Digital Component: 5.2 Design thinking – throughout the course, students will be introduced to digital tools such as CMap and Piktochart (and others they might use).  Each of these involves thinking about design

Course Component: Understanding information shown in maps, tables, charts, graphs, infographics, images, and landscapes

Digital Component: 5.2 Design thinking – throughout the course, students will be introduced to digital tools such as CMap and Piktochart (and others they might use).  Each of these involves thinking about design

Course Component:

• Seeing patterns and trends in data and in visual sources such as maps and drawing conclusions from them
• Understanding spatial relationships using different geographic scales

There are many religions within this world in which all are looked at differently and have their own biases. There are many religions that have different beliefs that might interferer and or even go against another religion that may result in haltered or ignorance toward one another. The idea that some religions are ‘better’ or more accepted than another makes it really hard for people to respect one other based on their values and beliefs. The respect and acceptance of another religion needs to be accepted in order to form a more comfortable relationship between different worlds. For example, Muslims are usually looked at differently compared to people of Christianity because of its unfamiliarity. Some people connect certain groups based on what they look like but not all people within this religion share the same values. For example, when some people think of Muslims there are traits that are nowhere near an example of what they believe and hold dear. Terrorism is one instance that has affected Muslims in the worst way possible. It has created a notion that every single Muslim is a terrorist or is to be feared because of previous events. Islamophobia can be defined as “an exaggerated, fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslins that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life”. There is a well-known reason for this and was the result of the 2001 terrorist attack. But Islamophobia existed before this and was a preconceived fear. Religion is a hard way for people to connect considering the many differences that they might share but it is still healthy to look further and try to understand their views in order to become familiar with that group of people.

There needs to be a sense of awareness that allows for facts to be known that would then allow for an opinion to be formed. For instance, “the U.S identified more than 160 Muslim-American terrorism suspects and perpetrators in the decade since 9/11, just a percentage of the thousands of acts of violence that occur in the United States each year”. These 160 suspected terrorists Muslim-Americans is an example of what fuels Islamophobia. Within that decade there were thousands of other crimes that were committed but the 160 Muslim-American suspects were heard the most since there was already a preconception of what comes with the Muslim religion which is not the truth. In late 2009, the largest Swiss parliament banned minarets construction. The government opposed the ban considering it would hinder their image and make them look bad. The ban was placed and 84% of them said it is possible for a Muslim to be a good Swiss patriot but when asked if they believe Muslims should feel discriminated about the ban 68% said no. This is an example of what struggles Muslims have to go through as a result of the idea of Islamophobia. Completing this ban led to the rising of Islamophobia.

The facts are there when it comes to the prejudices that Muslims have to not only listen to but deal with as well. “In the U.S, about one-half of nationally representative samples of Mormons, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, and Jews agree that in general, most Americans are prejudiced toward Muslim Americans”. Muslims are experiencing racial and religious discrimination based on Islamophobia and it allows for people to continue to be unfair and cruel to a certain group based on a single story of affiliation that terrorists have with the Muslim religion. Addressing Islamophobia is one way that people can become aware of the issue and try to turn it about. I think that correcting people when they speak on the issue with false information could help out as well because it can give people more information to differentiate between terrorist groups and the Muslim religion. The acceptance of Muslims in different communities can go a long way in finding the balance between different religions that might bump heads. Involving Muslim people in various communities that aren’t usually associated with various religions can spread knowledge on the issue making it easier for people to move away from Islamophobia.

Digital Components:

• 2.1 Collaborative communication – we will be blogging and tweeting our blogs – and also communicating with our classmates through WordPress/Twitter as well as in other ways on Moodle

2.2 Digital writing and publishing – we will be publishing our work in the open.  We will have multiple digital assignments, and students will have some agency in choosing which item they’d like to blog about in each module.

Course Component: Connecting geographic concepts and processes to real-life scenarios

Culture is split in two ways, there is a popular culture in which is known to be a large heterogeneous population in urban areas with quick-changing cultural traits. Next, there is a local culture in which a group of people in particular places see themselves as a collective or community. These people share customs and work to preserve these traits in order to distinguish from others. Despite their differences, these two different ways of living exist together on earth and are used to give examples of not only certain groups of people but how this world is growing. The two can simply be compared by saying, material vs non-material. A pop culture that deals more with the material is related to the idea of things, such as what you have in life that could possibly be compared to your wealth of lifestyle. I believe local culture believes more in the idea of beliefs, what makes them who they are by the way they live. It can be explained by saying each item or clothing is used and worn for a reason. For example, “some local cultures rely primarily on religion to maintain their belief systems; others rely on community celebrations or on family structures; and others rely on a lack of interaction with other cultures” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p. 91). Whereas unlike local culture, pop culture can change in a matter of days. But for example, the two are similar when it comes to dance and clothing. These two are both moving within each other through political and economic elements that allow both to change.

