A Cheap world

 Travis Marsden

GEOG 101

Jan. 22, 2021

Response Paper 2

A Cheap World

“A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things” is the title of the article I will be responding to, written by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore. This article talks a lot about nature, capitalism, and the future of the planet. It argues that capitalism is what changed everything, that it started in the 1400s and is called the Capitalocene. It highlights seven things that show how the modern world was shaped today. The list of seven cheap things are nature, work, care, food, energy, money, and lives. These were all affected by capitalism. 

Capitalism is something that focuses on making a profit and doesn’t think about the negative aspects that come along with it, or just doesn’t care enough to do anything. The planet's ecosystem has been majorly affected, with all the pollution and global warming. 

Cheap is a fairly simple word with a simple definition. It usually means low, the price of something is very low. But here they are using the word cheap to say taking advantage of. That list of seven do not come easily with a low price, it’s saying they have been taken advantage of. We sell nature's resources for low prices but the real cost is destroying our environment.

A Cheap World

 Madison Blackburn

January 26, 2020

Cultural Geography

A Cheap World

        The reading “A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things” by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore was very interesting to read and learn about. According to this reading “the seven cheap things in this world are nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives (p.3)”. It is so crazy how capitalism is working and what it is made our world. The employees that are having to work at these cheap places trying to make some money, are hardly getting paid anything. 

The result of these effects have taken peoples lives in the past and still do in many forms today. With people making this little of money, they don’t have enough money to supply even the basic necessities of life or support their families. What if they get injured? How will they cover the costs with little to no income? Capitalism is a chain effect and basically is promoting cheap labor. If we continue with capitalism pretty soon the world will be left with nothing and there won’t be anything to work with or for.

Capitalocene

 Tyler Grasser

1/26/2021

Response paper 2(Patell and Moore)

The argument presented in the reading “The History of The World in Seven Cheap Things” by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore is that humans as a whole, need to intellectually shift away from capitalism to help protect and preserve this planet. It is the interaction between the humans and both the physical and biological world that has brought the planet to its current situation, not human behavior. This claim is quite significant because typically when society thinks of climate change or the planet in general, we think that it is shaped by the actions of people or for some, they don’t believe people have an effect at all.

The term “cheap” is used quite a bit throughout this reading, most prominently in the title. The seven cheap things that the authors claim made the world are as follows; cheap money, cheap work, cheap care, cheap food, cheap energy, and cheap lives. At first I was confused about the use of the word “cheap” when combined with these seven supposed things that made the world. Money, work, care, food, energy, and lives to me are big things that are important to life, so to combine them with the word cheap was puzzling. As I continued to read it became clear. The capitalist system that stems from European colonialism and influence runs on the cheapness of many important things. Because of the need to make, save, and maintain wealth, which equals power, society steamrolls the natural world as well as cultures that differ from the capitalist mind frame. The environment is used as wealth in raw form or the means to make wealth. This is why the authors maintain that we should refer to this era as Capitalocene rather than the widely accepted name Anthropocene, as capital is what is shaping the planet.

If we look at examples, like what is happening to the Amazon Rainforest, where massive swathes of forest are being logged, clear cut, and burned to fuel industry in order to make capital using cheap local labor with complete disregard for the Indigenous peoples that call the forest home and rely on the forest to live as well as the loss of vital habitat and biodiversity. We can see a clear connection to the points the authors are making.

The Result of Capitalism

Nizhoni Franklin

Richard Simpson

Cultural Geography

26 January 2021

The Result of Capitalism

“A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things” by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore discusses the results of capitalism and climate change on nature. Patel and Moore use key phrases and history to discuss the harmful outcomes of capitalism.

The authors use the example of chicken bones to walk us through the seven cheap things mentioned in the title. Normally, when one thinks of chicken we don’t immediately think of the harm that the poultry industry has caused, the authors start by informing us that the chicken we know and love has changed in the last century. The chicken we know has actually been genetically modified to fit human consumption, bringing us “Cheap Nature”. Going into “Cheap Work” we find that poultry workers are not only paid very little (prison workers being paid even less) but they are also grossly mistreated, “Some employers mock their workers for reporting injury; and the denial of injury claims is common. The result for workers is a 15 percent decline in income for the ten years after injury” (page 4). Additionally, they are forced to depend on their families for income because of the pay decrease solely for being injured on a job that is so heavily relied upon. 

