CNS World Studies Hybrid 2014-15

Unit 4 Political & Urban Geography

Vocabulary
Frontier: a line or border separating two countries (Triple Frontier Border area where Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay meet)
City-state: a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state. (Ancient Egyptian city states)
State: nation or territory considered as an organized political community under one government. (Minnesota)
Territory: an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler state. (United States Territory 50 states)
Compact state: one of the six different shapes, not fully circular. Compact, small, and centralized. (Poland)
Fragmented state: a state that includes several discontinuous pieces of territory. (Indonesia)
Elongated state: a state whose territory is long and narrow in shape. (Chile)
Prorupted state: a state that exhibits a narrow, elongated land extension leading away from the main territory.
(Thailand)
Perforated state: a state whose territory completely surrounds that of another state. (South Africa)
Exclave: a part of a country that is separated from the rest of the country and surrounded by foreign territory. (Llvia
is an exclave of Spain surrounded by France.)
Enclave: an enclosed territory that is culturally distinct from the foreign territory that surrounds it. (Vatican City is
enclaved by Rome, Italy)
Landlocked state: a state that does not have a direct outlet to the sea. (Bolivia)
Micro-state: states with very small land areas. (Monaco)
Stateless nation: nations without states. (Palestine)
Irredentism: the policy of a state wishing to incorporate within itself territory inhabited by people who have ethnic or
linguistic links with the country but that lies within a neighboring state. (Jewish homeland)
Self-determination: the ability of a government to determine their own course of their own free will.
Terrorism: the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. (9/11)
Sovereignty: ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other state. (United
States)
Nation: a large aggregate of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular
country or territory. (United States)
Country: a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory. (France)
Forward capital: a symbolically relocated capital city usually because of either economic or strategic reasons,
sometimes used to integrate outlying parts of a country into the state. (Washington D.C.)
Primate city: leading city in its country or region, disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy.
(London & Paris)
Gerrymandering: manipulate the boundaries so as to favor one party or class. (Minnesota Gerrymanders its
counties.)
Colonialism: the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it
with settlers, and exploiting it economically. (British Company takes over Congolese River)
Imperialism: policy of extending a countrys power and influence through diplomacy or military force. (British
company uses military forces to continue control)
Manifest destiny: the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American
continents was both justified and inevitable.
Devolution: the transfer or delegation of power to a lower level, especially by central government to local or regional
administration. (supporters of states rights in the United States favoured diffusing power away from Washington,
D.C., toward state and local governments.)
Supranationalism: an alliance involving 3 or more countries for their mutual benefit such as economic, cultural, or
political/military. (United Nations)
Geopolitics: politics, especially international relations, as influenced by geographical factors.
Centripetal forces: an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state.
Centrifugal forces: a force that divides and countries.
Balkanization: process which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities. (The former Yugoslavia
has become five independent countries and the province of Kosovo is currently fighting to break away of what is left
of Yugoslavia.)

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Confederation government: has a weak central authority that derives all its powers from the state or provincial
governments. (Confederate states of America during the Civil War)
Federal government: sharing of power between the central government and state, provincial or local governing
bodies. (United States)
Unitary government: the central government holds most of the power. (United Kingdom)
Segregation: the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment. (Whites
and Blacks in United States history)
Apartheid: a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. (South Africa)
Decolonization: is the undoing of colonialism, where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over
dependent territories. (India becoming independent from England after World War II.)
Iron Curtain: the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism
that followed the political events in Eastern Europe in 1989.
Cold-War: a state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures
short of open warfare, in particular. (Soviet Union and United States)
Reapportionment: Redistribution of representation in a legislative body, especially the periodic reallotment of US
congressional seats according to changes in the census figures as required by the Constitution. (occurs every 10
years)
Demarcation borders: the actual placing of a political boundary on the landscape by means of barriers, fences, walls,
or other markers. (North and South Korea)
Delimitation borders: The translation of the written terms of a boundary treaty into an official cartographic
representation. (Black Sea delimitation borders)
Definition borders: The written legal description of a boundary between two countries or territories. (Borders
between countries)
Buffer state: a small neutral country, situated between two larger hostile countries, serving to prevent the outbreak of
regional conflict. (Uruguay served as a demilitarized buffer-zone between Argentina and the Empire of Brazil during
the early independence period in South America.)
Satellite states: designates a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic
and military influence or control from another country. (Central and Eastern European countries of the Warsaw Pact
during the Cold War or to Mongolia between 1924 and 1990)
Balance-of-Power: a situation in which nations of the world have roughly equal power. (European balance of power)
Gateway state: A state, by virtue of its border location between geopolitical power cores, that absorbs and assimilates
cultures and traditions of its neighbors without being dominated by them. (California is a gateway state for China)
Economic Enterprise Zones: geographic areas in which companies can qualify for a variety of subsidies.
Sharia Laws: the body of canonical law based on the Koran that lays down certain duties and penalties for Muslims.
Majority-minority: used in American English to refer to a sub-national jurisdiction in which one or more racial
and/or ethnic minorities (relative to the whole country's population) make up a majority of the population. (white to
black population)
Territoriality: term associated with nonverbal communication that refers to how people use space to communicate
ownership/occupancy of areas and possessions.
Democratization: is the transition to a more democratic political regime. (Morocco)
Fragmentation: the process or state of breaking or being broken into small or separate parts. (Forest fragmentation)
Nationalism: a feeling on intense pride for ones homeland.
Blockbusting: the practice of persuading owners to sell property cheaply because of the fear of people of another
race or class moving into the neighborhood, and thus profiting by reselling at a higher price. (Strategy used in US)
City-state: a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state.
Key Concepts to Know
1. Compact state (examples)
2. Example of Fragmented state
3. Example of Elongated state