The Amish Culture

Local culture is an example of Amish people, they are known for their traditional and older way of living. To begin, the language that is spoken is an ancient dialect of German that has Dutch and English influence. Considering that it is an older German, it can be used as an example of how they are a local culture and non-material community that does not focus on the traditions of life today. Where they live could also be used as an example, Amish people are usually centered around farming. This being said, they are almost always located in rural areas that are far from urban communities in order to stray away from city influence. For example, “Ohio has the largest Amish population, followed by Pennsylvania and Indiana” (Diebel 2014). Although farming is one of the main kinds of work for Amish people, in a recent study there has been a rise of Amish carpentry and construction crews. This is related to the way that they do things on their own and live a local culture life that gives them the freedom to build homes and not be distracted by buying one that might cut into their economic status. Technology is a major reason for local culture people such as the Amish to live in rural places. The Amish forbid owning an automobile, television, radio, computer, self-propelled farm machinery. This all connects to living in older times where this was common but in today’s world, it is used by all of the popular culture and urban areas.

Fashion diffusion

“The main paths of diffusion of popular culture are the transportation, marketing, and communication networks (including social networks) that interlink vast parts of the world” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p.92). This is one of the major differences between the two. The ability to be able to connect to different parts of the world while using social media and the internet is why popular culture is always evolving. Not only this but the way trends are consistently changing and evolving. The use of technology makes it easier to find out what material items are of value. This makes a way for people within popular culture to keep up with them. Fashion trends are spread quickly. There are multiple parts to the hierarchy in fashion. It usually begins with runways or major fashion cities such as London, Milan, Paris, and New York. Then after this comes fashion magazines that are also located in big cities. Finally, there come the department stores for consumers of a larger audience. The point of this diffusion is an example of popular culture, no one would know what these items were or their market value if they are not given such praise, to begin with. Clothing and accessories are displayed over a period of time that allows people to see them through technology and the internet which is a key for popular culture.

Digital components:

• 2.1 Collaborative communication – we will be blogging and tweeting our blogs – and also communicating with our classmates through WordPress/Twitter as well as in other ways on Moodle

2.2 Digital writing and publishing – we will be publishing our work in the open.  We will have multiple digital assignments, and students will have some agency in choosing which item they’d like to blog about in each module.

Course Component: Connecting geographic concepts and processes to real-life scenarios

Imagine the difficulty of traveling across thousands of miles in fear of danger ranging from armed conflict to political circumstances to environmental conditions. Even sometimes leaving family behind to try and seek opportunities for them in order to search and compete for a job that may or may not be there. Traveling by land and sea, looking for a way out of a country that is in poverty and or dangerous to live in. For example, “The dreadful conflict that engulfed the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s drove as many as 3 million people from their homes, mostly into western Europe” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p. 71). The closest country in western Europe is Austria which by getting there would have caused one to cross two countries. People are forced out of their homes that were once safe to benefit their family in the future. Fleeing must have not been easy considering how many were leaving. Busloads of people going out to countries they know might accept them is a scary thing to think about. Also, crossing international lines is difficult as well, bordering countries to Yugoslavia must’ve had to process these people that said were unfit to stay at their homes. Migration can prove to be difficult, for example, the people that were seeking refuge from Yugoslavia had to wait in order to try and receive citizenship which would take some time.  Forced migration causes trouble and strain on a family or individual such as Yugoslavia.

Germany 1939-1945: Political Circumstance

There are two different types of migration which are voluntary or involuntary. Involuntary can involve being forced to migrate either internationally or internally. Almost all cases of involuntary migration sides with internationally moving. For example, A specific German party in which caused WWII forced Jewish people to fear for their lives and flee as quickly as they could so that their family name would live on. “In January of 1933, there were some 523,000 Jews in Germany, representing less than 1 percent of the country’s total population…the response to the Nazi takeover was a substantial wave of emigration (37,000-38,000).   (Holocaust Encyclopedia). One of Ravensteins’s Laws of Migrations says, families are less likely to make international moves than young adults, but this did not apply to them because they were running from danger and they were running to stay in another country. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland openly took Jews in with hospitality because of forced migration. “People who fear their culture and traditions will not survive a major political transition, and who are able to migrate to places they perceive as safer, will often do so” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p. 72).

New Orleans: Environmental Conditions

Environmental conditions can be one cause of forced migration. “These crises including earthquakes hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis also stimulate migrations” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p. 71). For instance, the population can completely decline which is what happened in the devastating hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. This massive hurricane was the cause of forced migration which wiped out most of everything in its path. “Hurricane Katrina caused $81 billion in property damages, but it is estimated that the total economic impact in Louisiana and Mississippi may exceed $150 billion, earning the title of the costliest hurricane ever in US history” (Facts about Hurricane Katrina). If this much property was destroyed by the hurricane then the people that evacuated the area and were forced to leave rather than face danger must have be plenty. “The population of New Orleans fell by 11 percent… the portion of children in New Orleans’ population also fell, from 27 percent in 2000 to 23 percent in 2007” (Blij Murphy, Fouberg p. 71). It is shown in many of these cases that the population declines because of danger within these subgroups of forced migration. Climate is one way of describing the reason of migration. There are many other instances where involuntary migration takes place and there will be more. “One report suggests that the world will see as many as 150 million climate refugees from 40 countries by 2050” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p. 72). The fact that climate could be the leading cause of refuges shows how much is out of our control and how much is.

