Spatial Connections
World Regional Geography
Edited by Jill Stackhouse
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Spatial Connections:
World Regional Geography
FIRST EDITION
Edited by Jill Stackhouse
Georgia Southern University
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ISBN: 978-1-60927-515-0
Contents
Part I: Studying Geography
1
Introduction
Maps:
World Regions: One Perspective
Countries Represented in This Anthology
3
9
10
Part II: Human Landscapes
11
Introduction
Brazil: A Country Divided
Larry Crook
13
15
China’s Security, China’s Demographics: Aging, Masculinization, and Fertility Policy
Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea den Boer
35
Learning to Speak: The New Age of HIV/AIDS in the Other Jamaica
Kwame Dawes
49
Handling a Multiethnic Society
Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi
59
Map:
65
Total Number of People Living with AIDS in 2009
Part III: Urban Landscapes
67
Introduction
Unequal Cities
Tim Hall
69
71
Regeneration Through Urban Mega Projects in Riyadh
Tahar Ledraa and Nasser Abu-Anzeh
85
Race in New Orleans Since Katrina
J. Phillip Thompson
93
Water Pollution and the City
Lisa Benton-Short and John Rennie Short
105
Gated Communities in South Africa
Ulrich Jürgens and Karina Landman
117
Map:
131
Sample of Global Cities Exceeding 1 Million People
Part IV: Environmental Landscapes
133
Introduction
Emerging Water Shortages in Plan B 2.0:
Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
Lester R. Brown
135
Dams and Politics in Turkey: Utilizing Water, Developing Conflict
Joost Jongerden
151
137
Alternative Views of Environmental Security in a Less-Developed Country:
The Case of Bangladesh
Choudhury Shamim
157
Ecuador: The Campaign Against Texaco Oil
Tamara L. Jezic
171
Cyclones, Rainfalls, and Temperature: Does Australia Have a Climate Crisis?
Jennifer Marohasy
193
The Governance of Vulnerability: Climate Change and Agency
in Tuvalu, South Pacific
Heather Lazrus
Maps:
197
Incidents of Famine and Food Crises in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Desert and Tropical Rainforest Regions of the World
Part V: Historical and Political Landscapes
204
205
207
Introduction
Understanding the Cold War
David S. Painter
209
211
From Ground Zero to the War in Afghanistan.
Rick Fawn
217
Democracy is Not a Postcard: Iranian Influence in Western Afghanistan
Nicholas Schmidle
229
Hugo Chávez Against the Backdrop of Venezuelan Economic and Political History
Hugo J. Faria
241
Central Asia: A Great Sea of Land
A. Christian van Gorder
255
No Water, No Peace: Beyond the Ethnic Battle in Darfur
Hannah Hussey
259
Map:
263
Conflict Flashpoints
Part VI: Economic Landscapes
265
Introduction
Geography Is Not Destiny
Fiona Hall and Clifford Gaddy
267
269
India’s Youth—Transitioning Lifestyles for an Emerging Global Market
Nadia Abgrab Noormohamed and Megan Christine Kolakowski
283
China and Globalization
Douglas Guthrie
Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Solidarity in the Americas:
The Transnational Anti-Sweatshop Movement
Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval
293
303
High-Consumption Societies: The Responsibilities of the European Union
Susan Baker
315
Caspian Energy at the Crossroads
Jan H. Kalicki
333
Map:
342
Oil Consumption Around the World 2009–2010
Part I
Studying Geography
Introduction
A Conversation About Studying Geography
A
re you wondering what the study of
Geography is about? Are you wondering
how a course on Geography applies to you on a
daily basis? Is it really that important?
You may know quite a bit about your neighborhood or town but not so much about the world?
You might wonder why certain things happen the
way they do or wonder if what is going on in Asia
or Europe really can make a difference in your
own neighborhood. We hear a great deal about
“globalization this” and “globalization that”; and
more often than not we hear it is a “small world.”