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Unit 4 Political & Urban Geography

4. Example of Prorupted state

5. Example of Perforated state
6. Example of Landlocked states (disadvantages)
7. Micro-states (examples and challenges)
8. Stateless nations (examples)
9. Physical boundaries (examples)
10. Mountains as boundaries (examples)
11. Water as a boundary (examples)
12. Deserts as boundaries (examples)
13. Cultural boundaries
14. Linguistic boundaries
15. Religious boundaries
16. Geometric boundaries
17. Origin of boundaries
18.Types of Boundary disputes (positional/definitional, territorial, resource/allocational, and
functional/operational)
19. Border landscapes
20. Nation-state concept (examples)
21. Immigrant state
22. Heartland (Mackinder)
23. Shatter belt
24. Rimland Theory (Nicolas Sypkman)
25. Unitary state vs Federal states (advantages & disadvantages)
26. Core/periphery
27. Forward Capital (example)
28. Question of Taiwan and Hong Kong as a state
29. Impact of globalization on state sovereignty
30. Tragedy of the Commons
31. Law of the Sea
32. Supranationalism (Types, examples, and affect on state)
33. Break up the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia
34. Economic Enterprise Zone (examples and significance)
35. Changing boundaries of Europe & EU
36. Partition of India
43. Devolution: Types and examples
44. Sea power Doctrine (Alfred Mahan)
45. Organic Theory (Friedrich Ratzel)
46. World Order: bi-polar, multi-polar, and unilateral
47. Containment Theory
48. Domino Theory
49. Forces of change: globalization, democratization, and religious politics (examples)
Vocabulary
Urbanization: The movement of people to, and the clustering of people in, towns and cities- a major force in every
geographic realm today. Also when expanding cities absorb the rural countryside and transforms it into suburbs.
(Minneapolis)
Central business district (CBD): The downtown hearth of a central city. Marked by high land values, a concentration
of business and commerce, and the clustering of the tallest buildings. (Chicago, Illinois)
Central place: Any point or place in the urban hierarchy, such as a town or city, having a certain economic reach or
hinterland. (Manhattan, Midtown)
City-state

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Unit 4 Political & Urban Geography

