GEOG 2 – Human Geography

Introduces contemporary human geography and looks at the range of concepts and topics that geography investigates, including some of its methods. Major topics will include the spatial organization of human activities, how social processes and structures can be understood through a geographic lens; and geographic perspectives on human-environment interactions and social and economic relationships. The course focuses on five essential themes of human geography: region, mobility, globalization, nature-culture, and cultural landscape.

Outline (PDF)

The course focuses on five essential themes of human geography: region, mobility, globalization, nature-culture, and cultural landscape. Sub-disciplines within human geography will be covered, including cultural geography, population geography, the geography of agriculture/the global food system, political geography, development geography, and urban geography.

The general goals of the course are:

• Students will be able to understand economic processes such as globalization, trade and transportation, and their impacts on economic, cultural, and social activities.
• Students will be able to understand demographic, social, and cultural attributes such as migration, social relations, and cultural identity. The main objective is to underline that human activities are subject to adaptation and change.
• Students will learn about the variety of political systems and nation-states, which administratively subdivide the regions of the world. How human activities are regulated and under the jurisdiction of a variety of geographical units and how these relations shape the economic and social space are of particular relevance.

Powerpoint Slides

• Topic 1 – Human Geography: A Cultural Approach
• Topic 2 – Geographies of Cultural Differences
• Topic 3 – Population Geography
• Topic 4 – The Geography of Language
• Topic 5 – Geographies of Race and Ethnicity
• Topic 6 – Political Geography
• Topic 7 – Geography of Religion
• Topic 8 – Agriculture and Food
• Topic 9 – Development Geography
• Topic 10 – Urban Geography

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