We know of, or might have a suspicion that there
is, a considerable interconnectedness across the
globe but we’re not really sure how we fit into that
picture. Perhaps this is why you’ve come to take a
course in Geography.
Let’s step back and look at those earlier questions. Consider this: when you walked to class, to
the library, to the gym, or to the store, geography
was part of your life; when you logged on to check
your email, catch the news, a weather update, or
an entertainment blog, geography was part of
your life; when you talked to a friend on a cell
phone, listened to music, grabbed lunch, got
dressed this morning, or simply had a cup of coffee, there was an aspect of geography to all of your
activities, whether directly or indirectly, you were
connected at a global level. Really!
Maybe you never took a geography course,
but every now and again you watch the end of
the movie credits to find out where the movie was
filmed. So, even though you haven’t had a class,
maybe you are just slightly curious about the
world around you? Perhaps your only introduction to Geography was in middle school when you
were asked to memorize all the capitals and states
in the United States. You may have been asked to
write a brief essay about a foreign country’s imports, exports, and natural resources. Maybe you
were asked to learn the specific geography of your
country or state such as its mountains, rivers,
cities, or provinces. Important, certainly, but this
experience may have left you with a misperception about the study of geography and perhaps
wondering how one could actually make a living
knowing all the state capitals.
Some professions are generally easier to
describe; certainly accounting, medicine, or
engineering are more recognizable even without
knowing the complexities of the profession. It
tends to take a bit more explanation to describe
what a geographer does but you will soon discover that like most courses, the intricacies of
studying geography can be examined and easily
understood. You will also discover that much of
the information you learn in this class may help
you in other classes and vice versa. Think about
how Geography is very much a part of what you
study, and even though you may not be able to
think of more than a few ways this is true, let’s
see if we can add to that list by stepping back and
looking at what geography is, or perhaps, isn’t.
Introduction | 3
The Study of Geography
In the most literal sense Geography is writing
about the earth (geo—the earth, and graphy—
writing). This very broad definition doesn’t really
narrow it down much, does it? Then again, this is
very much what geographers do; they write about
the earth. Individually, however, geographers
don’t typically seek to write about the entire globe
at one time, instead, geographers write about
specific locations with a specific focus. Just as a
historian might specialize in an era or a biologist
might specialize in a particular species, so too
does a geographer specialize, meaning, just like
other professionals, they observe and study the
world through different lenses. Even though your
only experience might have been to learn all the
state capitals, geography isn’t just being good at
memorizing. Geography, instead, goes to great
lengths to answer the question “why what is
where.” Geographers don’t just study the “where”;
they study the “whys” of where things are, and the
“whats” are not only mountains, rivers, and lakes,
but also cities, dams, military bases, dumps sites,
nuclear power plants, earthquake epicenters,
schools, political borders (physical or otherwise),
voter turnout, oil refineries, shipping lanes…
well, you get the picture.
Let’s go back to those state capitals for a minute.
Why is Washington D.C. located where it is? Why
is the capital of New York Albany and not New
York City? Geographers ask “why” frequently.
This includes the human “whys” and the physical
“whys.” Addressing factors in both the natural
world and the human world is the challenge for
geographers. They seek to answer the “why what
is where” in such a way as to lend understanding
to all the intricate interconnections, those behindthe-scenes elements that explain why your coffee
comes from Kenya, your sugar for your cereal
comes from Brazil, and the T-Shirt you’re wearing
today was made in Vietnam.
Geography is a discipline of diversity under whose “spatial” umbrella
we study and analyze processes, systems, behaviors, and countless other
phenomena that have spatial expression. It is this tie that binds geographers,
this interest in patterns, distributions,
diffusions, circulations, interactions,
juxtapositions—the ways in which the
physical and human worlds are laid out,
interconnect, and interact. 1
Some describe “the power of geography” in
terms of the contributions the discipline makes
to broaden our understanding of the world’s
complexity and patterns of development.2
Geographers look at global and local networks
(human and high-tech) and global and local
landscapes (natural and built). Geographers start
from the ground up looking at how nature influences human activities and human activities influence natural events. These two-way influences
are the spatial connections this book seeks to
reveal. With an expanded awareness of the world
around us, we are in a better position to manage
its complexities and the dynamic pace at which
we experience change. For the beginner, the study
of geography can help us understand where we fit
in, giving us that foundation to begin asking the
“whys” and the tools to begin answering them.