• Hybrid/Digital Component:
• 1.4 Managing digital identity, privacy and security – we will discuss these issues when discussing online platforms such as blogging and using Twitter 
• 2.1 Collaborative communication – we will be blogging and tweeting our blogs – and also communicating with our classmates through WordPress/Twitter as well as in other ways on Moodle

Course Components: Connecting geographic concepts and processes to real-life scenarios

Population growth can be caused by government policies that affect birth rates and influence family size. There are three groups of population increase and decrease

1. Expansive: encourage large families to raise the rate of natural increase
2. Eugenic: designed to favor one racial or cultural sector of the population over others
3. Restrictive: try and implement policies in order to decrease the population and total fertility rate

These policies are created to control the population and the growth of citizens within the country. One example of expansive policy The Soviet Union and China. The total fertility rate (TFR) in Russia was 2.04 in 1980 and had fallen to 1.34 by the mid-2000s (but has not rebounded to 1.7). This happened because of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Many countries make rules or laws in order to persuade families in countries to try and increase or decline TFRs. “The Russian government began to offer cash subsidies of $10,000 to women who give birth to a second or third child” (Blij, Murphy, Fouberg p. 56). This is an example of expansion since there was a decline in population it could affect the economy by a shortage of laborers. The negative of this expansion policy is that countries would have to continue to give back in order to increase population but that also could affect the economy. The government would have to continue to pay or give handouts so that families would try to have more children. A positive of this would be population growth would increase allowing for stronger countries with a stronger core or semi-periphery class.

Japan’s Population Growth Policy

Japan also went through an expansion process because of their low fertility rates. Japan had three expansion policies

1. Childcare services
2. Parental leave schemes
3. Monetary assistance in form of child allowances

First, the number of child centers increased which cause demand for them. There could be positives and negatives of these actions. A positive would help parents stress and would help them go to work frequently. By doing this Japanese parent’s income would increase so that they and their children could live better lives. A negative for increasing childcare centers is it would cost a lot. The Japanese government would have to fund these centers which wouldn’t be cheap. Secondly, the government of Japan offered 12 of parental leave to ensure children are well taken care of and that parents have time to afford a comfortable place for children to live at home. A positive is an increase in income for parents and a negative would cause less work around the house considering both parents would be out making a wage for the family. Shortly after WWII, child per women declined to about 2.1. This being said there was also a decline in marriages which could also cause low fertility rates. “As of 2010, 11% of women and 20% of men at the age of 50 had never been married” (Policy Brief No. 11). The strain that this put on Japan is what caused for the decline in TFR.

China’s Population Decrease Policy

China implements its own policy in order to decrease their population. This policy is known as the “one-child policy”. This policy “reduced china’s growth rate from one of the world’s fastest to one of the world’s slowest” (Blij, Muphy, Fouberg). From one of the fastest-growing countries to one of the slowest made solved China’s problem of population, but it wouldn’t happen overnight. Overpopulation is a problem for many reasons, it could cause for a shortage of jobs, and shortage of food. One problem that I didn’t think about was schooling for children. “There are too many children and the competition is too high. If you don’t do well in school you can’t get into a good university, and then maybe you can’t get a good job in the future” (Lily Kuo). Competition will always be a factor. The chances of things going your way would fall and it would make people work harder than ever to try and accomplish and succeed in certain things. This is the reason for restriction policies. One positive of China’s one-child policy would eliminate overpopulation and it would no longer be an issue over a period of time. A negative of this policy would children would no longer be able to know what it’s like to have siblings. Also, parents would not know what it’s like to have a big family that they could support. China’s policy caused problems but it also had its benefits.

Hybrid/Digital Component:  2.1 Collaborative communication – we will be blogging and tweeting our blogs – and also communicating with our classmates through WordPress/Twitter as well as in other ways on Moodle

Course Components:

• Seeing patterns and trends in data and in visual sources such as maps and drawing conclusions from them
• Understanding spatial relationships using different geographic scales

Hybrid/Digital Component: 5.2 Design thinking – throughout the course, students will be introduced to digital tools such as CMap and Piktochart (and others they might use).  Each of these involves thinking about design

Course Components:

• Understanding information shown in maps, tables, charts, graphs, infographics, images, and landscapes
• Seeing patterns and trends in data and in visual sources such as maps and drawing conclusions from them