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Geo Factsheetwww.curriculum-press.co.uk Number 350

Specialised Concepts in Geography - Part 2This is the second of two articles which explore the specialised concepts integral to the new 2016 GCE Geography.In total there are 14 of them: • Causality.• Systems.• Equilibrium.• Feedback.• Inequality.• Representation.• Identity.• Globalisation.• Interdependence.• Mitigation and adaptation.• Sustainability.• Risk.• Resilience.• Thresholds.

• The specialised concepts run across much of the content in the new A Levels and AS Levels, and students will be expected to have a goodunderstanding of all of them, and in different contexts.

• Questions, for example, may include specialised concepts, or students may be expected to use their knowledge and understanding of theideas when developing arguments within a synoptic answer.

• Remember that the specialised concepts are included in the revised GCEs because of their relevance to 21st century geography and itsassociated themes. They are the “language” that is used by both professional geographers and academics.

• In this Factsheet, the concepts will have stronger links to environmental and human geography.

Mitigation and AdaptationMitigation: the procedures, options and policies to reduce loss of life, infrastructure, and property damage, by lessening the spatial / temporal impact of disasters.Adaptation: seeks to lower the risks posed by the consequences by using different technologies, processes, policies etc., to “live with it”. Adaptive capacity is highly variable and often linked to economic resources and the nature of existing physical constraints.

These are concepts that cut across many areas of both physical and human geographies and are often applied to topics such as climate change and global warming as well as hazard and disaster management. The terms may also be applied in human geography contexts, for example, mitigation against an external economic impact or threat. It is important to recognise the key differences between mitigation and adaptation.

Table 1. Mitigation vs. Adaptation: examples of key differences in a climate change context.

MitigationTrying to cut / manage cause rather than deal with the effects.

AdaptationLiving with the problem and challenges through adjustment of human systems.

• Carbon capture and storage from power stations.• Re-afforestation.• Encourage the use of more sustainable transport. • Capturing landfill gas (methane and CO2).• Reducing methane emissions from the intensification

of cattle farming.

• Constructing better sea defences to cope with stormsurges and rising sea levels.

• Using air conditioning to deal with hotter temperatures• Developing and adopting drought and disease

resistant crops.• Using better-integrated catchment management to

reduce the impacts of river flooding.

Throughout history, people and societies have adjusted to and coped with social, economic, and environmental changes with varying degrees of success. The scale and pace of climate change, however, presents a particular problem for many regions of the world. Africa is likely to experience serious social and economic impacts of climate change. Should the continent mitigate or adapt?

Probably it cannot mitigate (itself) because its contribution to the global warming problem is very small compared to most other parts of the world. Africa will have to rely on other nations ‘doing the right thing’, i.e. reducing their greenhouse emissions.

This means Africa will need to adapt to meet the climate challenge – no small task given that it is already the poorest continent with limited financial resources. Much of the adaptation will need to be bottom-up, small-scale, and local. This will help build community resilience to cope with climate change.

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Specialised Concepts in Geography (2)

Compound stress on water resources facing significant strain from over-exploitation and degradation at present demand in the future. Drought stress exacerbated in drought-prone regions of Africa (high confidence).

• •

• Sustainable urban development.

Present

Near-term(2030-2040)Long-term(2080-2100)

Verylow

2oc

2oc

4oc

4oc

Veryhigh

Medium

Present

Near-term(2030-2040)Long-term(2080-2100)

•

•

• Strengthening institution at local, national, and regional levels to support agriculture (including early warningsystems) and gender-oriented policy.

• Agronomic adaptation responses (e.g. agroforestry, conservation agriculture).

Reduced crop productivity associated with heat and drought stress,with strong adverse effects on regional, national and household livelihood and food security, also given increased pest and disease damage and flood impacts on food system infrastructure (high confidence).

Africa

Level of risk & potential for adaptation

Key risk Adaptation issues & prospects

Climate-related drivers of impacts

Climaticdrivers

Timeframe Risk & potential for adaptation

potential for additionaladaptation to reduce the risk

Risk level withcurrent adaptation

Risk level withhigh adaptation

OCO OCO

Warmingtrend

Extremetemperature

Dryingtrend

Extremeprecipitation Precipitation Snow

coverDamaging

cycloneSealevel

Oceanacidification

Carbon dioxidefertilisation

Globalisation Globalisation: “The growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through increasing volume and variety of cross border transactions in goods and services, freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology” (IMF – International Monetary Foundation).