Patel and Moore use the history of medieval times to discuss the harm of capitalism and climate change. Medieval Europe was under the structure of lords and peasants. When the medieval warm period ended, Europe entered was is now known as the “Little Ice Age” causing soil exhaustion that could not be suppressed any longer once the climate turned for a second time. The lack of preparation and the greed of feudal lords caused starvation and the death of millions of people. 

Feudal lords wanted cash or grain, which could have been easily stored and marketed, and they overwhelmingly consumed the modest surpluses wrung from the soil, leaving precious little to reinvest in agriculture. Absent the lords’ power and demands, peasants might have shifted to cop mixes that included garden produce alongside grains, perhaps solving the food problem.

This shows that without the greed from the feudal lords as well as the need and want for money caused the starvation of much of the peasant population and could have led to better preparation for the plague about to come.

The Cheap Side of Things

 Serena Becker

GEOG 101

Paper 2

 

The Cheap Side of Things

 

In the excerpt from the book A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things by Raj Patel and Jason Moore the writers argue that we are living in a new era of capitalism which has spurred on a state of ecological emergency within our world. This is important because while this new era may look like its working for everyone and providing work and food for the common people, it is actually destroying the world resources and drowning out other healthier options for global economic prosperity. Moore and Patel form their argument by providing examples throughout history where civilizations have collapsed because they failed to recognize the fault in systems that they thought were in everyone’s best interest. When addressing the collapse of civilizations the authors inform that, “Great historical transitions occur because ‘business as usual’ no longer works” (page 12). They say this point out that the people who hold most of the power have a way of sticking to old strategies of capitalism prosperity, even though they have shown time and again to be unsuccessful. 

            Patel and Moore also expose how capitalism is tied very closely with colonization and promoting cheap labor. According to the authors the main game of capitalism is to accumulate as much power and wealth as possible any means necessary. The authors state that, “Capitalism is not just the sum of ‘economic’ transactions that turn money into commodities and back again; it’s inseparable from the modern state and from governments’ dominions” (page 25). They say this to communicate that the era of capitalism we find ourselves in today is something that is globally so engrained in our societies and transactions that it is unavoidable. The whole system of capitalism involves the control of power and money, at the cost of exploiting workers and the environment.

            As I read this section from the book I was challenged to think on this topic of capitalism and the economic systems that have failed in the past. I feel like I am so often hearing that socialism is bad, or communism is evil, but very seldom do I hear about how evil or bad capitalism is. It seems that capitalism is normalized to a point where people often ignore the downsides and history of capitalistic expansion. Like any system, capitalism is unable to meet the needs of all people involved and will eventually fail civilizations, it already has. One of the main concerns I think is how capitalism has been affecting the environment. People are so concerned with getting rich and having power that they fail to see that this era of capitalism is destroying the planet.  

Is the McChicken Really Worth it?

 Jennifer Spatz

Local Places, Global Regions

Response Paper 2

1/16/2021

Is the McChicken Really Worth it?

    In “Seven Cheap Things'' by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore, they cover seven topics that highlight the everyday human life experience; nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives. They go on to explain how each of these qualities is slowly being destroyed by capitalism and as a result of the increase in human consumption, inflation, and markets. Throughout time, humans have faced turning points in life, or, “state shifts” in which they have altered natural life in order to gain a sense of convenience. As a result, because this trend continued for so long, it escalated into what we call capitalism, taking the simple things and altering them until there's not much else natural or healthy about the world, just some chemically engineered products. Humans are now programmed to want things quickly that lack in value and they have accepted that because that’s all they know, quantity over quality. 

    Patel and Moore use the poultry industry as an example of the destructive nature of humans. They speak of chicken bones in the geological record first explaining that the chickens we know and eat today, are in fact nothing like the chickens that existed a century ago. Humans have genetically altered the chickens in order to create a profitable market where the meat grows fast and the money comes in faster. The chickens are born quicker, matured faster, and have oversized breasts perfect for human conception. It is cheap and inauthentic nature, cheap work, cheap care, cheap food, and cheap energy time and time again because it is an endless cycle that people do not even know that they are stuck in.  

    On the path humans are heading down now, we are going to be living, breathing, and ingesting chemical filth based off of the cycle that is capitalism. We are digging our own graves and ignoring it because “this is forgotten in the act of dipping the chicken-and-soy product into a plastic pot of barbecue sauce.” (5). Patel and Moore explain the importance of “reparation ecology” as a method to move past history, fight to better ourselves, better the world, and plan and work towards a better, stronger, and healthier future. There need to be radical changes made to prevent the downfall that we are currently in. We must put the McChicken down and think about the reimagined web of life we could have. 

