changing places Flashcards
place
What is place?
- Many geographers use a broader definition of the term ‘place’
- Place is more than just location —> location - where a place is on a map - it’s latitude and longitude
Place is made up of all the things that come together to make a place what it is:
- Location
- Physical characteristics of the landscape e.g. topography or physical features
- Human characteristics e.g. who lives there and what they’re like
- Things that flow in and out of that place e.g. people, money, ideas, resources
- Sense of place - the emotional meanings a place has
Apart from location, all other aspects of places are constantly changing:
- Physical characteristics of a place can change over long time scales e.g. as rivers migrate, or short time scales e.g. when a volcano erupts and alters the landscape
- Human characteristics of a place can change over whole lifetimes e.g. as new people are born in a place and others die, or shorter time scales e.g. as people migrate in and out of a place
- The flows in and out of a place change e.g. flows of money could change when a TNC invests in a new factory or decides to close an existing factory
- Sense of place may change e.g. the places a person played in as a child will not have the same meanings to that person when they return there as an adult
Different groups or individuals may have a different sense of the same place. For example, one person may think of a city centre as a place of excitement and opportunity, whilst another person may think of it as a place of stress
place
place
identity
Sense of place can be so strong that it forms part of our identity e.g. a person may consider coming from Manchester to be a part of who they are
Shared identity - individuals share characteristics that they feel bind them together as a group
Shared identity on different scales:
- Local - e.g. the individuals from a village sharing a positive sense of that village
- Regional - e.g. the individuals from a region share similarities e.g. an accent
- National - e.g. the individuals of a nation sharing a language, religion or a love for that nation
insiders and outsiders
Insider - someone who is familiar with a place and who feels welcome in that place e.g. they feel that they belong there
- e.g. residents of a country, who all share the same cultural values, may feel like insiders in that country
Outsider - someone who feels unwelcome or excluded from a place e.g. they don’t feel that they belong there
- e.g. international immigrants, who don’t share the same cultural values as the residents of a country, may feel like outsiders in the country they move to
Factors that can make a person feel like an insider or an outsider?
- Age, gender and religion etc
- E.g. a young person may feel like an outsider in a retirement village, and an elderly person may feel like an outsider in a nightclub
These can change because of:
- Personal factors- as you get older in a place, you may feel more connected there. Someone may feel like an outsider in a mosque if they were atheist, but if the converted to Islam, they may feel like an insider there// If someone changes their gender, they may feel like an outsider in places where this is not allowed
- External factors- those living in a place for a long time may begin to feel like an outsider due to gentrification e.g. new establishments will bring an influx of wealthier people which may make those who are poorer living nearby feel like outsiders
experienced and media places
Experienced places - places people have been to and spent time in. Sense of place is influenced by their visitation there. You are more likely to feel like an insider here.
Media places - places that people have not been to, but have created a sense of place for through the media e.g. books, art and films. You are more likely to feel like an outsider here.
A person’s sense of a media place can be very different to the lived experience of the same place. This is because the media may present a place in a particular way and for a particular purpose e.g. tourist websites may present holiday destinations such as the Caribbean as a place of relaxation, but the reality for people who live there may be that it is a place of poverty and hardship
Examples:
- If you have only experienced New York through the film Home Alone 2, your emotional attachment may be more positive as it is filmed as a beautiful city with pretty lights and grand skyscrapers
- Through holiday brochures, Cornwall may seem like a happy, healthy place with a close-knit community. However, in reality 90% of neighbourhoods are more deprived than the rest of the UK. 210 people die unnecessarily from the cold every year, 74,000 experience bad health, and the average house price is 12 times the average salary of £14,300
- Despite being the UK’s “second capital city”, most people deem the city of Birmingham as unsafe and dull. The TV show Peaky Blinders is set in Birmingham. The storyline follows a family of gangsters committing crimes which cements in the minds of viewers that Birmingham is a dangerous place
near and far places
Near places - places geographically near to where a person lives
Far places - places distant from where a person lives
- People are more likely to feel like insiders in near places, as they are more likely to have experienced them and feel comfortable in them
- Not all people will feel like insiders in all geographically near places though - people may feel excluded from near places for many reasons e.g. their age, gender, sexuality etc
- People are more likely to feel like outsiders in far places, as they are less likely to have experienced them and feel comfortable in them
In more recent decades, globalisation has affected people’s experience of geographical distance:
- Improvements in travel technology mean that far places are quicker to get to —> can be experienced more easily and frequently —> known as the “shrinking world effect”
- Improvements in ICT mean that people can be very familiar with media places - places people have not been to
- People can be closely connected with people and activities in far places via the internet
So it’s increasingly likely today that people may feel like insiders in places that are geographically far away
- Global companies and products also mean that far places can feel very similar to near places e.g. city centres in different parts of the world may have all the same chain stores, selling the same products
Placelessness - globalisation making distant places look and feel the same
endogenous
exogenous
external flows causing places to change?
