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How Does Geography Affect Culture: Discover The Cultural Differences

• September 10, 2021 September 10, 2021

Culture is largely shaped by geography, by the topographical features of the landscape, the climate, and the natural resources. Geography shapes how cultures interact with each other, what they need for food, shelter, and clothing, and how they choose to express themselves. So, how does geography affect culture? In this article, we will discuss in brief.

Our world is full of unique cultures. Geography has played a big role in how different regions of the world develop their culture. It is important to note that it isn’t just geography that affects culture but also other factors such as religion, personality, languages, and society.

How Does Geography Affect Culture?

What is the impact of geography on culture, why geography is the key to understanding culture, what are the different types of cultural differences, personality, cultural preferences, education influence, religion influence, ethics and values, social organization, conclusion: how does geography affect culture.

Geography is one of the reasons why different cultures are different. For example, global differences are often attributed to geography.

Cultures can be affected by geography to a certain extent. Geography has a huge impact on the day to day life of every individual, no matter which culture they belong to or where they live.

Geographic regions also have an impact on the types of products that are being made, what kinds of jobs people have available, and how people use their money.

Geography is one of the key factors that contribute to the culture. For example, location has an impact on how people behave, what they eat, and how they dress.

People in Japan are obsessed with cleanliness compared to people in China. This is due to the difference in culture and religion between these two countries.

China has set up a variety of different provinces separated by climate and geography because different lifestyles thrive in different areas. Diversity can really help spread ideas and traditions, such as with their many languages and customs.

Likewise, people in Europe have a different sense of time than Americans or Africans because of their different geography.

The geographical location has led to some major changes in the way people have lived their lives – for example , Africa was home to many diverse cultures before colonization, but after colonization, it became a single country with one main language.

The geography of a country and the similarities and differences of its people and customs can help you to understand its culture.

Geography is important in understanding the culture of a country. There are many cultures that might be different from your own, but understanding geography can help you to understand these differences.

Geography provides context for the customs, traditions, and values of a certain place.

For example, if you want to know how people in another country view marriage, just look at their marriage traditions and see if they vary from your own.

In general, cultural differences can be defined as the ways in which a society’s norms and values differ from those of other societies. They can also be described as the different sets of shared beliefs, practices, symbols, and artefacts that constitute a culture.

There are different types of cultural differences depending on what is being discussed. These include ecological, economic, ethnic and religious cultural differences.

The Main Factors Which Influence Culture?

Now, We will discuss the main factors which influence culture and how these influences have changed over time. It is important to note that some factors have influenced society while others have influenced culture.

Personality is a personal characteristic that can be seen as an individual’s distinctive ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality also influences culture.

An example of a culture influenced by personality would be the United States. The United States has a unique personality shaped by its people and their unique personalities.

The greater impact of personality on culture can be illustrated by the development of different types of cultures.

For instance, the American culture has focused on individualism and rational thinking while China’s cultures prefer tradition, social harmony and collectivism.

Culture is a set of shared behaviours and ideas that are learned and transmitted through social interactions.

People from different cultures have different preferences, such as what to eat, what type of food to cook, what type of clothes to wear. These preferences are influenced by the environment in which they live, such as family upbringing and society.

This is because people prefer certain things that they think their parents or friends will approve of them doing or wearing. This is called cultural preference and it can be seen as influencing culture.

A study demonstrates that Americans are more likely to prefer individualism than Europeans. However, Europeans show more interest in building community than Americans do.

A language is an important tool that humans use for communicating in a society. It is also an important part of culture and identity.

Language is a way to express an idea, a concept or a feeling. Languages can also create cultural boundaries and influences on what is considered appropriate or not.

The history of education has shown that it has a deep influence on culture.

It was influenced by various factors such as the rise of religion, the expansion of trade, and the spread of literacy. Education is an influential thing for people to follow.

The study supports the theory that human beings are social animals who need to be around people with similar cultures to survive.

Children are often raised in areas where there are many other people from different cultures. These children are taught to stay within their own culture, so it’s easy for them to identify with their own group rather than outsiders.

Religion has a profound impact on culture. 

Religion and culture have a long history of co-existing. It is not only about the religious beliefs and religious practices, but also about the social and economic impacts religion has on culture.

The rise of Christianity in the Western world created a foundation for the current secular society. In fact, it was Christian ideals that were the foundation for the Enlightenment as well as its subsequent revolutions.

Ethics and values are crucial to maintaining a healthy, effective, secure society. These values are embedded in culture and guide the actions of its members.

In many ways, culture is the reflection of the values and ethics that society upholds. From how we communicate to how we interact, these core beliefs shape our entire view of life.

There are many factors that influence the cultural values of a society, but the social organization is one of the most important.

For example , in Western culture, individuals are entitled to their own personal freedoms. This includes freedom of speech and religion. On the other hand, in East Asian culture, people are encouraged to act as a collective unit with strong family ties.

It is no surprise that we have a lot of cultural differences. We all have our own unique way of life and we tend to interact differently with other cultures than we interact with our own culture.

The people from different countries bring in many new ideas and ways of life that we could never imagine or experience if it wasn’t for them. They are able to bring a new perspective to the culture that they are living in because they are not used to living in the same way as us, which leads to many changes in their society.

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How to Write a Geography Essay that Transcends Borders

Have you ever found yourself floating effortlessly in the Dead Sea, that magical stretch of water between Israel and Jordan? It's the saltiest lake globally, turning you into a buoyant bobber without much effort. Now, just as geography unveils such fascinating quirks about our planet, writing an essay on this subject can be an equally intriguing venture.

Let's take a stroll through the world of geography essays together. We'll start by figuring out what exactly makes up a geography essay definition and then dive into the secrets of writing a great one. Along the way, we'll share some helpful tips, break down the important parts, and talk about why geography matters in today's world. Whether you're a student trying to do well in your geography class or just curious about why geography is important, this article is here for you. Let's get started!

Ready to Turn Your Passion for Places into an Epic Essay?

Geography geek or not, we've got your back. Let us craft your custom essay that's as intriguing as it is insightful!

Essential Factors When Writing a Geography Essay

A great essay comes from a good understanding of the topic. Let's share some tips to help you create an impressive essay.

• Stick to What You Know : Pick geography topics that you're familiar with.
• Think Global : Show how your chosen topic connects to bigger issues like climate change or cultural diversity.
• Grab Attention : Choose a topic that interests you and your readers.
• Show with Examples : Use real examples to explain geography concepts in your essay.
• Stay on Track : Make sure everything in your essay relates to the main message.
• Use Sources : Share your thoughts based on what reliable sources say.
• Make it Real : Describe landscapes in a way that brings them to life for your readers.

In the next parts, our skilled writers, who you can buy essay from, will share a simple guide to help you write essays successfully!

Exploring What Is a Geography Essay

In simple terms, a geography essay is a well-organized explanation of geographic topics and ideas. It's more than just listing facts—it's a chance for you to showcase what you understand about geographical principles, processes, and their real-world impacts.

• Keep it Focused : Your essay should revolve around a specific topic or question in geography. This focus helps you stay on track and make your writing clear and relevant.
• Grasp the Concepts : Geography essays should include important geographical ideas like spatial relationships, scale, location, and interactions. These concepts give you the tools to understand and explain the world.
• Use Data : Geography relies on data and evidence. Bring in facts, maps, visuals, and statistics to support your points and show geographical patterns.
• Think Critically : A good essay doesn't just share information; it digs into the details. Explore the nuances, root causes, and broader impacts to give a deeper insight. ‍
• Connect to Reality: These essays often link theory with real-world issues. Whether you're talking about global warming, urbanization, cultural landscapes, or geopolitical shifts, these essays show why geography matters in our interconnected world.

How to Start a Geography Essay

Starting your essay in the right way not only grabs your readers' attention but also sets the stage for a well-organized and interesting exploration of your selected geography research paper topics .

• Establish the Geography : Kick-off by placing your topic in a geographic context. Explain where and why this topic matters, considering both local and global perspectives.
• Spark Interest : Draw your readers in by asking a thought-provoking question or sharing a surprising statistic related to your geography essay topics.
• Give Background Info : Provide a quick overview of the subject to make sure your readers have the basic knowledge needed to follow your arguments.
• Include a Quote : Think about using a fitting quote from a well-known geographer, researcher, or historical figure to add depth and credibility to your introduction.
• Set the Tone : Decide on the tone of your essay—whether it's informative, analytical, or persuasive—and let that tone shine through in your introductory language and style.

Select a Subject You're Comfortable Discussing

Picking the right research paper topic in geography is a big deal—it can really shape how the whole writing journey goes. One smart move to kick off your research paper well is to go for a subject you genuinely feel comfortable talking about. Here's why it matters:

• Expertise Shines : When your research paper topic matches what you already know and enjoy, your expertise shines through. You can use what you know to analyze and explain the subject better.
• Stay Motivated : Choosing a topic that genuinely interests you, like doing a geography essay about earthquakes, can be a great source of motivation. This inner drive helps you stay engaged during the whole research and writing process, leading to a better end result.
• Research Efficiency : Knowing your topic makes the research process smoother. You know where to find good sources, what keywords to use, and how to tell if information is reliable.
• Confident Analysis : Understanding your topic well, say, when dealing with a geography essay about global warming, gives you confidence. This confidence comes through in your analysis, making it more convincing.
• Boosted Creativity : Being comfortable with your topic can boost your creativity. You're more likely to come up with new ideas and unique perspectives when you're discussing something you're familiar with.

Let's explore a range of research topics that provide plenty of chances for thorough investigation and analysis. Feel free to choose the one that aligns with your interests and fits the particular focus of your research.

• Microclimates in Urban Spaces: Analyzing Local Community Impacts
• Geopolitics of Water Scarcity: Transboundary Water Conflict Case Study
• Ecotourism in Unexplored Territories: Balancing Conservation and Development
• Digital Cartography's Influence on Public Perception of Geographic Information
• Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Sustainable Resource Management
• Urban Heat Islands: Assessing Heat-Related Risks in Growing Cities
• Climate Change Impact on Traditional Agricultural Practices in Vulnerable Regions
• Geography of Infectious Diseases: Spatial Analysis of Disease Spread
• Patterns of Renewable Energy Adoption: A Global Comparative Study
• Cultural Landscapes in Transition: Globalization's Impact on Local Identities

Geography Essay Example

For a closer look at how to structure and compose an effective geography essay, we've put together a compelling example for your review. As you go through it, you'll discover the essential elements that contribute to making an essay both informative and engaging.