Capitalism Overdone

 Jesse Ernst

1/26/21

GEOG 101

Capitalism Overdone

Capitalism as Moore describes it reminds me of a whirlpool and those who participate (most not by choice) either get sucked down the hole, deeper and deeper into despair and poverty, or stay on top circling others sinking down.  I can understand why many throughout the known world are ready for capitalism to be put away and a new system reborn.  Nietzsche thought the time was coming for the God worshipping society to end.  In a similar way, Moore compares Nietzsche’s writings to Capitalism today. 

Moore described capitalism using in a term “Capitalocene… taking capitalism seriously, understanding it not just as an economic system but as a way of organizing the relations between humans and the rest of nature” (p. 3) This type of capitalism has shown its controlling force in all aspects of life throughout history as illustrated by “seven cheap things: nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives” (p. 3).  Moore explained how capitalism has become almost completely unchecked by the world powers by having control over those seven things through the “complex relationships between humans and the web of life” (p. 3).

Moore used both the modern chicken industry and Madeira Island as examples of how capitalism capitalized on everything and everyone for the profit of itself or a few.  These few are never satisfied.  I saw this first hand how “capitalism thrives not by destroying natures but by putting natures to work - as cheaply as possible” (p. 19) when working for a large oil company.  The company wanted the appearance of safety and care for the environment unless the protocols cost the company profits.

It is no wonder that there are Radical ecologists such as climate change activists, domestic worker organizers, the Occupy movement, and others that “want to change the way we think about all of life on earth” (p. 42).  “Each of these movements might provoke a moment of crisis” (p. 42), and when it does I hope that the new system will not just look good in words in a textbook but improve humanity in this “web of life” (p. 43).

Capitalism and Globalization

 Response Paper 2

GEOG101

Alice Williams

Capitalism and Globalization

  In Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore’s A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, the introduction outlines their argument that Capitalism is responsible for the devastation facing our planet, our nature, resources and our lives. Over the centuries of development of Capitalism, these seven things; nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives have been cheapened, reducing their value in order to maximize overall profit. This in turn is damaging our planet's ecosystem, it’s nature, and what we are so reliant on to survive. Capitalism over time has caused a demand to maintain the cheapness of these things, in order to live and sustain our economy. According to Patel and Moore, “Cheap is the opposite of a bargain- cheapening is a set of strategies to control a wider web of life” (3).

     Patel and Moore use the example of chickens, as a widely produced meat source for people today, and how in futures to come people will be able to see the impact of chicken on our society based on the bones left behind. They explain how chicken farming and processing relates to Capitalism and the seven cheap things. The chickens are grown as fast as possible, utilizing the cheapest energy source available, cheap labor, and processed into some of the cheapest foods, like chicken nuggets. This cycle of cheapening continues as cheap foods must be processed by low wage laborers who in turn must live off cheap food, and so on. Patel and Moore also use the example of sugar cane production in the times leading up to Capitalism. The island of Madeira was covered in trees, and referred to as the “Island of Wood” (14), but within 100 years nearly all the wood was gone. With the sugar demand growing, and efforts made to increase volume, they needed cheap energy and depleted the entire island of all their wood for fuel.

Our planet's natural resources are being overused, altered, and mass produced to turn a profit, not considering sustainability or negative impact on the environment. In our class we have been discussing Anthropocene, a term used to describe a period of time where all nature is considered to be impacted by human existence. Patel and Moore delve deeper into this, explaining that Anthropocene refers to “humans being humans” (2) and that the effects we have had on nature actually are due to Capitalism. Had we simply been humans living off the land to survive, our world would not look like it does now. Patel and Moore describe this as “Capitalocene, not just an economic system but a way of organizing the relations between humans and the rest of nature” (3). Capitalism has led to a world wide expanse of human activity connected to and affecting nature. With the growth of Capitalism over time, and the focus of mass production at cheapest cost for highest profit, comes Globalization. Companies outsource their labor and materials from other countries, where everything is cheaper and the cost to produce is less. They can sell their products for less and make the same profit or more, likely selling more products. Patel and Moore state, “Everything that humans make is coproduced with the rest of nature: food, clothing, homes and workplaces, roads and railways and airports, even phones and apps” (10). These things that humans make are occurring in mass production, and connecting people all over the world. Globalization of nature through Capitalism and cheapening, as outlined by Patel and Moore, shows the focus is on profit and global reach over the health and sustainability of our planet.

