FTCE Social Science 6-12 (037)

Human geography studies how humans interact with space, create places, and organize societies across Earth's surface.

Population distribution describes where people live. Population density measures people per unit area. Most humans live in mid-latitudes, coastal areas, river valleys, and lowlands. Major population clusters include East Asia, South Asia, Europe, and eastern North America.

Demography studies population characteristics using vital statistics. Crude birth rate measures births per 1,000 people annually. Crude death rate measures deaths per 1,000 people. Natural increase rate equals birth rate minus death rate. Total fertility rate measures average children per woman. Infant mortality rate measures deaths of infants under one year per 1,000 live births.

The demographic transition model describes population change through four stages. Stage 1: high birth and death rates, stable population (pre-industrial societies). Stage 2: high birth rate, declining death rate, rapid growth (early industrialization). Stage 3: declining birth rate, low death rate, slowing growth (mature industrial societies). Stage 4: low birth and death rates, stable or declining population (post-industrial societies). Some scholars identify Stage 5 with birth rates below replacement level.

Population pyramids graphically display age-sex structure. Expansive pyramids (wide base) indicate rapid growth. Constrictive pyramids (narrow base) indicate declining growth. Stationary pyramids indicate stable population. Age structure affects dependency ratios, workforce size, and social service needs.

Migration involves movement from one location to another. Push factors drive people from locations: war, persecution, economic hardship, environmental disasters. Pull factors attract people to destinations: economic opportunity, political freedom, family reunification, amenities. Ravenstein's laws of migration note that most migrants travel short distances, migration proceeds in steps, long-distance migrants prefer major destinations, and urban residents migrate less than rural populations.

Culture encompasses learned behaviors, beliefs, values, and material objects shared by a group. Cultural traits are individual elements; cultural complexes are related traits; cultural regions share multiple complexes.

Language is a fundamental cultural element. Language families share common ancestral languages. Indo-European is the largest family, including Romance, Germanic, Slavic, and Indo-Iranian branches. Sino-Tibetan includes Chinese languages. Lingua francas serve as common languages between groups; English functions as a global lingua franca. Dialects are regional variations within languages.

Religion shapes cultural landscapes and behaviors. Universalizing religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) actively seek converts. Ethnic religions (Hinduism, Judaism, Shintoism) are closely tied to particular ethnic groups or places. Religious landscapes include churches, mosques, temples, shrines, and pilgrimage sites. Secularization describes declining religious influence in public life.

Ethnicity refers to shared cultural heritage, ancestry, and identity. Race is a social construct based on perceived physical characteristics. Ethnic landscapes reflect group settlement patterns, including ethnic neighborhoods, cultural institutions, and symbolic markers. Ethnic conflict arises from competition for resources, historical grievances, nationalism, and discrimination.

Folk culture is traditional, practiced by small homogeneous groups, and transmitted orally across generations. Popular culture is mass-produced, rapidly changing, and spread through commercial media. Globalization diffuses popular culture worldwide while sometimes threatening folk cultures.

Cultural diffusion spreads ideas, practices, and innovations. Relocation diffusion occurs through migration. Expansion diffusion spreads outward from a source through contagious diffusion (person-to-person contact), hierarchical diffusion (through social or urban hierarchies), or stimulus diffusion (underlying concept spreads but takes new forms).

Urbanization is the process of population concentration in cities. The urbanization rate measures the percentage of population living in urban areas. Developed countries are highly urbanized (75–85%); developing countries are rapidly urbanizing.

Urban hierarchy ranks cities by population and function. Primate cities dominate national urban systems with populations far exceeding second-ranked cities (Paris, London, Mexico City). Rank-size rule describes systems where city populations are proportional to their rank.

Urban land use models describe internal city structure. The concentric zone model (Burgess) depicts cities as rings: central business district, zone of transition, working-class housing, middle-class housing, commuter zone. The sector model (Hoyt) shows wedge-shaped zones extending outward along transportation routes. The multiple nuclei model (Harris and Ullman) depicts specialized centers throughout metropolitan areas.

Central business districts (CBDs) concentrate commercial, financial, and administrative functions with high land values, tall buildings, and limited residential use. Residential zones segregate by income, ethnicity, and housing type. Industrial zones locate near transportation corridors.

Suburbanization involves population and economic activity moving from central cities to surrounding areas. Causes include automobile ownership, highway construction, federal housing policies, white flight, and preferences for larger homes. Consequences include urban sprawl, increased commuting, central city decline, and environmental impacts.

Edge cities are suburban concentrations of office, retail, and entertainment functions rivaling traditional downtowns. Gentrification involves middle-class residents renovating deteriorated inner-city neighborhoods, potentially displacing low-income residents. Urban renewal programs demolished substandard housing but often displaced communities.

Economic activities are classified by sector. Primary sector extracts natural resources (agriculture, mining, fishing, forestry). Secondary sector manufactures and processes goods. Tertiary sector provides services (retail, transportation, healthcare). Quaternary sector involves information processing, research, and management. Quinary sector includes high-level decision-making and policy.

Agriculture varies by intensity, technology, and purpose. Subsistence agriculture produces primarily for family consumption. Commercial agriculture produces for market sale. Intensive agriculture uses high labor or capital inputs per land unit. Extensive agriculture uses large land areas with low inputs per unit.

Von Thünen's model explains agricultural land use patterns around markets. Perishable and bulky products locate nearest markets; durable, transportable products locate farther away. Concentric rings include market gardening, dairy, field crops, and ranching. Transportation costs and land values determine zones.

Industrial location follows least-cost principles. Weber's model emphasizes minimizing transportation costs for raw materials and finished products, with labor costs and agglomeration as modifying factors. Industries are resource-oriented (locate near raw materials), market-oriented (locate near consumers), or footloose (flexible location).

Globalization integrates economies through trade, investment, and technology. Multinational corporations operate across borders, locating production where costs are lowest. Global commodity chains link producers and consumers worldwide. Outsourcing transfers business functions to external providers, often overseas. Consequences include economic growth, job displacement, cultural homogenization, and environmental concerns.

Development describes economic and social advancement. Gross domestic product (GDP) measures total economic output. Per capita GDP divides output by population. Human Development Index (HDI) combines income, education, and life expectancy measures. Development disparities exist between Global North (developed) and Global South (developing), and within countries by region, class, and ethnicity.