Geography 40: "World Regional Geography (GS; IL)"

World Regional Geography examines a world which is undergoing political, economic and social transformations at many different spatial scales. Utilizing geographic concepts including scale, place, region, and location, this course examines international linkages, such as global capital, which help forge a world community.

However, the course also examines local situations which contradict our understanding of a global community, such as ethnonationalism, the increasing spread of AIDS in the developing world and the rise of Islam. The course examines a variety of "voices" struggling to be heard in the world: those embracing the global economy and an international culture and those rejecting a homogenizing global capital and culture because they see their resources being exploited by global capital. An examination of global capital at the regional and local level reveals the consequences for places that do not have access to this type of global resource. Concepts such as North and South, developed and developing, globalizing capital and homogenizing world culture, take on new meaning, when they are explored at a regional level.

As part of this examination, the course explores how we in the "West" have influenced particular places, regions and realms around the world through the processes of colonialism and post-colonialism and how these processes have produced a post-colonial world where individual geographic identities are in an important sense globally constructed. Lastly, this course explores how we in the "West" have thought about other places, regions and realms and how this way of thinking has contributed to the way that we think about ourselves.

Any student interested in how the world functions economically, politically, socially and culturally as it enters the new millenium should enroll in World Regional Geography. For this reason, this course satisfies the General Education and the Intercultural course components of the Penn State student curriculum. Students' final grades will be based on attendance, participation, two exams, virtual module projects and a series of short essays.

Note: Class size, frequency of offering, and evaluation methods will vary by location and instructor. For these details check the specific course syllabus.