Geographical Foundations: Making of a Modern World (4SSG1014)
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Geographical Foundations: Making of a Modern World
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Course
Geographical Foundations: Making of a Modern World (4SSG1014)
Institution
Kings College London (KCL)
An introduction to Human and Development geography, developing a critical awareness of the temporal, spatial and ecological dimensions of modes of production; An understanding of the reciprocal interrelationships between people and environments; An understanding of the geographies of difference wit...
Geographical Foundations: Making of a Modern World (4SSG1014)
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Making of a Modern World
(notes)
Week 1 Thursday (26/09/2019)
Human geography made up of:
Globalisation
Human-Nature Interactions
Urban inequality and transformations
Why are these places poor? Sahara, rainforest in DRC, Nepalese Himalayas
Not natural environment, because there are similar environments in Saudi Arabia,
Australia, Swiss Alps
More to do with politics, colonialism, capitalism, connections with ppl
Early humans:
Australopithecus - 4-1.8mil yrs ago
Homo erectus - 1.8mil-400,000 yrs ago
Homo sapiens - 200,000 yrs ago to now
Until 10,000 BC, everyone was in a hunter-gatherer society:
Technology was spears, nets
Culture included painted pictures, jewellery
These societies depend on the environment
Are still some hunter-gatherer societies today e.g Aborigines in Australia
Development of agriculture progressed humans from hunter-gatherers:
Farming came from leisurely experimentation e.g trying to get more of a plant they
like
Necessity due to either climatic change or population growth
Farmer is more laborious, boring
Agriculture emerged independently in around 7 different locations around the world:
Earliest emergence in Levant/Fertile Crescent, in present day Iraq/Syria/Turkey
Farmers amplified the impact on the environment (e.g deforestation) often
irreversibly
Production enabled division of labour - surplus enabled others to become artists,
kings, priests, warriors
Society divided between religions, races, classes, increasing diversity
Blaut argument, critical of Jared Diamond:
Eurocentric
Too generalising
Neglects choice
Catalogue rather than explanation
, Doesn’t truly explain divergence of Europeans and Chinese
, Week 2 Thursday (3/10/2019)
From early civilisation to the rise of the nation state
Emergence of state societies (e.g Mesopotamia in 4000 BC) discounts the idea that the
environment causes development - its more to do with modes of production and merthods
of organising society
Blaut: Critique of diamond:
Eurocentric - doesn’t look at rise of civilisations in sub-Saharan Africa
Crude and generalising - description not an explanation
Neglects choice - China decided not to ‘conquer’ ROTW as they had what they
needed around them. In addition, societies not adapting agriculture was a choice
Biologist looking at history, so disregards social science
Europe similar to other societies until 16th century (e.g Great Zimbabwe in AD 1000-
1400 had castles and fortresses comparable to European ones of the time
Zheng He (from China) reached east Africa, found archaeological remains and more, found
Incans in S.America, Angkor Wat in Cambodia BEFORE COLOMBUS
1492 - paradigm shift
Rise of capitalism led to uneven development of global economy
Early agriculture allowed surplus food, leading to increased population density and division
of labour, also known as social differentiation.
How surplus was produced and unevenly distributed between classes shaped
society, culture and success or failure of societies
FEUDAL SOCIETY - pyramid shape, with kings at the top and farmers and slaves (who
produce food and commodities for the kings at the top) at the bottom
ECONOMY - interrelated processes of production, circulation, exchange, consumption
POLITICAL ECONOMY - production & accumulation of wealth and uneven distribution of
surplus
FACTORS OF PRODUCTION - land, labour, capital (investment) and knowledge
MODES OF PRODUCTION - socioeconomic systems determining how work is organised and
wealth distributed
CAPITALISM - to do with saved money used by entrepreneurial class to employ waged
labour and make commodities for sale in markets
Emerged 500 yrs ago
Some believe it developed independently in many locations
Global capitalism is mainly tied to Europe
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