No one is an island. The community where you live, the food you eat, and the people you know are all part of a global chain of connections. Over the past 10,000 years, humans have transformed the planet - yet the planet has also influenced human life in myriad ways. In these 24 eye-opening lectures, take an interdisciplinary voyage across time and around the world to consider the dual nature of our relationship with "place". With insights drawn from ecology, anthropology, economics, geopolitics, and more, Professor Robbins reveals the underlying structures that explain why the world is the way it is. Understanding global trends and connections - from environmental changes such as deforestation to the way money and labor slosh around the globe - will give you new insights into the story of human civilization and current events. One key theme of this course is that "place" is a construct. People make (and constantly re-make) places in response to myriad circumstances, ranging from economic conditions to changes in the ecology around them. Indeed, humans have taken over the Earth so completely that some geologists now refer to our era as the Anthropocene - the "human era". While it is tempting to despair over humanity's takeover of the planet, you see how the picture is surprisingly complex, and that there is reason for optimism. Much of the human impact on the Earth, from deforestation to rapid urbanization, is not an inexorable march of destruction without any means of revitalization. In addition to the study of the environment, Professor Robbins examines the wide-ranging implications of a world economy. You'll explore the wellspring of culture and delve into the thorny issues of geography, ethnicity, and statehood. When you complete this course, you'll have all the tools you need to look beyond the headlines and analyze world events in a whole new way.
All Lectures:
1. Writing the World - The Mapmaker's Craft
2. The Problem with Geographical Determinism
3. Anthropocene - The Age of Human Impact
4. Climate Change and Civilization
5. Global Land Change
6. The End of Global Population Growth
7. The Agricultural Puzzle
8. Disease Geography
9. Political Ecology
10. Economic Geography - Globalization Origins
11. The Columbian Exchange
12. Uneven Development and Global Poverty
13. The New Global Economy
14. Restless Humanity - The Migration Conundrum
15. Urbanization - The Rise of New World Cities
16. Geography of Language
17. Understanding Cultural Geography
18. The Importance of Place
19. Cultural Commodification
20. Culture, Power, and the Politics of Meaning
21. The Geopolitical Imagination
22. Regionalism and the Rise of New States
23. Supranationalism - Taking on Big Problems
24. Future Geographies
