essay geog

essay

Overview

Your final project asks you to apply a geographic perspective to the year 2020, a year that has spatially reorganized our lives in complex ways, through a visual and written assignment.

In late Spring,

 

CityLab, a media site reporting on issues of urban policy and city living, asked readers to create and submit a map that explained how 2020 “remapped” their worlds. They write:

“Maps are used to explore the world, but they also offer exploration within their own boundaries. In April, CityLab asked readers to share homemade maps of their lives during the coronavirus pandemic. [The] maps collectively show how coronavirus has transformed the places we live. Beloved people, places, and activities were suddenly out of reach. Food, shelter, and other basics were vested with elevated importance; so were access to nature, creative outlets, and a sense of social connection. Under pressure and confinement, relationships and perspectives turned hyperlocal — and, in many cases, were widened by a sense of injustice about who was dying, and who was not. By late May, economies began to reopen and communities re-revised their sense of normal. Rage over the systemic racism that also played into the pandemic’s unequal death toll reached a boiling point in the U.S. and erupted into global demonstrations. With protesters filling streets that were empty and quiet mere weeks before, neighborhoods are transforming once more — and hold promise for further transformation.”

Indeed, 2020 spatially shrunk our worlds and at the same time expanded our awareness of wider social, political, economic, and environmental issues and our intimate connection to these issues. In other words, 2020 has asked (maybe forced) us to develop and hone our geographic perspective or, according to a recent Wired article by David Wolman (

https://www.wired.com/story/amid-pandemic-geography-returns-with-a-vengeance/ (Links to an external site.)

), to see the world through “where-tinted glasses”. Remember from our first lecture, that looking at the world geographically is to see the broad and interconnected movements and flows of people, money, cultures, information, objects and biophysical processes that shape and connect places in different ways.

For your final project, we would like you create your own map and write a paper that address ‘How 2020 remapped your world?’

 

Assignment	Due	Submission directions
Map & final paper topic, sources	Submit as a part of your Week 11 A&P
Map & paper	Upload your paper in a Word document (11-12 pt. font, standard margins, single spaced, 1500- words) and map (as a file or url) in ‘Final Project’ module.

 

Directions

1. ‘How 2020 Remapped Your World’ Map

First, visit the CityLab website and review the exercise and some of the example submissions: 

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-coronavirus-lockdown-neighborhood-maps/ (Links to an external site.)

Now, create your own map! While most of the example are hand drawn, you may choose any medium for your map: pencil, crayon, paint, graphic art, diorama, collage, web-based story map applications, Prezi, photography, film, audio, etc. It is entirely up to you how you wish to visualize your spatial experience. If you choose to create a non-digital map (drawing, painting, etc.), please submit a photo. If you choose to create a video or sound experience of some sort, you can submit a movie or audio file (mp3, mp4, etc.). If you choose to create a map using a web-based application, you can submit a URL. We expect to see effort invested in these maps.

As you organize your map, consider how the spatial experience you are mapping illuminated broader connections to/disconnections from people and places.

 

2. ‘How 2020 Remapped Your World’ Paper

In that vein, your second part of the assignment is a paper explaining ‘How 2020 Remapped Your World’. In approximately 1500 words, please address the following:

First, describe your map in 250-500 words. Then, turn your geographic lens on the world.  Identify at least one class topic to explore in the context of 2020 to discuss what broader political, economic, cultural, and social processes have changed or revealed themselves to you: colonialism, world system, economic geography and globalization, migration and population, cultural landscape and identity, electoral geography, political geography, food geography, and cities. As the CityLab exercise states, our experiences and perspectives “turned hyperlocal, but they also widened” in 2020 as the inherent interconnections and inequalities of our world system were brought into sharp focus. 

Examples:

For example, you might decide to focus on migration and discuss how 2020 disrupted the mobility of labor migrants domestically or globally. You might focus on population and explore how 2020 is changing perspectives on family and family practices (families living in closer quarters, delaying life events, etc.). You might focus on economic geography and how 2020 brought into relief the precarity of our global supply chains. You might focus on economic geography and/or food geography, and what 2020 revealed about which workers are essential to keeping a system running and inequalities in how workers are cared for. You might focus on political geography and how you saw the relationship between states and international organizations play out over the pandemic. You might focus on colonialism and how 2020 shed light on the legacies of slavery and colonialism. You might focus on cultural landscape and how 2020 has changed the visual character and experience of urban landscapes. You might focus on cultural globalization and explore how virtual networks and connection are creating new ways of sharing culture and cultural ideas. You might focus on electoral geography and discuss how redistricting plays a role in our 2020 election. The possibilities are endless. You might focus on cultural identity and discussion how 2020 has changed the experiences of being student.