In simple terms, globalisation is the process by which different scaled economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through the global network of trade, communication, immigration and transportation.

Globalisation really needs to be seen as a process, caused by a number of factors, producing outcomes and issues, winners and losers. Table 2 provides a useful starting point in the understanding of globalisation. A key feature of globalisation is the rise in global networks. Networks create connections and connections bring a range of advantages. Global networks come in a variety of forms:• Business and Trade – physical and financial flows.• Communication networks – the internet being the clearest example.• Transport networks – air travel and container / bulk shipping.• Production networks – particularly those of TNCs.• Political networks – especially those that focus on economic / trade ties.• Demographic networks – flows of people.

Table 2. Drivers, processes and outcomes of globalisation

Drivers (causal factors) Processes Outcomes (effects)

• Communication technology• Transport technology• Global businesses (TNCs)• Removal of trade barriers

• Global shift of industry to the developing world

• Increased connectivity• Increased flows (people, money,

goods)• Shrinkage of space-time• Glocalisation

• Increased consumer choice• Gain in jobs and opportunity in some

areas, losses in others• Poverty reduction• Exploitation / sweatshops• Brain drains (and gains)• Global brands (+ local adaptations)

Spatially there are centres of globalisation or global hubs. Global hubs are ‘cores’ that demonstrate a number of powerful connections to the rest of the world.Hubs tend to be places of increasingly diverse populations resulting from demographic flows, as well as flows of finance, trade and ideas which move towards them. Many global hubs contain highly educated, highly mobile people – some of whom are part of the global elite. Hubs attract migrants due to their economic success.

Figure 1. Climate change risks and adaptation issues for drought and crop yield in Africa

Reducing non-climate stressors on water resources. Strengthening institutional capacities for demand management, groundwater assessment, integrated water-wastewater planning, and integrated water governance.

Technological adaptation (e.g. stress-tolerant crop varieties, irrigation, enhanced observation systems). Enhancing smallholder access to credit and other critical production resources; diversifying livelihoods.

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Table 3. Global mega-hubs and global hubs

Global mega-hubs – World Cities Global hubs

• London – global financial centre, world’s busiest international airports; 23 Global 500 companies.

• New York - global financial centre, 24 Global 500 companies, home of UN.

• Tokyo - global financial centre, 52 Global 500 companies.

• Dubai – increasingly a bridge between the East and West, and a rich person’s playground.

• Bangalore – a secondary IT and software hub, with dozens of TNCs present.

• Singapore – the world’s busiest port in terms of tonnage shipped.

• Shanghai – at the centre of the Chinese FTZ / EPZ system.

There are other aspects of globalisation that are often relevant to the process. These include the assessments of “winners” and “losers”. For example, globalisation has led to a significant shift in manufacturing towards Asia, especially China.

China might be seen as globalisation’s ‘success story’. This success has been driven by the growth in manufacturing industry especially in China’s export processing zones and free trade zones. Yet in 2016 there are worries about the slowdown in China's economy as some manufacturing is now moving either back to home countries (re-shoring) or to other cheaper economies. Are these workers winners? They are better off than in the rural areas they came from, but their wages are low and their jobs are dull and hard. There is no suggestion that Foxconn workers, for example, are ill-treated or exploited, but would you want their jobs?

So, globalisation is one of the most complex core concepts with a number of interconnected themes and ideas (Figure 2). It is difficult to summarise in a single, simple definition. It is a dynamic process, changing over time and from place to place. Also remember that it has an environmental, economic, and socio-cultural downside, and that there are many groups protesting against this.

InterdependenceThe recognition that our world is not, in reality, composed of individual nation-states operating in an international system, with a clear-cut distinction between the domestic, political life of states and the international arena. As Giddens (1990) put it, we now live in a world characterised by an “intensification of worldwide social relations [linking] distant realities in such a way that local events are shaped by events occurring many miles away, and vice versa.”

Global governance is struggling to keep up with the pace and extent of economic globalisation, capital and trade flows, illegal and legal migration of people, and technological change.

Economic Social Environmental

The 20th century saw big increases in global trade and investment. Economic interdependence therefore includes: ICT, telecommunications, low-cost air travel and shipping, plus structural integration of production and marketing. Global company growth is significant, with cross-continental mergers with global scale media firms, banks, car manufacturers, etc., as well as global brand names, especially in electronics. Global financial markets and trade are now very fast and global in character.