    In agriculture, and animal farming, we rely heavily on enough food to be grown, raised and produced in order to feed everyone. We require healthy soil to have the ability to grow food and grains to sustain civilization and Capitalism. Our crops are being treated with chemical synthetics to speed up growing, kill insects, and produce as much yield as possible for maximum profit. What is not considered are the long term effects this will have on our soil. I was listening to Science Friday on the radio last week, and the show guests were discussing carbon dioxide absorption in soil and soil health, and how common farming practices are diminishing the soil. They described our soil as a living system, with complex microbiomes, that is imperative to maintain healthfully in order to continue to yield crops over years to come. They mentioned the risk of damage we are currently doing to our soil, with how we treat it and that at the rate we are losing topsoil every year, it can completely diminish our soil viability in years to come. This really shows the impact of Capitalism, how Patel and Moore express, has led to depreciation of our nature and resources, and how this impacts our future.

Moore, Jason W., Patel, Raj. A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things.

Cheap Nature, Cheap Lives

Stasia Skonberg

Geography 101: Dr. Richard Simpson

1/24/2021

Response Paper 2

Cheap Nature, Cheap Lives

         In the introduction of Patell and Moore’s “Seven Cheap Things,” they explain from the very beginning how capitalism has become more than just an economic system to us and how our relationship with capitalism should change because of that. Their argument is that we as humans have evolved and changed our world but it hasn’t been done by just “humans being humans” and we can’t blame all our mishaps on our ancestors because we, right now, are the ones directly causing our downfall.

         There are seven main key terms of this piece and they are; nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives. Throughout the essay, we are led into the darkness of the U.S. current chicken industry and how that does currently and will in the future cause the abuse and misfortune of not only our planet but our people too. Another term we are introduced to throughout this piece is the term cheap. Everything we have created in the U.S. for the most part has been to achieve one simple thing, cheapness. Because of our undying need to have a cheap chicken sandwich at a fast food restaurant or cheap chicken at the grocery store, we are abusing every step along the way to it. Cheap chicken causes cheap lives.

    It is extremely easy to overlook all of these misfortunes because we don’t have to see it or deal with it in any direct way. All we see is the five dollar chicken breast at Fred Meyer and how we don’t have to break the bank for it. But if you look at everything else, at all the history leading up to the creation of capitalism and then all the history of capitalism leading up to now, you start to feel a sense of doom. Capitalism emerged from a broken, plague ridden Europe where the 1% were grasping at anything to continue on their profits, even if it meant the misuse and destruction of the planet and its inhabitants. So if something so dark and demented as capitalism came out of the Black Plague, what is there to come out of our most recent Covid-19 Pandemic? What other kinds of misfortunes can we humans put on our earth and other humans during this time that will prevail beyond centuries and generations of people like capitalism has from the Black Plague.

Cheap VS Value

 

Jennifer Burton

Geog 101

Prof. Richard Simpson

1/26/2020

Response paper #2

Cheap VS Value

The world we see today is devalued because of the capitalocene. Capitalocene is a runoff from the word anthrocene which means that humans have had an impact on everything on earth biologically and physically. According to Patel and Moore in the article “Introduction to the History of the World in Seven Cheap Things”, suggest that capitalism not only affects the value of people and the economy but also affects nature and its value. Patel and Moore came up with seven things that capitalism has affected the value of. They include nature, money, care, lives, work, food, and energy. These seven things becoming cheapened has caused problems for people and the environment alike. 

Capitalism is an economic system focused on profit; it prioritizes profit above all else and the bottom line is more important than anything or anyone else. This unfeeling system causes things to be valued less than they would be valued otherwise. Nature in the system of capitalism is thought to be a free gift that can be used without any thought of the consequence. Money is the source to control the system. Money is alive and moving, without this movement it is not worth anything. Care, according to Patel and Moore, is what is done by women who are “part of nature” (less than human)  and is often not compensated or is paid very little. “Caring” includes caring for the needs of the working people when they are not at work. Lives are cheaply valued because priority is given to the gain a profit.  Capitalism tries to maintain a social order and to have some people valued less than others to maximize labor.  Some groups, like women, indigenous people, and slaves are valued below others. Work needs to be cheap to maximize profit leading to slavery. Food and energy, including fuel,  needs to be cheap so that the slaves and workers will have what they need for their health so that they can work more efficiently.

