Five fundament themes of Geography

Anoka Public Schools Workshop Jan 6&7 Minnesota Historical Society

David A LanegranMacalester College

Five Fundament Themes

• Location

• Place

• Human – environmental interaction

• Spatial interactions ( movement or connections among places )

• Regional concept

Location: how do we know where we are?

• determined by angles or directions

• separation or distance

Three types of systems

• Egocentric – self-centered

• Domicentric - centered on home or safe place - uses landmarks

• Conventional - Based on celestial landmarks

Egocentric directions

• Toward the pull of gravity UP AND DOWN

• Visible or invisible FRONT AND BACK

• Laterality of brain LEFT AND RIGHT

Egocentric distance

• Personal space – cultural specific• Intimate distance an embrace up to 18”

• Personal distance the length of an arm with a sword up to 6’ the space for most conversation

• Social distance 6’-12’ the distance for most social interaction

• Public distance 12- 25

Relative location

measured in a variety of ways to show

ease of connection

degree of separation

importance

Absolution location

• mathematical location in earth’s grid

• Need because humans traveled into areas without terrestrial landmarks

• Navigation - finding location or way finding at sea

Absolute location

• Creation of world map long goal of societies– Europeans first to create an accurate map of

the world– Depended on concepts of mathematical grid

– Latitude Elevation of polar star– Longitude need for clock to keep accurate time at sea

carver

Place: Human and Physical Characteristics

• PLACES have character that consists of both human and physical elements

• PLACES have meaning

• Geographers study places

Human Environment interaction

• Human impact on environment

• Environment presents range of possibilities for humans

• Culture acts a lens magnifying or reducing the impacts in different times and places

Humans change environment

Human move and invent new plants

Spatial interaction

• This has been simplified by NGS to movement

• Focus in on connections among places.

Circulation systems

• Circulation means transportation and communication

• Concept includes invisible as well as landscape

• Focus on cultural landscapes of movement

• Forces in market – other opportunities or developments

The analogy of the bicycle

Aggregate news flow 1993 USENET pre - WWW

The switch from network to surface

Who are we talking to and what are we talking about?

Regional concept

• Regionalization is the process of classifying places

• Regions are mental constructs

• The boundary problem– Boundaries are meaningful breaks in a

gradient