Exploring the Impact of River Dams on Ecosystems

Introduction:

Rivers are the lifeblood of many ecosystems, shaping landscapes and sustaining diverse forms of life. This essay delves into the intricate relationship between river dams and ecosystems, aiming to unravel the multifaceted consequences that altering natural watercourses can bring. By examining case studies and ecological principles, we seek to shed light on the complex web of interactions that define the impact of river dams on the environment.

River dams significantly modify the natural flow of water, creating reservoirs and altering the hydrological patterns downstream. This transformation often leads to changes in habitat availability for aquatic species. Case studies from various dam projects will be explored to illustrate the tangible effects on biodiversity and ecosystem structure.

Furthermore, many fish species rely on river systems for migration and spawning. Dams can present barriers to these natural processes, affecting fish populations and, consequently, the predators and prey in the broader food web. This section will examine how dams disrupt fish migration and explore potential mitigation strategies to minimize ecological consequences.

What's more, the alteration of river flow caused by dams influences water quality and sediment transport downstream. Sediment accumulation in reservoirs can have cascading effects on aquatic ecosystems. This part of the essay will delve into scientific studies highlighting changes in water quality and sedimentation patterns due to dam construction.

Beyond the ecological realm, the construction of river dams often has social and economic repercussions. Local communities dependent on rivers for their livelihoods may face challenges due to altered water regimes. Investigating case studies, we will explore the human dimension of the impact of river dams on communities and economies.

Conclusion:

In summary, the complex interplay between river dams and ecosystems demands thoughtful reflection. This essay has offered a glimpse into the diverse outcomes that come with changing natural watercourses, underscoring the importance of a comprehensive grasp of the ecological, social, and economic aspects at play. By delving into the intricate realm of river dam impacts, we acquire valuable insights into the nuanced equilibrium between human progress and environmental sustainability.

How to Write a Geography Essay: Insights and Pointers

When it comes to writing geography essays, it's not just about throwing out facts and figures. It's about digging deeper into geographical ideas, understanding how things relate, and sharing your findings in a way that makes sense. Our paper writing service experts are here to give you some handy tips:

• Dig Deep with Research: Start by really getting into your topic. Collect data, look at maps, and read up on what others have to say about it.
• Sort Your Thoughts: Organize your essay so it's easy to follow. That usually means having an intro, some main parts, and a wrap-up at the end. Keep it logical.
• Think and Talk Analysis: Get into the nitty-gritty of your analysis. Use geography ideas to explain your data and give your own take on things.
• Show Your Proof: Back up what you're saying with proof. Throw in maps, charts, or stories to make your points and show patterns.
• Question Everything: Think hard about different opinions and what your findings might mean in the big picture. Don't be afraid to question things and see where it takes you.

Breaking Down the Geography Essay Structure

A well-formatted geography essay structure is like a well-organized map – it guides readers through your analysis with clarity and purpose. To effectively break down the structure, consider the following key insights:

• Geographical Essence: Always consider the geographical context when framing your essay format . How does the landscape influence the subject, and in turn, how does it fit into the broader global narrative?
• Tailored Tone for Audience: Reflect on your audience. Are you speaking to geography enthusiasts, educators, policymakers, or the general public? Adjust your language and explanations to match their level of familiarity and interest.
• Conciseness and Wordplay: Maintain clarity by adhering to word limits and embracing conciseness. Focus on delivering pertinent information with a touch of engaging wordplay to captivate your readers.
• Innovative Perspectives: Aim for innovation in your analysis. While leveraging existing research, offer a fresh viewpoint or a unique twist on the topic to keep your essay from blending into the background.
• Ethical Dimensions: If your research involves human subjects, sensitive data, or fieldwork, be conscientious of ethical considerations. Seek necessary approvals, ensuring that your research adheres to ethical standards.
• Geographic Fluency: Demonstrate a keen grasp of geographic fluency in your essay. Showcase not just knowledge of concepts but an understanding of the interconnectedness of regions, adding depth to your exploration.
• Visual Appeal: Consider incorporating visual elements such as maps, charts, or images to enhance your essay's visual appeal. A well-chosen visual can often communicate complex geographical information more effectively.
• Future Implications: Extend your analysis to contemplate the future implications of the geographical factors you're discussing. How might current trends shape future landscapes, and what role does your topic play in this evolving narrative?

Geography Essay Introduction

The introductory paragraph is the starting point of your essay, where you contextualize, captivate your audience, and introduce your central thesis statement.

For instance, if your essay explores the effects of rising sea levels on coastal communities, your introduction could commence with a striking observation: ' In the coastal realms, where communities have thrived for generations, the encroaching rise of sea levels is transforming the very landscapes that have long shaped human existence. This unsettling shift is a direct consequence of global warming, a phenomenon casting profound implications across the globe .'

The core section of your essay, the main body, encompasses several paragraphs that house your analysis, arguments, evidence, and illustrations.

Within a segment examining the consequences of industrial pollution on river ecosystems, you might assert: ' Industrial effluents discharged into rivers represent a significant contributor to pollution. As evidenced by studies [cite], the toxic chemicals and pollutants released into water bodies pose severe threats to aquatic life, disrupting ecosystems and endangering the delicate balance of river environments. '

Geography Essay Summing Up

When wondering how to write a conclusion for an essay , remember that it acts as the final chapter, summarizing crucial findings, reiterating your thesis, and offering concluding insights or implications.

In a conclusion addressing the impact of desertification on agricultural communities, you might recapitulate: ' Surveying the intricate interplay between environmental degradation and agricultural sustainability in regions affected by desertification reveals a nuanced narrative. Despite the adversities posed, there exists an imperative for innovative solutions and adaptive strategies to ensure the resilience of agricultural communities in the face of advancing desertification. '

More Tips for Writing a Geography Essay

Here are some special tips on writing a geography essay that can enhance the depth and sophistication of your entire piece, showcasing a thorough grasp of geographic concepts and methods.

• Embrace diverse viewpoints – consider cultural, economic, and environmental angles for a richer analysis.
• Use geospatial tools like maps and satellite imagery to visually enhance your essay and emphasize spatial relationships.
• Bolster your arguments with real case studies to illustrate the practical application of your geographical analysis.
• Integrate recent global events into your essay to showcase relevance and stay aligned with the dynamic nature of geography.
• Explore intersections with other disciplines, providing a more comprehensive understanding of your topic.
• Highlight how local phenomena contribute to broader global narratives, emphasizing interconnectedness.
• If you're writing a cause and effect essay , compare urbanization trends in different cities to show the reasons and outcomes.

Why Geography Matters as a Subject of Study

Geography goes way beyond just maps and names of places; it's a lively and important field that helps us make sense of the world. Here's why geography matters:

• Knowing Spaces: It helps us understand how places, regions, and landscapes connect. This understanding is crucial for making smart choices about things like where to put resources, plan cities, and handle emergencies.
• Being a Global Citizen: It encourages us to appreciate different cultures and how we're all connected. It helps us see how big events, like climate change or pandemics, affect countries locally and globally.
• Taking Care of Nature: This subject gives us insights into environmental problems and solutions. It teaches us about issues like cutting down forests, losing habitats, and climate change so we can make choices that help our planet.
• Thinking Smart: Geography makes us think critically. It involves looking at complex information, considering different opinions, and drawing smart conclusions. These skills are handy in lots of jobs.
• Fixing Real Problems: What we learn in geography helps us solve actual problems – from designing better roads to managing water wisely and dealing with natural disasters.
• Making Rules and Plans: It has a say in making rules and plans. It guides decisions about how to use land, build things, and take care of resources.
• Loving Different Cultures: Geography helps us appreciate all kinds of cultures and how they relate to the environment. It lets us understand why places are important and how their histories have shaped them.

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Let our expert writers be your guides on this geographical voyage and map out your academic success together!

To sum it up, geography gives you the knowledge and skills to navigate our complex and connected world. Writing a geography essay helps you make smart choices, promote sustainability, and face global challenges. Whether you're exploring local landscapes or looking at global issues, geography lays the groundwork for understanding our planet and its diverse inhabitants through the art of essay writing.

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A short definition for Cultural Geography

The study of the relationship between culture and place . In broad terms, cultural geography examines the cultural values, practices, discursive and material expressions and artefacts of people, the cultural diversity and plurality of society, and how cultures are distributed over space, how places and identities are produced, how people make sense of places and build senses of place, and how people produce and communicate knowledge and meaning. Cultural geography has long been a core component of the discipline of geography, though how it has been conceived, its conceptual tools, and the approach to empirical research has changed quite markedly over time.

In the late 19th century, cultural geography sought to compare and contrast different cultures around the world and their relationship to natural environments. This approach has its roots in the anthropogeography of Friedrich Ratzel and, in common with anthropology, it aimed to understand cultural practices, social organizations, and indigenous knowledges, but gave emphasis to people’s connections with and use of place and nature ( see landschaft ). This form of cultural geography was adopted, extended, and promoted in North American geography in the early 20th century, especially through the Berkeley School and Carl Sauer . They were particularly interested in how people adapted to environments, but more particularly how people shaped the landscape through agriculture , engineering, and building, and how the landscape was reflective of the people who produced it.

While this form of cultural geography is still practised, it was challenged in the 1980s by new thinking that created what has been termed ‘ new cultural geography ’, which led to a broader cultural turn in the discipline. During this period, cultural geographers started to engage with new theoretical ideas within social theory, including humanism , structuralism , post-structuralism , postmodernism , and post-colonialism , recasting cultural geography in a number of significant ways. Most crucially, culture itself was conceived as a fluid, flexible, and dynamic process that actively constructs society, rather than simply reflecting it.

