astronomy

Is Geography Destiny?

Is Geography Destiny? is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Is Geography Destiny? rather than just read about it. In short: Is Geography Destiny? Lessons from Latin America is a book written by John Luke Gallup, Alejandro Gaviria, Eduardo Lora and published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which documents an advanced step of the rediscovery of geography by economists initiated by Paul Krugman in the early 1990s, however in another, more deterministic direction.

Key takeaways

Is Geography Destiny? belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Is Geography Destiny? to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Is Geography Destiny? from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Is Geography Destiny? Lessons from Latin America is a book written by John Luke Gallup, Alejandro Gaviria, Eduardo Lora and published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which documents an advanced step of the rediscovery of geography by economists initiated by Paul Krugman in the early 1990s, however in another, more deterministic direction.

Content Inspired by the works of David Landes, Jared Diamond and Jeffrey Sachs, considered as “champions of the rediscovery of geography”, the book is the result of “a series of studies on the influence of geography on Latin American development”. It is part of the Latin American Development Forum Series sponsored by the IDB, by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and by the World Bank. It is based on nine case studies funded by the IDB’s Latin American Research Network. Suggestions and corrections came from Ricardo Hausmann, chief economist of the IDB. Gallup, Gaviria and Lora try to discuss how “geography” influences development in Latin America; “geography” is considered as a concept which affects development through physical (productivity of land, rainfall, temperature) and human channels (“location of populations with respect to coasts or urban centers”). For the authors, “'determinism' is a sounder position than skepticism”. The first chapter, an international perspective, is dedicated to countries as “the basic unit of observation” within a horizon of analysis “limited to the past four or five decades”. In the second chapter, an intranational perspective, the authors analyse “the influence of geography” within Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Brazil, the “Latin American countries with the greatest geographical diversity”. In the last chapter, they propose “policies to overcome the limitations of geography” concerning “regional development”, “research and technology”, “information and market signals”, “urban policies” and “spatial organization”.

Reviews Roger Hamilton. Why some countries are poorer than others: Geography can be the explanation as well as the solution. Archived 2012-10-12 at the Wayback Machine In: IDBAmerica: Magazine of the Inter-American Development Bank. December 2003 Kenneth Maxwell. Is Geography Destiny? Lessons from Latin America., In: Foreign Affairs, September/October 2003 Jeffrey T. Bury. Book review: Is geography destiny? Lessons from Latin America. In: Progress in Human Geography December 2004, vol. 28 no. 6 822-823. doi:10.1177/030913250402800613 Andrew Sluyter. Is Geography Destiny?: Lessons from Latin America by John L. Gallup; Alejandro Gaviria; Eduardo Lora. In: Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 95, No. 1 (Mar., 2005), pp. 232–236 The book has been translated to Spanish and Portuguese.

Notes and references

External links Is Geography Destiny? Lessons from Latin America Archived 2011-08-17 at the Wayback Machine E-Book Roger Hamilton. Is geography destiny? Archived 2012-10-12 at the Wayback Machine Clint Ballinger. Determinism and the Antiquated Deontology of the Social Sciences, 2007

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Is Geography Destiny?

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Is Geography Destiny? claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Is Geography Destiny? before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Is Geography Destiny? ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Is Geography Destiny?

In research: Is Geography Destiny? appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Is Geography Destiny? in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Is Geography Destiny? is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 English-language non-fiction books, 2003 non-fiction books, American non-fiction books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Is Geography Destiny? outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Is Geography Destiny? in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Is Geography Destiny? means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Is Geography Destiny? out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Is Geography Destiny? in simple terms?

Why does Is Geography Destiny? matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Is Geography Destiny??

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Is Geography Destiny?.