  Capitalism has caused our world and many of our people to become “cheap”. This is a loss that has continued since the 14th century because the system and economy founded upon capitalism are unyielding and cannot be stopped. If people had decided from the beginning that our physical world, people, and other living organisms had more value than to generate wealth and have more technology than the next person, our natural world and humanities place in it would be more balanced and harmonious.

Exploiting Nature

 

Mandi Cox

26 January 2021

Response Paper

 

Exploiting Nature

            In “A History of the World in Seven cheap Things” Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore write about the complicated relationship between capitalism and the web of life. To encompass how the history of humans, capitalism, and nature have all affected one another they used the term “world-ecology.” “Cheap” is another key term in their writing. Patel and Moore focus on “seven cheap things” that they believe contribute heavily to the modern world that we live in. They refer to the process of how capitalism has and continues to exploit and cheapen: nature, money, work, energy, care, food, and lives.

            Patel and Moore argue that when the cycle of capitalism began there had to have been a “conceptual split between Nature and Society” (24). The split was due to humans gaining profit from nature and essentially separating themselves from nature in the process. However, the same society that separated themselves from nature excluded most women, indigenous people, slaves, and anyone else who they considered to not be full members of society. They saw those people as a part of nature and in turn their lives were cheapened, and the work of those people exploited by capitalism. We have touched on this subject in class briefly because some the same issues in society still exist today.

            The negatives of capitalism are not the only focus of Patel and Moore’s book, at the end of the introduction they go on to suggest that we can still make amends with nature. They also bring up organizations existing today that promote positive change of each of the seven cheap things such as climate change activists, immigrant-right activists, and The Movement for Black Lives. Here is a quote that ties in well with the conclusion of Patel and Moore’s introduction, “World-ecology therefore commits not only to rethinking but to remembering” (39).

This is why in our conclusion we offer a series of ideas that help us recognize and orient humans’ place in nature through the forensics of reparation. Weighing the injustices of centuries of exploitation can resacralize human relations within the web of life. Redistributing care, land, and work so that everyone has a chance to contribute to the improvement of their lives and to that of the ecology around them can undo the violence of abstraction that capitalism makes us perform every day. We term this vision “reparation ecology” and offer it as a way to see history as well as the future, a practice and a commitment to equality of reimagined relations for humans in the web of life. (Patel and Moore 43)

           

Our Cheap World

 Vandalyn Hudson

1/25/2021

Cheap Word Response

In the article, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Patel and Moore discuss a variety of cheap things they believe in. These seven things include; nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives. Both Patel and Moore dissect the seven things into what they think the words mean depending on their perspective on the world. For example, cheap nature is said that the way “slaves were treated as part of Nature rather than Society” meant that people needed to use their resources around them to create more labor. This allowed them to be zero cost for them to work, therefore it is cheap. For cheap food, there was one food that was not on that spectrum, which was sugar. According to the article, sugar was a nice treat in Europe and was used a lot for the rich. Then, there is cheap energy and cheap lives which also is associated in a way that created capitalism through cheaply made items.  Patel and Moore also mention world-ecology and how it has shown the world how capitalism has a huge impact on everything around them. The keywords that are presented in this article are; world-ecology, capitalism, and cheap. These three words have a play in what both Patel and Moore discuss in the article and really shapes our culture and world more and more.

A Cheap World

Theresa Wellington- McGilton

26 January 2021 

7 Cheap Things 

A Cheap World

    “7 Cheap Things” by Patel and Moore argued the point(s) that the ‘seven cheap things’ cannot exist without the other. The second point they argued was that the capitalist system demands a huge payment from the world as well as from the people in it. It goes on to explain that the world looks the way it does today because of the processes constantly going on. Right off the bat I’m intrigued with these claims. At first read my mind went to ‘payment’ and the way they used it in the text, in addition to the actual money they actually meant it in terms of resources, energy, and people. 

    The prime example they used to get their point across were the McNuggets. Aside from the enjoyment, when you consume them, not a lot goes through your head about what even makes them possible. The text gives thorough examples of how each step in the process is one of the seven cheap things and also shows how one makes the other possible. They start by explaining how the chickens are bred and then killed every year and they describe this as cheap nature. Next, they go into the processing of the McNuggets. The people who provide this labor get paid pennies for every $1 spent on the McNuggets, thus cheap work. Injury while working with poultry happens frequently and the workers then have to depend on family to either stay at work or to recover. The family help is unpaid so it is cheap care. The examples I listed were just three of the seven things that show how dependent they are on one another. 

