Connections: Diffusion

Connection was defined at the beginning of the chapter as relationships among people and objects that cross the barrier of space. Geographers are concerned with the various means by which connections occur. More rapid connections have reduced the distance across space between places, not literally in miles, of course, but in time.

Hearths

The process by which a feature spreads across space from one place to another over time is called diffusion. A feature originates at a hearth and diffuses from there to other places. A hearth is a place from which an innovation originates. Geographers document the location of nodes and the processes by which diffusion connects things elsewhere over time.

How does a hearth emerge? A cultural group must be willing to try something new and must be able to allocate resources to nurture the innovation. To develop a hearth, a group of people must also have the technical ability to achieve the desired idea and the economic structures, such as financial institutions, to facilitate implementation of the innovation.

As discussed in subsequent chapters, geographers can trace the dominant cultural, political, and economic features of the contemporary United States and Canada primarily to hearths in Europe and Southwest Asia. Other regions of the world also contain important hearths. In some cases an idea, such as an agricultural practice, may originate independently in more than one hearth. In other cases, hearths may emerge in two regions because two cultural groups modify a shared concept in two different ways.

For a person, an object, or an idea to have interaction with persons, objects, or ideas in other regions, diffusion must occur. Geographers observe two basic types of diffusion—relocation and expansion.

Diffusion

Diffusion is the spread of an idea or characteristic over time. When people move, or relocate, they spread ideas along with them. Therefore this is called relocation diffusion. "Distance decay" describes the process whereby interaction between locales decreases as distance increases.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another is termed relocation diffusion. We shall see in Chapter 3 that people migrate for a variety of political, economic, and environmental reasons. When they move, they carry with them their culture, including language, religion, and ethnicity.

The most commonly spoken languages in North and South America are Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese, primarily because several hundred years ago Europeans who spoke those languages comprised the largest number of migrants. Thus these languages spread through relocation diffusion. We will examine the diffusion of languages, religions, and ethnic groups in Chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Introduction of a common currency, the euro, in 12 European countries in 2002 gave scientists an unusual opportunity to measure relocation diffusion from hearths. Although a single set of paper money was issued, each of the 12 countries minted its own coins in proportion to its share of the region’s economy. A country’s coins were initially distributed only inside its borders, although the coins could also be used in the other 11 countries. Scientists in France took month-to-month samples to monitor the proportion of coins from each of the other 11 countries. The percentage of coins from a particular country is a measure of the level of relocation diffusion to and from France.

Relocation Diffusion

Diffusion of euro newly minted coins in France, 2002. Euro coins minted in other countries first appeared in France near its borders with other countries, where connections between people in neighboring countries would be more frequent.

Expansion Diffusion

The spread of a feature from one place to another in an additive process is expansion diffusion. This expansion may result from one of three processes:

• Hierarchical diffusion is the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places (Figure 1-60). Hierarchical diffusion may result from the spread of ideas from political leaders, socially elite people, or other important persons to others in the community. Innovations may also originate in a particular node or core region of power, such as a large urban center, and diffuse later to isolated rural areas on the periphery. Hip-hop or rap music is an example of an innovation that originated in urban areas, though it diffused from African Americans, a cultural group that has not been economically dominant. African Americans have been the source of numerous music and fashion trends in the last century. Hierarchical diffusion follows a chain of command, something you see in business, government, and the military. The CEO of a company or the leader of a government body generally knows information before it is disseminated among a wider employee base or the general public.

• Contagious diffusion is the rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. As the term implies, this form of diffusion is analogous to the spread of a contagious disease, such as influenza. Contagious diffusion spreads like a wave among fans in a stadium, without regard for hierarchy and without requiring permanent relocation of people. New music or an idea goes viral because web surfers throughout the world have access to the same material simultaneously. Contagious diffusion through the Internet or social media is known as a meme. In the case of social media, memes and viral videos spread from person to person in contagious expansion diffusion as they are shared. It's no coincidence that something that spreads quickly and widely on social media is deemed "going viral." Religions spread through contagious diffusion as well, as people must come in contact with a belief system to somehow to learn about and adopt i

• Stimulus diffusion is the spread of an underlying principle even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. For example, innovative features of Apple’s iPhone and iPad have been adopted by competitors. In stimulus diffusion, a trend catches on but is changed as it is adopted by different groups, such as when a certain religion is adopted by a population but the practices are blended with the customs of the existing culture. When enslaved people brought Voodoo, which has its origins in African tradition, to America, it was blended with Christianity, incorporating many of that religion's important saints. Stimulus diffusion can also apply to the more mundane as well. "Cat yoga," an exercise fad in the United States, is much different than the traditional meditative practice. Another example would be the menus of McDonald's restaurants from around the world. While they resemble the original, many have been adapted to suit local tastes and regional religious food doctrines.

Hierarchical Diffusion

Honda’s operations are divided into regional offices that are directed from headquarters in Tokyo.

Contagious Diffusion: Meme of Alex

A customer took a photo of a cashier at Target named Alex and posted it on Twitter. Alex gained nearly one-quarter million followers within one day of the customer’s original Twitter posting.

Expansion diffusion occurs much more rapidly in the contemporary world than it did in the past. Hierarchical diffusion is encouraged by modern methods of communication, such as computers, texting, blogging, tweeting, and e-mail. Contagious diffusion is encouraged by use of the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. Stimulus diffusion is encouraged by all of the new technologies.