Interdependence overview

Many of the ideas we have discussed about interdependence highlight the increased interconnectivity of places and how places mutually rely on each other.
The question we consider in today's blog is, does interdependence lead to the distinctiveness of places becoming lost?

To an extent this is true. For example, Americanisation has taken place in many countries, as you can find American fast food outlets in places all over the world. Some have termed this 'McDonaldization'.

Mcdonalds in Israel....

.... Japan

.... Saudi Arabia

Western technology and media have also had an impact on places around the world, in some cases replacing local practices.

For example The Simpsons can be seen in more than 60 foreign countries.

In conclusion, interdependence does appear to blur the distinctiveness of places to an extent. This is an inevitable feature of a being part of a globalised world/community in which places are strongly interconnected. Places that were previously isolated are now part of a globalised world and so they share some features with interdependent, partner places. However, we argue that places still retain their own distinctiveness. Looking back to our previous video blog (cultural interdependence) on the city of Leicester in the UK, we saw that Leicester has huge cultural diversity, with influences from many different parts of the world. But rather than this diversity causing Leicester to lose its own sense of identity, arguably Leicester’s diversity is what makes it unique.

Dan & Josh

Cultural Interdependence

Hello blogfans. This is our last video blog on interdependence for a while. It looks at cultural interdependence within the Leicester City centre. We hope you enjoy and it helps in your understanding of cultural interdependence and interdependence as a whole. Enjoy.



Dan & Josh

Social Interdependence

Hello, welcome to out fourth video blog on interdependence. This video blog looks at social interdependence. Hopefully it will help you in your continual development of interdependence. Any questions you have, please ask us using the comment box below and we'll be happy to reply.

Dan and Josh

Environmental Interdependence

Welcome to our third video blog on interdependence. This video blog looks at environmental interdependence. We hope you like it, and it helps in your understanding of interdependence. If you would like to make any comments please feel free to. Thanks for watching.

Dan and Josh

Political Interdependence

Welcome to our second video blog on interdependence. This video blog looks at political interdependence. We hope you enjoy it, and it helps in your understanding and development of interdependence. Thanks for watching.




Dan and Josh

Economic Interdependence

Welcome to our first video blog on interdependence. This video blog looks at economic interdependence. We hope you enjoy it, try not to laugh to much. If you are lucky we might put together some outtakes.

Dan and Josh

Our Interdependent World

In our previous blogs we mentioned that interdependence is a result of many different links, such as economic, social, environmental, cultural and political links. These links create many challenges, but also opportunities. Whereas once, challenges such as an economic recession or pollution generated by high energy use, may have been viewed at the national level, interdependence means they are felt on a global scale.

We must also consider the fact that the postive and negative impacts of interdependence are often not shared equally between places. Often an MEDC will reap the majority of any benefits and an LEDC will be worst effected by negative aspects. In the Bill Clinton clip posted on October 2nd, he discusses interdependence. Speaking from a global perspective he says that "we share the benefits but we must also share the pain."

A few of the current challenges and opportunities resulting from interdependence are highlighted in the following short video.

One World, One Voice

This is a connection (interdependence) music video, done with lots of musicians across the world (some famous i.e. Sting), cleverly entitled 'one voice, one world'. The first minute of this song provides a great lyrical insight into Interdependence. The concept of this 'one voice' illustrates the global community we now live in. Have a butchers.

Dan and Josh

Interdependence - An abstract similie

A slightly abstract simile illustrating the concept of interdependence as a food web (play foodweb game). Each animal is interconnected with other animals in the food web. The fox in this food web is the top carnivore, but it survives by eating mice and rabbits. It could not survive without its interactions with those animals. Similarly, without the fox, the rabbit population may become too large to be supported by the available food supply. This will destabilise the food web, to the detriment of both animals. Therefore ultimately the rabbit also relies on the fox. We can conclude that the fox and the rabbit are interdependent due to their direct connections and mutual connections with other organisms in the same system.


