The course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives, including some of the following:
- lectures
- small group discussions
- visual presentations – PowerPointand videos
- individual and team projects and/or presentations
- feld assignments
- practical in-class exercises
- Introduction
a) The nature of human geography
b) Cultural variation and convergence
c) Concept of Place - Who We Are – People and Culture
a) Population
- demography
- growth
- models of population change
- population-resource interactions
- settlement patterns
- language families
- linguistic change
- proselytizing and ethnic religions
- origins and diffusions of major world religions
- religion in the landscape
- electoral geography
- the nation state
- the place of cultural minorities within the nation state
- Ethnic patterns and landscapes
- Gender distributions and landscapes
- What We Do – Patterns of Subsistence
a) The geography of agriculture
- agricultural regions
- theories of agricultural origins and dispersals
- modern commercial agriculture, sustainability and globalization
- agricultural location theory
- classification of economic activity
- the Industrial Revolution
- economic development - cores and peripheries
- de-industrialization and the new international division of labour
- impacts of globalization
- Where We Live – Urbanization and Cities
a) Urbanization
- definitions of urban
- origin and diffusion of the city
- Central Place Theory
- the evolution of urban landscapes
- the rank-size rule and primacy
- cities in the developing world
- internal structure – urban regions
- land use and land values
- models of urban structure
- ethnic and other minorities in cities
- perception of the city
- emerging urban landscapes
- Human-Environment Interactions
- theories of human-environment interactions
- case studies of human impacts
- Conclusion
- Human geography in a globalizing world
At the conclusion of the course the successful student will be able to:
- Collect, display and analyze geographical data using a variety of techniques.
- Explain the spatial distribution of human phenomena (language, economic activities, religion, etc.).
- Analyze the origin and diffusion of culture traits such as language and religion.
- Examine and explain the characteristics of cultural landscapes.
- Analyze the complex relationships between people and their environments.
- Understand interactions between different aspects of culture.
- Describe and explain similarities and differences among the peoples and places of the world.
- Explain the impact of globalization upon the patterns of human activities and landscapes.
- Demonstrate analytical reasoning and map interpretation skills.
- Assess geographical issues using proper written and spoken communication skills.
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with ÌÇÐÄvlog´«Ã½policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific criteria during the first week of classes.
An example of a possible evaluation scheme would be:
| Lab assignments | 10% |
| Field assignments | 15% |
| Tests | 50% |
| Term project | 20% |
| Participation | 5% |
| Total | 100% |
Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students:
Texts will be updated periodically. Typical examples are:
Domosh, M. Neumann, R., Price, P. and Jordan-Bychkov, T. G. (2009). The Human Mosaic. A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography, 11th edition. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Knox, P. L., S. A. Marsden and A. Nash. (2010). Human Geography: Places and Regions in a Global Context, 3rd Canadian edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Norton, W. (2009). Human Geography, 7th edition. Don Mills: Oxford.