Why You Should Care
Consider for a moment, Franklin Roosevelt’s
third inaugural address in 1941. He speaks of a
“narrowing circle of the world” well before “globalization” became a mainstream word in our
lexicon. He speaks of “a mind that must be kept
informed and alert” and suggests that a nation, like
a person, has a mind. Roosevelt’s message is that
of hope and understanding at a global level, something that comes from awareness of difference.
When former United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan spoke to a group of geographers in
1
de Blij, Harm. 2005. Why Geography Matters: Three
Challenges Facing America. Oxford University Press: New York. 8.
2
Marston, Sallie; Knox, Paul; Liverman, Diana: 2008. World
Regions in a Global Context: Peoples, Places, and Environments,
Third Edition. Pearson-Prentice Hall:New Jersey. 2.
4 | Spatial Connections: World Regional Geography
New York City in 2001, he said that geography
is a crucial part of understanding how the world
works. He said to the group “I often find myself
saying ‘show me the maps.’” When author Barry
Lopez spoke to a group of geographers in Seattle
in 2011, he spoke of a “geography of walking,” a
“geography of the domicile,” and a “geography of
time.” These geographies are quite different from
what you might expect, but surely have a place in
the study of the world.
You may still be asking why this should matter
to you. For one thing, you are a part of this dynamic
(no matter how far in the back of the classroom
you choose to sit), and introductory courses to
geography can give our lives a global context, and
reveal our role or what our role might be in this
global dynamic. Even though you might not see a
direct connection of your life to events across the
globe today, the study of geography also examines
indirect influences. So, while understanding (or
even memorizing) where the oceans, countries,
cities, and mountains are, there is so much more
geography that unfolds on these landscapes and
maps help show these relationships in a spatial
context and encourage more inquiry.
That T-Shirt you put on this morning, where
was it made? Why was it made there and not in
your home country? Those bananas you bought
at the grocery store, where did they grow, who
harvested them, and how did they get to your
grocery store so far from a tropical climate? How
did the emergency vehicle that passed you know
the fastest route? Where was the microchip in
your phone manufactured? Where was the phone
itself assembled? When you heard the news media compare the nuclear disaster associated with
the March 2011 Japan earthquake to Chernobyl,
what does that mean and why is that important?
Why would civil protests in North Africa and the
Middle East contribute to price fluctuations for
gasoline? Why is water rationed in some states
and not others? How can China’s coal burning
influence air quality in the state of Washington?
Why are most of the key rainforests in close proximity to the equator? While you may not know
the answers today, or you may not have asked the
questions yet, or you might be asking “how can
I get job answering questions about bananas?” it
is important to know that these are examples of
spatial connections and geographic landscapes.
This introductory course and this book ask you
to pause momentarily and consider all the levels
of spatial connections that are implied in each of
the examples. It asks you to reflect on dynamics
that have invoked changes on the global, regional,
and local landscapes. When you do this you set
yourself on a course of inquiry that can be most
rewarding. Geography is one of those wonderful
subjects, even if it isn’t your major that helps you
understand where you fit in. Yes, you will learn
lots of details and facts and figures, but keep in
mind, it is how you use this information to explain
geographic or spatial connections and further,
to explain why they are important. Ask yourself
how, in even the smallest of ways your activities
and actions are a part of the global picture.
And then ask yourself how maps can help
you understand these landscapes and these connections. You can find maps on just about any
phenomenon you might want to examine. There
are maps of medieval black death, cancer or AIDS
cases, fire damage, deforestation rates, birth
rates, death rates, health expenditures, hospital
services, fast-food chains, consumer purchases,
radio stations, cell phone towers, Internet users,
computer owners, burglary rates, homicide rates,
car thefts, park admittance numbers, high traffic
days, low traffic days, highway safety, you name it
and you can probably find a map. And on the off
chance you can’t find a map, you could certainly
make one, and geographers do!