    A familiar example of the capitalist system demanding payment from the world/ the people in it would be their contribution to the US poultry industry’s carbon footprint. Which means you can’t  have low-cost chicken without abundant propane: cheap energy. We get this quick and easy meal, but for what? Climate change is one of many possible outcomes of something as small as the making of a chicken nugget. From there it snowballs and goes on to effect ecosystems and how they interact etc.. 

A Cheaply Made World

 Rylee Johnson 

1/26/2021

Response Paper 2

A Cheaply Made World 

“A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things” by Raj Patel and Jason Moore offers a great insight into the history and ongoing capitalism, nature, and climate change. Patel and Moore offer a variety of historical events and offer insight using keywords. Patel and Moore enlighten us about capitalism, nature, and climate change through claims, history, and keywords. 

Both of the authors came together to create an idea or argument about capitalism, nature, and climate change. The main argument is that the modern world has been made cheaply through nature, money, work, cars, food, energy, and lives. This argument was backed up by historical and recent events, and the chapter of the book kept me on the edge of my seat. The other specific claim that was made was that throughout time capitalism is one of the main contributors of climate change. Although we see this in recent events and recent history, this has dated back since before the 19th century. 

Patel and Moore gave us examples of these claims through historical events. The first example they gave was before 19th century Europe, the peasants were able to have their own land and start growing their own food. The problem was that the soil fertility declined because of the constant use. This created a food shortage and killed millions. Another example that was brought to my attention was the overproduction of sugar in Madeira and the price that the climate paid for this event of capitalism. This event created modern slavery, destroyed land, and left nothing for the people of Maderia to live off of. These are just a few examples of cheaply made things created by capitalism. 

Some of the keywords are linked to what we are discussing in class and chapter two. The first and the most obvious is capitalism and that was a keyword in both class and in Patel and Moores's book. This ties to both because our modern world was created on capitalism, one thing that stuck out to me when the authors were explaining capitalism they said that capitalism only values what they can count on and they can only count on money. Another keyword in our textbook that links to our weekly reading is subsistence economies, the rural places such as Europe in the 19th century created their own food not for sale but for consumption. Lastly, the working landscape from our textbook ties to Europe and Madeira once again that the landscape is created and maintained by the people through agriculture. 

In conclusion, “A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things” by Raj Patel and Jason Moore offers a great argument and insight into capitalism and climate change. They offer us a great argument in the sense that our world needs to change for the better or we will be overcome by the trash in the year 2050. They offered us examples through historical events such as 19th century Europe and Madeira. They also used keywords such as capitalism, subsistence economies, and working landscape. 

History of Landscape

 Travis Marsden 

GEOG 101

Jan. 21, 2021

“The Word Itself” Response

This week we were assigned J.B. Jackson’s “The Word Itself” and I found it to be somewhat interesting. It talked about the history of the word landscape and how the meaning has changed through time. 

The word landscape has been around forever now and yet everyone's meaning of this word seems to be different. For most dictionaries its meaning is “A portion of land which the eye can comprehend at a glance” and has been this way for more than three hundred years. When it was reintroduced into English, the word's meaning changed. No longer did it mean the view itself but a picture of it or the artist's interpretation. Also the Americans and the English use landscape in a similar way but there is still that difference. For Americans they would think of an all natural scenery only but in England, most times there are at least one human element involved. 

Landscape is being used more frequently/freely nowadays and isn’t being used for its literal meaning anymore. Even just the word scape, is being used incorrectly with other words. Roadscape, townscape, and cityscape, like the word scape, meant a space. In most instances, landscape is metaphorically used and there is a reason it shouldn’t be. Landscape is a shared reality.

Defining Landscape

Nizhoni Franklin

Richard Simpson

Cultural Geography

19 January 2021

Defining Landscape

In the essay, “The Word Itself” written by J.B Jackson, the author discusses the definition of the word landscape and its many different meanings to each person. He uses the origins and definitions to discuss the many different meanings of landscape.

Jackson uses the dictionary definition of the word landscape to introduce us to the idea that it had started out meaning one specific thing. He states “the one we find in most dictionaries is more than three hundred years old and was drawn up for artists” (page 3). He goes on to say that the word only represented an artist’s depiction of a view, and not the actual view itself. He goes on to say that this definition even influenced what gardeners made the actual landscape into. This shows that our original definition involving art soon after became what was wanted in everyday life, creating jobs for people to be creative with nature and make it into a beautiful place to live making it so that more and more landscapes are man-made.