References

We expect you to conduct outside research to provide adequate context for the process or topic that you will discuss. Please submit a reference section with a minimum of 5 sources. For one of your sources, we would like you untilize & cite your Knox & Marston text. The references should be formatted using the guidelines provided by the American Psychological Association (APA). For help on APA, see: 

https://guides.library.unr.edu/education/apa (Links to an external site.)

You are responsible for employing quality sources in completing this assignment, such as journal/academic articles, books, reputable newspapers, radio stories, documentaries. The best place to begin your search is the library database.

TOPICS

  the intersections of food & economic geography. Building on your original thoughts, you can discuss how our industrial food supply chain is geographically dispersed and thus vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. There are also vulnerabilities related to labor that Covid exacerbated. Many processing plants rely on low-wage immigrant labor (documented and undocumented), and it was among these socially and economically vulnerable communities that Covid rates were/are higher, which led to further disruptions in the chain. These issues of racial justice shape our food supply chain, as well. Try to keep your focus pretty narrow. Your paper idea about scales of government response to COVID is very interesting and speaks to a number of themes in political geography. Do discuss cultural geography and how it affected economic geography of food and families.

RunningHead: Covid-19 on Labour Mobility 1

Covid-19 on Labor Mobility 2

Covid-19 on labour mobility

Student name:

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The map of 2020 has a lot to reveal. Globalisation and population as well the economy have been the most conspicuous factors to be revealed. Globalisation is the interdependence of the world’s populations, economy and culture. It has made the flow of goods, services, technology and even information easier and effective. Globalisation makes it easier for companies to produce goods and services at a lower cost. It also makes these companies to export their finished products to different buyers across the globe while importing labour and raw material as well as technology for its production process. The world as a result of globalisation has been made a global village. It is easier for people and nations across the globe to get access to similar information due to introduction of technology. New markets and cultures including foods, music, art and way of living can be easily accessed through the innovation of new mode of transport that is environmentally friendly, fast and efficient (DeSombre, 2006). The spread of information, culture and innovation are the major benefits of globalisation. Innovations on medicine are beneficial considering the fact that it is the only way to keep a huge population safe and healthy from the virus. 2020 has reshaped our map. The pandemic has led to closure of border but not information flow. It has restrained people’s movement but through technology, they are able to communicate with one another, share their research projects and encourage one another. It is a year where the effects and impacts of globalisation have been fully felt.

Despite the positive impacts of globalization, 2020 has revealed that all is not well. The ability of persons to love from one area to another is very risky. This is one of the ways in which covid-19 has taken root in all parts of the world. The pandemic was first reported in China, due to the movement of persons to and from different regions, it led to the extensive damage the pandemic has caused. Even though this has greatly affected our lives, there has been a significant flow of information on the pandemic. Information from the China government, World Health Organization and other sources has benefited everyone across the globe. The health care organizations have issued guidelines on how a pandemic ought to be contained and controlled. Globalisation has made it easier for scientists to come together and brainstorm on ways of containing the virus. Scientists across the globe have come together to find a vaccine on the pandemic thanks to the power of medicine, technology and innovation (Schwarz, 2016). Globalisation has made it easier for these scientists to communicate, share their research proceedings and their technological advancement of different drugs meant to cure the pandemic. Their research results have also been shared to nations across the globe ensuring the consistent flow of reliable information.

Covid-19 pandemic is not only a public health issue but has also negatively affected all economies all over the globe. This is as shown in the performance of the financial markets, disruption of global supply chains, volatility of currencies reduction in diaspora remittances, and reversal of prior monetary and fiscal policies. Increased levels of unemployment and job loss have significantly affected the society. All these issues arise due to the disruption of the demand and supply chain of goods and services across nations. Countries across the world have put measures in place to flatten the curve. Countries take into account all measures that aim at protecting the welfare of their citizens (Afonso, 2020). Some of these measures included total lockdown in most parts of the world. This meant that employees had to work from home, limitation of movement and migration from one part to another. Essential services were open to the most critical and essential situations. This meant that for maximum elimination of the virus, every movement despite the impossibility had to be restrained. Despite their efforts, the covid-19 cases keep rising each day while the death toll takes a toll.

