CONTEMPORARY HUMAN GEOGRAPHY CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION, LANDSCAPE MONA DOMOSH RODERICK P. NEUMANN PATRICIA L. PRICE C. 2015 W.H. FREEMAN & CO. POPULATION GEOGRAPHY SHAPING THE HUMAN MOSAIC WHAT IS POPULATION GEOGRAPHY? Population geography: The study of the spatial and ecological aspects of population, including distribution, density per unit of land area, fertility, gender, health, age, mortality, and migration. • If Western lifestyles are adopted by a significant number of Earth’s 7 billion inhabitants, we may soon deplete or contaminate Earth’s life-support systems. 3.1 REGION POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY Population density: A measurement of population per unit area (e.g., per square mile). • People are very unevenly distributed, creating huge disparities in density. • 19% of all humans reside in China, 17% in India, and only 4.4% in the United States. FIGURE 3.1 Population density in the world. Try to imagine the diverse causal forces—physical, environmental, and cultural—that have been at work over the centuries to produce this complicated spatial pattern. It represents the most basic cultural geographical distribution of all. (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) CARRYING CAPACITY Carrying capacity: The maximum number of people that can be supported in a given area. • Provides a more meaningful index of overpopulation than density alone. • Can be difficult to determine carrying capacity until the region under study is near or over the limit. • Sometimes the carrying capacity of one place can be expanded by drawing on the resources of another place. PATTERNS OF NATALITY • Births can be measured by several methods. The older way was simply to calculate the birth rate: the number of births per year per thousand people. • More revealing is the total fertility rate (TFR), which is measured as average number of children born per woman during her reproductive lifetime (15 to 49). • TFR focuses on the female segment of the population, reveals average family size, and gives an indication of future changes in the population structure. ZERO POPULATION GROWTH • A TFR of 2.1 is needed to produce a stabilized population over time. Zero population growth: A stabilized population created when an average of only two children per couple survive to adulthood. Eventually, the number of deaths equals the number of births. • TFR varies markedly from one part of the world to another. FIGURE 3.4 The total fertility rate (TFR) in the world. The TFR indicates the average number of children born to women over their lifetimes. A rate of 2.1 is needed to produce a stable population over the long run; below that, population will decline. Fast growth is associated with a TFR of 5.0 or higher. (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) THE GEOGRAPHY OF MORTALITY Death rate: The number of deaths per year per 1000 people. • In the developed world, most people die of ageinduced degenerative conditions, such as heart disease, or from maladies caused by industrial pollution of the environment (e.g., many cancers). • Contagious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and diarrheal diseases are a leading cause of death in poorer countries. FIGURE 3.5 Crude death rate. This map shows deaths per thousand population per year. (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION Demographic transition: The movement from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. • Agrarian societies depended on family labor … high birth rates. • Limited access to health care … high death rates. • Industrial era – Medical advances and improvements in diet … drop in death rates • Birth rates did not fall so quickly … population explosion as fertility outpaced mortality. • Eventually, a decline in the birth rate followed the decline in the death rate … ultimately, population decline or ZPG. FIGURE 3.7 The demographic transition as a graph. The “transition” occurs in several stages as the industrialization of a country progresses. In stage 2, the death rate declines rapidly, causing a population explosion as the gap between the number of births and deaths widens. Then, in stage 3, the birth rate begins a sharp decline. The transition ends when, in stage 4, both birth and death rates have reached low levels, by which time the total population is many times greater than at the beginning of the transformation. In the postindustrial stage, population decline eventually begins. SHORTCOMINGS OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL • Eurocentric – reflects experience of Western Europe. • Lock-step, stage-by-stage progression … not all countries go through all stages. • Government policies, wars, mass migrations, widespread disease, etc. can alter a country’s experience/trajectory. AGE DISTRIBUTIONS • In a majority of countries in Africa, as well as some countries in Latin America and tropical Asia, close to half the population is younger than 15 years of age. • Countries that industrialized early have a preponderance of middle-aged people in the over 15–under 65 age bracket. • A growing number of affluent countries have remarkably aged populations. FIGURE 3.10 The world pattern of youth and old age. Some countries have populations with unusually large numbers of elderly people; others have preponderantly young populations. What issues might be associated with either situation? (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) POPULATION PYRAMIDS Population pyramid: A graph used to show the age and sex composition of a population. • Reveal the past progress of birth control and allow geographers to predict future population trends. • Youth-weighted pyramids reflect past births and predict future growth trends. • Population pyramids with a more cylindrical shape represent countries approaching population stability or those in demographic decline. FIGURE 3.12 Population pyramids for the world and selected countries and communities. Tanzania displays the classic stepped pyramid of a rapidly expanding population, whereas the U.S. pyramid looks more like a precariously balanced pillar. China’s population pyramid reflects the lowered numbers of young people as a result of that country’s one-child policy. How do these pyramids help predict future population growth? (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) THE GEOGRAPHY OF GENDER • The human race is divided almost evenly between females and males, but geographical differences do occur in the sex