handouts of this unit’s lecture presentations:
a. Regions and realms, players and settings
b. The global ecumene
c. New World Orders
d. The global North-South divide

Classroom Discussion Questions

Chapters 1–6 and 26 of the Plaid Avenger textbook (PA) are assigned for this unit, as are the introduction and conclusion of the Marks book (M) and the Prologue and Chapter 1 of the Smith book (S). Relevant assigned readings for each of the discussion questions below are designated in parentheses.
  • What is the “Rise of the West”? To what “Gap” is it related? And how do we explain this rise/gap through conjuncture and contingencies? (M)
  • What makes “Eurocentrism” different from other types of ethnocentrism? How is Marks’ story an alternative to “Eurocentrism”? (M)
  • According to Marks, when did globalization begin, and how many distinct waves of globalization have there been? When does Smith place the beginning of globalization, and how does he suggest that it is incorrect to think that economic globalization is an unplanned, organic outcome of the “free market”? (M, S)
  • What is a “pizzly”, and what does its emergence reveal--or at least suggest--about climate change? (S)
  • What are the “four global forces” that Smith identifies as “busily shaping our 2050 world for tens to hundreds of years”? (S)

Key Places

The following list of geographic items and concepts forms the basis of the Unit 1 map quiz:
Greenwich Prime Meridian
Equator
North and South Poles
Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn
Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic oceans
Mediterranean, Black, and Red Seas; Persian Gulf
the old Silk Roads
the Plaid Avenger’s World Regions
China and India
primary and secondary clusters of population (and "empty" regions of low population density)
example regions of high/low life expectancy, fertility, and population growth
the First, Second, and Third Worlds of the 20th Century
the global North-South Divide
example countries/regions of high, medium, and low development (HDI)
major world cities: New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore
example countries/regions of British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch colonialism
the Plaid Avenger’s “Team West”
the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
the BRICs
example regions of major world religions (e.g., Christianity and Islam)
example regions that are mostly home to Indo-European languages

Keywords

globalization
TNCs and NGOs
Clash of Civilizations
Team West
NATO
OECD
BRICs
SCO
G7 / G8 / G20
WTO
UN Security Council
race vs. haplogroup
scale
metageography
Orientalism
world regions
borderlands
core, domain, and sphere
-
ecumene
the Demographic Transition
life expectancy
total fertility rate
population pyramid
demographic momentum
demographic dependency
-
colonialism
nation
state
sovereignty
irredentism
stateless nations
the Right vs. the Left
capitalism (democratic socialism), communism (state capitalism)
First World, Second World, Third World
neocolonialism and the Non-Aligned Movement
-
development (MDCs and LDCs)
Human Development Index
economic structure (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary sectors)
sustainable development
Malthusian
failed states
cronyism
protectionism / import substitution / nationalization
neoliberalism / privatization / austerity / Structural Adjustment Programs
-
Eurocentrism
the “Rise of the West”
conjuncture and contingency

Additional Information

Additional coverage of some of the general and specific ideas discussed above can be found via the following links:
UA-21077143-1