UNIT 4: Power, Places & Networks

4.1 Global Interactions and Global Powers

How global power and influence varies spatially

4.2 Global Networks & Flows

How different places become interconnected by global interactions

4.3 Human & Physical Influences

How political, technological and physical processes influence global interactions

UNIT 5: Human Development & Diversity

5.1 Development Opportunities

Ways of supporting the processes of human development

5.2 Changing Identities & Cultures

How global interactions bring cultural influences and changes to places

5.3 Local Responses

The varying power of local places and actors to resist or accept change

UNIT 6: Global Risks & Resilience

6.1 Geopolitical & Economic Risks

How technological and globalising processes create new geopolitical and economic risks for individuals and societies

6.2 Environmental Risks

How global interactions create environmental risks for particular places and people

6.3 Local & Global Resilience

New and emerging possibilities for managing global risks

This study of global interactions has a broader perspective than a more conventional study of globalisation that emphasises a linear process involving the domination and the imposition of Western culture on the world. In the context of this syllabus, global interaction suggests a two-way and complex process whereby cultural traits and commodities may be adopted, adapted or resisted by societies. The process is neither inevitable nor universal.

The HL extension theme focuses on the global interactions, flows and exchanges arising from the disparities that exist between places. It presents important and contestable geographic issues of change in space and time for the HL student to question. This part of the syllabus is divided into three units relating to global interactions and global development. (IB DP Geography Guide, 2017)

Core Extension [HL]

UNIT 4: Power, Places & Networks

UNIT 5: Human Development & Diversity

UNIT 6: Global Risks & Resilience