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Definition
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Vocab Word or Phrase
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A two-dimensional model of the Earth’s surface, or a portion of it.
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Map
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The science of mapmaking.
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Cartography
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The process of capturing images of Earth’s surface from airborne platforms such as satellites or airplanes. |
Remote Sensing
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The system that accurately determines the precise position of something on Earth via satellites and receivers. |
Global Positioning System
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A computer system that captures, stores, analyzes and displays geographic data. |
Geographic Information System
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Types of information displayed in a map.
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Layers
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The practice of combing layers on a map.
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Mashups
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Data associated with a humanistic approach to geography.
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Qualitative Data
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Data associated with mathematical models and statistical techniques.
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Quantitative Data
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The distance north or south of the equator.
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Latitude
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An imaginary line that circles the globe exactly halfway between the poles.
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Equator
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The distance east or west from the Prime Meridian.
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Longitude
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An imaginary line that runs from pole to pole through Greenwich, England.
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Prime Meridian
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An inset on a map that explains what the colors or symbols used mean and what the scale of the map is. |
Map Key/Legend
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The ratio between the size of things in the real world and the size of things on the map. |
Map Scale
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The name given to a place on Earth.
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Toponym
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The description of where something is in relation to other things.
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Relative Location
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The precise place where something etching is found.
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Absolute Location
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The distance between two points, measured using metrics like time, effort, or cost. |
Relative Distance
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The distance between two points, communicated using precise quantitative units of measurement. |
Absolute Distance
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Direction based on a person’s surroundings and perception.
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Relative Direction
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Directions according to a compass.
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Absolute Direction
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How often or how much something occurs within a space.
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Density
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Where something occurs within a space,
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Distribution
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The theory that the interaction between two places decreases as the distance between them increases. |
Distance Decay
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The reduction in the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as the result of improved communication and transportation technologies. |
Time-Space Compression
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Maps designed for people to refer to for general information about places.
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Reference Map
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Maps that show spatial aspects of information or a type of phenomenon.
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Thematic Map
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Maps that show human-created boundaries and designations, such as countries, states, cities and capitals. |
Political Map
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Maps that show natural features, such as mountains, rivers, and deserts.
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Physical Map
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Maps that show highways, streets, and alleys.
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Road Map
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Maps that show property lines and details of land ownership.
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Plat Map
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Illustrations used in books and advertisements to show specific locations mentioned in the text. |
Locator Map
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Maps that use colors, shades, or patterns to show the location and distributions of spatial data. |
Chloropleth Map
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Maps used to show the specific location and distribution of something, with each dot representing a specific quantity. |
Dot Distribution Map
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Maps that use symbols of different sizes to indicate different amounts of something. Larger sizes indicate more of something and smaller sizes indicate less. |
Graduated Symbol Map
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Maps that use lines that connect points of equal value to depict variations in data. Distance between the lines indicates a change. |
Isoline Map
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Maps showing points of elevation.
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Topographic Map
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Maps where the size of places are shown according to some specific statistic.
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Cartograms
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The process geographers use to divide and categorize space into smaller units.
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Regionalization
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An area defined by one or more common and distinctive traits, characteristics, or features that make it different from surrounding areas. |
Region
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An area defined by official boundaries, that is created on the basis of one or more shared characteristics. |
Formal Region
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An area organized around a node or focal point and defined by an activity that occurs across the region. |
Functional Region
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A term that applies to a surrounding area served by an urban center.
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Hinterland
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An era that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.
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Perceptual Region
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Maps that people create in their own minds based on their own experience and knowledge. |
Mental Map
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A geographic approach that emphasizes human-environment relationships.
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Cultural Ecology
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Materials from nature that have value to humans and can be used to meet their needs. |
Natural Resources
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Use of the Earth’s resources in ways that ensure their availability for future generations to use. |
Sustainability
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A philosophy that states that human behaviors and culture are a direct result of the surrounding environment. |
Environmental Determinism
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The theory that the environmental conditions of a place can limit its culture but that culture is primarily determined by social conditions. |
Possibilism
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The study of human populations.