This includes cultural interpenetration and integration (homogenisation). There are strong links to American / Western TV, films, music, sport, food, clothes, cars, etc. Advertising is now a globalised industry, but still has its roots a few countries (even though it may be a global ad campaign). Social interdependence also includes the global labour market and social media (and the links between, e.g., LinkedIn), plus easier movement of people and capital to different markets and locations.

For much of the C19th & C20th conservation and environmental concerns were essentially local in both origin and spread, e.g., pollution of a lake or river. Now many issues are at a continental or international scale and they have been gradually developing for decades if not longer. In terms of environmental degradation, usually there are no recognised international political borders. Pollution movement for example by air, water, food chains etc is complex, plus there is the issue of “Tragedy of the Commons” in respect of many environmental challenges, plus a north vs south divide.

Interdependence in recent years plays out especially between countries as a result of financial flows. Economists speak of “contagions” (drops in share and asset prices) spreading uncontrollably, rather like a disease which is out of control and cannot be stopped at political boundaries.

Resources are unevenly distributed across the surface of the Earth, and no one country has all the resources it needs. Therefore, each country must trade with others, resulting in a world of global economic interdependence—an exchange between “producers” (those who have, produce, or manufacture goods) and “consumers” (those who purchase or use the goods). Global economic interdependence has grown exponentially in the span of a generation, as a result of great technological progress and associated policies that were aimed at opening national economies internally and externally to global competition. Table 4 shows the different social, economic, and environmental aspects of interdependence.

Table 4. The social, economic and environmental aspects of interdependence.

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Figure 2. A slowdown in China’s economy

Inequality: When people, nations, and non-state actors / players / stakeholders (ranging from TNCs to international agencies) have different levels of authority, competence and outcomes. Some organisations and interests are more dominant than others. This can be evident itself in at least two ways – imaginatively and materially. The latter is the easiest way to see inequality.

Inequality operates on a range of scales and in very different places and contexts. Inequality is about unevenness in terms of resources, power, and access to opportunity. Inequality creates envy and unfairness, and in some instances can lead to conflict. Governments may wish to intervene to protect the least well-off by redistributing resources from rich to poor, whether through providing transfers (benefits) or through different types of taxation. However, there will never be a society in which every individual receives exactly the same level of income. One big question is how much inequality is acceptable to a society, and how far the individuals and governments should intervene in order to pursue equity. Table 5, for example, shows one element of inequality at a global scale: internet usage (2014).

Table 5. World internet usage by region. (2014)

World region Population (millions)

% of population with access to the internet

Growth of internet usage 2000-14 (%)

Proportion of world users of the internet (%)

Africa 1136 26.5 6499 9.8Asia 4096 34.7 1113 45.7Europe 741 70.5 454 19.2Middle East 255 48.3 3304 3.7North America 353 87.7 187 10.2Latin America 618 52.3 1673 10.5Oceania 39 72.9 252 0.9World 7238 42.3 741 100

A slowdown in China’s economy has ripple effects around the world due to the interconnectivity of the global economy and the Chinese economy.You cannot separate interdependence and globalisation as the processes are heavily interlinked and mutually dependent.

Inequality

Inequality is complex to measure. The most widely used summary measure of inequality in the distribution of household income is the Gini coefficient. The lower its value, the more equally household income is distributed. It is a measure of the overall extent to which these groupings of households, from the bottom of the income distribution upwards, receive less than an equal share of income (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Different types of inequality, as shown by the Gini coefficient

Perfect Equality Unequal More Unequal Total Inequality

cumulative% population

% o

f inc

ome

cumulative% population

cumulative% population

cumulative% population

0% 100%0% 100%0% 100%0%0%

100%

100%

Representation and identityRepresentation concerns the (cultural) practices by which societies and places interpret and portray the world around them and present themselves to others.Identity is about ways in which people connect to various places, and the effects of such bonds in identity development, place-making, perception, and practice. It’s to do with belonging, meaning, and attachment, at a very personalised level.

Representation embraces a number of ideas so that it is not simple to provide a single, full, and complete definition. Nevertheless, representation is a significant and weighty idea. Places have been described or represented for centuries in art, books, poetry, and other forms of literature. These contribute to a “sense of place”, i.e. a largely qualitative interpretation of representation.

There is much written about the meanings of place representation and several theories have been developed. They range from place description based on observational fieldwork to hermeneutics which is a richer, more imaginative approach based on written texts. Representation includes the social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects of a location. It is highly influenced by historical, cultural and political actions.

