3 Supranationalism and Devolution - Strasbourg and Slovakia
This video program features two case studies on Europe: Strasbourg: Symbol of a United Europe and Slovakia: New Sovereignty.
Strasbourg: Symbol of a United Europe focuses on the coexistence of French and German cultures in the city of Strasbourg, France. This peaceful and prospering community remains an important symbol of the new European unity.
The city has been influenced primarily by French and German cultures, and its landscape and architecture have recorded the periodic dominance of one or the other. Today, people from France and Germany cross the Rhine River without border controls, work in industries and services throughout the border region, and may even own land in both countries. These freedoms have not always existed. Interviews with local residents reveal that border procedures, migration patterns, and land ownership regulations were previously the norm. The recent transformation and relaxation of political territorial control in this part of the continent is an example of the new unification of Europe. The development of the European Union, further discussion of Strasbourg's function as a seat of the European Union.
Slovakia: New Sovereignty, the second case study featured in the video, discusses the birth of Slovakia and the Czech Republic and the problematic transition from the old Czechoslovakia to these two new states. The young political state of Slovakia was created in January 1993, after the breakup of the old Czechoslovakian Federation. Located northeast of Austria and north of Hungary, this area has a long frontier history on the edge of Western Europe.  The decision by both governments to separate remains controversial. Some believe the separation was a Czech political decision. This case study focuses on continuing border disputes, ethnic tensions within Slovakia, and how Slovakia's eastern location affects its economic development and integration with Western Europe. The conflict surrounding the Gabcikovo Dam project.

Video Key Words and Concepts
Strasbourg
Supranationalism; What is the EU?
European Union
Relative Location
State Identity
Slovakia
Devolution; the Velvet divorce
Border Disputes
Economic Development
Ethnic tensions

4 East Looks West - Berlin and Poland
This video program features two case studies on Europe: Berlin: United We Stand and Poland: Diffusion of Democracy.
Berlin: United We Stand explores Berlin, Germany, a city uniquely shaped by superpower rivalries over five decades. The city, its division marked by the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, is a study in contrasts. Differing patterns of land use and transportation, as well as of income and residence, are apparent even today when comparing the eastern and western parts of the city.
This first case study features a French geographer whose work involves a reconnaissance of districts in the former East and West Berlin. Her research helps address questions about how and in what ways the dismantling of the Berlin Wall may lead to the integration of urban areas that formerly were spatially distinct. Berlin is experiencing dramatic transformations in its urban landscape, in part due to the political designation of the city as the capital of a reunited Germany and in part a response to international economic forces. This is especially true along the old boundary separating East and West Berlin, which is now the site of a number of large-scale construction projects. The refurbished Reichstag and its symbolism to reunified Germany.
Poland: Diffusion of Democracy presents the difficulties facing Poland in its transition from communism to capitalism. This second case study shows how, under the new system, Poles are learning the nuances of discourse, compromise, and civic engagement. The future of Poland's democracy depends on how quickly these skills spread throughout its population. New urban voters have rapidly assimilated these ideas, but rural Poland is plagued by dismal voter turnout. In response, a new government program is attempting to teach the geographic concept of diffusion -- and its carriers and barriers -- in order to speed the pace of change in this newly open society.

Video Key Words and Concepts
Berlin
Reunification of Germany
Reunification of Berlin
Berlin Wall
Cold War
Poland
Free Market Economy
Iron Curtain
Diffusion
Diffusion of Democratic Practice