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Demography
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The number of people per unit of area.
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Population Density
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The pattern of where people live,
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Population Distribution
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People who study the demographics of human populations.
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Demographers
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Statistical data relating to the population and groups within it.
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Demogroahics
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An age-sex composition graph that can provide information on birth rates, death rates, life expectancy, economic development, migration, and past events like natural disasters, wars, epidemics, etc. |
Population Pyramid
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A slowdown of births, often occurring during times of conflict, economic downturn, or cultural shifts. |
Birth Deficit
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A spike in birth rates, typically occurring after a period of war.
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Baby Boom
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The end of a baby boom, lasting until boomers reach childbearing age.
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Baby Bust
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A spike in birth rates once baby boomers have reached childbearing age.
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Echo
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The number of live births per year for every 1000 people.
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Crude Birth Rate
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The number of deaths per year for every 1000 people.
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Crude Death Rate
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The difference between the CBR and CDR; A statistic that estimates the population growth of a country, not including population loss or gain due to migration. |
Natural Increase Rate
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A measurement of how long a country will take to double its population, based on its NIR. |
Doubling Time
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The average number of children born per woman.
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Total Fertlity Rate
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A measure of the number of babies who die before their first birthday for every 1000 births. |
Infant Mortality Rate
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The average number of years a person can be expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions. |
Life Expectancy
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A model of the 5 typical stages of population change that countries pass through as they modernize. |
Demographic Transition Model
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Predictable stages in disease an life expectancy that countries experience as they develop. |
Epidemiological Transition Model
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Society is on the path to mass starvation. Food production will increase but so will population-and faster. So, people should limit the number of children they have. |
Malthusian Theory
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People who have adopted Malthus’ ideas to modern conditions and believe overpopulation is a threat to the future and must be controlled. |
Neo-Malthusian
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The percentage of people within a population who are either too young or too old to work and must therefore be supported by working adults within the population. |
Dependency Ratio
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Programs aimed to increase the fertility rate of a place.
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Pronatalist Policy
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Programs aimed to decrease the fertility rate of a place.
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Antinatalist Policy
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The permanent or semipermanent relocation of people from one place to another.
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Migration
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To move to a country from somewhere else.
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Immigrate
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To move away from a country to somewhere else.
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Emigrate
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The permanent or semipermanent movement of individuals within a country.
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Internal Migration
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The permanent or semipermanent movement of individuals between countries.
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Transnational Migration
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A type of migration where people do not choose to relocate, but do so under threat of violence. |
Forced Migration
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A condition in which one person is owned or controlled by another.
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Slavery
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A person forced to migrate to another country to avoid the effects of armed conflict, violence, violation of human rights, or other disasters, and cannot return to their home country for fear of persecution. |
Refugee
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Someone who has migrated to another country in hoped of being admitted and recognized as a refugee. |
Asylum Seeker
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Someone forced to migrate for similar reasons as a refugee but who does not move across an international border. |
Internally Displaced Person
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Migration done by choice.
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Voluntary Migration
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Migration in which individuals follow the migration path of preceding friends or family members to an existing community. |
Chain Migration
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A process in which people reach their eventual destination through a series of smaller moves. |
Step Migration
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A person with temporary permission to immigrate and work in another country.
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Guest Worker
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Seasonal immigration that pastoral herders make with their animals based on the availability of food. |
Transhumance Migration
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Negative circumstances, events, or conditions present where someone lives that make them want to leave. |
Push Factor
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Positive conditions and circumstances that draw people to choose a destination.
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Pull Factor
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Barriers that make it difficult for migrants to reach their desired destination.
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Intervening Obstacle
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Something that causes a migrant to choose a destination, other than the one they originally intended. |
Intervening Opportunity
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A set of 11 laws proposed by Ernst Ravenstein in 1885 describe what immigrants move, how they move, and their characteristics. |
Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration
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The difference between the number of immigrant and the number of emigrants in a place in a year. |
Net Migration Rate
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The immigrants entering or leaving a place during a given period of time.