From the perspective of new cultural geography, landscape was not simply a material artefact that reflected culture in straightforward ways, but was laden with symbolic meaning that needed to be decoded with respect to social and historical context, using new techniques such as iconography . Similarly, it was contended that other cultural practices, artefacts, and representations needed to be theorized and analysed in much more contextual, contingent, and relational ways, sensitive to the workings of difference and power . Here, new cultural geographers argued that cultural identities are not essentialized and teleological , but rather need to be understood as constitutive of complex power geometries giving rise to all kinds of hydridity and diversity ( see essentialism ; teleology ).

As a result, since the 1980s cultural geography has developed to examine the broad range of ways in which culture evolves and makes a difference to everyday life and places. Studies have examined the cultural politics of different social groups with respect to issues such as disability , ethnicity , gender , race , sexuality , and how the processes and practices of othering , colonialism , imperialism , nationalism , and religion shape the lives of people in different locales and contexts fostering senses of belonging and exclusion . Others have looked at how culture is reflected and mediated through representations such as art , photography , music , film , and mass media , and material cultures such as fashion, food , heritage, and memorials/monuments , as well as the practices of creating knowledge and communicating through language . More recently still, a move towards non-representational theory has developed the focus beyond representations. Through the cultural turn, there has also been a move to explore how culture intersects with other forms of geographical inquiry such as the economic and political, arguing that these domains are deeply inflected and shaped by cultural processes ( see cultural economy ). Consequently, cultural geography is one of the most vibrant fields in human geography today.

Rogers, A., Castree, N., & Kitchin, R. (2013). " Cultural geography ." In  A Dictionary of Human Geography . Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 Jan. 2022

In the Library's collections

Previously, there was no specific subject heading for Cultural Geography . When you tried that term, " cultural geography ", as a subject search, the online catalog refered you to Human Geography . However, you can now use the subject search " cultural geography " to find books published after 2007. " Cultural landscapes " is another, relatively new subject heading. If you do a keyword search for " cultural geography " you get all the rest of the stuff! The first 30 are the most relevant in the keyword search.

Most of Cultural Geography is shelved in the GF's located on Berry Level 4 .

• cultural geography
• "cultural geography" This is a keyword search that finds everything with "cultural geography" in the record.
• cultural landscapes
• human geography This is the main subject heading for searching the catalog.

Introductory reading(s)

Selected book titles

Journal articles & titles

Articles and other writings about Cultural Geography can be found in many publications. Our collection includes several journals which look at Cultural Geography. Below is a short list of some of the journal titles we have in our Library's collection. Or you can use the search box at the top of the page to find relevant articles.

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Good Essay About Culture Geography

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Understanding , Politics , Culture , Human , Study , World , Thinking , Geography

Published: 03/10/2020

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Introduction

Cultural geography is the study of norms, cultural products and their variations in relation to places and spaces. This piece elaborates my interaction with cultural geography my participation in the class. In the first section, the paper presents my view of the world has changed following the study. The second section states my preconceived notions. The fourth and the last sections elaborate on the changes I have experienced, what I have learnt and what ideas about culture changed or altered during the class.

The integration of cultural geography into my life has had a serious impact. Before the earth was round and occupied by different people of different races and languages all working towards economic success. Now all that has changed as I come to the understanding that the world was more than that, the world was more than locations and much more was in surface of it than I had anticipated. There were things all around us in different locations significant in their sphere all spread out in different locations. Each of these things attributed to different characteristics of the world e.g. physical features, landforms, climates, natural vegetation. In addition to them are the human beings and their complexities cities agriculture, towns, transportation systems, factories, and businesses. Though I had known that language was a component of the world, the course helped me in understanding that language was part of geography. Greiner, (2014) asserts that Language geography is a feature of human geography that revises the geographic circulation of language or its ingredient rudiments. Greiner, (2014) points out two key areas of language study in geography: one is geography of languages involved with space of languages and the course of history. The differences in culture have a wide range from technology, economy, agriculture, architecture, transportation, and industrialization. Unlike before I, was able to appreciate the world made up of many different communities. All together set apart by their music, grooming, dress code, cuisine, sport, etiquette, dance, pottery, paintings, and beading.

Pre-perceived Notions

When I first had about cultural geography, I hardly had any understanding on how geography and culture related. However, the class made that a bygone. The understanding that culture was part of the world’s surface brought about many discoveries that prior to the class I had not perceived in any way. Concept like culture region that is a lot historic than I could have thought, equally changed my perception that Geography had nothing to do with history. However, that too was wrongly informed the world divided into regions whose cultures got differently informed in the past and equally presently as well. Through the cultural geography class, I leant how Globalization plays a part as Greiner, (2014) explains the media closely bond to the cultural geography of globalization. The images produced by the media showing places and spaces add to the global surge of people whether as tourists or émigrés. These have led to the appreciation of the contributions of culture through identification of visual distinctiveness in many different areas. Equally, I have been able to understand how cultural communities have adapted to their current locations and what impact the acclaimed changes have had on their environment. Now I can confidently note different cultural traits with the understanding every discovery only opens the door to many others unknowns or cultural communities

Lesson Learnt

A topic like cultural region, which addresses common cultural elements in different areas of the world, was not an expected topic. Similarly, I did not expect to learn about cultural diffusion that deals with concerns about the spread and integration of different cultural factors. Neither was cultural interaction, which focuses on existing cultural components in every particular community part of my expected teaching It was not my expectation that the geography had anything to do with political geography. The genesis of political geography lounge in the birth of human geography: Early on practitioner's interests mainly lounged with politics and military cost of the interaction between physical geography, state power and state territories. Greiner, (2014) Political geography has made it possible to understand political components in over large landscapes, which characterize the world.

Conclusion When I joined the class of geographical culture, I had no idea how culture linked to geography. Geography to me was simply a matter of landscape thought, as I was to learn I was lost in error. Culture as I came to learn is inseparable to geography and the two go hand in hand in shifting the way the earth’s surface looks.

Greiner, A. L. (2014). Visualizing human geography: 2nd edition. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

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Geography, Culture and Education pp 31–40 Cite as

Geography, Culture, Values and Education

• Gwyn Edwards  

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Part of the book series: The GeoJournal Library ((GEJL,volume 71))

The International Charter on Geographical Education adopted by the International Geographical Union (IGU, 1992) advocates that through their studies in geography students should develop attitudes and values conducive to appreciation for the beauty of the world (both physical and human), concern for the quality of the environment, respect for the rights of all people to equality, and dedication to seeking solutions to human problems (p. 6, emphasis added). Furthermore, they should understand ‘the significance of attitudes and values in decision making’ ( ibid , 7, emphasis added). Moreover, the Charter claims that geographical education contributes strongly to international education by encouraging ‘understanding and respect for all peoples, their cultures , civilizations, values and ways of life, including domestic ethnic cultures and cultures of other nations’ ( ibid , emphasis added). In a similar vein, the Working Group entrusted with the task of constructing a Geography National Curriculum for England in the early 1990s was of the view that geographical education should enable pupils to ‘acquire the knowledge and develop the skills and understanding necessary to identify and investigate important cultural , social and political issues relating to place, space and environment, with sensitivity to the range of attitudes and values associated with such issues’ (DES, 1989, emphasis added). From statements such as these, it is evident that ‘culture’ and ‘values’ are perceived as essential constituents of geography and geographical education. The intention of this chapter is, therefore, to explore the interface between ‘geography’, ‘culture’, ‘values’ and ‘education’.

• Moral Reasoning
• Human Geography
• Moral Belief
• Normative Ethic
• Cultural Geography

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Edwards, G. (2002). Geography, Culture, Values and Education. In: Gerber, R., Williams, M. (eds) Geography, Culture and Education. The GeoJournal Library, vol 71. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1679-6_3

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Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments.

Earth Science, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography

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Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth’s surface and the human societies spread across it. They also examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment, and the way that locations and places can have an impact on people. Geography seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.

Ancient Geographers

The term "geography" was coined by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes in the third century B.C.E. In Greek, geo- means “earth” and -graphy means “to write.” Using geography, Eratosthenes and other Greeks developed an understanding of where their homeland was located in relation to other places, what their own and other places were like, and how people and environments were distributed. These concerns have been central to geography ever since.

Of course, the Greeks were not the only people interested in geography, nor were they the first. Throughout human history, most societies have sought to understand something about their place in the world, and the people and environments around them. Mesopotamian societies inscribed maps on clay tablets, some of which survive to this day. The earliest known attempt at mapping the world is a Babylonian clay tablet known as the Imago Mundi. This map, created in the sixth century B.C.E., is more of a metaphorical and spiritual representation of Babylonian society rather than an accurate depiction of geography. Other Mesopotamian maps were more practical, marking irrigation networks and landholdings.

Indigenous peoples around the world developed geographic ideas and practices long before Eratosthenes. For example, Polynesian navigators embarked on long-range sea voyages across the Pacific Islands as early as 3000 years ago. The people of the Marshall Islands used navigation charts made of natural materials (“stick charts”) to visualize and memorize currents, wind patterns, and island locations.

Indeed, mapmaking probably came even before writing in many places, but ancient Greek geographers were particularly influential. They developed very detailed maps of Greek city-states, including parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. More importantly, they also raised questions about how and why different human and natural patterns came into being on Earth’s surface, and why variations existed from place to place. The effort to answer these questions about patterns and distribution led them to figure out that the world was round, to calculate Earth’s circumference, and to develop explanations of everything from the seasonal flooding of the Nile to differences in population densities from place to place.

During the Middle Ages, geography ceased to be a major academic pursuit in Europe. Advances in geography were chiefly made by scientists of the Muslim world, based around the Middle East and North Africa. Geographers of this Islamic Golden Age created an early example of a rectangular map based on a grid, a map system that is still familiar today. Islamic scholars also applied their study of people and places to agriculture, determining which crops and livestock were most suited to specific habitats or environments.

In addition to the advances in the Middle East, the Chinese empire in Asia also contributed immensely to geography. Around 1000, Chinese navigators achieved one of the most important developments in the history of geography: They were the first to use the compass for navigational purposes. In the early 1400s, the explorer Zheng He embarked on seven voyages to the lands bordering the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, establishing China’s influence throughout Southeast Asia.

Age of Discovery

Through the 13th-century travels of the Italian explorer Marco Polo, European interest in spices from Asia grew. Acquiring spices from East Asian and Arab merchants was expensive, and a major land route for the European spice trade was lost with the conquering of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire. These and other economic factors, in addition to competition between Christian and Islamic societies, motivated European nations to send explorers in search of a sea route to China. This period of time between the 15th and 17th centuries is known in the West as the Age of Exploration or the Age of Discovery.