About the Book
This book is designed to give you a feel for how
big the world is. Oh yes, we are always hearing
about how “small” the world is, how closely connected we are via the Internet, trade, politics,
economics, and history. However, learning about
the globe is not done quickly or is it done in a
single broad sweep. The world is vast; there is
breadth and depth to the study of Geography. We
Introduction | 5
have to peel away layer after layer, examine all the
interconnections from below the earth’s surface
to the stratosphere and everything in between
including national and international politics,
national and international population dynamics,
and national, international historic, cultural and
economic processes, to name a few.
The articles in this book have been selected
to satisfy three primary objectives. (1) They
will give you an introduction to some of these
interconnections, to the process of assessing
complicated relationships across the globe, and to
the landscapes upon which everything plays out.
(2) They seek to open the path of your inquiry
into where you fit in to this interconnected and
dynamic world of ours. (3) They will supplement
the class lecture by offering specific examples
to help you put the concepts discussed in class
together with a description of a recent and different event or analysis. This book does not serve
as a replacement for an atlas or a text used for
studying world geography; instead it offers an
alternative approach, one that introduces various
perspectives through more specific examples. The
articles included in this book are only a few of the
thousands of examples of spatial connections and
geographic landscapes.
No introduction to Geography can hope to
cover all the relationships that exist nor can it
provide all perspectives. As such, parts of the
world may not be represented, not because they
are unimportant but because it is impossible to
provide a comprehensive text that represents the
world’s complexity. Changes are taking place as
you read the articles, new connections are forged,
and others disappear. The intent of this anthology
then is to provide you with a snapshot of global
landscapes.
Geographic Landscapes
Landscape? What do we mean by this term? In
the more than a decade I have been teaching an
introduction to World Geography course, I have
heard a number of responses to the question
“What do geographers map?” Most of the answers
6 | Spatial Connections: World Regional Geography
are physical characteristics: rivers, mountains,
lakes, oceans and an occasional country or capital
city. Most students come to geography with their
focus on the physical or environmental characteristics of geography which is perfectly acceptable,
but the landscapes described in this text go well
beyond the physical features of the earth.
Geographers use the term landscape to describe the canvas upon which certain activities
will unfold; it may be a broad sweeping canvas
or one narrowly defined. We use landscapes to
describe cities, political, economic, or social processes; within these sub-disciplines of geography
other landscapes are revealed. It is the relationship between events, activities, and development
across these landscapes that broaden our understanding of global change. Geographers thus
explore the many connections that can define a
landscape. For example, how is Mumbai, India’s
urban landscape similar to and different from
Lagos, Nigeria? Can one reasonably expect to
draw a comparison between these two cities
in a manner that might be used to broaden our
understanding of urban dynamics? Geographers
ask why what processes occurred where and
continue in this vein to explore comparative
processes elsewhere around the world. We may
ask why Russia’s or Japan’s population is declining
in the midst of a population growth rate that predicts population numbers at or near the 11 billion
mark by 2050. Or we may question how and why
China and India’s populations are still regarded as
rural populations when there are so many cities
in each country well over a million people? We
may ask why some countries in Latin America are
experiencing longer life spans while Botswana’s
life expectancy has declined measurably in the
last decade. Geographers explore these phenomena and the specific landscapes by examining
intervening factors that contribute to change and
ramifications for the future. Physical, economic,
social, political—none of these processes are
circumscribed; decisions or events in one part of
the world can influence other people, countries,
and environments.
Landscapes are frameworks for inquiry; asking the “who,” “what,” “how,” and “why,” and then
setting about to answer these same questions is
what geographers seek to do. The landscape is the
spatial context upon which we focus our study.