Later in the essay, the author discusses the origins of both syllables and what they meant in different places and languages. With this he goes to say “landscape could well have meant something like an organization, a system of rural farm spaces. At all events it is clear that a thousand years ago the word had nothing to do with scenery or the depiction of scenery” (page 7). This proves that throughout time the word has evolved and changed many different times, possibly starting out solely having to do with farming and going on to associate with art and even changing now to what we know as landscape. 

J.B Jackson’s essay “The Word Itself” talks about the ever changing meaning of the word landscape and that by knowing the history of the word and knowing it will change again will help us to learn more about landscape and what it represents.

Reaction Paper 1

Stasia Skonberg

Geography 101: Dr. Richard Simpsonm

January 19, 2021

Response Paper 1

Landscape Defines Itself

In J.B. Jackson’s “The Word Itself,” he pulls apart the word landscape and investigates what the true original meanings and uses were as well as the ways it has changed in modern times. Throughout the essay he takes us through the past uses of the word landscape and how that pertained to a certain group of people back in the day as opposed to now where it is more “public domain”. His argument throughout this piece stays that we need a new definition for landscape, although he may not be able to come up with one.

“Landscape” is the main term in the essay used and talked about and has a vast history not many people know about or look into. The fact that it had so many meanings and uses before it became a mainstream English word used among English speakers is in itself a very interesting part of the entire word. The word has ties to German roots, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes and Dutch and at the root of the word can mean both a natural scenery or a space defined by people.

A space defined by people as well as something that shows natural scenery in the eyes of the people that live on it is what landscape means at its core. With that said I have a hard time agreeing with Jackson on his argument that we need a new definition for the word landscape because I think it has transformed into the word it was truly meant to be and into the meaning it was truly meant to be understood in and that the meaning is up to yourself or in the eye of the beholder.

Space has become a very important thing in society today and more specifically personal space. We have been cooped up in our homes for months at this point trying to maintain our personal space, and I do think the word landscape is changing because of that. Because of our inability to meet together in one space created for learning, in our case, we are forced to create our own definition of the space and of the idea of a “learning space” a learning-scape if you will. Some may see that as a hindrance or a set back to the leaps and bounds made from the original “painterly” meaning of landscape, showcasing picturesque landscapes, but I see it as a sort of Renaissance. This weird time in all of our lives has changed every aspect of it and we have to change with it.

The New Definition of Landscape?

  Rylee Johnson 

1/19/21

Response Paper 1

The New Definition of Landscape 

“The Word Itself” by J.B Jackson offers us a new look and meaning into the word landscape. It helps us see that the word landscape can be defined in many different ways and can differ from person to person through time. Jackson shows us through his knowledge, keywords, and examples how through time the word landscape has changed. 

Jackson shows us how the word landscape has changed through his knowledge of the subject. The most specific claim that Jackson argued was that we should start thinking of landscape as a new definition. “ A composition of man-made or man-modified spaces to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence” (Jackson, page 8). This claim is really powerful and if you think about it, it makes sense. The claim that these buildings or this landscape are just a mear background for our existence makes sense. In some situations, this doesn't make sense though. For most places that have had generations and generations of indigenous people, there are places and buildings of some sort that have significance to the land. They are a flaw in Jackson’s theory that this landscape is just a background in our existence. Some huts and buildings have significance to connect the people to the land and offer thanks for the beautiful land that they have. 

The second way that Jackson shows us how the word landscape has changed is through keywords. Some keywords that Jackson uses in his article are landscape, picture, environment, space, lands, shape, and spatial models. These keywords connect us to the argument of the article because they all help prove his theory. They all have something to do with landscape and the changing meaning of this word.  They directly connect us to the text we are learning in class. They also share some keywords with Chapter 1 of “Contemporary Human Geography, Culture, Globalization, Landscape by Roderick P. Neumann, Patricia L. Price”. The article as well as the book mentions the keyword, spatial models, its purpose is to help us understand human geographic patterns with math. 

The final way that Jackson helps us understand his argument is through examples through history. The basic meaning of landscape in the dictionary is over 300 years old and reads “a portion of land which the eye can comprehend at a glance” (Jackson, page 3). This definition continued to be used throughout the 19th century.  Throughout time Jackson tells us this definition has some changes and develops into something else. Where he places his own definition of the word  “A composition of man-made or man-modified spaces to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence” (Jackson, page 8).