- Places are constantly changing because all the factors that create their character are constantly changing
- The original character of many places has changed because of the external flows that have occurred over time e.g. flows of people, resources, money and ideas
- In recent history, flows of people, money, resources and ideas between places have increased - this is because of improvements to transport, which have made it easier for people and goods to be transported, and communications (e.g. internet), which allow people to communicate with anyone else on the planet instantly —> these flows have caused more places to become more strongly connected to each other —> globalisation
how have external flows affected the demographic characteristics of places?
- Demographic characteristics are to do with who lives in a place and what they’re like - e.g. age, gender, education level, religion and ethnicity etc
Flows of people can change the demographic characteristics of a place e.g. age or gender balance
- E.g. on a local scale, younger people have been leaving the town of Uckfield in East Sussex —> unable to afford house prices in the area, leaving an increasingly high proportion of older people
- On an international scale, large-scale migration from North Africa to Europe that started in 2015 has altered the gender balance of some towns, as a high proportion of the migrants are male
Flows of money and investment
- E.g. governments can invest money in specific places in order to attract people to live there —> for example, the London Docklands Development Corporation was a group set up by the government in 1981 to reverse inner city decline —> resulted in an increase in population size (between 1981 and the early 21st century the population more than doubled)
Flows of ideas and resources
- ideas such as the use of birth control can flow to new places and affect their demographic characteristics e.g. by reducing the birth rate and affecting the population size
- many of the poorest countries in the world have the lowest usage of birth control and rapid population growth —> international organisations such as the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) have been set up to spread knowledge and ideas about birth control, as well as supplying resources to aid birth control e.g. condoms
how have external flows affected the cultural characteristics of places?
- Cultural characteristics of places are to do with how people live their lives e.g. food, clothing, traditions, language, and beliefs/values people have etc
Flows of people
- New people moving to a place, or even visiting it, bring their culture with them —> can change the characteristics of the place e.g. in the 20th century, the UK experienced mass international migrations from India and Pakistan and other common wealth countries —> this has created multi-ethnic communities in many places —> greater mix of languages spoken, religions practised and foods eaten
Flows of money, investment and ideas
- New cultural ideas introduced to places can change the characteristics of those places e.g. fast food companies from the USA like KFC, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut opened in China in the 1980s and 1990s and have grown rapidly since —> It is thought that eating habits have changed in China as a result, with increasing numbers of people favouring western-style fast food over traditional Chinese food
how have external flows affected the economic characteristics of places?