With the dawn of the Age of Discovery, the study of geography regained popularity in Europe. The invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s helped spread geographic knowledge by making maps and charts widely available. Improvements in shipbuilding and navigation facilitated more exploring, greatly improving the accuracy of maps and geographic information.

Greater geographic understanding allowed European powers to extend their global influence. During the Age of Discovery, European nations established colonies around the world. Improved transportation, communication, and navigational technology allowed countries such as the United Kingdom to establish colonies as far away as the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Africa. This was lucrative for European powers, but the Age of Discovery brought about nightmarish change for the people already living in the territories they colonized. When Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492, millions of Indigenous peoples already lived there. By the 1600s, 90 percent of the Indigenous population of the Americas had been wiped out by violence and diseases brought over by European explorers.

Geography was not just a subject that enabled colonialism, however. It also helped people understand the planet on which they lived. Not surprisingly, geography became an important focus of study in schools and universities.

Geography also became an important part of other academic disciplines, such as chemistry, economics, and philosophy. In fact, every academic subject has some geographic connection. Chemists study where certain chemical elements, such as gold or silver, can be found. Economists examine which nations trade with other nations, and what resources are exchanged. Philosophers analyze the responsibility people have to take care of Earth.

Emergence of Modern Geography

Some people have trouble understanding the complete scope of the discipline of geography because geography is interdisciplinary, meaning that it is not defined by one particular topic. Instead, geography is concerned with many different topics—people, culture, politics, settlements, plants, landforms, and much more. Geography asks spatial questions—how and why things are distributed or arranged in particular ways on Earth’s surface. It looks at these different distributions and arrangements at many different scales. It also asks questions about how the interaction of different human and natural activities on Earth’s surface shape the characteristics of the world in which we live.

Geography seeks to understand where things are found and why they are present in those places; how things that are located in the same or distant places influence one another over time; and why places and the people who live in them develop and change in particular ways. Raising these questions is at the heart of the “ geographic perspective .”

Exploration has long been an important part of geography, and it’s an important part of developing a geographic perspective. Exploration isn’t limited to visiting unfamiliar places; it also means documenting and connecting relationships between spatial, sociological, and ecological elements. t

The age-old practice of mapping still plays an important role in this type of exploration, but exploration can also be done by using images from satellites or gathering information from interviews. Discoveries can come by using computers to map and analyze the relationship among things in geographic space, or from piecing together the multiple forces, near and far, that shape the way individual places develop.

Applying a geographic perspective demonstrates geography’s concern not just with where things are, but with “the why of where”—a short but useful definition of geography’s central focus.

The insights that have come from geographic research show the importance of asking “the why of where” questions. Geographic studies comparing physical characteristics of continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, for instance, gave rise to the idea that Earth’s surface is comprised of large, slowly moving plates—plate tectonics.

Studies of the geographic distribution of human settlements have shown how economic forces and modes of transport influence the location of towns and cities. For example, geographic analysis has pointed to the role of the United States Interstate Highway System and the rapid growth of car ownership in creating a boom in U.S. suburban growth after World War II. The geographic perspective helped show where Americans were moving, why they were moving there, and how their new living places affected their lives, their relationships with others, and their interactions with the environment.

Geographic analyses of the spread of diseases have pointed to the conditions that allow particular diseases to develop and spread. Dr. John Snow’s cholera map stands out as a classic example. When cholera broke out in London, England, in 1854, Snow represented the deaths per household on a street map. Using the map, he was able to trace the source of the outbreak to a water pump on the corner of Broad Street and Cambridge Street. The geographic perspective helped identify the source of the problem (the water from a specific pump) and allowed people to avoid the disease (avoiding water from that pump).

Investigations of the geographic impact of human activities have advanced understanding of the role of humans in transforming the surface of Earth, exposing the spatial extent of threats such as water pollution by artificial waste. For example, geographic study has shown that a large mass of tiny pieces of plastic currently floating in the Pacific Ocean is approximately the size of Texas. Satellite images and other geographic technology identified the so-called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

These examples of different uses of the geographic perspective help explain why geographic study and research is important as we confront many 21st century challenges, including environmental pollution, poverty, hunger, and ethnic or political conflict.

Because the study of geography is so broad, the discipline is typically divided into specialties. At the broadest level, geography is divided into physical geography, human geography, geographic techniques, and regional geography.

Physical Geography

The natural environment is the primary concern of physical geographers, although many physical geographers also look at how humans have altered natural systems. Physical geographers study Earth’s seasons, climate, atmosphere, soil, streams, landforms, and oceans. Some disciplines within physical geography include geomorphology, glaciology, pedology, hydrology, climatology, biogeography, and oceanography.

Geomorphology is the study of landforms and the processes that shape them. Geomorphologists investigate the nature and impact of wind, ice, rivers, erosion, earthquakes, volcanoes, living things, and other forces that shape and change the surface of Earth.

Glaciologists focus on Earth’s ice fields and their impact on the planet’s climate. Glaciologists document the properties and distribution of glaciers and icebergs. Data collected by glaciologists has demonstrated the retreat of Arctic and Antarctic ice in the past century.

Pedologists study soil and how it is created, changed, and classified. Soil studies are used by a variety of professions, from farmers analyzing field fertility to engineers investigating the suitability of different areas for building heavy structures.

Hydrology is the study of Earth’s water: its properties, distribution, and effects. Hydrologists are especially concerned with the movement of water as it cycles from the ocean to the atmosphere, then back to Earth’s surface. Hydrologists study the water cycle through rainfall into streams, lakes, the soil, and underground aquifers. Hydrologists provide insights that are critical to building or removing dams, designing irrigation systems, monitoring water quality, tracking drought conditions, and predicting flood risk.

Climatologists study Earth’s climate system and its impact on Earth’s surface. For example, climatologists make predictions about El Niño, a cyclical weather phenomenon of warm surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. They analyze the dramatic worldwide climate changes caused by El Niño, such as flooding in Peru, drought in Australia, and, in the United States, the oddities of heavy Texas rains or an unseasonably warm Minnesota winter.

Biogeographers study the impact of the environment on the distribution of plants and animals. For example, a biogeographer might document all the places in the world inhabited by a certain spider species, and what those places have in common.

Oceanography, a related discipline of physical geography, focuses on the creatures and environments of the world’s oceans. Observation of ocean tides and currents constituted some of the first oceanographic investigations. For example, 18th-century mariners figured out the geography of the Gulf Stream, a massive current flowing like a river through the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery and tracking of the Gulf Stream helped communications and travel between Europe and the Americas.

Today, oceanographers conduct research on the impacts of water pollution, track tsunamis, design offshore oil rigs, investigate underwater eruptions of lava, and study all types of marine organisms from toxic algae to friendly dolphins.

Human Geography

Human geography is concerned with the distribution and networks of people and cultures on Earth’s surface. A human geographer might investigate the local, regional, and global impact of rising economic powers China and India, which represent 37 percent of the world’s people. They also might look at how consumers in China and India adjust to new technology and markets, and how markets respond to such a huge consumer base.

Human geographers also study how people use and alter their environments. When, for example, people allow their animals to overgraze a region, the soil erodes and grassland is transformed into desert. The impact of overgrazing on the landscape as well as agricultural production is an area of study for human geographers.

Finally, human geographers study how political, social, and economic systems are organized across geographical space. These include governments, religious organizations, and trade partnerships. The boundaries of these groups constantly change.

The main divisions within human geography reflect a concern with different types of human activities or ways of living. Some examples of human geography include urban geography, economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, social geography, and population geography. Human geographers who study geographic patterns and processes in past times are part of the subdiscipline of historical geography. Those who study how people understand maps and geographic space belong to a subdiscipline known as behavioral geography.

Many human geographers interested in the relationship between humans and the environment work in the subdisciplines of cultural geography and political geography.

Cultural geographers study how the natural environment influences the development of human culture, such as how the climate affects the agricultural practices of a region. Political geographers study the impact of political circumstances on interactions between people and their environment, as well as environmental conflicts, such as disputes over water rights.

Some human geographers focus on the connection between human health and geography. For example, health geographers create maps that track the location and spread of specific diseases. They analyze the geographic disparities of health-care access. They are very interested in the impact of the environment on human health, especially the effects of environmental hazards such as radiation, lead poisoning, or water pollution.

Geographic Techniques

Specialists in geographic techniques study the ways in which geographic processes can be analyzed and represented using different methods and technologies. Mapmaking, or cartography, is perhaps the most basic of these. Cartography has been instrumental to geography throughout the ages.

Today, almost the entire surface of Earth has been mapped with remarkable accuracy, and much of this information is available instantly on the internet. One of the most remarkable of these websites is Google Earth, which “lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.” In essence, anyone can be a virtual explorer from the comfort of home.

Technological developments during the past 100 years have given rise to a number of other specialties for scientists studying geographic techniques. The airplane made it possible to photograph land from above. Now, there are many satellites and other above-Earth vehicles that help geographers figure out what the surface of the planet looks like and how it is changing.

Geographers looking at what above-Earth cameras and sensors reveal are specialists in remote sensing. Pictures taken from space can be used to make maps, monitor ice melt, assess flood damage, track oil spills, predict weather, or perform endless other functions. For example, by comparing satellite photos taken from 1955 to 2007, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) discovered that the rate of coastal erosion along Alaska’s Beaufort Sea had doubled. Every year from 2002 to 2007, about 13.7 meters (45 feet) per year of coast, mostly icy permafrost, vanished into the sea.

Computerized systems that allow for precise calculations of how things are distributed and relate to one another have made the study of geographic information systems (GIS) an increasingly important specialty within geography. Geographic information systems are powerful databases that collect all types of information (maps, reports, statistics, satellite images, surveys, demographic data, and more) and link each piece of data to a geographic reference point, such as geographic coordinates. This data, called geospatial information, can be stored, analyzed, modeled, and manipulated in ways not possible before GIS computer technology existed.

