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 Douglas College policy. 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.