How Human Geography Shapes Society and Social Processes

“Human geography is not just about describing the spatial manifestations of economy and society; it is about explaining how space is transformed and shapes societies and social processes” (Daniels, et al., 2005). Discuss, drawing on at least two substantive areas of Economic Geography.

Human Geography is a ‘major field of geography that is centrally concerned with the ways in which place, space and environment are both the condition and in part the consequence of human activities’ (Gregory et al. 2009 P 350) and therefore in accordance with Daniels et al. statement it can be said that human geography does indeed transform and shape societies. In order to illustrate how ‘space is transformed and shapes societies and social processes’ by human geography (Daniels et al. 2005); within this essay I will be focusing on the effect of human geography on society from an economical perspective and specifically from both the aspects of consumption and globalisation.

Economic geography is an important aspect of human geography that has been rapidly changing since the 1960s where there was a focus on the analysis of location. Economic geography in the 1960s and 1970s was focused on the scientific analysis of location (Fawn 2009) at a time where consumption was rapidly changing because of Henry Ford. Fordism has been described as "a model of economic expansion and technological progress based on mass production: the manufacture of standardized products in huge volumes using special purpose machinery and unskilled labor" (Tolliday and Zeitlin 1987 P 1-2) Fordism began in the automotive industry but then was adopted into several parts of the economy.

The way in which people started consumed also changed as mass consumption was introduc...

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...n the world it has been increasing rapidly in recent times with most people and societies within the world being affected by globalisation in some aspect. However, the way in which globalisation is progressing and whether it is beneficial or not is contested and that is what is of interest to economic geographers. Consumption is fundamental to how geographies are established and experienced in society and how they are situated in space and places. The way in which we consume is also advancing and has been completely transformed as can be seen through the infiltration of ecommerce into society, and consumption itself has been greatly affected by globalisation. The geography of the world economy concerning globalisation and consumption is always in need of continual research as the effects various societies have on each other is surpassing geographical boundaries.