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Migration Flow
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A person who enters a country without the proper documentation or permission.
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Unauthorized Immigrant
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Process to control immigration that bars individuals of certain backgrounds and gives preference to other s who have traits that are viewed favorably. |
Selective Immigration
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A law that limits the number of prospective immigrants who can be admitted into a country every year. |
Immigration Quota
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Money sent from a foreign worker to friends and family in their country of origin.
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Remittance
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Emigration of skilled workers to other countries.
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Brain Drain
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The material and immaterial ways of life of a particular group of people.
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Culture
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The building blocks of culture. Visible and invisible attributes that combine to make up a group’s culture. |
Cultural Trait
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Tangible objects created by a culture.
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Artifact
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The ways in which a culture behaves and organizes institutions.
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Sociofact
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The ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture.
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Mentifacf
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Agreed upon cultural practices or standards that guide the behavior of a culture.
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Cultural Norm
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Behaviors heavily discouraged by a culture.
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Cultural Taboo
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The belief that one’s own culture or ethnic group is superior to others, judging other groups through the lens of one’s own culture. |
Ethnocentrism
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The principle that an individual human’s belief and actions should be understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture. |
Cultural Relativism
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An area where civilization began that radiated its customs, innovations, and ideologies and transformed the world. |
Cultural Hearth
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A large segment of the Earth with uniformity in cultural characteristics.
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Cultural Realm
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The process by which an innovation or idea spreads from one place to another over time. |
Diffusion
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The place where an innovation/idea originated.
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Hearth
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A person who is responsible for creating the idea or innovation and initiating the diffusion process. |
Innovator
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A person who accepts or receives the idea or innovation.
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Adopter
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Diffusion where one person spreads an idea/innovation to multiple people and then those people spread it to multiple people, and so on, and so forth. |
Contagious Diffusion
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The spread of an idea/innovation from one key person or node of authority/power to other persons/places with less power/authority. |
Hierarchical Diffusion
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Hen something spreads but is changed by the people who adopt the idea/innovation.
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Stimulus Diffusion
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The spread of an idea/innovation through the physical movement of people.
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Relocation Diffusion
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The reduction of the time it takes to diffuse something to a distant place, as a result of improved communication and transportation technologies. |
Time-Space Convergence
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When two cultures become more similar the more they interact.
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Cultural Convergence
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Cultures become less alike over time because of physical and cultural barriers.
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Cultural Divergence
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The spread of cultural traits or ideas by means other than people.
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Expansion Diffusion
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The process in which people within one culture adopt some of the traits of another while still retaining their own distinct culture, |
Acculturation
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A category of acculturation in which one group adopts almost all of the customs, traditions, language and other cultural traits of the other. |
Assimilation
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A type of acculturation in which traits from two or more cultures blend to form a new custom, idea, value, or practice. |
Syncretism
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Diverse cultures coexist within a shared space.
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Multiculturalism
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Culture that is traditionally practiced by small, homogenous groups living in isolated rural areas. |
Folk Culture
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Culture found in large, heterogenous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics. |
Popular Cultire
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The structures within the physical landscape caused by human activities.
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Cultural Landscape
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A group of people that has a common ancestry or culture.
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Ethnicity
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Relatively small, ethnically homogenous areas situated within a larger and more diverse cultural context. |
Ethnic Enclave
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The role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by prevailing cultural norms. |
Gender Role
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Areas in which particular genders, and particular types of gender expression, are considered welcome or appropriate, and other types are are unwelcome or inappropriate. |
Gendered Space
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An area set aside by the government for the exclusive use of indigenous peoples.
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Indigenous Reservation
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The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape. |
Sequent Occupancy
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The belief in and worship of one God.
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Monotheistic
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The belief in and worship of more than one God.