In conclusion, Jackson shows us his definition of the word landscape and it offers good inside but his theory has some flaws. It also shows us through keywords like spatial models and offers us a deeper understanding of the text of our book. Lastly, he shows us through experience through time how this word has changed. Jackson shows us how the definition of the word landscape changes throughout time through knowledge, keywords, and experience. 

Citations 

Neumann, R. P., & Price, P. L. (2019). Contemporary human geography: Culture, globalization, landscape. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman and Company.

Jackson, J. B. (2009). "The Word Itself". In Discovering the vernacular landscape. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Reaction Paper 1

 Madison Blackburn

Geography 101

January 20, 2021

I really enjoyed the reading of “Defining Place” by Tim Cresswell. I thought that both of the readings for today were good ones, I just felt that the “Defining Place” one had more details and definitely kept my interest longer. This reading showed a lot of different perspectives on different geological themes. It mainly talked about the definition of place, and how people use it differently. 

One of the biggest takeaways that I got from this reading was that place isn’t just a way to name a location of somewhere, but every place has a different value and understanding. This made me think of all the different “places” people go in an average day and how they are so different. I never use to think much of the difference in daily visits of locations, but after reading this I realized how people act, the setting, the comfortableness, and so many other factors vary in every place you go. 

Understanding various places is something that will contain a lot of details, and everyone’s understanding of a place will be unique. The way people understand and interpret various places will often depend on their knowledge of the place and their experiences. Sometimes our friends and peers have different opinions and comfort levels in certain settings than we do. 

For example, I love living in Alaska. Alaska is a beautiful place, more isolated, and adventurous to me. Other people from different states can’t even imagine how I live here. They don’t like how it is isolated and that you can’t always get things as easily as you can somewhere else. This is just one general big place that many people have different opinions on. 

Response paper 1

Vandalyn Hudson

1.18.2021

Response Paper #1

To summarize the argument of the J.B. Jackson, “The World Itself” article, he defines the word “landscape” between landscape architecture and landscape painting. Jackson also mentions how many other people and countries use those words differently and its meaning is different as well. On the other hand, the article “Defining Places” by Tim Cresswell is somewhat similar to J.B. Jackson. Cresswell’s main argument is based on how the word ‘place’ is used in a variety of content. Although, he says that the term ‘place’ simply means “they are all spaces which people have made meaningful” Cresswell,T (2015) Place: An Introduction, Jackson’s saying is also similar. He says, “a landscape is a space deliberately created to speed up or slow down the process of nature” (Jackson, J.B. The Word Itself). Some keywords in Jackson’s article are landscape architecture, landscape painting, scape, space, and land. The most specific claim in this article would be that Jackson talks about how landscape is just a meaning for space. According to the article, it is said that, “land is both a larger and enclosed space” and it is a man-made system that is around us. For example, a historical space that can be used for both articles would be in Seattle, WA called the Freeway Park is a good example that uses arguments from the text. It is a man-made landscape as well as a place that is meaningful to people. Before the land was nothing, until it was created into a landscape architecture for people to view.

Sense of Place

 Theresa Wellington- McGilton 

20 January 2021 

Place Response Paper

A Sense of Place 

    This week we were assigned Tim Creswell’s, “Defining Place” and I found it to be the most interesting out of the two readings. Throughout the text it reiterates how complex place truly is. The author talks of place being located and having a material visual form, but also places must have some relationship to humans/ the human capacity to have meaning. He goes on to talk about sense of place- describing personal/shared meanings that are associated with a particular locale. The most interesting piece of text for me personally was the sense of place section and I will discuss it further as I go on. 

As I mentioned before sense of place really grabbed my attention and now I will discuss its significance. The author claims that sense of place is the subjective and emotional attachment people have to a place. This was something I had to read more than once so I could fully grasp what point he was trying to get across. He described it well when he gave the example of successful novels and films evoking a sense of place- which means they give the reader/watcher a feeling that they know what it’s like to “be there” in that moment, in their shoes. I think that the claim made is very significant in the sense that without a ‘sense of place’ where would that leave us? I feel it clearly helps define us as individuals as well as peoples, cultures, and Americans. 

    One of the best examples the text gave on “sense of place” was the Twin Towers. When you hear about them 99% of us think back to 9/11. Why? Because we have an emotional tie there, we know what happened and how it affected us as well as the world around us. Another good example would be the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Like the Twin Towers we have an emotional tie there, it isn’t just a place on the map for us. We know the story behind it, making it significant to us.