Clustered (A pattern of rural settlement in which the houses and farm buildings of each family are situated close to
each others' fields and surround the settlement.) vs. Dispersed rural settlements (A rural settlement pattern
characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.)
Economic base: the manufacturing and service activities performed by the basic sector; functions of a city preformed
to satisfy demands external to the city itself, earning income to support the urban population
Consumer services: the formulation, deformulation, technical consulting and testing of most consumer products,
such as food, herbs, beverages, vitamins.
Basic (Industries that sell their products or services primarily to consumers outside the settlement. Ex: A person who
works at the pulp mill is paid from outside revenues.) vs. Nonbasic Industries (Industries that sell their products
primarily to consumers in the community. Ex: Bobiam)
Business services: describes work that supports a business but does not produce a tangible commodity. (financial
services to a bank)
Market area (Hinterland): Surrounding area served by an urban center. That center is the focus of goods and services
produced for its hinterland and it is the dominant urban influence as well.
Primate city: a city of large size and dominant power within a country; a country's largest city, ranking atop the urban
hierarchy, most expressive of the national culture and usually (but not always) the capital city as well. (Athens,
Greece)
Public services: is a service which is provided by government to people living within its jurisdiction, either directly
(through the public sector) or by financing provision of services. (Roads)
Range (of a service): The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.
Rank-size rule: in a modern urban hierarchy, the idea that the population of a city or town will be inversely
proportional to its rank in the hierarchy.
Service: a system supplying a public need such as transport, communications, or utilities such as electricity and
water.
Settlement: a place, typically one that has hitherto been uninhabited, where people establish a community.
Threshold: the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition
to occur or be manifested.
Annexation: The adding of a region to the territory of an existing political unit. (German occupation of parts of
Czechoslovakia in 1938)
Census tract: are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity that are updated
by local participants prior to each decennial census as part of the Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas
Program.
Edge city: a relatively large urban area situated on the outskirts of a city, typically beside a major road.
(Bloomington, MN)
Gentrification: trend of mid to high-income Americans moving into city centers and rehabilitating much of the
architecture and also replacing the low-income population. (New York City)
Greenbelt: a ring of land maintained as parks, agricultural, or other types of open space that limit the sprawl of an
urban area. (Millennium Park, Chicago)
Metropolitan statistical area (MSA): area with a city of 50 thousand or more people, together with adjacent urban
communities that have strong ties to the central city. (Twin Cities)
Public housing: housing provided for people with low incomes, subsidized by public funds.
Redlining: refuse (a loan or insurance) to someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk.
Smart growth: Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland.
Sprawl: Development of new housing sites at relatively low density and at locations that are not contiguous to the
existing built-up area.
Squatter settlement: a typical shanty town often lacks proper sanitation, safe water supply, electricity, hygienic
streets, or other basic human necessities. (Orangi Township in Karachi, Pakistan)
Underclass
Urban renewal: the redevelopment of areas within a large city, typically involving the clearance of slums. (Detroit,
MI)

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Unit 4 Political & Urban Geography

Zoning ordinance: Legal restrictions on land use that determine what types of building and economic activities are
allowed to take place in certain areas. In the US, areas are mostly commonly divided into separate zones of
residential, retail, or industrial use.
Megacity: cities with more than 10 million people. (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Megalopolis: a very large urban complex (usually involving several cities and towns). (New York City)
Multiplier effect: the direct, indirect, and induced consequences of change in an activity; in urban geography, the
expected addiction of non-basic workers and dependents to a city's local employment and population that
accompanies new basic sector employment
Suburbs: an outlying district of a city, especially a residential one. (Chanhassen)
Urban elite: a group of decision makers and organizers who controlled the resources and often the lives of others
World city: one of the largest cities in the world, generally with a population of over 10 million. (Buenos Aires,
Argentina)
Gateway city: a city that serves as a link between one country or region and others because of its physical situation.
(Los Angeles)
Auto-dominated city: roads are often crowded, as citizens like the freedom of having their own car. (Detroit, MI)
Blockbusting
Gated communities: a residential area with roads that have gates to control the movement of traffic and people into
and out of the area. (Bearpath, Eden Prairie)
Counterurbanization: a demographic and social process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas
Underclass: the lowest social stratum in a country or community, consisting of the poor and unemployed.
Homeless: without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets.
Rust Belt: The northern industrial states of the United States, including Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, in which
heavy industry was once the dominant economic activity. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, these states lost much of
their economic base to economically attractive regions of the United States and to countries where labor was
cheaper, leaving old machinery to rust in the moist northern climate.
Sun Belt Cities: U.S. region, mostly comprised of southeastern and southwestern states, which has grown most
dramatically since World War II.

Key Concepts to Know

3. Physical/legal definition (city, metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), Consolidated
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (CMSAs))
4. Site and situation with respect to city location
5. Origin and evolution of cities
10. Pull factors of the city (since industrialization)
11. Pull factors for Least Developed Counties (LDC) cities vs. More Developed Countries (MDC) cities
13. Rank-size rule & primate cities
16. Distribution of world cities
17. Changes in the worlds largest cities (1800, 1900, 1950, today)
18. Mega cities (positives/negatives)
19. Mega cites in More Developed Countries (MDCs) vs. Least Developed Counties (LDC)
20. Squatter settlements (different names around the world)
22. Central Place Theory (Christaller)
24. Economic base of settlements
27. Role of transportation systems and urban growth
28. Decline of industrial cities in North America and Europe
30. Process of deterioration and decline of cities
35. Changing population pyramids of neighborhoods
37. Festival market places and tourism
46. Comparing North American and European cities (models)

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Unit 4 Political & Urban Geography

47. MDC and LDC differences (models)

48. Transit Oriented Development (T.O.D.)
51. Competing municipalities
52. Trend towards regional agencies
53. The city beautiful movement
56. New urbanism & mixed-use development
57. Inner city challenges (social, physical, and economic)
58. Suburban challenges
67. Leap-frog development
70. Creative class and impact on cities
71. Housing in various parts of a metro area
72. Land use planning that reduces energy use and protects the environment
45. Impacts of auto dominated cites (environmental & social)