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Polytheistic
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Religions that consist and rituals handed down from one generation to the next. They do not attempt to appeal to all people, just one group within one place or one ethnicity. |
Ethnic Religion
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Religions that offer belief systems that re attractive to a universal population. They actively seek new members, will accept anyone and have diverse membership. |
Universalizing Religion
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The first group to establish cultural and religious customs in a place.
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Charter Group
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When people of one culture or religious group are dispersed to various locations.
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Diaspora
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A person sent on a religious mission, usually to convert people to their faith.
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Missionary
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The belief commonly found in Ethnic African religions that natural obejects and events have spirits. |
Animism
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The separation of religion from social affairs.
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Secularism
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A form of government in which a deity of some kind is viewed as the ultimate authority.
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Theocracy
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A type of religious movement characterized by strict conformity to a religious text.
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Fundamentalism
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People who study languages.
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Linguist
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A collection of languages related through a common ancestry that existed long before recorded history. |
Language Family
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A collection of languages within a family, related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago. |
Language Branch
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A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display many similarities in grammar and vocabulary. |
Language Group
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A language designated by a country as the one used by the government for laws, reports, and public objects. |
Official Language
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A regional variation of a language distinguished by unique vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling. |
Dialect
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The standard form of British English pronunciation.
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Received Pronunciation
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Word usage boundaries determined by data collected directly from people.
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Isogloss
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A simplified form of a language that allows speakers of two different languages to communicate. |
Pidgin Language
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A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer’s language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. |
Creole/Creolized Language
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A language of international communication.
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Lingua Franca
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A language unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family,
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Isolated Language
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A language in danger of becoming extinct.
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Endangered Language
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A language that is no longer spoken or used in daily activities by anyone in the world.
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Extinct Language
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A language that was once extinct but has come back into daily use.
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Revived Language
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Favoring those born in a country over immigrants.
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Nativism
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The forced removal of a major ethnic group from a territory.
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Ethnic Cleansing
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The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular cultural or ethnic group, with the aim of destroying that group. |
Genocide
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In international relations, the formal term for a country.
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State
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The power of political unit to govern itself.
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Sovereignty
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A small sovereign state made up of a city and its surrounding area.
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City State
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A group of people who share a common cultural heritage and have the desire to express their self-determination. |
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A singular nation of people who fulfill the qualifications of a state.
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Nation-State
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A state that contains more than one nation.
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Multinational State
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A defined area within a state that has a high degree of self-government and freedom from its parent state. |
Autonomous Region
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Cultural groups that have no independent political entity of their own.
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Stateless Nation
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When a nation has a state of its own but also stretches across the borders of other states.
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Multi-State Nation
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A willingness by one person or a group of people to defend the space they claim.
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Territoriality
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The ability of a state to decide its own future.
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Self-Determination
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A variety of ways of influencing another country or group of people, by direct conquest, economic control, or cultural dominance. |
Imperialism
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A particular type of imperialism in which people move into and settle on the land of another country. |
Colonialism
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Representatives of the major European Empires met in Berlin in 1884-1885 to lay out claims on the continent of Africa. These claims were used to form the state boundaries in Africa that largely still exist today. |
Berlin Conference
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When colonized nations won their independence from colonizing forces.
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Decolonization
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A period of diplomatic, political, and military rivalry between the U.S. and USSR that started at the end of WWII and continued until the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. |
Cold War
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When one state is dominated another, politically and economically.
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Satellite State
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The study of effects of geography on politics and relations among states.
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Geopolitics
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States are born and need nourishment and living space to survive, which they get by annexing territory from weaker states. |
Organic Theory
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Land-based power is essential in achieving global domination. Controlling the Heartland would lead to domination of the Rimland and command of the entire world. |
Heartland Theory
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Power is derived from controlling strategic maritime areas of the world. However controls of the world. |
Rimland Theory
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A form of imperialism where more powerful states exert indirect control over less powerful ones. |
Neocolonialism
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A region that suffers instability because it’s caught between two powers that do not get along. |
Shatterbelt
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A strategic strait or canal which is narrow, hard to pass through, and has competition for use.
