
○ World prices
○ Trade & market access - i.e. infrastructure
○ Population growth, incomes & consumption pattern changes
 ○ Conflicts (E.g. ethnic, political etc.)
● Projected impacts of climate change
● What if people ate less meat?
● Comparing Carbon Foodprints (tCo2e)
○ Prof focused on this one a bit
● Food Production Not Keeping Up With Popl’n Growth
● Crude oil and food price relations
● Glass is more than half full
○ Global food production never higher
○ Variety & availability of foods never better for Cdns
○ Food costs low in Canada relatively speaking
○ Humans are adaptable & innovative

WEEK 10:

Industrialization & Post-industrialization

1. The ‘Industrial Revolution’: Origin & Impact

A) Transformation in…
● Ways good produced
● Ways people obtained food, clothing, shelter
● Social, political, economic organization of societies
A series of inventions (technologies) that transformed manufacturing
- Large use of energy source (i.e. coal)
- Development of the steam engine
- Introduction of new machines
- Development of new transport links (rail)
B) Origin
● United Kingdom
○ Between mid -18th & mid-20th centuries, industrial geography of England
dramatically transformed
○ England was the first industrial area or hearth of the industrial revolution
C) Why England?
● Video link
● Why was England FIRST
○ IR was triggered by rapid onset of new & stable political, legal, &
economic institutions throughout much of 17th C Europe
○ England had long history of settlement, stability, security
○ Had necessary cultural pre-conditions for industrialization
■ E.g. well fed, educated popl’n
○ Luck of coal fields (see map above)
○ Text associated with image:
 ■ The Rocket, a steam locomotive designed and built by George
and Robert Stephenson
D) Series of Innovation
1701 Seed Drill
1759 Canal Act
1761 First Factory
1764 Spinning Jenny
1793 Cotton Gin
1797 Lathe
1802 Health & Moral Act
1807 Steamboat
1813 INdustrial Employment larger than Agricultural
1820 Roads improve
1824 Portland Cement
1856 Steel
● Steam Machine
○ James Watt, 1765, Glasgow, Scotland
○ Pumped water -- energy source -- faster than water mills, humans or
animals
○ Centralized industrial locations: steam heat
● Iron Industry
○ Steam allowed smelting iron ore to ‘iron’ faster and cheaper
○ Booming iron industry generated innovations in
■ Coal mining: replaced wood to stoke steam engines
■ Engineering: use steam & coal power 100s of new machines
invented, produced, repaired
■ Transportation: canals built and… ‘The Iron Horse’
● ‘The Iron Horse’
○ 1st railway line 1825 in N.England
○ 1829 ‘the Rocket’ went 38 km/hr
○ Railway allowed both concentration & diffusion of factories
● Textile Industry
○ Engines speeded up conversion of rough cotton to usable thread and
then weaving cloth
○ Textile industry generated innovations in…
■ Chemicals: bleach
■ Food Processing: canning the tin can 1839
E) Social
● Move from farm to factory
● Rapid urbanization
● Dramatic decrease in mortality
● Followed by decrease in fertility
F) Economic Change
● Rise of Capitalism
 ● Wage labour vs subsistence
● Dependence on wages
● Gaines in human productivity
● Higher standards of living
G) Political Change
● Adam Smith’s
○ Wealth of Nations (1776)
● Political Liberalism
○ ‘origins of the American Dream’
● Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1848)
● Emergence of Nation-States and global empires
● Naval power = Merchant Marine

H) Human - Environment Implications

● Reduced energy expenditures
● Technological explosion of tools
● Increased material goods (n waste)
● Decreased flora & fauna diversity
● Population increase
● Increased urbanization
● More Complex spatial organization
○ Roads
○ Rail
○ Shipping
○ Telecommunications
● Food collectors + food producers + food preservers
● Interference & Reshaping of Human - Environment Relationship
● Images
○ CO2 Emissions
■ After 1750 it booms up
○ Sea Level Changes

2. Diffusion of Early Industrial Geographies

A) Transformation in…
● Ways good produced
● Ways people obtained food, clothing, shelter
● Social, political, economic organization of societies
● Good things & good ideas spread !
● Golden Horseshoe
● Steel Plants 2017

