Flashcards · 9690 · A Level Topic 4

Unit 4 – People and the Environment (A Level) flashcards

17 cards on A Level Topic 4, subtopics 3.2.2.1 to 3.2.2.3. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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Sedentarisation: The process of nomadic groups settling permanently, often under state pressure.
Rural depopulation: Decline in rural population as people, mostly young, leave for towns.
What did Mike Davis argue in Planet of Slums (2006)?: That slum growth is linked to debt and structural adjustment; in City of Quartz (1990) he described "fortress" cities with gated, segregated spaces.
What are non-places (Augé)?: Spaces of transit or consumption, such as airports, motorways and malls, where people remain anonymous.
Megacity: An urban area of over 10 million people.
What is demographic transition theory?: A model (Thompson and Notestein) of change through stages from high to low birth and death rates. Based on European history, it may ignore state policy.

Romanticism vs conservation: Romanticism values nature as pure, spiritual and restorative. Conservation manages nature to protect it for present and future use. They often combine.
The long now: Thinking about responsibility across very long timescales and future generations.
How does Hannigan (1995) explain environmental problems becoming public issues?: A soft constructionist view: problems are real but must be claimed; six factors turn a real problem into a recognised public issue.
Scepticism vs denialism: Scepticism questions evidence. Denialism rejects strong evidence, such as human-caused climate change, often for interests or identity (Oreskes and Conway, 2010, on organised doubt).
Ecological modernisation vs green Marxism: Ecological modernisation (Mol and Spaargaren): capitalism can become green through technology and regulation. Green Marxism (e.g. Foster's metabolic rift): capitalism's growth drive is the cause of the damage.
What did Bullard find about environmental justice?: In a Houston study (1979) and Dumping in Dixie (1990), waste sites were placed disproportionately in Black neighbourhoods.

What is the zoological connection (Bryant, 1979)?: Bryant's argument that sociology had ignored animal-related human behaviour; more a call for research than a theory.
Animal welfare vs animal rights: Animal welfare reduces suffering within human use of animals (Singer, 1975, Animal Liberation). Animal rights rejects such use (Regan, 1983, The Case for Animal Rights).
Zoonotic disease: A disease that passes from animals to humans.
Columbian Exchange: Crosby: transfer of plants, animals and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia after 1492.
Rewilding vs de-extinction: Rewilding: restoring land to natural processes, sometimes with reintroduced species. De-extinction: attempts to recreate extinct species using genetic technology.