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Unit 4: Political Organization of Space CH 8

APHuG Outline IV. Political Organization of Space

A. Territorial dimensions of politics 1. The concepts of political power and territoriality 2. The nature, meaning, and function of boundaries 3. Influences of boundaries on identity, interaction, and exchange 4. Federal and unitary states, confederations, centralized government, and forms

of governance 5. Spatial relationships between political systems and patterns of ethnicity,

economy, and gender 6. Political ecology: impacts of law and policy on the environment and

environmental justice B. Evolution of the contemporary political pattern

1. The nation­state concept 2. Colonialism and imperialism 3. Democratization 4. Fall of communism and legacy of the Cold War 5. Patterns of local, regional, and metropolitan governance

C. Changes and challenges to political­territorial arrangements 1. Changing nature of sovereignty 2. Fragmentation, unification, and cooperation 3. Supranationalism and international alliances 4. Devolution of countries: centripetal and centrifugal forces 5. Electoral geography: redistricting and gerrymandering 6. Armed conflicts, war, and terrorism

Reading Assignments DUE

1 Field Note: Independence is Better Than Servitude (DeBlij pp. 219­222)

2 How Is Space Politically Organized into States and Nations? (DeBlij pp. 222­234; KT 1­18)

3 How Do States Spatially Organize Their Governments? (DeBlij pp. 234­242; KT 19­27)

4 How Are Boundaries Established, and Why Do Boundary Disputes Occur? (DeBlij pp. 242­245; KT 28­34)

5 How Do Geopolitics and Critical Geopolitics Help Us Understand the World? (DeBlij pp. 245­248; KT 35­38)

6 What Are Supranational Organizations, and What Is the Future of the State? (DeBlij pp. 248­255; KT 39­40)

APHuG - Lagleder