1. Chapter 6 Lecture
Human Geography: Places and
Regions in Global Context
Sixth Edition
Wendy A. Mitteager
State University of New York, Oneonta
Interpreting Places and
Landscapes

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Key Concepts
• Relationships between people and space
• Environmental behavior
• Territoriality
• Cognitive images
• Landscapes
• Sacred spaces
• Place-making
• Modernity
Figure: Chapter 6 Opener The Vietnam Veteran Memorial illustrates the
power of landscape to affect us

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Behavior, Knowledge, and Human
Environments
• Interdependence
between people
and places
• Understanding
environmental
perception and
knowledge
• Cindi Katz
Figure 6.1 Conflicting environmental
perceptions in California

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Behavior, Knowledge, and Human
Environments, (cont’d)
Figure 6.2 A Shepard's map, drawn by a 10-year-old Sudanese
boy, illustrating his detailed environmental knowledge

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Figure 6.3 Graffiti as territorial markers
Place-Making
• Places are socially
constructed
• Territoriality
• Proxemics
• Insiders and
Outsiders
Apply your knowledge: Describe the relationship between
ethology and territoriality. Evaluate examples that you experience in
everyday life of proxemics as a territorializing force.

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Place-Making, (cont’d)
• Cognitive images
• Paths, edges,
districts, nodes,
landmarks
• Distortions
Figure 6.5 Cognitive image of Boston
Apply your knowledge: Use the five elements to map out your
image of the college campus.

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Figur6
Place-Making, (cont’d)
Figure 6.6 Images of Los Angeles as seen by residents
of different communities.

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Place-Making, (cont’d)
Figure 6.7 Preference map of the U.S. held by a group of Virginia Tech students, based on
the perceived attractiveness of cities and states as places to live.

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Landscapes as Human Systems
• Derelict landscapes
• Ordinary landscapes
• Humanistic approach
in geography
Figure 6.10 Vulgaria: size and
ostentation are the dominant
factors in upscale
U.S. residential development

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Landscapes as Human Systems, (cont’d)
Figure 6.8 Some cities are
immediately recognizable because of
their famous landmarks.

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Landscapes as Human Systems, (cont’d)
Figure 6.9 These ordinary landscapes in New England and Middle America have become
symbolic of the U.S.

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Coded Spaces
• Landscape as text
• Semiotics
• Commercial spaces
– “Palaces of consumption”
• Sacred spaces
Figure 6.13 Sacred sites of Hindu India

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Coded Spaces, (cont’d)
Figure 6.12 Angor Wat, Cambodia is a sacred
space for Buddhists
Figure 6.15 Points of origin of European
group-organized pilgrims to Lourdes in 1978

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Jerusalem, the Holy City
Figure 6.A Map of Jerusalem Figure 6.B Dome of the Rock

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Place and Space in Modern Society
• Modernity
– Emphasizes reason, scientific rationality, creativity,
novelty, and progress
Figure 6.16 Modernist urban landscape, an
office district in Paris
Figure 6.17 Modernized rural landscape, U.K.

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Globalization and Place-Making
• Spread of Modernity to peripheral regions
• Cyberspace
– With its own “landscape”
• Commonalities of a shared, global
consciousness
Figure 6.18 The slow city movement, a
grassroots response to globalization,
supports “slow food.”

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Cyberspace and Social Networking
Figure 6.FFigure 6.D How people share content

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Figure 6.G Number of Facebook
users compared to populations of
selected countries
Figure 6.C Estimated number of worldwide
users of social networks
Cyberspace and Social Networking, (cont’d)

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Figure 6.J The Slow City movement in Waldkirch
allows for social bonds to develop among pedestrians.
Figure 6.H The heart of the town is
the Marktplatz, which dates from the
early Middle Ages.
Waldkirch, Germany

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Places as Objects of Consumption
• “Culture industries”
– Advertising strategies
• Visual and experiential
consumption
• “Heritage industry”
Apply your knowledge: Compare and contrast modernity and
postmodernity. Give specific examples of each.
Figure 6.19 Las Vegas showcases “historic”
settings based mostly on stereotypes

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Figure 6.20 Thames Town in Shanghai,
China combines commercial, residential, and
cultural elements
Figure 6.21 Consumption in style at the Bed
Restaurant, Florida
Places as Objects of Consumption, (cont’d)

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Future Geographies
• Homogenization of culture
• Cosmopolitanism
Figure 6.22 The McDonald’s Buddha seated in
lotus position in Shanghai, China was removed
within one month due to criticism. In 2005, a less
controversial version was introduced around
Thailand without much objection.

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End of Chapter 6