Lec 01

Question 1

What is geography?

Answer 1

Study of space and place/spatial environments
- one of the original sciences

Question 2

What purposes does geography have? List examples.

What kind of misconceptions does geography have?

Answer 2

• Main purpose is to study relationships of humans with the environment, both physical and non-physical. Very diverse discipline that connects to many other ones.
  ex. Medical Geography, Cultural Geography, Population Geography, Climatology
• Often misinterpreted as just ‘studying the earth’ or the landscape. Geography often looks at many grey areas.

Question 3

What are Geography’s origins?

What kind of questions do Geographers address/ask?

Answer 3

Origin began with the Greeks, then moved to China, then the modern period.

Some questions that Geographers ask:
- Spatial behaviour: how people act in a given area?
- relationships + processes in an environment?
- Space + Place? Relative vs absolute?

Question 4

What is the 4 terms in Location? Examples?

2 place related concepts? Examples?

Answer 4

Absolute (longitude/latitude)
Relative (Why people live in a given area?)
Site vs situation (situation = logistics)

Ex. New Orleans:
- Mississippi river crosses through all of USA, making it ideal for transport, etc.
- Hurricane Katrina destroyed it, rendering it unusable.

Ex.2. Toronto:
- Defensively advantageous in 1812, which means less likely to be invaded
- Rich soil, important in 1900s because of local feeding.

Place Related Concepts:
- Sense of place: community, identity, feeling of belonging?
- Sense of placelessness: lack of place in a given area

ex. Bourbon Street, New Orleans VS. Anywheresville, Canada