3. Influences of Industrial Location: Where? Why?

A) Industry is a highly clustered activity: why?
● Due to its specific requirements:
 ○ Labour - Spatial variation in quality & quantity
○ Land - Flat land, large sites, correct zoning
○ Capital - machinery, money
○ Other considerations - raw materials, transportation network/costs,
access to technology, political environment, agglomeration economies,
environmental factors & others….
B) Industries have different distributions?
● 2 key spatial factors:
○ I. Situation factors:
■ Involve transporting materials to and from a factory.
■ Transport costs of input materials vs transport costs of finished
product
○ Ii. Site factors:
■ Result from the unique characteristics of a location
● Eg: Situation-Inputs oriented lInks
○ Cost is greater to ship raw materials to factories than finished goods to
market.
■ E.g. Pulp & paper - cheaper to ship paper to market than logs to
factory
○ Eg: Situation-Inputs oriented Links
■ Steel industry: – A bulk reducing industry— meaning final
product weighs less than its inputs
○ Eg: Situation - Market oriented Links
■ If the transport costs of the final product dwarf those of the raw
materials, an industry is said to be market-oriented and will profit
by locating near its market E.g. Soda Pop: add water near market;
don’t ship cans/bottles long distance
○ Coca-Cola
■ Bottling Plants
■ Bulk-gaining (has to located closer to market) Industry
○ Eg: Situation: Break of Bulk Point
■ The loading & unloading costs are part of the transportation costs,
& an additional loading/unloading stage at the factory can be
avoided by locating the factory at the break-of bulk point itself.
○ Eg: Situation:
■ Montreal etc.
○ Eg: Looking for a Site for Saturn’s first plant (1990)
■ Situation Criteria:
● Within 500 km of south central Ohio
● Be within 50 km of a city of < 250,000 pop.
● Near 2 highways & 1 railway line
■ Site Criteria:
● Flat, suitable soil
● Adjacent land uses
 ● Few land owners

● World Industrial Regions

○ Global manufacturing dominated by 3 regions
■ 1.) North America (esp. Canada & US)
■ 2.) Europe (esp Germany, England & Italy)
■ 3.) Pacific Asia (esp. Japan, south korea, eastern China)
○
C)

4. Where Industry is Expanding

A) Newly Industrializing Countries
● NICS - S.Korea, Taiwan, Hong kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia &
Philippines
● These countries have seen their economies accelerated in the 1970s
● Several of these set up Export Processing zones (EPZs) to attract transnational
corp.
● There are more than 3,500 EPZs in about 130 countries, employing more than
66M ppl (about 40 M China alone)
B) Reasons Industries are attracted to EPZs
● 1. Inexpensive land, buildings, energy, water & transport
● 2. Financial concessions such as import and export duties
● 3. Low workplace health and safety standards and inexpensive labour force
C) Globalization & industrial Geographies
Industrial restructuring - technological advances & globalization processes --- affect
industries:
● Electronically controlled assembly lines
● Automated tools in the production process
● Transaction technologies
○ E.g. computer -based ‘JIT’ inventory control system
● All of which may increase locational & organizational flexibility
● Circulation technologies -- such as satellites & fibre optic networks are facilitating
exchange of info & increase mkt size
● Overall effect -- companies are able to take advantage of spatial variations in
land & labour costs while serving larger markets
● Leading to deindustrialization in advanced (economies) 跟下面连起来读
○ Economies: refers to the loss of manufacturing activity & related jobs in
traditional industrial regions in more advanced world
■ E.g. plant closures in Ontario - 102 plants since 2008 alone…

5. Case Study: i. China

● ‘Why is Everything Made in China’
○ 5 min video
○ Cheap labour
 ○ Lower shipping costs
■ Advances in transportation and extractive tech (esp oil) have allowed
industries to overcome some situational disadvantages

5. Case Study:ii. Canada

● Extractive industries
○ Fossil Fuel Sources of Energy
○ Oil, Natural gas, Coal
○ 82% worldwide energy comes from GAS - OIL-COAL
● Canada 2nd largest producer (producing oil)
● Dollars and Cents
● Northern Gateway Project

