World geography

Globalization and World Regions

 Different and Changing Worlds
• Political, economic, and social
experience and expectations are rapidly
change nowadays.
• The physical shape of world isn’t change.
• But connecting among people bring
places closer as cooperation,
competition, and conflict with other
peoples become more intense.
4 geographic levels to see Earth
• Global
– views from spacecraft show the contrasts
between continental land areas and ocean
waters.
• Major World regions
– are whole or large parts of continents and are
the division used in this text for the regional
chapters.
• Countries
– are the building blocks of major world
regions.
• Local regions
– are parts of countries and the places where
many individuals voice their concerns.
 Globalization vs. Localization
• Globalization
– Globalization is increasing level of
interconnections among people throughout
the world.
– The speed and intensity of globalization, in
terms of world trade and the flow of
financial investments, increased markedly in
the 1990s.

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 Globalization vs. Localization
• Localization is both response to and the
outcome of globalization.
– On the one hand, global exchanges and flows of
information, ideas, people, money, and technology
move us toward worldwide political solutions,
economic exchanges, cultural attitudes, and
environmental concerns.
– On the other, localization focuses on distinctive
identities of places or people in regions, countries,
or local areas.
 There are about seven (7) major types of globalization.
•Financial globalization.
•Economic Globalization.
•Technological Globalization.
•Political Globalization.
•Cultural Globalization.
•Ecological Globalization.
•Sociological Globalization.

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 Facets of Globalization
• Increasing connections take place through
intensified flows of ideas, goods, and
people:
– Ideas, technologies, and diseases;
– Goods from many place of manufacture;
– People migrations for work, political asylum,
family consolidation, and long-distance
tourism;
– The spread of images and message through
the media of TV, film, the Internet and print.
 Facets of Localization
• Local voice remain loud in our consciousness
and ensure that global trends are often far from
being fulfilled.
– Political nationalism maintains separation countries
and of groups within countries. Ex. Basque, Aceh
 Facets of Localization
– Despite globalization force, many local customs and
practices preserve local identities. Ex. Pop music
– Changes and intensification of ideologies, especially
religious or political beliefs. Religious difference
among Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and
Hindu countries continue to be signification.
– Demonstrators resist the visible economic
penetration of countries around the world by global
media and corporations such as CNN, the Murdoch
group, McDonald’s, Starbuck, Toyota, and Nike.
Economic Activities: Global Trends
• The numbers people living on < $1 per day
– 900 m (85%)(1820)1.4 b (30%)(1980) 1.2 b (20%)(2000)
• In the 1990s, the uneven spread of expanding global economic
activities caused group of countries to enter into or revive
regional economic agreements, mainly through trade.
– European Union (EU)
– North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
– Mercosur (southern South America)
– Association of South East Asian Countries
– South Africa Development conference
• US, the countries of western Europe and Japan Controlled
nearly all the investment, production, and consumption of
goods.
• China, India and Brazil increased their contribution.

• Wealthier people vs. Poorer people

Cultural Activities: Major Regions,
Local Voice
• One world culture? Did these wiped out the
local cultural difference
– Cocacola-ization of eating and drinking habits
– the spread of Western TV, movies, pop music
– global markets for some consumer goods
– Ex. India
• Western cultural norms
– democracy, individual ,and human rights
– Materialism, consumerism, and superficial value
 Civilizations
(World Cultures)
 Environmental issues at varied scales
• Earth is marked by a variety of natural
environments that create differences among
regions
• Natural environments affects human events at
global, world regional, country, and local
scales.
– world regional, country, or local scales: Prediction
of hurricanelike storms, effects of acid rain, and
damage from river floods and volcanic eruptions
– global scale: global warming, El Nino, the ozone hole
over Antarctica, and the destruction of tropical rain
forests
– Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992), Kyoto, Japan (1997)
 What is geography about?
• Geography is study of
– where and how human and natural feature
and events (political, economic, cultural, and
environmental) are distributed on Earth’s
surface,
– the relationships among them,
– how their distributions change over time,
– and how those features and relationships
affect human lives.
 Subject matter
• The tensions among globalization,
localization, and the continuing
significance of country governments
provide a basis changes and move toward
either greater interdependence or
conflict.
• Thus, geographers compare places and
assess the interactions among them at
different levels of geographic scale.
 Geographic methods
• Location
• Place
• Human/Environment interaction
• Movement
• Region
First, geography is about place
• Place might be a
– Individual place
– Small town
– Large city
– Rural area
– Another state
– Another country
• Place might be perceived as points on a map or
as large area.
• However, they all have different relationships
to each other in terms of location, direction,
distance, and size.
 Regions and Globalization
• Regions are defined by
– A high degree of uniformity
– Limited variability
– More-or-less lasting boundaries
• Regional boundaries may include physical
features, political boundaries, or economic
characteristics.

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 Region’s dynamic features
• Regions are also dynamic geographic entities
that have distinctive internal and external flow
patterns of such phenomena as people, goods,
and ideas.
• Nodes are key features of regions, being
specific places from which flows begin or
through which of a set of nodes may define the
boundary of a region.
 Changes in dynamic regions
• People create regions
• Regions shape people’s activities
• People remake regions
• Regions interact with other regions
• Regions are used by those in power
 Major world regions
• Europe
• Russia and Neighboring Countries
• East Asia
• Southern Asia and South Pacific
• South Asia
• North Africa and Southwestern Asia
• Africa South of the Sahara
• Latin America
• North America
 Development of world regions
• Early history (about 5000 B.C)
• Settle Farming
• City-State and Empires (2500-1000 B.C.)
• Trading Empires and “Classical” Civilizations
(1000 B.C.- A.D.600)
• Disruptions, Migrations, and Feudalism (A.D.
600 - 1450)
• The modern, globalizing world
– Explorations and colonies ( around A.D. 1450)
– Industrialization (mid-1700s)
– Globalization, Countries, and Protectionism (1450-
early 1800s)