ASSIGNMENT

You must answer all parts of all questions for complete credit. Write up your answers as the questions are structured below (1a, 1b1, 1b2, 2a and on). Submit your answers on canvas.

1. Go to The New York Times and search the term: Geography (or follow this link to the same results http://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/geography ). Scroll through and find an article on any topic within these search parameters and read it. What is the article about and what is the significance of or what role does geography play in the discussion of the topic? Submit the following:

a. Title and link to article that you selected. (2pt)
b. Explain why you selected this article. What was interesting about this to you? (3pts)
c. Describe the main topic/idea of the article. (5pts)
d. Discuss the "geography" in this article? What role does geography play in the treatment of the topic? What is the "geography" in this article? What is the significance of geography? (5pts)
e. Is the role/significance of geography explicit in the article or is it something you had to infer? In other words, is the "geography" easily identifiable or did you have to figure it out? (5pts)

2. Conduct an internet search to find a core (developed) country and a peripheral (developing) country that share a common environmental concern (for example, threats to forests, grasslands or wetlands, pollution, acid rain). Compare and contrast the different ways core and peripheral countries are addressing the same issue and provide some explanation for similarities and differences. Be sure to cite all sources used.

Submit the following:

a. Identify a core country and a peripheral country. Use the map from Chapter 2 slides to confirm that your selection is accurate. (2 pts)
b. Identify from the news and briefly describe an environmental issue/concern that exists in both countries (5 pts)
c. Identify SPECIFIC ways each country is dealing with those issues (for example in policies, laws, treaties, influencing citizens' actions) (5 pts)
d. Compare and contrast the methods being employed in each country to identify similarities and differences. Explain why these similarities and differences might exist. What factors influence how each country deals with the issue? (5 pts)

3. In Chapter 1 we learned that intersubjectivity refers to the shared meanings that are derived from everyday practice. I gave the example of walking my dogs with others in my building who also have dogs. As a result of us doing the same or similar things (walking dogs) in the same place (our neighborhood, the only patch of grass near the building) every day at approximately the same times (when you wake up, before bed, during the day) we have a shared sense of meaning about our building and our neighborhood and our experiences in those places. This is intersubjectivity. Think about and describe some instance of intersubjectivity in your life.

SUBMIT:

a. Identify and describe the activities that constitute your intersubjectivity.(5 pts)
b. Identify and describe the people that are part of your intersubjective experience.(5 pts)
c. Identify and describe the specific places in which your activities and experiences take place.(5 pts)
d. Identify and describe some shared sense of meaning about or feelings about those places that are a result of this experience.(5 pts)

4. Reggae music, born in the poor neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, owes its essence to economic, religious, political and cultural influences from such diverse locations as Ethiopia, west Africa, the southern United States, Detroit/Motown, the British Empire/England, and the republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The genre of reggae music developed in response to very specific global conditions as they were interpreted within the local context of Kingston, Jamaica and then it spread, was listened to (in other words: it was consumed and/or appreciated) and at times it has even been modified (think Snoop Lion/The Clash) in the England and the United States and then on a global scale.

While it's possible to just sit and enjoy listening to reggae music (including artists such as Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh), understanding the many influences that go into the music can provide insight into the complex and fascinating process of globalization.

Choose some phenomena, anything (EXCEPT reggae), in which you have an interest and do research on the global forces that may have influenced the development of that thing you chose. Some elements might be straightforward (for example, when I discussed reggae, the rhythm of reggae music incorporates rhythms of American pop and Caribbean Calypso) while others may be less direct or obvious (for example, Kingston, Jamaica was a poor slum populated by disillusioned youth, a condition created in a large part by the former colonization of Jamaica by the British). So, pick something you like (other than reggae) and discuss the global and local influences that have affected it.

SUBMIT:

a. Describe the phenomena in terms of your experience of it. How did you develop an interest in it? Why do you like it or why did you pick it as your topic?

b. Discuss the global influences that have helped shaped that phenomena.

c. Discuss how those global influences have been incorporated into or influenced by the local conditions of where you are experiencing the phenomena or where others have experienced it.

d. Include links to internet sites that you are using as references. List any non-net based sources in the citation format in which you are most comfortable.