Key Points
1. Industry is a major human economic activity
2. Major shift in Human-Environment Relations
3. Highly clustered…but the geography is changing
4. Location factors are changing
5. Different industries have different distributions
6. Oil is a major Global-Cdn industry: contentious
7. Canada is ‘de-industrializing’ & moving into the tertiary & quaternary economic sectors
or a ‘POST-industrial’ economy

WEEK11:

Geographies of Globalization

1. Globalization defined
● Some definitions:
○ The increasing interconnectedness of people and places through
converging processes of economic, political & cultural change
○ The process of reducing barriers between countries & encouraging
closer economic, social & political interaction
○ The coming together of businesses & states
● An accelerating set of processes involving flows that encompass ever-greater
numbers of the world spaces and that lead to increasing integration and
interconnectivity among those spaces
○ Facebook connections
● Two Key Points
○ It refers to “processes”
○ Geographical implications - interconnection between spaces and people
 ● Many geographers think that globalization is transforming the human world from
a collection of connected, single entity but often very different places, into a
network of multiple places of increased similarly
○ I.e. differences are greatly reduced
○ E.g. “global village” “global culture” “homogenized world”
● Think about these key concepts…
○ Space → Easily overcome via internet, cell phone
○ Place → Uniformity of suburbia
○ Location → Less relevant:
■ Work from anywhere
○ Landscape → 1 earth, collective action re climate change
○ Distance → Lessened or irrelevant
■ On-line shopping
● Image on Globalization Explained
2. Processes & Features
I. Economic
● Emergence of global communication system that link all regions on the planet
instantly
● Transnational corporate strategies that have created global corporations
● New forms of production of goods/services
○ E.g. Facebook, Apple, AMZN
● Emergence of new centers of production
○ E.g. China
● Emergence of global financial systems
● Emergence of new forms otf technology
● Market economies that replaced state controlled economies
● A plethora of planetary goods and services that have arisen to fulfill consumer
demand
● Global agreement that promote free trade
● “Global parade of capitalism”
● Image on current economic groups: largest APEC → ASEAN etc. → lowest
NAFTA
Ii. Political
● Global political institutions, and power blocs, democracy as the dominant system
of governance
○ Finland joined NATO today
Iii. Environmental
● Global ecosystem, global pollution, pandemics, global conservation movements
and politics
● Q: Examples of ‘global’ culture?
○ Food
○ Clothing
○ Music
○ Computers
 ○ Buildings
○ Automiles
○ City
○ Economic System
○ Form of government
Iv. Cultural
● Global information & trade, global education & media, promotes a global shared
way of doing & thinking → global culture: homogeneous
3. Drivers of Globalization
I. Forces
● Technology change
○ Through internet, satellite communication, and other innovations have
shrunk time & space (but differential access)
● Global capitalism
○ Embrace of “capitalism”, “neoliberal”, “free market” policies
● 1969 Extent of Internet
○ Only 4 places had internet
Ii. Main Agents or Actors
● 1. Transnational corporations (TNCs)
● 2. The state
● 3. Labour
● 4. Consumers
● 5. Regulatory institutions
● 6. Social Groups
● These ‘actors’ form a network at different organizational & geographical scales
4. Is Globalization New?
● YES and NO…
○ Some antecedents
○ European journey of world discovery during 1400s onward -- leading to
global interdependence
○ Creation of colonial empires - creating global trade connection & diffusion
of European culture
● European Imperial Coverage of the Globe (image)
● Mass production during the industrial revolution - created global search for raw
materials (spread of industrial revolution)
● What is ‘new’ about the Current Global Economy?
○ Global scale of activities
○ Greater speed
○ Global integration (interconnectedness)
○ Single globalized market (‘Global village’)
○ Vast consumer products
○ Larger participants (people & countries)
○ A new global division of labour
5. Pros & Cons
I. Point of View
● The ‘hyperglobalist’ position (:)):
○ The world is borderless
○ Nation-states are no longer significant actors
○ Consumer tastes & cultures are homogenized
○ Distance no longer matters - it’s the ‘end of geography’
● The hyperglobalist position - a quote
○ Today’s global economy is genuinely borderless. Information, capital, and
innovation flow all over the world at top speed, enabled by technology and
fueled by consumer’s desires for access to the best and least expensive
products. (Ohmae, 1995: inside front page)
● The ‘skeptical’ position:
○ ‘Newness’ of global economy is exaggerated
○ Merchants have always sought trade