ratio: the ratio between men and women in a population. • Slightly more boys than girls are born, but infant boys have slightly higher mortality rates than do infant girls. • Recently settled areas typically have more males than females. • In general, women tend to outlive men. GENDER ROLES • Gender roles—culturally specific notions of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman—are closely tied to how many children are produced by couples. • Spaces that many cultures associate with women tend to be the private family spaces of the home. • Public spaces such as streets, plazas, and the workplace are often associated with men. • Falling fertility levels that coincide with higher levels of education for women have resulted in challenges to cultural ideas of male and female spaces. STANDARD OF LIVING • Various demographic traits can be used to assess standard of living and analyze it geographically. Infant mortality rate: The number of infants per 1000 live births who die before reaching one year of age. • United Nations Human Development Index (HDI): Combines measures of literacy, life expectancy, education, and wealth. FIGURE 3.16 The present world pattern of infant mortality rate. The key indicates the number of children per 1000 born who die before reaching one year of age. The world’s infant mortality rate is 44. Many experts believe that this rate is the best single measure of living standards. (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) 3.2 MOBILITY REASONS FOR MIGRATION • Early human groups moved in response to the migration of the animals they hunted for food and the ripening seasons of the plants they gathered. • The agricultural revolution allowed human groups to stop their seasonal migrations. • Some groups still migrate(d) in response to environmental collapse, in response to religious or ethnic persecution, or for better opportunities. THE DECISION TO MOVE • Europe now predominantly receives immigrants rather than sending out emigrants. • International migration is at an all-time high, much of it labor migration associated with globalization. • Historically, and to this day, forced migration often occurs. Refugees: Those fleeing from persecution in their country of nationality. The persecution can be religious, political, racial, or ethnic. FIGURE 3.17 Major and minor migration flows today. Why have these flows changed so profoundly in the past hundred years? (Source: Population Reference Bureau.) PUSH-AND-PULL FACTORS Push-and-pull factors: Unfavorable, repelling conditions (push factors) and favorable, attractive conditions (pull factors) that interact to affect migration and other elements of diffusion. • Generally, push factors are the most central. • The most important factor prompting migration throughout human existence has been economic. DISEASES ON THE MOVE • Diseases move in spatially specific ways. • The spread of disease provides illustrations of both expansion and relocation diffusion. • Some diseases spread from person to person throughout an affected area, without regard for social status. • Some diseases spread in a hierarchical diffusion fashion, whereby only certain social strata are exposed – poor are often affected most. SPATIAL RESPONSES TO DISEASE • Isolation of infected people from the healthy population—quarantine—was/is practiced. • Another early spatial response was to flee the area where infection had occurred. • Targeted spatial strategies can be implemented once it is known that some diseases spread through specific means. FIGURE 3.19 Mapping disease. This map was constructed by London physician John Snow. Snow was skeptical of the notion that “bad air” somehow carried disease. He interviewed residents of the Soho neighborhood stricken by cholera to construct this map of cholera cases and used it to trace the outbreak to the contaminated Broad Street pump. Snow is considered to be a founder of modern epidemiology. (Source: Courtesy of the John Snow Archive.) 3.3 GLOBALIZATION POPULATION EXPLOSION? Population explosion: The rapid, accelerating increase in world population since about 1650 and especially since 1900. • The crucial element triggering this explosion has been a steep decline in the death rate, particularly for infants and children, in most of the world, without an accompanying universal decline in fertility. • Until very recently, the number of people in the world has been increasing geometrically, doubling in shorter and shorter periods of time. FIGURE 3.21 World population doubling timeline. This graph illustrates the everfaster doubling times of the world’s population. Whereas accumulating the first billion people took all of human history until about 1800 C.E., the next billion took slightly more than a century to add, the third billion took only 30 years, and the fourth took only 15 years. (Source: Adapted from Sustainablescale.org.) MALTHUSIAN THEORY • Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. • He believed that the human ability to multiply far exceeded our ability to increase food production. • Malthus regarded famine, disease, and war as the inevitable outcome of the human population’s outstripping the food supply. Malthusian: Those who hold the views of Thomas Malthus, who believed that overpopulation is the root cause of poverty, illness, and warfare. OVERPOPULATION OR MALDISTRIBUTION? • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels blamed poverty and starvation on the evils of capitalist society. • Are starvation, warfare, and disease more the result of maldistribution of the world’s wealth than of overpopulation? • Critics of Malthus and his modern-day followers point out that although the global population has doubled three times since Malthus wrote his essay, food supplies have doubled five times. CORNUCOPIANS AND NEO-MALTHUSIANS Cornucopians: Those who believe that science and technology can solve resource shortages. In this view, human beings are our greatest resource rather than a burden to be limited. Neo-Malthusians: Modern-day followers of Thomas Malthus – believe that Earth’s support systems are being strained beyond their capacity by the widespread adoption of wasteful Western lifestyles. THE RULE OF 72 • The doubling time of a population can be calculated using the Rule of 72: ❖A country’s rate of annual increase, as a percent, divided into the number 72 = number of years a population, growing at a given rate, will take to double. POPULATION CONTROL PROGRAMS • Most population control programs are devised and