The popularity and importance of GIS has given rise to a new science known as geographic information science (GISci). Geographic information scientists study patterns in nature as well as human development. They might study natural hazards, such as a fire that struck Los Angeles, California, United States, in 2008. A map posted on the internet showed the real-time spread of the fire, along with information to help people make decisions about how to evacuate quickly. GIS can also illustrate human struggles from a geographic perspective, such as the interactive online map published by the New York Times in May 2009 that showed building foreclosure rates in various regions around the New York City area.

The enormous possibilities for producing computerized maps and diagrams that can help us understand environmental and social problems have made geographic visualization an increasingly important specialty within geography. This geospatial information is in high demand by just about every institution, from government agencies monitoring water quality to entrepreneurs deciding where to locate new businesses.

Regional Geography

Regional geographers take a somewhat different approach to specialization, directing their attention to the general geographic characteristics of a region. A regional geographer might specialize in African studies, observing and documenting the people, nations, rivers, mountains, deserts, weather, trade, and other attributes of the continent. There are different ways you can define a region. You can look at climate zones, cultural regions, or political regions. Often regional geographers have a physical or human geography specialty as well as a regional specialty.

Regional geographers may also study smaller regions, such as urban areas. A regional geographer may be interested in the way a city like Shanghai, China, is growing. They would study transportation, migration, housing, and language use, as well as the human impact on elements of the natural environment, such as the Huangpu River.

Whether geography is thought of as a discipline or as a basic feature of our world, developing an understanding of the subject is important. Some grasp of geography is essential as people seek to make sense of the world and understand their place in it. Thinking geographically helps people to be aware of the connections among and between places and to see how important events are shaped by where they take place. Finally, knowing something about geography enriches people’s lives—promoting curiosity about other people and places and an appreciation of the patterns, environments, and peoples that make up the endlessly fascinating, varied planet on which we live.

Gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographic dictionary. Gazetteers, which have existed for thousands of years, usually contain some sort of map and a set of information. Some gazetteers may contain a list of capital cities or areas where a specific resource is found. Other gazetteers may contain information about the local population, such as languages spoken, money used, or religious beliefs.

Old Maps People have been making maps for thousands of years. One of the oldest known maps was found near the city of Kirkuk, Iraq. Most geographers say it dates from 2500 B.C.E. It is a palm-sized block of clay depicting an area with two hills and a stream. (Some geographers think the stream is a canal made by people for irrigation.) Geographers have identified one of the towns on the map. However, they are not sure exactly what the hand-held map represents. Ancient maps could also be quite large. A nine-foot wall painting in Catal Hyuk, Turkey, was made about 6000 B.C.E. It is a map of a busy city, complete with crowded housing and even an erupting volcano. However, some scientists believe this "map" is decorative and not an accurate representation of what was there.

Wrong-Way Corrigan The American aviator Douglas Corrigan is often nicknamed "Wrong-Way Corrigan" because of a navigational error he made on a flight in 1938. Corrigan had just piloted a very impressive flight from the U.S. cities of Long Beach, California, to New York, New York. He was scheduled to fly back to Long Beach. Instead, with the sky covered in clouds, Wrong Way Corrigan flew to Dublin, Ireland.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Cultural Landscape

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Cultural Landscape by Sara Beth Keough LAST REVIEWED: 15 April 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 29 November 2022 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0011

The cultural landscape, the imprint of people and groups on the land, has long been of interest to geographers. The practice of “reading” and interpreting the landscape can prove difficult because most people are not used to taking a critical look at what they see. Geographers such as Carl Sauer and Peirce Lewis believe that most of our marks on the land could be considered unconscious or subliminal. More recently, however, landscape scholars such as Don Mitchell have proposed that human action on the land is quite purposeful and controlling in an effort to convey particular messages. The initial 20th-century Sauerian approach to landscape studies focused mostly on description of rural areas and was centered around cultural products (artifacts), rather than the processes that created those products. The social movements of 1960s and 1970s, however, brought about a change in the way geographers studied the landscape because of the highly urbanized nature of society. Scholars realized that urban areas now held as many or more clues to modernizing culture as did rural ones. It was also during this time that representational cultural geography emerged in an era where sign, symbol, and meaning in the landscape and the processes of cultural landscape creation became important considerations. Furthermore, the study of cultural landscapes was deemed an interdisciplinary pursuit. The post-1960s era was also the beginning of the cultural turn away from positivist empiricism. Beginning in the mid- to late 1990s, cultural geography experienced another shift, this time toward nonrepresentational approaches to studying people and place. This shift emphasized the importance of practices and experiences rather than things and called for a consideration of social reproduction and context in the process of landscape analysis. Scholars who criticized the nonrepresentational approach for assuming experiences could be isolated from images proposed the rerepresentational approach, where things, theories, and experiences are all considered equally. These shifts, however, were anything but seamless. Each shift came with arguments contesting new ideas and rethinking old ones. Today, scholars of the cultural landscape consider both the theories of landscape creation, the physical objects in the landscape, and how issues of power, inequality, and social justice play out in the landscape. Furthermore, it is assumed that one cannot study the cultural landscape without considering how humans have shaped the land and the neo-environmentalist approach that considers how the environment impacts people.

General Overviews

One of the advantages of engaging in a scholarly study of the cultural landscape is that literature is available for everyone from the beginner to the advanced academic. For students, Wallach 2005 is a good place to start for a better understanding of the history of landscape study as well as contemporary approaches, with clear examples throughout. For an advanced lesson in critical observation, use Stigloe 2018 . Jackson 1984 is a good collection of reflections by the author. For books that emphasize the late-20th- and early-21st-century of landscape research, Malpas 2011 and Howard 2011 are helpful. For both beginning and advanced scholars, Meinig 1979 is an accessible work that gives examples of often-overlooked common occurrences in the landscape and what those say about local culture. For the latest theoretical approach to landscape studies, start with Mitchell 2000 , which considers power and inequality in the landscape. Taylor and Lennon 2012 is good for its international content, as well as the authors’ emphasis on social justice and minority groups.

Howard, Peter. An Introduction to Landscape . Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2011.

Anthropological in its focus, this is one of the most important monographs since the “cultural turn” of the 1990s. Asks the reader to reflect on his or her own attitudes and actions in space. Examples are Eurocentric and are often taken from landscapes near the author’s home in southwest England. Written in an accessible style with many images.

Jackson, John Brinkerhoff. Discovering the Vernacular Landscape . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.

Based on lectures Jackson gave between 1974 and 1984. Focuses on common elements in the landscape (and on rural areas more than urban ones) to help one better understand American history and culture. Considers how the mobility of people and goods shapes the landscape. Considered a foundational work in landscape studies.

Malpas, Jeff, ed. The Place of Landscape: Concepts, Contexts, Studies . Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2011.

Considers landscape as it relates to place. Emphasizes the importance of both time and space, rather than just the visual elements of an area. Asks how landscapes become areas of inclusion or exclusion and how they have changed over time.

Meinig, Donald W., ed. The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays . New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

A “must have” book for any landscape scholar, this contains works by key landscape theorists, including J. B. Jackson, Peirce F. Lewis, Yi-Fu Tuan, David Lowenthal, and the editor himself. Chapters focus on ways of analyzing the landscape by looking for clues about local culture.

Mitchell, Donald. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction . Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000.

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511606786

The second section of this book focuses specifically on new trends in cultural landscape studies that consider themes of power, social control, gender, race, and inequality in the landscape. Written in an accessible style, author’s ideas are illustrated through clear examples. Promotes the idea that landscapes are purposefully created.

Stigloe, John R. What Is Landscape? Boston: Boston University Press, 2018.

An exploration of landscape as a noun. Leads the reader in the practice of critically looking at one’s surroundings and asking key questions. Examples help readers connect words to things.

Taylor, Ken, and Jane Lennon, eds. Managing Cultural Landscapes . New York: Routledge, 2012.

A new work that documents the changing approach to landscape studies, from a focus on monuments and historic places of the 1950s and 1960s to new critical considerations. Much emphasis is put on the Asia-Pacific region from this interdisciplinary group of contributors from universities around the world.

Wallach, Bret. Understanding the Cultural Landscape . New York: Guilford, 2005.

Good for undergraduate students, the book traces the human imprint on the land from early human civilization to the early twenty-first century. Includes a section on reading landscapes, and the emphasis is on what humans have done to landscapes and what that says about contemporary societies worldwide.

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Geography Essay Topics: 30+ Interesting Ideas to Explore

by  Antony W

December 5, 2023

Brainstorming is a good technique to find good Geography essay topics. Only that it can take an entire afternoon to a few days to build your list of ideas. An easy way is to check pre-written topics and ideas, which is a great option to speed up the ideation process.  

When it comes to topic selection, we strongly advice that you choose something that fascinates you. That’s because it’s easy to research and write about something you find interesting than otherwise. Then, you have to ensure you work on the topic based on the assignment brief.

It’s as simple as that.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t overthink topic selection. Identify what area would be interesting to explore, and focus on it.
• Put yourself in the shoes of your instructor, as this is a good technique for topic selection.
• Ensure you read the assignment brief to determine which essay your professor expects to see, and then write the essay accordingly.

