Chapter 6 Lecture

Human Geography: Places and

Regions in Global Context
Sixth Edition

Interpreting Places and

Landscapes
Wendy A. Mitteager
State University of New York, Oneonta

Key Concepts

Relationships between people and space

Environmental behavior
Territoriality
Cognitive images
Landscapes
Sacred spaces
Place-making
Modernity

Figure: Chapter 6 Opener The Vietnam Veteran Memorial illustrates the

power of landscape to affect us

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Behavior, Knowledge, and Human

Environments
Interdependence
between people
and places
Understanding
environmental
perception and
knowledge
Cindi Katz

Figure 6.1 Conflicting environmental

perceptions in California
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Behavior, Knowledge, and Human

Environments, (contd)

Figure 6.2 A Shepard's map, drawn by a 10-year-old Sudanese

boy, illustrating his detailed environmental knowledge
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Place-Making
Places are socially
constructed
Territoriality
Proxemics
Insiders and
Outsiders
Figure 6.3 Graffiti as territorial markers

Apply your knowledge: Describe the relationship between

ethology and territoriality. Evaluate examples that you experience in
everyday life of proxemics as a territorializing force.
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Place-Making, (contd)
Cognitive images
Paths, edges,
districts, nodes,
landmarks
Distortions

Figure 6.5 Cognitive image of Boston

Apply your knowledge: Use the five elements to map out your
image of the college campus.
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Place-Making, (contd)

Figur6

Figure 6.6 Images of Los Angeles as seen by residents

of different communities.
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Place-Making, (contd)

Figure 6.7 Preference map of the U.S. held by a group of Virginia Tech students, based on
the perceived attractiveness of cities and states as places to live.
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Landscapes as Human Systems

Derelict landscapes
Ordinary landscapes
Humanistic approach
in geography

Figure 6.10 Vulgaria: size and

ostentation are the dominant
factors in upscale
U.S. residential development
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Landscapes as Human Systems, (contd)

Figure 6.8 Some cities are

immediately recognizable because of
their famous landmarks.
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Landscapes as Human Systems, (contd)

Figure 6.9 These ordinary landscapes in New England and Middle America have become
symbolic of the U.S.
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Coded Spaces
Landscape as text
Semiotics
Commercial spaces
Palaces of consumption

Sacred spaces

Figure 6.13 Sacred sites of Hindu India

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Coded Spaces, (contd)

Figure 6.12 Angor Wat, Cambodia is a sacred

space for Buddhists

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Figure 6.15 Points of origin of European

group-organized pilgrims to Lourdes in 1978

Jerusalem, the Holy City

Figure 6.A Map of Jerusalem

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Figure 6.B Dome of the Rock

Place and Space in Modern Society

Modernity
Emphasizes reason, scientific rationality, creativity,
novelty, and progress

Figure 6.17 Modernized rural landscape, U.K.

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Figure 6.16 Modernist urban landscape, an

office district in Paris

Globalization and Place-Making

Spread of Modernity to peripheral regions
Cyberspace
With its own landscape

Commonalities of a shared, global

consciousness

Figure 6.18 The slow city movement, a

grassroots response to globalization,
supports slow food.
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Cyberspace and Social Networking

Figure 6.D How people share content

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Figure 6.F

Cyberspace and Social Networking, (contd)

Figure 6.C Estimated number of worldwide

users of social networks

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Figure 6.G Number of Facebook

users compared to populations of
selected countries

Waldkirch, Germany

Figure 6.H The heart of the town is

the Marktplatz, which dates from the
early Middle Ages.
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Figure 6.J The Slow City movement in Waldkirch

allows for social bonds to develop among pedestrians.

Places as Objects of Consumption

Culture industries
Advertising strategies

Visual and experiential

consumption
Heritage industry

Figure 6.19 Las Vegas showcases historic

settings based mostly on stereotypes

Apply your knowledge: Compare and contrast modernity and

postmodernity. Give specific examples of each.
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Places as Objects of Consumption, (contd)

Figure 6.20 Thames Town in Shanghai,

China combines commercial, residential, and
cultural elements

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Figure 6.21 Consumption in style at the Bed

Restaurant, Florida

Future Geographies
Homogenization of culture
Cosmopolitanism

Figure 6.22 The McDonalds Buddha seated in

lotus position in Shanghai, China was removed
within one month due to criticism. In 2005, a less
controversial version was introduced around
Thailand without much objection.
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End of Chapter 6

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