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Choke Point
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A country where governmental authority is shared among a central government and various other smaller regional authorities. |
Federal State
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A country when governmental authority is held primarily by the central government.
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Unitary State
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A nation’s desire to create and maintain a state of its own.
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Nationalism
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A force that unites people together, often leading to the creation or strengthening of states.
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Centripetal Force
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A force that tends to break states apart or prevent them from forming.
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Centrifugal Force
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The transfer of political power from the central government to lower, subnational levels of government. |
Devolution
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When peoples’ primary allegiance is to a traditional group or ethnicity, rather than to the state.
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Subnationalism
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Annexation of another state’s territory on the basis of shared culture, history, or ethnicity.
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Irredentism
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A process in which one more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes or eliminates another to form a homogenous state. |
Ethnic Cleansing
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Organized violence, usually for a political goal.
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Terrorism
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The breaking of a states into smaller, often hostile, states along ethno-linguistic lines.
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Balkanization
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The integration of markets, states, communication & trade on a worldwide scale, the process by which goods, services, money, people, information, and ideas flow across international borders and a trend towards greater economic, cultural, political, and technological interdependence among national governments and economies |
Globalization
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Companies that conduct business on a global scale.
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Transnational Corporation
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The transition form absolute governments to more representative forms of politics
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Democratization
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An organization of 3+ countries that join together for their mutual benefit.
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Supranational Organization
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A boundary based on natural physical features that separate entities.
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Natural Boundary
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A boundary that is a straight line that does not account for natural features.
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Geometric Boundary
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A boundary drawn before a large population was present.
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Antecedent Boundary
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A boundary drawn to accommodate religious, ethnic, linguistic, or economic differences.
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Subsequent Boundary
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A boundary that no longer functions but evidence of it still exists on the landscape.
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Relic Boundary
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A boundary drawn by outside powers.
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Superimposed Boundary
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A boundary established by a legal document, such as a treaty, that divides one entity from another. |
Defined Boundary
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A boundary drawn on a map to show the limits of a space.
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Delimited Boundary
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A boundary identified by physical objects placed on the landscape.
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Demarcated Boundary
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A boundary enforced by a government or group, using laws, immigration regulations, and prosecution. |
Administered Boundary
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Disputes that occur when parties disagree over how to interpret legal documents or maps that identify where a boundary is located. |
Definitional Boundary Dispute
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Disputes that occur when parties disagree about where boundary should be located.
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Locational Boundary Dispute
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Disputes that occur when parties disagree about how a boundary should function.
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Operational Boundary Dispute
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Disputes that occur when a boundary separates natural resources that may be useful to both parties. |
Allocational Boundary Dispute
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The process by which humans alter the landscape in order to raise crops and livestock for consumption and trade. |
Agriculture
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The origin of farming, marked by the first domestication of plants and animals.
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First (Neolithic) Agricultural Revolution
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Raising plant and animals for human use.
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Domestication
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When farmers consume the crops that they grow and raise.
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Subsistence Farming
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The global movement of plants and animals between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas following the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. |
Columbian Exchange
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Beginning in the 1700’s, the advances of the Industrial Revolution were used to increase food supply and support population growth. |
Second Agricultural Revolution
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A set of changes in technology that dramatically increased manufacturing productivity, reshaping how people worked, behaved and where they lived. |
Industrial Revolution
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A series of laws enacted by the British Government that enabled landowners to purchase and enclose land for their own use that had previously been common land used by peasant farmers. |
Enclosure Acts
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Farming in which farmers focus on raising one specific crop to sell for profit.
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Commercial Farming
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Beginning in the 1960’s, it was the third agricultural revolution which involved the development of better and more efficient farming equipment and practices that led to increased production around the world. |
Green Revolution
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The process of breeding together two plants that have desirable characteristics.
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Seed Hybridization
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Produced when humans use engineering techniques to change the DNA of a seed.