Best Geography Essay Topics

Don’t worry if you have no idea what topic to cover. Below are 30+ ideas that can save you some brainstorming time and get you straight to research and writing:

Human Geography Topics

Human Geography is a broad field with so many potential areas to explore. Therefore, your topic can be just about anything, from cultural and political to human and historical studies. Your overall focus will be on how human beings interact with each other and to the environment around them. Below are some topic ideas to consider:

• Impacts of environmental shifts on critical resources
• Exploring escalating consumption patterns and their environmental ramifications
• Formation of modern continents: a contemporary Geo Scientific perspective
• Preparedness and response strategies for natural disasters
• Adaptation of agriculture to dynamic weather patterns
• A critical examination of milk and meat production in the United States
• Energy resources landscape in the United States
• Land fertility amidst climate change
• Urban development’s impact on natural resource dynamics

Geography Extended Essay Topics

The Geography extended essay is an assignment that requires you to conduct independent research on a topic of your choice. You then have to write a 4,000-word report on your finding, followed by three reflections to show your engagement and commitment to the research. Here are some ideas worth investigating:

• Examine the drivers and outcomes of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa
• Climate change impact on small island developing states
• A socio-cultural evaluation of the globalization’s effects on indigenous communities:
• Cultural and environmental implications of Tourism in Machu Picchu, Peru
• Climate change’s toll on vulnerable coastal communities in Bangladesh
• Environmental, economic, and social impacts of large-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa:
• An evaluation of international efforts addressing water scarcity in the Middle East
• Natural resources and Middle Eastern economies
• Societal, economic, and environmental analysis of the mega dams in developing nations:
• Transnational corporations’ influence on global food systems
• Assessing disaster risk reduction strategies in earthquake and hurricane prone regions
• The formation and model selection of the Lower Thamama group geology in the UAW
• Sustainable urban planning challenges and opportunities in emerging economies
• Socio-economic and environmental analysis of the hydropower development in the Mekong river basin  
• Causes and consequences of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest
• Urbanization’s impact on water resources and ecosystems in Asia’s growing cities
• Geopolitical implications of china’s belt and road initiative on global trade
• Effectiveness assessment of international agreements in combating global climate change

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World Geography Essay Topics

Many students think only of their own country when searching for topics related to Geography. However, you can make your essay more interesting by writing on a topic that focuses on a different country. It can be a country you dream visiting or a country with a rich geographical history. Here are some topic options to consider:

• What is the probability of California’s seismic future?
• Canada’s ecological mosaic: Unraveling the landscape’s diversity
• Geographical insights into Liechtenstein
• Explaining the distinctive characteristics of the world’s highest peaks
• The impacts and implications of Indonesia’s volcanic landscape
• A comparative analysis of the differences in Polar Regions
• An in-depth comparative study of Russia’s diverse climate zones:
• An exploratory study of the Sahara desert’s climatic influence on Africa
• Deciphering the enigma of the Bermuda triangle and its geographic peculiarities
• Impact of wind turbines on Germany’s environmental dynamics

Cultural Geography Topics

Your essay will focus on the relationship between culture and a given place. Your essay may also focus on the way humans build identity and communicate knowledge. Here are some great topics to consider:

• Conceptualizing ‘sense of place’ and defining its theoretical dimensions
• Essence of cultural diversity: Examine its necessity and societal importance
• A geographical insight on landscape’s influence on architectural evolution
• The interplays and evolution of geographical features and cultural development
• Case study of the Amazon with focus on the cultural evolution in remote environments
• The wheel’s societal impact: Revolutionizing ancient civilizations
• Redefining social bonds with internet and community perceptions
• Societal transformation: What are the noteworthy changes in local communities?
• Do a comparative analysis of the diverse communication modalities
• Variations in cultural techniques across global territories
• Relevance and societal implications of multilingualism in a global context
• Nationality and music: Is there a cultural connection between the two?
• Explaining the historical and theoretical context of ‘cultural turn’ concept from an academic perspective
• Historical evolution and significance of cultural geography
• French colonization’s impact on guinea’s cultural fabric
• Walter Benjamin’s insights: Technology’s impact on art perception
• Exploration of matriarchal societies: Structural dynamics and functionality
• Colonialism’s influence on African religious practices
• Post-structuralism’s influence on geographic studies
• Feminist geography’s objectives and contributions
• Cross-cultural encounters: Instances of intersecting boundaries in Geography
• Cultural variance in German-speaking nations: comparative analysis
• The root causes and evolution of nationalism’s emergence in 20th century Europe
• Landscape-politics in African contexts

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Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

World Studies Extended Essay: Global Themes

• Introduction
• Getting Started
• Global Themes
• Interdisciplinary Research
• What Makes Up a "Discipline"?
• Evaluating the Insights of Academic Disciplines
• Multiple Forms of Integration
• Evaluating Your Essay
• Common Stumbling Blocks
• Examples of Globally Conscious Students

World Studies Global Themes

Conflict, peace, and security Culture, language, and identity Environmental and/or economic sustainability Equality and inequality Health and development Science, technology and society

Conflict, peace, and security

Culture, language, and identity, environmental and/or economic sustainability, equality and inequality, health and development, science, technology and society, wsee documents.

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• Making Meaningful Connections Use this worksheet to help you think about your research plans: the concepts or methods your will be using, the global topic you're focusing on, and the academic disciplines you will be using.

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• Sample Prompts for the WSEE RRS What should you write in your RRS? Use these questions and prompts to help you think through the various stages of the research for your WSEE: your initial ideas, your thoughts and reflections during the process, and your conclusions.
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The Interconnectedness of Geography, Culture and Religions

In this essay that is based on the lecture by Professor Jens Micah De Guzman, we will analyze the interconnectedness of geography, culture and religions.

We can prove that geography, religion, and culture are practically interrelated. Geography influences religion, and religion, in turn, affects culture.

How does geography influence religion?

It is a common knowledge that civilizations ordinarily develop in and around river systems where there are easy access to water, food sources, and irrigation systems. This geographical state permits people to grow crops and thus shift from the hunter gatherer lifestyle to becoming agriculturist—farming and domesticating livestock.

The Ganges, Indus Valley, the Nile, and Amazon River are geographical regions where various kinds of people have developed over time. Dissimilarities in culture result in diverse religious inclinations which incorporate their environments into their rituals, mythologies, and iconography. This partially explains the rise of various religions in these places.

The origin of some features within a religion can also be explained by geography. For instance, shrines in Shintoism have been built for reasons that include geography (e.g. mountain shrines). Every shrine typically has a “kami” (god), which may be a natural or topographical feature. The “kami” is said to normally reside in an object, such as a stone. (Read: What is Kami in Shintoism (and the Importance of Worshiping these)

Many examples also prove that the physical environment of a place or geography elucidates many aspects of the religions in it: 

“Across many of the world’s religions, mountains have been associated with talking to God or as the abode of a god. Mount Sinai was the place where God talked to Moses and the Jews. The Mount of Olives was where Jesus ascended into heaven and where he is supposed to return. Mt. Athos in Greece as an ancient monastery where monks dedicate their lives to living in seclusion devoted to God.’

“Olympus was the home of the ancient Greek pantheon and Mt. Fuji was the dwelling place of gods in Japan. Man even built artificial mountains in an attempt to reach the divine in the form of pyramids, ziggarats, and mounds.” (“Geography and Religion,” n.d.)

Aside from mountains, trees and rocks also had religious significance. The Stonehenge and Easter Island serve as examples from ethnic religions of the past. The “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem called the ‘Kotel,’ being the last vestiges of the Second Temple, is a modern example.

On the other hand, tress were used to produce totems, that is, objects (such as an animal or plant) that are believed by a particular culture to have spiritual significance and that are adopted by it as emblems. In fact, it is said that the Catholic and other Protestant sects’ ‘Christmas tree’ has its origin from that paganistic treatment of trees.

Likewise, geographical properties such as rivers, water, and desert were given religious meaning. The Ganges Rivers is seen as sacred until today by the Hindus while the Nile River was deemed sacred in ancient Egyptian religion.

We can also see that water is employed as a means of purification in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, such as in the practice of baptism. The desert, on the other hand, is customarily regarded as a means of spiritual refinement, such as in the practice of meditation and ascetism.

How does religion affect culture?

Religion significantly impacts culture as it affects and influences it in many vital ways. It can be proved that religion can considerably define the values, ideas, beliefs, heritage, and lifestyle of a society; all of which are essential constituents of culture.

For instance, relationships, marriage, birth, death, homemaking, and farming are usual events in cultures—and these normally have a religious significance.

Religion can have an enormous impact on people’s culture especially when those in a certain culture believe intensely in its religion. Their culture appears to accept only those ways of thinking and conducts which are acceptable to their religion.

Before, European societies’ were zealous Catholics. This had great effects on European culture at the time as most cultural expressions were church-related. Most arts were religious and much of the music produced were as well religious in genre.

In fact, European cultures, especially in the Middle Age, valued religion to the point that people were eager to dedicate major resources to things like building basilicas and supporting monasteries.

Moreover, territories that are strongly affected by Islam have developed cultures that are dominated by men, and in which things such as socializing with members of the opposite sex in public are frowned upon. This, too, reveals the interplay between religion and culture.

It can be noticed that Muslims may be Arabs, Turks, Persians, Indians, Pakistanis, Malaysians, Indonesians, Europeans, Africans, Americans, Chinese, or other nationalities. And yet, their Islamic faith almost homogeneously influences their view on customs, attire, diets, celebrations, places of worship, politics, and other aspects of life.

Religion remarkably influences various cultures in various ways. Amazingly too, religion can affect the same culture in different ways at different times. For more information about the topic, read Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: A Comparative Analysis and Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism, and Mahayana Buddhism: Similarities and Differences .

For more free lectures like this, visit Homepage: Introduction to World Religions and Belief Systems

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Kinkela essay published in ‘A Cultural History of Insects in the Modern Age’

Dr. David Kinkela

“Food and Insects,” an essay written by Department of History Professor David Kinkela, has been published in “A Cultural History of Insects in the Modern Age.”

Each of the work’s six hardcover volumes covers the same topics, so readers can either study a period/volume or follow a topic across history. Dr. Kinkela’s essay appears in the Modern Age volume (1920 to the present).

“I looked at music, film, television and new movies, and how ideas of insects and food production were depicted in particular cultural forms,” Dr. Kinkela explained. For example: the bool weevil, a beetle, in the traditional blues song “Bool Weevil Blues.”

Other areas explored include monster movies of the 1950s, how gigantic insects were depicted on movie screens in that same era and the rhetoric around organic and industrial farming and pest control in the agricultural system. “I also discovered a great ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit, showing killer bees invading the U.S., with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd,” Kinkela noted. Also found was “The Bee Movie,” voiced by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

Kinkela incorporates research that he compiled for essay in two courses that he teaches: HIST 352: U.S. Environmental History and HIST 310: World Environmental History.

“A Cultural History of Insects” reveals people’s relationship with insects – in life and in death – and is published by Bloombury Academic Presson.

• Department of History
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

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Title: how language, culture, and geography shape online dialogue: insights from koo.