This book, then, is divided into five sections, each
devoted to a specific landscape. You will notice,
however, that the articles represent common
themes within the section, but the material and
ideas definitely overlap onto other landscapes.
Human Landscapes describe the spatial organization of human activity and their relationship
to the earth and to one another. Human landscapes
may be formed, for example by cultural legacies,
patterns of migrations, diversity, language, religion, or population dynamics. You will discover
that discussion of human or cultural geography
truly overlaps into many other disciplines and
vice versa.
Urban Landscapes place human activity, its
spatial organization within an urban context.
We have spent centuries migrating toward urban
centers; at times it has been a slow and steady
pace, and at times a rapid one. The results of
rapid movement into urban centers produce
distinctive landscapes. The emergence of cities
and landscapes within cities is often explained by
other aspects of geography including human, economic, physical and environmental, and political
influences.
Economic Landscapes represent economic
geography. This is a highly diverse field that examines regional development, corporations and
labor, corporate cultures, trade and industrialization, consumption and production, and issues
of uneven development and globalization. The
spatial context of economic landscapes, as with
others can be global, continental, national, urban,
neighborhood, and community.
Environmental Landscapes reveal the earth’s
physical processes and human interaction.
Aspects of physical geography are natural in
origin: rocks and minerals, soil, flora and fauna,
landforms, weather and climate, to name a few.
Geographers examine the distribution or spatial
context of these components. Environmental
landscapes may be natural in origin, but the
landscapes can be, and have been, influenced by
human interaction.
Historical and Political Landscapes are
combined in this anthology although they are
distinct sub-fields of the discipline. Political
Geography focuses on the complexity of politics
and both human and physical geography, with the
understanding that this is a two-way dynamic. As
with other landscapes, political landscapes are at
all scales from the global scale to the individual.
From a historical perspective we will examine
events, issues, or policies framed historically but
generate consequences or conditions today. We
will look at both historical and political foundations to territory and space.
What Does a Geographer Do, Anyway?
Throughout the course you will be learning a
new vocabulary, a series of terms often used by
geographers to describe events, dynamics, or
interconnections. You will also be introduced to
information about these events, when they happened, why and how it changed the landscape.
You will look at a number of maps to help put
these events into spatial context. New maps, new
vocabulary and new information are all part and
parcel of learning about the world. When you
begin reading the articles in the anthology, take
what you’ve learned in the lecture and apply it
to the articles. The articles represent examples
of similar conditions or circumstances, so it is
up to you to begin applying the material for the
course to your at-home reading, in order to better
understand the concepts.
When you read each article ask yourself: (1)
Do I know where this place is on the map? (2)
Who are its neighbors? (3) Have I heard of this
place before? (4) In what context have I heard
about this place: news, lecture, another class, television show, movie, or friend? (5) Was I able to
apply any previous knowledge about the place to
understanding this article? (6) What other landscapes are represented in the article and why does
this overlap exist? (7) How could this information
Introduction | 7
help me understand how I fit in to the global
picture? And some basics: (8) did you look up the
location represented if you didn’t know where it
was? (9) Did you look up any words you didn’t
understand? (10) Did you understand the main
message of the article? If you didn’t, did you write
down some questions that you could ask in class
that will help clarify it for you?
Remember, studying geography, just like any
other discipline, means you have to start learning
8 | Spatial Connections: World Regional Geography
the language, whether it is new terminology or the
language of maps. It sometimes means looking a
few things up along the way. It most definitely
means asking questions, so don’t be afraid to
jump right in and get started. It is a wonderfully
exciting world to learn about and the more we
know, the better our understanding of all those
with whom we share this globe will be.
Introduction | 9
Jill Stackhouse, “World Regions: One Perspective.” Copyright © 2011 by Jill Stackhouse.
Map 1. World Regions: One Perspective
Map 2. Countries Represented in This Anthology
Jill Stackhouse, “Countries Represented in this Anthology.” Copyright © 2011 by Jill Stackhouse.
10 | Spatial Connections: World Regional Geography