Since the virus posed a huge challenge to the health care sector in most parts on the globe, most countries opted to close their borders and restrain movement within the country. Movement within meant that people were confined to their place of residence and nobody was allowed to leave. Social interactions were limited, people worked from their homes and nobody visited anybody. This meant that no person was allowed to exit or enters a particular country. This move was meant to control the spread of the virus and flatten the curve. Labour mobility is the ease in which labourers can move from one country to another. Restrictions on travel and migration led to economic devastation on majority of the population that depends widely on labour mobility (Burmann, 2018). This restrained the consumption and production of goods in the region. For any nation to be economically awake, labour mobility has to be active as the nation relies on the mobility for consumption, production and revenue collection.

In the past years, the global migration and labour market, reports that the highest revenues countries record come from labour mobility. Most migrants move in search of better wages which they then sent to their home country. This is called foreign remittance and many homesteads rely on this to improve their welfare and investments. Foreign remittances are a source of revenue to many low income countries. They consider a part of their population as employed even though the employer is in another country. Before the pandemic, most homesteads heavily relied on the foreign remittances to invest in education or in other s sectors. Most countries encourage migrants to remit their income to boost the country’s economy. Mobility from low income countries to high income countries is one of the most significant revenue collection factor (Burmann, 2018). Gains from these migrants benefit their home country. The pandemic has led to a decrease in the rate of foreign remittances of nations. Remittances to India stood at US$68.968 billion in 2017 and remittances from India to other countries totalled US$5.710 billion, for a net inflow of US$63.258 billion in 2017. In 2020, the total remittances according to the reports by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs totalled to US $78billion, a significant drop compared to the previous years. The pandemic has really affected the revenue countries collect from foreign remittances.

Mobility is an important aspect in human freedom. Social interactions and mingling is one of the major reasons for migration. Human beings are social. This nature makes them prone to movement and travel either to consume or produce. Migration is an important factor in making a healthy economy. If people are confined in the same place, specialization becomes scarce as they tend to normalize their behaviour. Movement of people is translated to movement of skills, knowledge and energy to different places. Migration is also important for transfer of skilled manpower and knowledge for global growth (Kyambi, 2018). A labour-intensive country is expected to export skilled labour to the international market. Restriction of movement and migration in an attempt by governments to flatten the Covid-19 curve meant that some countries were deprived of labourers while other had an influx of skilled unemployed persons. Taking an example of African countries where young skilled and energetic people migrate to Europe or the United States in search of greener pastures. The United Nations Development Program data on the past years has shown that over 200 million youngsters were recorded on international borders. This number significantly dropped to just 2 million immigrants. Closure of international borders meant that countries rich in skilled labour had labour in abundance while another country had shortage of labourers. The pandemic has affected the international labour market.

Global and domestic labour migration is meant to supply labour to the regions with less labour. Migrants from low income countries move to the high income countries in search of better wages. High income countries demand for labour keeps increasing. This is because they have a low population and are highly capital intensive. Their unique resources raise the demand for labour from outside countries. Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the supply and demand chain of the international labour market. The eruption of this incurable virus meant that governments could not outsource labour regardless of their advanced health care sector. This left countries with limited supply of labour. Since the productivity rate during a pandemic is low, wages were reduced to half while the number of labourers who were retrenched increased. The pandemic led to job loss, company shut down, an overwhelmed health care as well as low productivity of the remaining workers (Mayes, 2017). The disrupted supply and demand chain of the international labour market leads to a disequilibrium in the market. This leaves the low income countries with a higher number of unemployment but skilled personnel. Covid-19 has affected the supply of skilled labour to regions where such labour is scarce. This pandemic has cost lives, sources of income and revenue as well as resources meant for other sectors.

References
Afonso, A. N. (2020). Closure, equality or organisation: Trade union responses to EU labour migration. Journal of European Social Policy. 30(5), 528-542.
Burmann, M. P. (2018). Highly Skilled Labour Migration in Europe. ifo DICE Report. 16(1), 42-52.
DeSombre, E. R. (2006). Flagging standards: globalization and environmental, safety, and labor regulations at sea. MIT Press Books, 1. 100.
Kyambi, S. K. (2018). Choices Ahead: Approaches to lower skilled labour migration after Brexit. Online: http://www. centreonconstitutionalchange. ac. uk/sites/default/files/papers…(accessed: 28 June 2018).
Mayes, R. (2017). We’re Sending you Back’: Temporary Skilled Labour Migration, Social Networks and Local Community. Migration, Mobility, & Displacement. 3(1), 71-84.
Schwarz, M. R. (2016). Globalization and medical education. Medical teacher. 23(6), 533-534.