So representation is highly personal and often contradictory; it can change over time and from different perspectives (see Figures 4a and 4b). Yet this representation is very important for places, especially those which need visitors and inward investors, for instance, to portray a positive atmosphere.

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Figures 4a and 4b.

Wax Celebs

HughGrant Shops

RoughShops

Parks

ErosCinema

Shops andclowns

Church

Poshshops

Big BenDinosaurs

SustainabilityThe influential 1987 Brundtland Report defines sustainable development as meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

This is major concept cutting across many areas of geography and other related disciplines. Yet a recent study found that there were 500 different attempts in literature to define sustainable development.

So sustainability has to be seen as an evolving and developing concept. Table 6 gives two alternative views of sustainability which contrast with the widely used 1987 Brundtland definition.

Table 6. Two alternative definitions of sustainability

A strategy for sustainable development in the UK. DETR (1999)

Sir Crispin Ticknell (2000)– former Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Panel

Definition “A better quality of life for everyone, now and for future generations to come.”

“Treating the Earth as if we intended to stay there.”

Comment It clearly expresses the importance of intergenerational equity and links together: social progress, effective environmental protection, plus high levels of economic growth and employment.

Its effectiveness perhaps lies in its simple appeal for humanity not to damage its own environment.

Sustainability usually involves consideration of ecological, socio-cultural, economic and sometimes political factors. Figure 6 presents a useful diagram illustrating the “Circle of sustainability”, which is a method for understanding and assessing sustainability, and for managing projects directed towards socially sustainable outcomes, especially in urban environments. Importantly, the circle represents a practical way of assessing and monitoring issues of sustainability while providing guidance for project development. Note the inclusion of the political element. You may also be familiar with the stool of sustainability or sustainability quadrant.Figure 6. Circle of sustainability

Source: Wikimedia commons, Saint George IV

Two contrasting representations of the Chain Bridge, Budapest, Hungary. Which one is unlikely to feature in the tourist brochure? Nowadays places are often represented in films and social media as well as photographs. Perhaps one of the strongest ways of illustrating the power of the written word combined with imagery is in the advertising, such as the material produced by tourist boards and agencies. Advertising depends on the combination of visual and written ideas and particularly on the real and/or imaginary settings in which places are described and shown. This concept is not new. In the early 20th century railway companies produced many posters to advertise faraway places which were accessible by train. There is considerable overlap between representation and identity. Identity includes a range of personal characteristics such as gender, sexuality, race and religion. Identity, therefore, is formed in relation to others. We become aware of who we are through a sense of shared identity with others (such as speaking the same language, or shar ing the same political views), and by a process of setting ourselves apart from those we consider different from ourselves. Identity can also have a degree of fluidity or flux. With time, our identities may change as, for example, our social class changes. Identities change, as does our sense of belonging, as features of both the human and non-human environment change. Identity can also extend to places as well as people, and the interaction of the two (Figure 5). This blends the ideas of both identity, belonging, and representation. See if you can name the areas.

Figure 5. How a visitor might see aspects of London three tube lines

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There are several critics of sustainability who suggest that it remains a flawed concept. They give a number of reasons:1. New technology will lead to less energy consumption and waste, therefore would should not overly worry about the future.

2. Sustainable development is an idea developed by the rich “north” to entice developing nations to subscribe to their environmental agendaat the expense of development.

3. The concept of sustainability is defined by different people and organisations in different ways so there is no universal acceptance of itsreal meaning.

4. Some TNCs and other organisations have hijacked the idea to either sell more products, or claim (sometimes falsely) that their products arebetter for the environment than a competitor's.

5. Sustainable development should not be utilised at the cost of limiting improvements in the quality of life for some poorer people in the world.

ConclusionsA knowledge and understanding of this specialised terminology are not only important in terms of the written exams, but it may also present an opportunity in terms of GCE Geography fieldwork (NEA – Non-Examined-Assessment). There are many examples of project focuses which lend themselves to using this terminology. It also has the potential to add a modern and more professional focus to your fieldwork and research.

Top tip for further research:As you work through your course, always make a note when you come across one of the fourteen terms. It will help with building synopticity.

Acknowledgements: This Geo Factsheet was researched and written by David Holmes, a former teacher who works as a geography consultant and author. He has a particular interest in technology and fieldwork. He can be contacted on david@david-holmes-geography.co.uk. This Factsheet was published in September 2016 by Curriculum Press, Bank House, 105 King Street, Wellington, TF1 1NU. Geo Factsheets may be copied free of charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any other means, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISSN 1351-5136