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Genetically Modified Organism
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Agriculture that involves greater inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the space being used. |
Intensive Farming
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Agriculture that uses fewer inputs of capital and paid labor relative to the amount of space being used. |
Extensive Farming
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Farming involving moving planting from one field to another, clearing the land by burning the vegetation. |
Shifting Cultivation
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The movement of herds of animals to different pastures within a territory.
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Pastoral Nomadism
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Large commercial farming specializing in one crop.
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Plantation Farming
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An integrated system where the crops grown are used to feed the livestock on the same farm.
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Mixed Crop/Livestock Farming
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Growing of grains, primarily wheat, for the consumption of people.
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Grain Farming
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Growing of fruits and vegetables, primarily for the purpose of freezing and canning.
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Market Gardening
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Raising cattle for the purpose of harvesting milk.
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Dairy Farming
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Agriculture practiced in regions with hot dry summers and mild winters, narrow valleys, and simple vegetation systems. |
Mediterranean Agriculture
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The commercial grazing of animals confined to a specific area.
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Livestock Ranching
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The distribution of houses, farms, villages, towns, and cities in an area.
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Settlement Pattern
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A rural settlement pattern where homes and farm buildings are located close together, with farmland surrounding them. |
Clustered Settlement
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A rural settlement pattern characterized by isolated farms rather than clustered villages.
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Dispersed Settlemnet
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A rural settlement pattern in which farms are clustered along a road with fields behind them.
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Linear Settlement
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A study performed to locate, describe, and map the boundaries of a plot of land.
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Land Survey
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A rural survey method where land is divided into parcels based on features of the landscape, distance, and direction. |
Metes and Bounds
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A rural survey method where land is divided using lines of latitude and longitude, resulting in a grid pattern. |
Township and Range
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A rural survey method where land is divided into long, narrow, lots that run perpendicular to a river, road, or canal. |
Long Lot
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An economic model that suggested a pattern for the types of products farmers would produce relative to the market where they sold their goods. |
Von Thünen’s Land Use Model
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A geographical economic theory that explains that price and demand for real estate decreases as the distance from the city center increases. |
Bid Rent Theory
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The integration of various steps of production in the food-processing industry.
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Agribusiness
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A process used by corporations to gather resources, transform them into goods, and then transport them to customers. |
Commodity Chain
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The cost advantage experienced by a company when it increases its level of output.
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Economy of Scale
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Food produced without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or other unnatural processes. |
Organic Food
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Agriculture where community members can buy a share of a farm or a subscription to receive a share if the crops. |
Community-Supported Agriculture
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Trade between companies in developed countries and producers in developing countries that tries to sure farmers are paid a fair wage. |
Fair Trade
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Crops that have some other product added to them to make them unique and able to sell at a higher price. |
Value-Added Specialty Crop
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Crops grown for profit rather than to feed the population.
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Luxury Crop
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Access by all people at all times to enough food to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
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Food Security
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A community where there is no access to fresh, healthy, affordable food options because there is a lack of grocery stores of farmers’ markets. |
Food Desert
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The practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around towns or cities.
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Urban Agriculture
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Plots of land used for growing food that are farmed collectively and used to benefit the whole community. |
Community Gardens
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Planting and harvesting on the same parcel of land twice a year.
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Double Cropping
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When farmers grow two or more crops simultaneously on the same field.
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Intercropping
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When humans build a series of steps into the side of a hill, creating flat surfaces for the purpose of agriculture. |
Terrace Farming
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Specializing in one crop.
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Monoculture
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The process of diverting water from its natural course or location to help grow crops.
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Irrigation
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When water evaporates quickly, leaving salt residue behind.
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Soil Salinization
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Excessive grazing in an area to the point that the land becomes permanently damaged.
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Overgrazing
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When soil loses its ability to support land growth and is much more easily eroded by wind or water. |
Soil Degradation
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The transition of land from fertile to desert.
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Desertification
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Farming where all vegetation from an area is cut down and burned in place.
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Slash-and-Burn Agriculture
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The removal of large tracts of forest.
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Deforestation
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Chemicals sprayed on crops to ward off or kill any insects or animals that might try to eat them.