5 The Transforming Industrial Heartland - Liverpool and Randstad
This video program features two case studies on Europe: Liverpool: A Tale of Two Cities and Randstad: Preserving the Green Heart. The city of Liverpool in England and the metropolitan region of the Randstad in the Netherlands are tied together by the common themes of modernization, transportation, and trade as well as quality of life issues.
Liverpool: A Tale of Two Cities examines the rise, fall, and revival of the port city of Liverpool, which was originally settled in 1207 in northwestern England after King John granted a charter for a new planned town on the shore of the Mersey Estuary. The city developed during the mid-seventeenth century as the main port linking England with Ireland. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the port handled colonial trade, and during the Industrial Revolution it served the nearby manufacturing complex that was based in Manchester.
Now an industrial city itself, Liverpool's city center is three miles (five kilometers) from the Irish Sea, but its docks extend for five miles (eight kilometers) northward along the flat coast. By the 1970s, the port began to lose business because it lacked modern equipment that would speed the loading and unloading of goods. When Liverpool's docks were modernized and containerized cargo became predominant, many stevedores who had worked the docks became unemployed.
Liverpool's revitalized downtown and dockside, it's emergence as a locus of new technology and service industries, and the continuing struggle of the residents in the working class communities surrounding Liverpool.
Randstad: Preserving the Green Heart discusses the Randstad megalopolis, which is anchored by three cities -- Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague -- that together form the cornerstone of the Netherlands' core area. The Randstad conurbation and its coalescence has created a ring-shaped complex that surrounds a still-rural center. The literal translation of rand is edge or margin; stad means city. A more precise labeling of the conurbation, however, would be Randstad-Holland, because Holland (meaning "hollow land") refers specifically to the Dutch heartland that faces the North Sea in these lowest-lying western provinces of the Netherlands.
The original case study shows how residents and farmers are attempting to preserve the region's remaining "green" character in the face of development. Currently, the government backs a plan to develop high-speed rail access to Schiphol Airport from Rotterdam, and the most efficient route cuts right through the rural heart of the Randstad. The people of the Randstad see the need for a link with the rest of Europe via Rotterdam, but those interviewed also believe this area needs to be preserved. The government sees no way to both bypass the green heart and maintain Schiphol's comparative advantage as a transportation center that provides both air and land access to greater Europe. Detailed satellite imagery showing options for rail link routes, discussion of the construction of the new tunnel under the Randstad.

Video Key Words and Concepts
Liverpool
Industrial Revolution
Information Revolution, what tech industry already had a base here?
Containerized Shipping
Reduced Labor Force
Economic Decline and Revitalization
European Union
Randstad
Dense Urban Center on the Edge of Europe's Heartland
Randstad
Infrastructure Development
Environmental Issues
Agriculture/Environmental Protection
Transportation and Communications for European Integration

6 Challenges in the Hinterlands - Andalucia and Iceland
This program features two case studies on Europe: Andalucia: Developments in the Hinterlands and Iceland: Edge of the Habitable World.
Andalucia: Developments in the Hinterlands explores the once-prosperous Andalucia region of Spain and the gradual marginalization of this area, which is now peripheral to Europe's industrialized core. The original case study examined how Expo '92 spurred hopes that another Silicon Valley would take root in the Expo's now vacant complex near Seville and revitalize this region gripped by economic recession. The dreams of a second Silicon Valley never materialized, and provides further discussion of Andalucia's desire to become better connected to the European core.
Iceland: Edge of the Habitable World examines the many challenges this island state faces due to its remote location and harsh environment. The case study also focuses on Iceland's cultural evolution in the hinterlands of Europe and the fishing industry's crucial role in Iceland's economy.  Iceland's fishing industry. 

Video Key Words and Concepts
Andalucia
Relative Location of a European Hinterland
Historical Geography at the Crossroads of Civilizations, Arab culture
Economic Geography: from Agriculture to Industry
Transportation Infrastructure and the Disadvantage of Distance
Iceland
Human-Environmental Interaction
Globalization
Rural to Urban Migration
Depleted Fish Stocks vs. Sustainable Harvests
Plate Tectonics Theory
Geothermal Energy how used & where