- The economic characteristics of places are to do with work and money e.g. income, employment rates and the types of job available
Flows of people
- People visiting places can change the economic characteristics of those places e.g. St Ives in Cornwall used to be a fishing settlement, but is now a popular tourist destination —> The flows of tourism (combined with a decline in the fishing industry) have altered the types of jobs available in the area to service-based jobs e.g. hospitality, shops and restaurants
Flows of resources
- The outward flow of local products/natural resources from a place can have a large impact on local economies —> local products/natural resources can be sold to global markets e.g. the Scottish whisky industry has grown to be one of the largest industries in Scotland due to international exports —> this has brought employment and money to a wide range of places across Scotland
Flows of money and investment
- Flows of money having a negative impact on economic characteristics of places —> e.g. reduced investment and competition from global markets has led to the decline of some primary industries in the UK (deindustrialisation) —> decline of steel industry in Sheffield led to 3 million people being unemployed
- Inward flows of investment can have positive effects on economic characteristics of places e.g. investment in the finance industries in London has created many high value service sector jobs and made it a wealthy place
how have external flows affected the social characteristics and inequalities of places?
- The social characteristics of places are to do with what people’s lives are like e.g. their overall quality of life, their access to adequate food supplies, healthcare, education, sanitation, leisure facilities etc
- Social inequalities are the differences in these factors between different groups of people
Flows of people
- Regional migration from rural areas to urban areas in poorer countries has changed social characteristics and levels of social inequality
- E.g. in India, large-scale rural to urban migration has resulted in slums developing in cities such as Mumbai —> migrants often have a very low quality of life, without access to electricity, sanitation or clean water —> this contrasts with the high quality of life that wealthier residents in these cities have —> inequality gap is widening
Flows of resources
- The outward flow of natural resources from poorer countries can change levels of social inequality e.g. large amounts of oil are extracted around Warri in Nigeria then exported round the world —> most of the wealth that is generated goes to a few individuals who have a high quality of life —> large numbers of people remain in poverty with a very low quality of life —> inequality widens
Flows of money and investment
- The process of gentrification has improved the social characteristics of some places, but it can also increase inequality e.g. Notting Hill was once one of the most deprived areas in London, but now has much lower levels of deprivation —> however social inequality between the wealthy newcomers and existing poorer residents has increased
how can external forces affect the demographic, cultural, economic and social characteristics of places?
Government policies:
- Governments can affect the demographic characteristics of places e.g. by introducing policies to control population. In China, the one-child policy was introduced as a method to reduce rapid population growth, but in France the government introduced policies (such as lower taxes and better maternity leave conditions) to increase the birth rate.
- Other government policies can affect the cultural characteristics of places e.g. by controlling immigration. For example, in the 1960s the German government invited Turkish people to live and work in Germany. As a result, aspects of Turkish culture have become a part of German culture e.g. Turkish fast food outlets are common across Germany, Turkish is the second most widely spoken language and Islam is widely practised.
- Some government policies can affect the demographic, economic and social characteristics of places. For example, the Hulme City Challenge Partnership —> scheme led to an increase in the population in the area, created jobs, reduced unemployment and increased quality of life for some residents
Decisions of transnational corporations:
- The decisions of TNCs can have major impacts on the demographic, social and economic characteristics of places. For example, Detroit (in the USA) was a major global centre of car manufacturing in the early and mid 20th century, with TNCs such as Ford and General Motors located there
- TNCs gave the city a massive economic boost —> large numbers of jobs were created —> this altered the demographic characteristics of the city by attracting large numbers of migrants —> the population grew to around 1.8 million in the 1950s
- After the 1950s, many of the manufacturing TNCs closed or relocated factories to places with cheaper labour e.g. Mexico —> this led to population decline (population of Detroit had reduced to around 700 000), high employment (25% of the workforce in Detroit was unemployed) and social deprivation (Detroit has some of the highest crime rates in the USA)
Impacts of international or global institutions:
- Since 2015, there has been increased conflict in Yemen so the World Food Programme distributed food aid to millions which prevented death from starvation —> kept the population up —> impacted social and demographic characteristics of places
- From 2010 to 2016, the World Bank funded the Ningbo New Countryside Development Project in China which provided water aid to 144 villages. This impacted social and demographic characteristics of china —> deaths were prevented so population increased and the scheme allowed rural communities to continue practicing the traditions in their culture —> improved quality of life