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Pesticide
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Any substance added to soil to increase its productivity.
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Fertilizer
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A place where livestock are fed and fattened up.
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Feedlot
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The practice of raising and harvesting fish or other forms of food that live in water.
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Aquaculture
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The permanently inhabited portion of the Earth’s surface.
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Ecumene
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The ongoing process of developing towns and cities.
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Urbanization
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A place with a permanent human population.
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Settlement
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Proportion of population that lives in cities as compared to rural areas.
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Percent Urban
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A model developed by geographer John Borchert that describes urban growth based on transportation technology. |
Borchert’s Model of Urban Growth
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A place where there is a relative concentration of people.
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City
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A city and adjacent areas across which population density is high and continuous.
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Metropolitan Area
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A chain of interconnected cities.
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Megalopolis
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Cities with 10 million or more people.
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Megacity
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A city with a population of over 20 million people.
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Metacity
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A city that exerts influence far beyond its national boundaries.
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World City
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The process of people moving, usually from cities, to residential areas on the outskirts of cities.
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Suburbanization
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Large, fast+growing suburbs.
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Boomburb
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A suburb that grows to the point that it develops it own economic core and can exist independently of the city it borders. |
Edge City
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When people move from urban to rural areas.
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Counter-Urbanization
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Wealthy commuter communities located beyond the suburbs.
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Exurbs
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An interdependent set of cities within a region.
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Urban System
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The population of a city or town will be inversely proportional to its rank in the urban hierarchy.
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Rank-Size Rule
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If the largest city in an urban system is more than twice as large as the next largest city, the largest city is said to have primacy. |
Primate Cities Rule
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A location where people go to receive goods and services.
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Central Place
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The size of population necessary for any particular service to exist and remain profitable.
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Threshold
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The distance people will travel to obtain specific goods or services.
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Range
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The physical layout of a city.
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Urban Morphology
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The idea that zones/regions of an urban area have specific and distinct purposes.
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Functional Zonation
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The commercial heart of a city.
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Central Business District
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The basic organizational structures and facilities need in order to operate.
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Infrastructure
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When poverty is persistent and people become accustomed to it.
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Culture of Poverty
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The process by which banks refused loans to those who wanted to purchase/improve properties in certain urban areas. |
Redlining
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The change in the use of a house from a single-family home to rented units in a multifamily dwelling to eventual abandonment. |
Filtering
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Deterioration of an urban area due to neglect or age.
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Urban Decay
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Regions of the city that have declined so much that they have been abandoned by owners and renters. |
Zone of Abandonment
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Housing built on land that people do not have a right to settle on.
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Squatter Settlement
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The poorest parts of cities that are not connected to city services and are often controlled by gangs. |
Disamenity Zone
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A district of a city marked by extreme poverty and inferior living conditions.
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Slum
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The condition of not having a permanent place to live.
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Homelessness
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Renovating a site by removing the existing landscape and building from the ground up.
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Urban Redevelopment
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Laws allowing the government to seize land for public use after paying owners market value.
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Eminent Domain
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The process of wealthier residents moving into a neighborhood, renovating properties, and making it unaffordable for existing residents. |
Gentrification
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When people of one ethnic group are frightened into selling their homes at low prices when they hear a family of another race or ethnicity is moving in. |
Blockbusting
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Walled or fenced neighborhoods with limited access.
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Gated Community
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The portion of the economy that is not taxed, regulated, or managed by the government.
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Informal Economy
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Streets lined with tall buildings that can channel and intensify wind and prevent natural sunlight from reaching the ground. |
Urban Canyon
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A portion of a city that is warmer than surrounding areas due to the concentration of buildings.
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Urban Heat Island
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The rapid spread of development outward from the inner city.
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Urban Sprawl
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An abandoned industrial property that has the potential to be a hazard or pollutant.
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Brownfield
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The process of building up underused lands within a city.
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Urban Infill
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A set of policies aimed to preserve farmland and other open, undeveloped spaces near a city.
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Smart Growth
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Areas of undeveloped land around an urban area.