implemented at the national level. • Some governments support pronatalist programs designed to increase the population. • Most population programs are antinatalist: They seek to reduce fertility (e.g., China’s one-child policy). CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY • 1970s – China faced resource shortages as a result of its burgeoning population. • 1980 – The one-child-per-couple policy was adopted. • Violators face huge monetary fines, cannot request new housing, lose benefits provided to the elderly by the government, forfeit their children’s access to higher education, and may even lose their jobs. Late marriages are encouraged. FIGURE 3.23 China’s One Child Per Couple Policy. This Chinese billboard encourages families to use family planning in order to achieve the goal of one child per couple. (Iain Masterson/Alamy.) DID THE ONE-CHILD POLICY SUCCEED? • Between 1970 and 1980, the TFR in China fell from 5.9 births per woman to 2.7, then to 2.2 by 1990, 2.0 by 1994, 1.7 by 2007, and 1.5 by 2013. • Proved that cultural changes can be imposed from above, rather than waiting for them to diffuse organically. • In recent years, the program has been less rigidly enforced as economic growth has eroded the government’s control over the people. 3.4 NATURE–CULTURE ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE • Local population characteristics are often influenced by the availability of resources. • In the middle latitudes, population densities tend to be greatest where the terrain is level, the climate is mild and humid, the soil is fertile, mineral resources are abundant, and the sea is accessible. • Population tends to thin out with excessive elevation, aridity, coldness, ruggedness of terrain, and distance from the coast. ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES Adaptive strategies: The unique way in which each culture uses its particular physical environment. • Humankind has a general preference for: ❖ Humid tropical and subtropical climates ❖ Lower elevations ❖ Nearness to the sea. But … There are many exceptions. ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION • Perception of the physical environment plays a major role in a group’s decision about where to settle and live. • Different cultural groups often “see” the same physical environment in different ways … influences the distribution of people. • Sometimes the same cultural group changes its perception of an environment over time, with a resulting redistribution of its population. POPULATION DENSITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ALTERATION • People modify their habitats through their adaptive strategies, particularly in areas where population density is high. • Many of our adaptive strategies are not sustainable. Population pressures and local ecological crises are closely related. • A relatively small percentage of the Earth’s population controls much of the industrial technology and consumes a disproportionate percentage of the world’s resources each year. FIGURE 3.25 Aerial view of Hispaniola. The border between Haiti, on the left, and the Dominican Republic, to the right, is clearly demarcated by the absence of forest cover on the Haitian side. (James P. Blair/National Geographic Creative.) ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES Environmental refugees: People who are displaced from their homes due to severe environmental disruption. • Sometimes human adaptive strategies stress the natural environment past the breaking point and previous population densities can no longer be sustained … people are forced to migrate. • Sudden environmental disasters, such as floods, tornadoes, or forest fires, give rise to a massive human exodus from a destroyed place. FIGURE 3.29 Global climate change refugees. Climate change can lead to environmental hazards that make places uninhabitable. This map depicts the types of hazards that are likely to occur. People in the developing world are most likely to become environmental refugees, because climate change is coupled with the effects of poverty and war. 3.5 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE DIVERSE SETTLEMENT TYPES • Human settlements range in density. Farm villages: Clustered rural settlements of moderate size, inhabited by people who are engaged in farming. • Farm villages are the most common form of agricultural settlement in much of Europe, in many parts of Latin America, in densely settled farming regions of Asia, and among sedentary farming peoples of Africa and the Middle East. FIGURE 3.32 A truly isolated farmstead, in the Vesturland region of western Iceland. This type of rural settlement dominates almost all lands colonized by Europeans who migrated overseas. Iceland was settled by Norse Vikings a thousand years ago. (© Jay Dickman/Corbis.) LANDSCAPES AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE • Population change in a place can occur rapidly or more slowly over time. • Rapid depopulation can come about as the result of sudden catastrophic events, or depopulation can take place at a slower pace. • Populations can also grow in more or less rapid fashions. • Depopulation in one area and population increase in another are often linked processes. DEPOPULATION IN HISTORY • At the close of the 1st century C.E., Rome’s population surpassed 1 million. • In 330 C.E., the empire split into eastern and western halves. • Invasions further weakened the divided empire – physical and administrative infrastructure crumbled… • Rome’s population shrunk to around 20,000 by 550 C.E. BOGOTÁ RISING • Many of the world’s shantytowns exemplify the sort of chaotic landscape that can result from rapid population increases. • In Bogotá, the population influx comes mostly from people arriving after being displaced by armed conflict in the countryside. • Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) of any country in the world. FIGURE 3.35 Los Altos de Cazucá. This is a shantytown on the outskirts of Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá. Many of its approximately 50,000 residents are displaced people from other parts of the country. (imagebroker.net/SuperStock.) SHANTYTOWNS • Housing is constructed by the residents using found materials. • Basic services are often absent or severely lacking. • Hazards to children abound. • Over time, dwellings are constructed of morepermanent materials, roads are paved, running water installed, and power and phone lines are extended. 
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