Chapter 3 Population Geography - W.H. Freeman

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Population Geography on the Internet 111 compare the use of space by that professor. Is it different from the behavior of the professors in large lecture halls? Under what circumstances, if any, do your professors get close to students, and how close do they get? Step 2: How close can you get to friends? Strike up a conversation with a same-gender friend standing next to you. Discreetly move closer and closer to your friend until he or she moves away or says something about your proximity. How much space separated you when this happened? What do you think would happen if you tried this with a stranger? With a friend or a stranger of a different gender? With a friend or a stranger from a different culture? Step 3: Discuss your findings. Did all your classmates have similar experiences, or were your findings notably different? Are all students in your class from similar economic or ethnic backgrounds? If not, that may explain some of the differences that emerge. There has been some talk lately about the future of the everhuger “McMansions” and sprawling suburban developments that for several decades have characterized middle-class life in the United States. Clearly, both waste resources. McMansions are expensive to heat and cool, and their landscaping is often out-of-step with the local environment. Living in a suburb often means commuting long distances to jobs or school, in cars occupied by just one or two people. But think, too, about the proxemics involved and consider these questions: Key Terms • Is there such a thing as too much space? • Do you know or have you heard of people who have opted out of living large in the ’burbs? Why do you think they made this decision? • In what ways do planners and architects take culturally diverse preferences about personal space into account when they design cities, streets, buildings, homes, and classrooms? carrying capacity p. 74 cornucopians p. 100 demographic transition p. 77 depopulation p. 106 Eurocentric p. 79 farmstead p. 105 farm villages p. 105 gender roles p. 86 geodemography p. 71 infant mortality rate p. 88 Malthusian p. 100 neo-Malthusians p. 101 population density p. 72 population explosion p. 99 population geography p. 71 population pyramid p. 84 proxemics p. 112 push-and-pull factors p. 96 refugees p. 96 sex ratio p. 85 total fertility rate (TFR) p. 75 zero population growth p. 75 Population Geography on the Internet You can learn more about population geography on the Internet at the following web sites: Population Reference Bureau, Inc., Washington, D.C. http:// www.prb.org This organization is concerned principally with overpopulation and standard of living. The “World Population Data Sheet” provides up-to-date basic demographic information at a glance, and the “Datafinder” section has a wealth of images on all aspects of global population for use in presentations and reports. Some of the maps in this chapter were adapted from PRB maps. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees http:// www.unhcr.org This United Nations web site provides basic information about refugee situations worldwide. The site includes regularly updated maps showing refugee locations and populations as well as photos of refugee life. U.S. Census Bureau Population Clocks http:// www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html Check real-time figures here for the population of the United States and the population of the world. The main web site, http://www.census.gov, hosts the most important and comprehensive data sets available on the U.S. population. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland http:// www.who.int/en Learn about the group that distributes information on health, mortality, and epidemics as it seeks to improve health conditions around the globe. The “Global Health Atlas” allows you to create detailed maps from WHO data. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C. http:// www.worldwatch.org This organization is concerned with the ecological consequences of overpopulation and the wasteful use of resources. It seeks sustainable ways to support the world’s population and brings attention to ecological crises.
112 Chapter 3 Population Geography seeing geography Street in Kolkata, India Would you feel comfortable walking here? If not, why not? A street scene in the large city of Kolkata, India. Do you need your “personal space”? Most Americans and Canadians do. If so, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, is a place you might want to avoid. West Bengal state, where Kolkata is located, has the highest population density in the country. Why do people form such dense clusters? The theme of cultural interaction would tell us of push factors that encourage people to leave their farms and move to the city. Some can no longer make a living or feed their families with the food provided by the tiny plots of land they work. Others are forced off the land by landlords who want to convert their farms to use mechanized Western methods of agriculture that use far less labor (see Chapter 8). But cultural interaction also tells us of pull factors exerted by cities such as Kolkata—the hope or promise of betterpaying jobs, the encouragement of friends and relatives who came to the city earlier, or the greater availability of government services. And so, pushed and pulled, they come to the teeming, overcrowded city, to jostle and elbow their way through the streets. But it is not only cities in the developing world that become so dense. If you have ever visited, or lived in, Manhattan, New York, you are all too familiar with dense crowds of people. In fact, there are some who grow up in these environments and find that the relative solitude of rural areas verges on terrifying. They prefer the bustle of activity and the sounds of the city, and they feel at home in a crowd. Being a woman is another reason that you might feel uncomfortable in this Kolkata street environment. Notice the nearly complete absence of women in this crowd. Many societies have strict norms that dictate where women, and men, may and may not go. Harassment or even violence may be the result of violating these norms. The study of the size and shape of people’s envelopes of personal space is called proxemics. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall, whose book The Hidden Dimension is listed in Ten Recommended Books proxemics The study of the size and shape of people’s envelopes of personal space. on Population Geography at the end of the chapter, is the founder of this science. Urban planners, architects, psychologists, and sociologists, as well as geographers, use proxemics to explain why some people need more space than others and how this varies culturally. Sources Coclanis, Peter. 2010. “Russia’s Demographic Crisis and Gloomy Future,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 19 February, pp. B9 – B11. de Macgregor, María T. de Gutiérrez. 1984. “Population Geography in Mexico,” in John J. Clarke (ed.), Geography and Population. Oxford: Pergamon. D’Emilio, Frances. 2004. “Italy’s Seniors Finding Comfort with Strangers,” Miami Herald, 30 October, pp. 1A–2A. Gould, Peter. 1993. The Slow Plague: A Geography of the AIDS Pandemic. Oxford: Blackwell. Hooper, Edward. 1999. The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS. Boston: Little, Brown. Malthus, Thomas R. 1989 [1798]. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Patricia James (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paul, Bimal K. 1994. “AIDS in Asia.” Geographical Review 84: 367–379.
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