WebText- GEOGRAPHY OF UTAH

Chapter 14 –Utah Geography and Issues of SOCIOLOGY

DRAFT webtext by G. Atwood, 2012, Oct 1… to be updated for midterm #2.

Use with professional courtesy and attribution including attribution of original sources where indicated.

LINK to printable version… it may differ a bit from this web-posted version.

NOTE: Students of GEOG3600 Geography of Utah are expected to view the 2012 Spring semester lecture (audio and video on iTunesU, April 10, 2012) on ISSUES of Utah sociology and religion. The majority of the session shares Dr Albert Fisher’s video from the 1980s on Utah Geography, Religion.

Subtitle:

Families are … for now as well as… forever.

BIG CONCEPTS:

Momentum of social relationships in Utah includes extensive kinship structures.

Urban / rural Utah changes with national economic trends and with structures of cities, including the rise of suburbia.

The welfare of society can be explored through indicators including: infant mortality; poverty; patterns of consumption; life expectancy; and literacy.

Consumption patterns reflect economic health such as consumption of energy; consumption of high tech goods; number of doctors per populace; and, conversely, bankruptcies and home foreclosures.

Culture regions reflect “culture” … peoples’ ways of life defined on common social structures, common norms and even common jargon. Utah is core to the Mormon Culture Region (Meinig).

Community networks include allegiance to schools; the consequences of affordability of residential neighborhoods; segregation and isolation.

Housing opportunities are healthy when housing is available and the cost is reasonable. The Great Recession exposed societal relationships of housing, economy, and social vulnerabilities. Urban housing patterns can reflect segregation and isolation (topics in Dr Perlich lecture).

EVIDENCE. Examine these figures from Zick and Smith (2006)… wonderful book, although data are dated. .

Zick and Smith, 2006,

Quotation:

LINK to The 15 Words of GEOG3600 and version that can be printed.

CASES:

Utah in the News – every day.

Topics… Questions to Ponder –

How does Utah’s social structure affect you?

How does it affect your sense of place

How will it change in your lifetime based on the 15 Themes of GEOG3600?

Overarching Goal of the Chapter:

Look at the people you interact with and recognize social issues affect you. … your life style, your sense of place. How are social patterns established and how do they change?

MAJOR CONCEPT:

Utah’s peoples make Utah the place that it is… as well as Utah’s physical geography.

Addendum / clarification / expansion on the “major concept”…

ADD

Location matters. Some areas of Utah have decidedly different demographics than others, such as percentage of children, or percentage of minorities in elementary schools. Recognizing spatial contrasts and exploring webs of relationships among people, places, and environments is inherent to being a Geographer of Utah.

Specifics: by the end of this chapter… you should:

Be able to discuss news articles about Utah in the context of (a) existing and (b) changing social issues using skills of a geographer.

Recognize how social issues affect you.

Coaching for students of UofU GEOG3600-Geography of Utah:

You’ve memorized the Five Themes of Geography. (Location, Place, Interaction, Migration/Movement, and Region), now, memorize the five issues of social and behavioral sciences we’ll explore in Part II of the course:

DEMOGRAPHICS

ECONOMICS

POLITICS

SOCIOLOGY

ANTRHOPOLOGY

Terms to understand with respect to SOCIAL ISSUES

Understand these terms and have a sense of how they related to Geography of Utah… (a) because an understanding of these terms indicates mastery of content, and (b) because these terms may be on the midterm of final exam.

Sociology

Culture

Culture region

Mormon culture region

Religious membership

Heritage

Demographic momentum

Social institutions

Welfare

Well-being

Life expectancy

Literacy

Education attainment

Opportunity

Infant mortality

Diversity

Segregation

Isolation

Urban

Rural

Suburban

Metropolitan

Community

THEORY / CONCEPTS towards an understanding of SOCIAL ISSUES and geography of UTAH – watch the podcast of Dr Fisher – Utah Geography and Religion.

FINAL SECTION OF THIS CHAPTER… So What?

GeogUtah Mantra. That’s the underlying assumption of UofU GEOG3600-Geography of Utah.

Understanding leads to a sense of place… understand Utah, understand its human geography including culture and sociology.

Tie SOCIOLOGY to others of the 15 Themes of Geography of Utah. See the web of relationships among Utah’s peoples, places and environments. See the web of The 15 Words of GEOG3600… the matrix.

For SOCIOLOGY… webs will be immediately apparent for the four other issues of social and behavioral science. But think about how demographics affects water (the HYDROSPHERE); and how it is linked to MOVEMENT. Are any of the 15 themes of Geography of Utah not woven in some way into webs of relationships with SOCIOLOGY?

LIST of “The 15 Words”

Loc

Place

Migra

Inter

Region

Geo

Hydro

Atmo

Bio

Anthro

Econ

Demog

PoliSci

Sociol

QLife

SELF QUIZ – Examine the evidence (top of this web-text) …. Specifically the figures of Zick and Smith and updated from census.

Discuss spatial patterns in the context of three of the Big Concepts (above)

SUMMARY:

Utah’s social structure… .