Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development - Hardcover

Rowntree, Lester; Lewis, Martin; Price, Marie; Wyckoff, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0131330462 ISBN 13: 9780131330467

Publisher: Pearson, 2005

Synopsis

For undergraduate World Regional Geography courses, or for a courses on globalization or cultural diversity.

 

Diversity Amid Globalization explicitly acknowledges the geographic changes in today’s world by emphasizing both the homogenizing and diversifying forces inherent to the globalization process. This approach allows the authors to emphasize the interconnections that bind people and places together.  The globalization approach challenges students to make critical comparisons between the regions of the

world in order to understand them more fully. Examples of the sorts of topics used to accomplish these goals include:

• The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in SW Asia.
• Aboriginal groups using high-technology tools to forge common political survival strategies.
• The economic and political integration of the European Union, contrasted with micronationalism and the factionalism in Europe.
• Ethnic diversification in the face of strong participation in the global assembly line in SE Asia.
• The globalization and localization of beer consumption and production in the United States and Canada.

About this title

About the Author

Les Rowntree is a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, where he researches and writes about environmental issues. This career change comes after three decades of teaching both Geography and Environmental Studies at San Jose State University in California. As an environmental geographer, Dr. Rowntree’s interests focus on international environmental issues, biodiversity conservation, and human-caused global change. He sees world regional geography as a way to engage and inform students by given them the conceptual tools needed to critically assess global issues. Dr. Rowntree has done research in Iceland, Alaska, Morocco, Mexico, Australia, and Europe, as well as in his native California. Current writing projects include a book on the natural history of California’s coast, as well as textbooks in geography and environmental science.

Martin Lewis is a Senior Lecturer in History at Stanford University. He has conducted extensive research on environmental geography in the Philippines and on the intellectual history of global geography. His publications included Wagering the Land: Ritual, Capital, and Environmental Degradation in the Cordillera of Northern Luzon, 1900-1986 (1992), and, with Karen Wigen, The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography (1997). Dr. Lewis has traveled extensively in East, South, and Southeast Asia. His current research focuses on the geographical dimensions of globalization.

Marie Price is an Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs at George Washington University. A Latin American specialist, Marie has conducted research in Belize, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia. She has also traveled widely throughout natural resources use, environmental conservation, and regional development. In 2006 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., conducting research on immigration to the world’s major cities. Dr. Price brings to Globalization and Diversity a special interest in regions as dynamic spatial constructs that are shaped over time through both global and local forces. Her publications included articles in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Geographical Review, Journal of Historical Geography, CLAG Yearbook, Studies in Comparative International Development, the Brookings Institution Survey Series, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and Focus.

William Wyckoff is a geographer in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University specializing in the cultural and historical geography of North America. He has written and co-edited several books on North American settlement geography, including The Developer’s Frontier: The Making of the Western New York Landscape (1998), The Mountainous West: Explorations in Historical Geography (1995) (with Larry M. Dilsaver), Creating Colorado: The Making of a Western American Landscape (2006). In 2003 he received Montana State’s Cox Family Fund for Excellence Faculty Award for Teaching and Scholarship. A World Regional Geography instructor for 26 years, Dr. Wyckoff emphasizes in the classroom the connections between the everyday lives of his students and the larger global geographies that surround them and increasingly shape their future.

From the Back Cover

Places fascinate geographers. In this book, authors Les Rowntree, Martin Lewis, Marie Price, and William Wyckoff offer a unique interpretation of world regional geography that is deeply appreciative of global diversity, while at the same time emphasizing those aspects of modern life that link the world together. The four photos on the front cover illustrate this approach by highlighting both local diversity and global connectedness.

• Globalization Protest in Washington, DC: Many people are concerned about globalization's effects on the environment, national sovereignty, and human rights. This photograph shows the Philippine Solidarity Group from Toronto, Canada protesting in Washington, DC in the United States―which in itself is a statement about globalization. Protests such as these illustrate that while globalization may not always be positive, it has become a pervasive force in the world. Read about globalization as a concept in chapter 1.
• Singapore: Singapore's landscape juxtaposes a skyline of modern high-rise buildings with the historical Colonial district architecture in the foreground. Foreign Policy magazine recently listed Singapore as the word's most global country. Read about Singapore in chapter 13, Southeast Asia.
• The Islamic Landscape: Iranian mullahs discuss the religious questions of the day beneath the minarets of the Moussavi Mosque in Qom. Islam has left a widespread mark on Southwest Asia's cultural landscapes. Learn more about Islamic architecture in chapter 7, Southwest Asia and North Africa.
• Kerala: Evidence of globalization is widespread in Kerala, India. Here one sees a rural family with a large satellite dish; the family earns a few dollars a week by renting out viewing time to villagers on its globally linked television set. Learn more about Kerala by taking the Author Field Trip featured on the CD-ROM that accompanies your book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0131330462
• ISBN 13: 9780131330467
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 688