Abstract: Koo is a microblogging platform based in India launched in 2020 with the explicit aim of catering to non-Western communities in their vernacular languages. With a near-complete dataset totalling over 71M posts and 399M user interactions, we show how Koo has attracted users from several countries including India, Nigeria and Brazil, but with variable levels of sustained user engagement. We highlight how Koo's interaction network has been shaped by multiple country-specific migrations and displays strong divides between linguistic and cultural communities, for instance, with English-speaking communities from India and Nigeria largely isolated from one another. Finally, we analyse the content shared by each linguistic community and identify cultural patterns that promote similar discourses across language groups. Our study raises the prospect that a multilingual and politically diverse platform like Koo may be able to cultivate vernacular communities that have, historically, not been prioritised by US-based social media platforms.

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After a writer expressed sympathy for Israelis in an essay, all hell broke loose at a literary journal

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What are the limits of empathy in war?

That’s the question that Joanna Chen, a liberal writer and translator who is Jewish and lives in Israel, probed in an essay about her struggles since Oct. 7 to connect with Palestinians.

“It is not easy to tread the line of empathy, to feel passion for both sides,” she wrote in the literary journal Guernica , explaining that she briefly stopped her volunteer work driving Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals for lifesaving medical care.

“How could I continue after Hamas had massacred and kidnapped so many civilians,” she asked, noting that the dead included a fellow volunteer, a longtime peace activist named Vivian Silver. “And I admit, I was afraid for my own life.”

The essay, titled “From the Edges of a Broken World,” provoked an uproar in the activist literary world. Over the weekend, more than a dozen of the publication’s staff resigned in protest — and Guernica removed the essay from its website.

“Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it,” the magazine said in a statement . “A more fulsome explanation will follow.”

Among those who quit was the co-publisher, Madhuri Sastry, who wrote on X that the essay was “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

Sastry also called for the resignation of the editor in chief, Jina Moore Ngarambe, a veteran foreign correspondent. Ngarambe did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement to The Times on Tuesday, Chen said: “Removing any stories and silencing any voices is the opposite of progress and the opposite of literature.”

“Today, people are afraid to listen to voices that do not perfectly mirror their own,” she said. “But ignorance begets hatred. My essay is an opening to a dialogue that I hope will emerge when the shouting dies down.”

The retraction of the essay comes as a new generation of activists in the literary world frames the conflict in the Middle East as a black-and-white battle between two sides — oppressor and oppressed — and pressures institutions to boycott Israeli or Zionist writers.

World & Nation

U.S. college campuses have embraced the Palestinian cause like never before. The story began decades ago

The Palestinian cause — and hostility toward Israel — has shifted from the sidelines of student activism to a robust political movement at U.S. colleges.

Dec. 7, 2023

In January, protesters from Writers Against the War on Gaza disrupted a PEN America event in Los Angeles featuring actor Mayim Bialik, who supports Israel and opposes a cease-fire. Last month, the Jewish Book Council, a nonprofit that promotes Jewish writers and stories, launched an initiative for authors, publishers, agents and others to report antisemitic incidents in the world of publishing — from “getting review-bombed because their book includes Jewish content” to “threats of intimidation and violence.”

For many activists, giving voice to opposing points of view or conveying empathy for Israeli victims of Hamas amounts to both-sidesism that glosses over power imbalances. Israel says that Hamas killed about 1,200 people on Oct. 7, prompting an invasion that authorities in Gaza say has killed more than 31,000 people.

On X, Guernica’s former fiction editor, Ishita Marwah, slammed Chen’s essay as a “rank piece of genocide apologia” and condemned Guernica as “a pillar of eugenicist white colonialism masquerading as goodness.”

Grace Loh Prasad, a Taiwanese-born writer based in the Bay Area who published an excerpt of her new memoir in Guernica last week, wrote : “I am alarmed & upset that my writing has appeared alongside an essay that attempts to convey empathy for a colonizing, genocidal power.”

Hua Xi, Guernica’s former interviews editor, singled out a passage in which Chen describes a neighbor telling her she tried to calm her children who were frightened by the sound of military planes flying over their house: I tell them these are good booms.

Chen writes: “ She grimaced, and I understood the subtext, that the Israeli army was bombing Gaza.”

For Xi, quoting an Israeli calling bombs “good booms” undermines Guernica’s “premise that they are holding space for Palestinian writers.”

Rather than just disagree, these activists are calling for the silencing of voices they view as harmful.

On social media, an activist accused Chen of “both-sidesing genocide.” Another condemned Chen, who was born in Britain and moved to Israel with her parents when she was 16, as “a settler who has settler genocidal friends and raised settler genocidal children.”

‘This is not a pro-Hamas protest’: Palestinian Americans fight charges of antisemitism

The Palestinian cause has never had so much support. But some Palestinian Americans say the movement has a messaging problem.

Dec. 21, 2023

Established in 2004 amid the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Guernica was founded as an unabashedly antiwar, anti-imperialist publication, according to one of its founders, Josh Jones.

The journal took its name from a Lower East Side bar where two of the founders participated in a reading series, and Picasso’s iconic painting depicting the horror of the 1937 bombing of the Basque town in northern Spain.

Guernica’s leaders did not always agree on what it meant to be antiwar — particularly as a growing wave of pro-Palestinian activists called for not platforming pro-Israeli voices.

Sastry wrote on X that over the last few months she urged Guernica’s leaders to “commit to cultural boycotts” organized by pro-Palestinian activists. They disagreed, she wrote, telling staff in an email that “Guernica’s political projects can be found in what we publish.”

For the record:

8:23 a.m. March 13, 2024 An earlier version of this article said Madhuri Sastry flagged concerns about a Joanna Chen story published in Guernica’s “Voices on Palestine” compilation. The story was published but not included in the collection.

But Sastry did not always like what the magazine published. Even before this week, she said, she raised concerns about a previous story by Chen that was being considered for the magazine’s “Voices on Palestine” compilation. It was ultimately excluded.

At the same time, Guernica’s editors received complaints that their magazine lacked a complexity of voices and was too pro-Palestinian.

Emily Fox Kaplan, an essayist and journalist who is Jewish and has written for Guernica since 2020, wrote on X that “the only mistake Guernica made was not publishing a wide variety of voices” on the Israel-Palestinian issue “from day one.”

“The problem, when it really comes down to it, is that it presents an Israeli as human,” Kaplan wrote of Chen’s essay. “The people who are losing their minds about this want to believe that there are no civilians in Israel. They want a simple good guys/bad guys binary, and this creates cognitive dissonance.”

Other writers accused activists who attacked Chen’s essay of “bareknuckled antisemitism” and Guernica of “ taking its cue from Joe McCarthy and MAGA book burners .”

“God forbid someone might think Israelis are complex human beings, and not just demons,” said Lahav Harkov, a senior political correspondent at Jewish Insider.

The antisemitic cartoon roiling Harvard? It’s not the first time it caused a firestorm

Activists set out to highlight the links between Black and Palestinian liberation. They dredged up a historic dispute over an antisemitic cartoon.

Feb. 23, 2024

Chen said in her statement to The Times that she did not realize the essay was sparking more than usual criticism until Saturday evening when a friend texted to alert her that one of the Guernica editors had resigned. She reached out to the editor in chief that evening and they spoke briefly Sunday morning.

“Since then, nothing,” she said.

“Guernica claims to be ‘a home for singular voices, incisive ideas, and critical questions’ but apparently there is no longer space in this home for a real conversation,” Chen said. “But I do not regard this as a missed opportunity: my words are being read and the door is still, in fact, open.”

Her essay, which is available on the Internet archive , Wayback Machine, offers a personal account of living in Israel before and after Oct. 7.

She wrote that she struggled to assimilate when she moved to Israel. Two years later, at 18, she chose not to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Besides her volunteer work with Road to Recovery, which provides transportation for Palestinian children to hospitals, she describes donating blood to the people of Gaza. She also translated and edited the poems of Palestinian poets, believing their voices were “just as important” as the voices she translated from Hebrew.

After Oct. 7, Chen wrote, “I listened to interviews with survivors; I watched videos of atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel and reports about the rising number of innocent civilians killed in a devastated Gaza.”

She described holding a space in her mind for the victims in both Israel and Gaza: “At night, I lay in bed on my back in the dark, listening to rain against the window. I wondered if the Israeli hostages underground, the children and women, had any way of knowing the weather had turned cold, and I thought of the people of Gaza, the children and women, huddled inside tents supplied by the UN or looking for shelter.”

When a fellow volunteer expressed anger that Palestinians she had helped did not reach out after Oct. 7, Chen did not take sides.

“The Palestinians in the West Bank were struggling with their own problems: closure, the inability to work, the threat of widescale arrests being made by the Israeli army, and harassment by settlers,” she wrote. “No one was safe.”

Two weeks after Oct. 7, Chen writes, she resumed volunteering for Road to Recovery, ignoring her family’s fears for her safety, and drove a Palestinian boy and his father to an Israeli hospital. When they exited her car and the child’s father thanked her, she wrote, she wanted to tell him: “ No, thank you for trusting me with your child. Thank you for reminding me that we can still find empathy and love in this broken world.”

For activists who object to the very existence of Israel, Chen’s liberal framing — and refusal to take a stance — is inherently problematic: They say that the focus on finding empathy and love in a broken world ultimately justifies the status quo.

In her critique of the essay, April Zhu, former senior editor for interviews, wrote the essay starts “from a place that ostensibly acknowledges the ‘shared humanity’ of Palestinians and Israelis, yet fails or refuses to trace the shape of power — in this case, a violent, imperialist, colonial power — that makes the systematic and historic dehumanization of Palestinians ... a non-issue.”

Some argued that Chen’s liberal perspective was more problematic than any conservative voice.

“I find open warmongering less nauseating than this sort of self-pitying faux-bleeding heart claptrap,” wrote an independent filmmaker from L.A. “The fascist propagandist is at least honest. The liberal propagandist never shuts up about how tormented they are by the terrible *complexity* of it all. Get over yourself.”

More to Read

Letters to the Editor: ‘War is hell’ is an awful excuse to keep killing Palestinians

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Opinion: How the fight against antisemitism is now used to promote an ‘anti-woke’ agenda

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Israel’s media mostly keep Gaza’s human toll out of sight

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Spain’s Geography and Culture Essay

Spain, claiming over half a million acres on the Iberian Peninsula, fronts on the North Atlantic, the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Balearic Sea. It borders the Pyrenees of France. and Portugal to the West. Morocco is its nearest Southern neighbor, across the Straits of Gibraltar (known in Classical times as the Pillars of Hercules) (n.a., Spain) .