○ It’s more an ideology:
■ Pro capitalism & pro-Western world
● The skeptic’s position – a quote
○ I think there’s a lot of merit in an international economy and global
markets, but they are not sufficient because markets don’t look after
social needs. (George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management)
Ii. PROS: THE WINNERS
● World cities or centers of global finance, corporate decision-making etc.
● Communities that are able to secure a piece of global commerce
● Consumers who pay less for goods coming from low-cost production abroad
● Countries that have transformed their low-wage economies into destinations for
firms
● KOF index of Globalization: Top 10 & BOttom 10 countries, 2014
● Contemporary Geo-economy
● World Merchandise Exports By Region
Iii. CONS: THE LOSERS
● The unemployed who lost their job due to wage competition
● Those too impoverished to participate
● Those affected by pollution & harmful environmental outcomes
● People who emigrate but becomes impoverished in their new destination
● ‘Ordinary cities’ -- not world class
Iv. OTHER POSITIVES
● Many benefits of capitalism:
○ Wealth generated
● Competition allows flow of capital to poorest areas
● Increased wages in new labour markets
● Promotes the spread of democracy and personal rights and freedom
● Globalization does not necessarily mean “Homogenization” WHY?
 ○ Local cultures tend to “domesticate”, “indigenize”, “tame”, imported
consumer culture by giving it a local flavour
○ Many cultures promotes a consumer nationalism that encourages local
over “foreign” goods
Iv. OTHER NEGATIVES
● Who benefits? Private investors in more developed countries
● Benefits unevenly distributed (see tables →)
● Contributing to ever-widening gap between rich & poor, both across countries &
within
● Image: Walmart, Algeria
● Importation of political tensions
○ Telecommunication events elsewhere
○ Physical mobility may make global events local
● Rapid spread of global diseases
○ E.g. Covid -- 19
■ Wuhan, China to London, Ont. 11,674 km
■ Variants now in London from UK and elsewhere
● Environmental negatives
○ Global transportation increases CO2 emissions and thus contributes to
climate change
○ Global dependence weakens local self sufficiency and resiliency
■ Many goods from across globe: wars political unrest, disease,
weather, accidents may disrupt flows
■ No longer made locally…job loss
○ Image: N.A & Africa
● Prioritizes export-centred economies:
○ Merits of locally sustainable economies downplayed
○ Loss of traditional resource bases
● Environmental Issues:
○ Rapid resource textraction
○ Pollution
○ Extraction of ecologically sensitive landscapes
● Global Spread of Covid-19: youtube link
● Social unrest & political instability
○ Income gap increased social & political unrest and uncertainty
■ E.g. Brexil
■ America first
■ Increased xenophobia
■ Anti-immigration
V. A MIDDLE POSITION?
● Economic globalization is unavoidable
● Globalization holds both promises & pitfalls – can be managed at all scales to
reduce inequality & protect the environment
● Efficient gov’t & strong organizations can help address negatives
 ● “Openness” can work by investing in education & social programs
● A middle position quote:
○ The world market is a source of disruption and upheaval as much as it is
an opportunity for profit and economic growth. Without the
complementary institutions at home -- in the areas of governance,
judiciary, civil and political liberties, social insurance, and education - one
gets too much of the former and too little of the latter (rodrik, 1999: 96)
6. Globalization Is Geographical
A) Connections between Globalization and Geography
1. Time-Space ‘compression
● The intensification of worldwide social relations
● Constraints of space on activities has reduced due to
improvements in transportation & communication technologies →
2. Networks
● Connections between spaces
● A set of interconnected nodes
● Networks -- finance, trade, transportation, media etc.
● Example of a network:
○ “commodity chains” -- a complex network of ppl, labour,
and production processes starting with the extraction of
raw materials from the earth itself & ending with your
purchase of the final production
● Images:
○ The Commodity Chain for Lee Cooper Jeans
○ The Commodity Chain for the iPod Processor
3. Global-local-- “Glocalization”
● Places are both
○ Heterogeneous and homogeneous
○ Local and global
● Cultural, political & economic processes have a “fixedness” --
remained tied to certain spaces -- and flow out form there
○ E.g. Hollywood and movies
B) Geography STILL Matters
● Place or local still matters -- in what ways?
● Think of your own life
● Distance has not become irrelevant
● Corporations choose distinct localities to succeed
● Communities compete by touting/promoting glocal geographic benefits or
differences in their campaigns

Course Over(re)view: WHERE NEXT?