Geographically, in the globalised world in which we live, different countries and places in the world are interconnected by many different means such economic, social, environmental, cultural and political links. This is demonstrated in the image below:

For example, the UK is closely interconnected with countries right around the globe. The UK is an advanced economy, similar to the position of the fox in the foodweb. The UK economy depends on the flow of cheap raw materials from a less developed economy such as Nigeria. Equally, Nigeria relies on the UK in buying their raw materials, as well as adopting UK technology to extract the raw materials. Both countries my in turn rely on the finished product. Within the global economic system, this deep level of interconnectedness and inter-reliance leads us to conclude that the UK and Nigeria are interdependent.

Interdependence visual aid

Hello again, hope you are enjoying our blog?

We have decided to add a few diagrams to instil the concept of Interdependence. Hopefully this will clear up any uncertainties that you had.

Enjoy



Facebook oozes Interdependence. As you can see from the homepage, which we all recognise ,we can see that 'facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life', as you can see where these connections are made (interms of their geographical position). As a little activity look at your 'mutual friends' and try to make 10 connections between them. This in a nutshell is what Interdependence is all about.


We have attempted to simply conceptualise interdependence in the above model. All three places are geographically separate in terms of location. However, they are all interconnected in terms of the strands of interdependence, which can be broken down into: Social
Economic
Political
Environmental
Cultural

In addition all 3 places are located within a framework of globalisation.

We will return to these strands of interdendence in future blogs!

Dan and Josh

Hi all,

For our second most we have included several definitions and quotes for a range of sources. We hope that these will build up your understanding and knowledge of interdependence.

“A reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups)” Thefreedictionary.com

"Interdependence – the connections between different components of systems or between separate systems which mean that changes in one will necessarily cause changes in another." Tutorial School, 2005.

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe" John Muir (1911) My First Summer in the Sierra.

Interdependence, as a concept in the Key Stage 3 Geography curriculum is defined as 'Exploring the social, economic, environmental and political connections between places and understanding the significance of interdependence in change, at all scales.' National Curriculum, QCDA, 2009.

The following video is an interview with Bill Clinton, where he describes how the modern world can be "characterised by one word...interdependence".


We believe that interdependence refers to a globalised world or world-community in which we live in, whereby it is almost impossible to find an area of the world or a group of people that exists completely independently of another. Interdependence is not just links between countries but between people, cultures, societies, environments and economies. These connections have always existed, its just that the intensity of these global connections has increased.

In our blog over the next few weeks we shall aim to explore a little more as to what this term means. We shall look at several practical examples and comment on some of the implications, both positive and negative. In doing this we shall consider what has been written about interdependence in academic literature and various forms of media. Finally we shall consider how we can apply the term and make it understandable in a secondary educational context.

Hello all. We hope you enjoy our introductory post on interdependence.

To give you the basic structure of interdependence we advise you play the game. This game will help you understand how interdependence works. When playing the game think about; if one of the objects were to be taken away from the system would it effect the links and system overall?

When researching interdependence in more depth, common words kept cropping up. Below is a 'word cloud' containing reoccurring words related to interdependence.

The geointerdependence word cloud generates some interesting words which has hopefully helped in your understanding, but also generated your enquiry taste buds for this Key Stage 3 Geography concept idea.

Thanks for reading and keep your eyes peeled for our next blog.

Dan and Josh

Welcome to our geointerdependence blog

Hello and welcome to geointerdependence. Thank-you for visiting us.

Myself (Dan) and Josh, set this blog up to develop viewers understanding of Interdependence. The world we live in today is linked together more than it ever has been, we now live in what is known as the global-community. Nations are no longer a single entity, economics, environmental, political and social connections, connect these places together. Human action in one place could have consequences or benefits somewhere else, for example the global economic depression or a local charity event that will help those who are less fortunate somewhere else.

We hope our blogs develop your understanding of interdependence and how you fit within the wider world, as those insignificant events that you feel play no part in your world, maybe significant in someone else's world, or the wider world around you.

Thanks for viewing

Dan and Josh