20. Define geographic imagination and explain why it is important.

GEOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION (manual page 8)

Geographic imagination is the way we interpret or view the world from our own personal perspective. Therefore, just about everyone has a different "geographic imagination". This perspective differs from person to person depending on their ways of life, such as their language, culture, surroundings, location, social groups, ethnicities, religions, and many other factors. Certain groups of people that share a similar culture or ethnicity usually share around the same geographic imagination, or perspective on the world. The way we understand the world often shows up in the way we act around others and in our cultural surroundings. After living and being raised by these beliefs, one would begin to see them as the only way of looking at the world, even though that is not the case. People in other groups see it from a totally different perspective. When one group begins to think this- that their understanding and way of looking at the world is the only and/or the best- it is called ethnocentrism. Geographic imagination is important because it is the way people feel about the world and certain events, which affect the way they perceive or interpret history as well as the present.

link to Geographic Imagination in Jerusalem: [[1]]

by Katie Friedman return to history 8