● Remember the Key Geographic Principle “Everywhere is different”
● Thinking as A Human Geographer Allows us to better understand our world & our place
on planet Earth:
○ Respect the delicate human-environment relationship
○ Understand who & what is where, why, how, & the processes creating these
human landscapes
○ Recognize the diversity of humanity & the ways various peoples adapt & modify
their social & physical environments
○ Situate the major global/local challenges facing humanity
■ climate change, resource depletion, economic inequalities, social &
political unrest—in a cultural, historical & spatial context
○ Geography gives us tools to ask relevant questions about humanity & its
environments & opportunities to find answers
● Course Objectives:
○ Intro discipline of Human Geography • Survey the field’s….
■ Breadth
■ Central issues
■ Concepts & ideas
■ Methods
■ Applications
● Theoretical Focus
○ How geographers think about real world problems, issues, human activities
○ Encourages us to think about contemporary society:
■ cultural diversity
■ ethnic conflicts
■ poverty
■ racism
■ urban sprawl
■ transportation
■ globalization
■ immigration
■ environmental degradation
● Methodological Focus
○ Models use to study the location, distribution & creation of human activities &
landscapes
○ Key geographic techniques
■ E.g. maps, qualitative & quantitative tools
● Intellectual Focus
○ Develop critical thinking skills
○ Improve reading, writing & oral skills
○ Promote informed, reasoned opinions
○ Exercise your brain
○ Identify what topics interest you!
● What do I hope you got out of this course?
 ○ An awareness of the everyday world—the spaces, places and
environments—that you live in
○ A respect for the diversity of people that comprise humanity
○ An appreciation for both the brilliance and stupidity that human environments
reveal
○ ‘Geography’ provides a fascinating lens to better understand our complex world
● Changing Human Geographies
○ Humans are constantly changing landscapes—culturally, socially, politically &
economically
○ The world & our understanding of it, is changing at an ever-increased pace.
○ Examples of these changing human landscapes include:
■ Population, Urbanization, Human Impacts, Political Worlds, Sameness &
Difference
● Population
○ Dramatic increase in global population
○ Composition of world population is also changing: number of elderly people
increasing, important social transformations as gender roles and family patterns
change
● Urbanization
○ The number of very large cities will continue to increase
○ Urban population will continue to increase, exasperating infrastructural issues in
less-developed countries
● Human Impacts
○ A larger global population means greater demand on both resources and on
agricultural and industrial outputs
○ Awareness of human impacts increasing
● Human-Environment Balance
○ Our current relationship with the natural environment is grotesquely out of
balance
○ We are literally destroying the environment: “that which sustains and surrounds
us”
○ We must ‘decarbonize’—stop CO2 emissions--for our own well-being and that of
other flora and fauna: the 21st C challenge
● Political Worlds
○ Trend towards political integration in the more-developed world
○ Continued political disintegration and conflict in countries with ethnic tensions
● Sameness and Difference
○ Culture can be an impediment to change
○ Dominant societies construct identities of others and also landscapes in which
others may be obliged to live
● A Changing Discipline
○ Our discipline is continually changing in response to the changing needs of
society
○ Space and Place
 ■ Recurring discussions of globalization, regional character, and local
change.
○ Integrating Human and Physical Geographies
■ Geography characterized by diversity and fragmentation but united by
core ideas
○ A Synthesizing Discipline
■ Geography offers the best framework for investigating human impacts on
global and local environment
○ Handling Data
■ Development and application of GIS, remote sensing and electronic data
processing
○ Understanding and Solving Problems
■ Effective changes made only following full analysis of spatial variation
○ Value
■ View held tends to reflect larger ideological preferences
○ AND FINALLY …
■ All the lectures, text book chapters, and labs aside, I hope I have
enhanced your appreciation and respect for other humans— we are
diverse—and the fragility and wonder of the environment that sustains
and surrounds us. It has been my privilege and my pleasure to serve as
your professor. I wish you all the best with your future here at Western
and beyond.