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Greenbelt
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A movement in urban planning that emerged in the 1990s with goals including reducing urban sprawl, increasing affordable housing, and creating livable neighborhoods. |
New Urbanism
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Neighborhoods with a mix of residential and commercial buildings.
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Mixed-Use Neighborhood
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Urban planning designed to maximize access to public transport.
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Transportation-Oriented Development
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A type of industry in which the production of goods and services is based in homes, not factories.
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Cottage Industry
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A means of mass production based on the assembly line method.
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Fordism
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A production system in which companies have replaced workers with machines to allow for faster and varied production. |
Post-Fordism
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A reduction in the size of the manufacturing industry and industrial capacity of a place.
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Deindustrialization
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The spatial grouping of businesses in order to share costs.
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Agglomeration
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A location where goods are transferred from one means of transportation to another.
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Break of Bulk Point
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The location decision for a factory being dependent upon the location of other locations.
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Locational Interdependence
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A business that can pack up and leave for a new location quickly and easily.
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Footloose Business
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Offices for an executive branch of workers, usually located in somewhere highly visible and expensive. |
Front Office
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Cheaper office spaces typically for non-executive employees, linked to the front office via technology,so they don’t have to be nearby. |
Back Office
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When companies locate their back offices in other countries due to a lower cost of operation.
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Offshoring
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Industries that locate close major training institutions.
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Labor-Oriented Industry
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Contracting work out to non-company employees or other companies.
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Outsourcing
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Trade that occurs when parties have goods or services that the other wants.
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Complemetarity
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The idea that a country should specialize producing products for export that they hold an advantage in producing. |
Comparative Advantage
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An economic strategy that calls for markets, free trade, and minimal government intervention in the economy. |
Neoliberalism
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Groups of countries that agree to a common stet of trade agreements,
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Trading Bloc
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A term used to describe a country whose level of economic development ranks it somewhere between developing and highly developed countries. |
Newly Industrialized Country
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A system of employment in the various eccomic sectors spread throughout the world.
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New International Division of Labor
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Areas in which business/trade laws are different from other parts of the country.
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Special Economic Zone
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Spaces within a country where special regulations benefit foreign-controlled businesses.
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Export Processing Zone
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When a change in spending or investment causes a larger change in output.
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Multiplier Effect
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The spatial grouping of businesses in order to share costs.
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Agglomeration
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A method of manufacturing where materials are sent to a factory moments before they are needed.
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Just-In-Time Delivery
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The US region hit hardest by deindustrialization.
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Rust Belt
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Concentration of technically advanced industries that stimulate economic development in the businesses that are connected to those industries. |
Growth Pole
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Possible downsides of growth poles.
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Backwash Effect
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The congregation of office buildings on a landscape.
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Corporate Park/Business Park
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A process of change in society as it seeks to meet the needs of its people.
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Development
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The total value of goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a year.
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Gross Domestic Product
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The total value of goods and services produced by the citizens and corporations of a country in a given year. |
Gross National Product
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Measure of the worth of what is produced within a country plus income received from investments outside the country in a year. |
Gross National Income
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A measurement of the distribution of income within a population.
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Gini Coefficient
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A composite index measuring gender disparity.
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Gender Inequality Index
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A measure of development that combines one economic measure (GNI per capita) with several social measures, such as high life expectancy and average education level. |
Human Development Index
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Any economic development that meets the current needs of people without making it harder for people in the future to live well. |
Sustainable Development
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Programs that provide small loans to entrepreneurs shou would not normally qualify for credit from traditional sources. |
Microfinance Program
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Tourism involving responsible travel to natural areas, conserving the environment, and supporting the local population. |
Ecotourism
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A development model proposed by economist Walt Rostow in 1960 that describes the shift from traditional to modern forms of society. |
Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth
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An alternative view to Rostow’s model proposed by historian Immanuel Wallerstein in the 1970s that included political and economic elements and proposed that countries do not exist in isolation, but are part of an interdependent system. |
Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory
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