7 Northwest Contrast - St. Petersburg and Vologda
Across Russia's many landscapes, geography influences the problems people face and the solutions they are considering since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The case study St. Petersburg: Russia's Window on the West shows a capital city originally founded to link Tsarist Russia to the culture of Western Europe. Under Communist rule and isolationism, the city lost its preeminence, its name, and, in part, the strength of its economic base as a port city. Emergence of the market system has introduced serious problems into its economy, but it has also presented new opportunities for revitalization. St. Petersburg was deliberately located and built for specific purposes based upon its particular locational advantages. The resulting functions and structures in this city illustrate the problems the Russian economy faces as it undergoes a transition from communism to a market economy where competition rewards individual initiative.  How Russian lives have changed during the transition to a free market economy.
The case study Vologda: Russian Farming in Flux shows us a quintessential Russia. This region of the northwest interior, which surrounds the administrative center bearing its name, is remote and rural. Many of the changes that have occurred since the collapse of the Soviet Union have not yet reached Vologda. We focus on Voldoga's dairy industry, the logical agricultural activity given the region's harsh, continental climate. Although there is evidence of entrepreneurial activity, we find an uncertain future as most farms have not privatized, investment money is scarce, markets are hard to find, and most farmers have yet to make the "mental transition" to a free market philosophy. In some ways, collective farms here operate in much the same fashion as they did under communist rule.
Privatization of farming, the continuing function of collective farms, and how shrinking cultivation is turning Russia into an archipelago of widely spaced urban areas. 

Video Key Words and Concepts
St. Petersburg
Relative Location
Europeanization
Privatization
Free Market Economy
New Russians
Vologda
Collective Farms
Impact of Physical Geography on Agriculture
Changing Demographics in Russia's Rural Areas
Oblast

8 Holding the Hinterlands - Dagestan and Bratsk
This video program features two case studies on Russia: Dagestan: Caucuses Disconnect? and Bratsk: The Legacy of Central Planning.
Since the dissolution of the vast Soviet Union, the various nationalities within Russia have been confronted with a choice between nationalist anarchy and peaceful cooperation with the Russian core. Among the dry reaches of the Caucasus Mountains lies the Republic of Dagestan, which is composed of over thirty ethnic groups. In Dagestan; Caucuses Disconnect?, we see how a complex tapestry of religion, culture, history, and economy unifies the people of this republic, who are Russian by rule but not by background. The forces that held the Soviet Union together and then split the Soviet Union apart, further background on Dagestan, and recent events in the region, including the war in Chechnya. 
Bratsk: The Legacy of Central Planning visits a city built by government decree. The Siberian city grew in this remote location because, in the twentieth century, Russia's new technologies were powered by the region's rich resources. This exploitation of Siberia greatly contributed to the Soviet central economy. Russia's use of hydroelectric power and mineral reserves continues to support Bratsk today.The situation in Bratsk since the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The contrast between the peoples of Dagestan and Bratsk illustrates the variety of thought and behavior found in Russians from places far apart yet under the same federal rule. The diversity of their problems stems in large part from their disparate locations, climates, and histories -- their geography -- within this vast country. Just as their past has been shaped by these factors, the solutions that will occur to them and seem suitable are strongly influenced by background, culture, traditional beliefs, and environmental limitations.

Video Key Words and Concepts
Dagestan
Centrifugal vs. Centripetal Forces
Islamic Republic
War on Terrorism
Diverse Cultures and Physical Geography
Bratsk
Physical Geography and Natural Resources
Centralized Planning
Soviet Prestige
Economic Privatization
Government Subsidies

9 Changes on the Chang Jiang - Shanghai and Sijia
This video program features two case studies about the Chang Jiang River valley: Shanghai: Head of the Dragon and Sijia: Small Town, Big Change.

The first case study, Shanghai: Head of the Dragon, examines China's most populous city. Shanghai is experiencing unprecedented growth since the central government gave its approval and support to an open city policy. The opening of China's coastal regions to foreign trade has been the catalyst for Shanghai's economic expansion. Massive construction projects are underway in old Shanghai and throughout the Open Coastal Area, especially in the Pudong New Area. Shanghai's new port project, new airport, and high-tech industry.
The second case study, Sijia: Small Town, Big Change, profiles Sijia, a small village that experienced rapid growth when a blue jeans garment factory located there. This rural township enterprise has given villagers year-round employment with steady wages and an increasing standard of living. This type of non-governmental, rural industry is in sharp contrast to Shanghai's approach to economic development, which is encouraged by both the central and provincial governments. Changing lifestyles in China and the development of township enterprises.

Video Key Words and Concepts
Shanghai
Historical Geography
Market Reforms
Rapid Economic Growth
Urban Geography
Sijia
Rural vs. Urban Development
Agriculture vs. Industry
Interior vs. Coastal Development
Township Enterprises