Archeological evidence shows long habitation ranging from the pre-human (n.a., Spain History). Today’s populations represent a mix of Iron-Age Celtiberians, and subsequent conquerors; Romans, Visigoths, and Arabs, plus European allies/enemies (Gascoigne) . More recently, Spain has absorbed expatriates, ‘snow birds’ (Govan), and immigrants from less advantaged regions, including former New World colonies (Worden). Gypsies have always had a presence as well (n.a., Spain – The Gypsies).

The rich legacy thereby bequeathed includes the Paleolithic cave art of Altamira to the north, Neolithic passage tombs at Los Millares to the South (n.a., Los Millares (3200-2200 B.C.)), Alhambra’s Moorish beauty (n.a., Alhambra), traditional bull-fighting, Flamenco music and dancing, the Prado’s treasures, medieval walled communities such as Toledo, and magnificent cathedrals and shrines everywhere. All are compelling.

Daily life in Spain is idiosyncratic, although the siesta is disappearing (Deschenaux) . One wonders whether its demise will doom the nightly round of tapas bars; only feasible given a daytime rest. Gastronomy is unlikely to abate, given Madrid’s self-proclaimed ‘museum of ham’ (McLane). The distinctive cuisine of Spain includes the bounty of sea and land, plus colonial acquisitions such as potatoes and tomatoes.

When might we journey there?

Works Cited

Deschenaux, Joanne. Less Time for Lunch: the siesta in Spain is disappearing under the pressures of international business and big-city commuting, from HR Magazine. June 2008. Web.

Gascoigne, Bamber. History of Spain . From 2001, Ongoing. Web.

Govan, Fiona. “ British Expatriates March In Spain To Protest Against Chaotic Planning Laws. ” 2009. The Telegraph. Web.

McLane, Daisann. “ In Madrid There’s No Such Thing As Too Much Ham. ” 2000. New York Times. Web.

n.a. A Traveller’s Geography of Spain. 2010. Web.

—. Alhambra . 2010. Web.

—. Los Millares (3200-2200 B.C.). 2010. Web.

—. Spain . 27 December 2010. Central Intelligence Agency. Web.

—. “ Spain – The Gypsies. ” Country Studies. US Library Of Congress. Web.

—. “ Spain History .” 2010. Brittanica. Web.

Worden, Tom. “ Spain Sees Six-Fold Increase in Immigration Over Decade. ” 2010. The Guardian. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, July 18). Spain’s Geography and Culture. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spain/

"Spain’s Geography and Culture." IvyPanda , 18 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/spain/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Spain’s Geography and Culture'. 18 July.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Spain’s Geography and Culture." July 18, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spain/.

1. IvyPanda . "Spain’s Geography and Culture." July 18, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spain/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Spain’s Geography and Culture." July 18, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/spain/.

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Guernica magazine retracts Israeli writer’s coexistence essay that co-publisher called an ‘apologia for Zionism’

( JTA ) — Amid criticism from staff members and others, a prestigious literary magazine has retracted an essay by an Israeli writer and translator wrestling with her attempts to find mutual understanding with Palestinians after Oct. 7.

Guernica magazine did not explain the retraction over the weekend but said it “regrets having published” the essay by Joanna Chen, titled “From The Edges Of A Broken World.”

The retraction came after multiple members of the journal’s volunteer staff resigned publicly over the essay.

Madhuri Sastry, a human-rights worker and researcher formerly of the American Red Cross, quit as co-publisher on Sunday after calling the essay “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.” She also called for the resignation of the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jina Ngarambe.

As many as 15 other editors and staffers also resigned, according to a review of recent changes to the magazine’s masthead, many after making their own public statements decrying the essay and Guernica’s choice to print it. Ishita Marwah, Guernica’s departing fiction editor, for example, wrote that publishing the piece made the magazine “a pillar of eugenicist white colonialism masquerading as goodness.”

The Guernica page that used to house Chen’s essay now reads, “Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it. A more fulsome explanation will follow.”

Chen did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday.

The retraction comes amid widespread tensions within the literary community over the Israel-Hamas war. A number of independent literary magazines like Guernica have prioritized pro-Palestinian narratives, and Jewish and pro-Israel authors have been targeted with online criticism. The situation is so acute that the Jewish Book Council, a nonprofit that promotes Jewish writers and stories, recently launched an initiative to track antisemitism in the literary world .

Guernica’s case stands out because Chen, and her essay, are deeply critical of the present situation in Israel. Chen, a writer and translator of both Hebrew and Arabic work who moved to Israel from the United Kingdom as a teenager, wrote for Guernica in 2015 about her efforts not to build on land from which Palestinians had been displaced. In the retracted essay, she details her commitment to coexistence and frets over the ways in which Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel has challenged it.

Chen writes that she did not serve in the Israel Defense Forces, and describes how she worked as a volunteer for Road to Recovery, an organization in which Israelis provide transport for Palestinians who are seeking medical care, both before and after Hamas’ attack (while briefly pausing in the immediate aftermath). She also recalls an experience donating blood to Palestinians during Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, for which she received blowback from other Israelis. But she says the bridges she had been working to build felt impossible to complete after Oct. 7.

“It is not easy to tread the line of empathy, to feel passion for both sides,” Chen writes in the piece, which also includes translated excerpts from Hebrew- and Arabic-language poems. It remains available online through the Internet Archive .

Of two Gaza-based poets whose work she previously played a role in translating, Chen wrote, “Their voices are important ones, and I want the English-speaking world to listen to them as much as I want the world to listen to the voices I translate from Hebrew.”

Almost as soon as the piece appeared online, it began drawing criticism from within the Guernica staff. Founded in 2004 partly in response to the Iraq War and named after Pablo Picasso’s famous anti-war painting, the nonprofit magazine has long married literary bona fides and left-wing politics. Having published writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, George Saunders and Jesmyn Ward, it identifies its focus as “the intersection of art and politics.”

The publication of Chen’s piece, Sastry said in her statement, violated the magazine’s “anti-imperialist” spirit. She wrote that she had initially pushed the magazine to support a cultural boycott of Israel but was told that the publication’s politics should be expressed “solely through our editorial choices and position.” Now, she said, an editorial process she sees as opaque had led to the publication of a piece she could not support.

“I am deeply ashamed to see this piece in Guernica’s pages, and sincerely apologize to the writers, readers and supporters who feel betrayed by this decision,” the co-publisher tweeted.

Sastry did not provide examples of what she found objectionable about the piece, except to note that it “attempts to soften the violence of colonialism and genocide.” But several other departing editors offered more specific critiques.

“It starts from the outside, from a place that ostensibly acknowledges the ‘shared humanity’ of Palestinians and Israelis, yet fails or refuses to trace the shape of power — in this case, a violent, imperialist, colonial power — that makes the systematic and historic dehumanization of Palestinians (the tacit precondition for why she may feel a need at all to affirm ‘shared humanity’ in the first place) a non-issue,” senior editor April Zhu wrote in a statement published Saturday.

Joshua Gutterman Tranen, an anti-Zionist Jewish writer who has published in Guernica in the past, specifically pointed out a passage he found objectionable in which Chen briefly pauses her volunteer work after Oct. 7, writing, “How could I continue after Hamas had massacred and kidnapped so many civilians, including Road to Recovery members, such as Vivian Silver, a longtime Canadian peace activist? And I have to admit, I was afraid for my own life.”

“The moment in the Guernica essay where the Israeli writer — who never considers why Palestinian children don’t have access to adequate healthcare b/c of colonization and apartheid — says she has to stop assisting them getting medical support because of ‘Hamas,’” Tranen tweeted. “This is genocidal.”

Israel strenuously rejects the charge that it is committing genocide, saying it takes measures to avoid killing civilians. Its supporters, including a cohort of Black Jews who have vocally defended Israel online in recent months, dispute that it is a “white” country, noting that a large portion of its Jewish population has roots in the Middle East and North Africa.

Chen’s essay is not the first time progressive Jews and Israelis have been condemned for being insufficiently critical of Israel. The official movement to boycott Israel, for example, called for a boycott of Standing Together , an Israeli-Palestinian coexistence group that opposes the war, saying that the group promotes “normalization” of Israel. And when Haymarket Books, a left-wing publisher, recently announced a book co-authored by longtime leaders of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, it drew sharp criticism on Instagram — in part because one author, who supports boycotting Israel, is married to an Israeli and has family members in Israel.

For some Jews who have questioned their place in progressive and literary spaces since Oct. 7, Guernica’s retraction offered new evidence of a toxic discourse in which no Israeli or Jew can pass muster.

“THIS is what was beyond the pale? This essay of nuance, lived experiences, fears, hopes, and continuing to strive in her own way for peace?” tweeted Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a historian of modern Israel who has written about her own struggle to sustain her liberal Zionist outlook after the attack, after reading the retracted piece. “Obviously this is just a bigoted decision about an Israeli and Jewish author … This virtual burning of books is bareknuckled antisemitism.”

Emily Fox Kaplan, a Jewish writer who had shared the essay before it was retracted, wrote that she saw the criticism of Chen’s essay as part of a much wider dynamic.

“The problem, when it really comes down to it, is that it presents an Israeli as human,” she tweeted. “The people who are losing their minds about this want to believe that there are no civilians in Israel. They want a simple good guys/bad guys binary, and this creates cognitive dissonance.”

Some non-Jewish writers also lamented the piece’s retraction.

“Anyone who wants to seriously grapple with war had better be prepared for far more shocking opinions than are found in this thoughtful essay by a translator and writer living in Israel,” tweeted Phil Klay, a U.S. military veteran whose writing draws on his war experiences. “Shame on @GuernicaMag for pulling it down.”

Matt Gallagher, a war correspondent who is also a veteran and who opposes the Israel-Hamas war, said his own work had benefited from reading thoughtful authors whose perspectives were different from his own.

“If you want the war in Gaza to end, as I do,” he tweeted , “shouting down calm Israeli voices mulling the ruin of it all isn’t going to help.”

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