AP Syllabus focus:
‘Diffusion can change cultural landscapes by altering behaviors, identities, and visible cultural traits in places.’
Cultural diffusion transforms landscapes by introducing new practices, ideas, and technologies that modify how people behave, express identity, and shape the built and natural environment around them.
How Diffusion Alters Cultural Landscapes
Cultural diffusion changes landscapes because the spread of cultural traits influences both visible features and less tangible expressions of identity. As people adopt new behaviors or technologies originating elsewhere, the character of a place shifts, creating dynamic landscapes that reflect ongoing cultural interactions.
What Cultural Diffusion Means for Landscape Change
Cultural diffusion refers to the spread of cultural traits—such as beliefs, foods, technologies, or social practices—from one group or location to another.
Cultural Diffusion: The movement of cultural traits across space from a hearth to new areas through interaction, migration, or communication.
Once a trait spreads, it interacts with existing cultural patterns, often reshaping architecture, land use, language on signage, or everyday activities. These transformations can occur rapidly or gradually, and they may be subtle or dramatic.
Visible and Material Landscape Transformations
The material landscape—the set of physical, human-made features on the surface of the Earth—is often the most immediately altered by diffusion. These changes may include:
Architectural styles introduced through migration or global cultural flows.
Commercial landscapes shaped by new restaurants, shops, or branding.
Technological infrastructure such as cell towers, data centers, or transport systems.
Urban form changes, including redesigned public spaces or new land-use patterns.
When new cultural traits spread widely, they may create landscapes that feel increasingly similar across distant regions.
Changing Behaviors and Everyday Practices
Diffusion also reshapes landscapes indirectly by influencing behavior. When people adopt new routines or preferences, their collective actions accumulate to alter the uses of space. For example, increased bicycle use inspired by global environmental movements can lead to:
Investment in designated bike lanes.
Altered traffic circulation patterns.
Growth of bicycle-related commercial activity.
These changes reflect how behaviors—even before built structures change—reshape the lived experience of a landscape.
Identity and Landscape Expression
Because landscapes are expressions of cultural identity, the arrival of new traits may modify how groups represent themselves. This is especially visible in:
Religious symbols, including new places of worship or religious iconography.
Language use, with new languages or scripts appearing on signage.
Festivals and public celebrations, which may introduce new decorations or public uses of space.
Cultural Identity: A shared sense of belonging to a group based on cultural traits such as language, religion, or traditions.
Once new cultural traits become part of identity, they influence how people mark territory, signal belonging, and organize communal spaces.
Convergence Effects on Cultural Landscapes
Cultural convergence produces landscapes that share similar features across countries or regions. Examples include:
Global retail chains creating uniform commercial districts.
Standardized architectural models used in hotels, airports, or office towers.
International street food trends shaping urban dining landscapes.
The spread of global brands such as fast-food chains can standardize street-level visuals (logos, color schemes, drive-through layouts) while still adapting to local architectural styles.
This McDonald’s in Sedona shows how a global brand can alter local landscapes while adapting to regional aesthetics. The turquoise arches reflect local colour traditions rather than the brand’s standard palette. Extra contextual detail shown goes beyond the AP syllabus but reinforces the idea of adaptive diffusion. Source.
Divergence Effects on Cultural Landscapes
At the same time, diffusion can spark cultural divergence, a process in which groups maintain or strengthen cultural differences despite interaction with other cultures.
Diffusion may encourage divergence when groups respond to external influences by reinforcing local traditions or resisting the adoption of new traits. Divergence affects landscapes through:
Language preservation signage, reinstating traditional scripts or names.
Architectural revival movements, emphasizing heritage building styles.
Protected cultural zones, such as indigenous land management areas.
These patterns ensure that landscapes retain or regain distinctive cultural features.
Hybrid and Syncretic Landscape Outcomes
Cultural traits rarely replace one another completely. Instead, diffusion often produces hybrid landscapes, where old and new features blend. These landscapes reveal complex interactions among groups and historical layers. Examples include:
Buildings that mix traditional designs with modern materials.
Commercial districts with global brands alongside ethnic or heritage businesses.
Public spaces incorporating both imported recreational activities and local spatial practices.
Scale and Rate of Landscape Change
Diffusion-driven landscape transformation occurs at different scales:
Local scale: neighborhood-level changes in land use or identity expression.
Regional scale: adoption of similar agricultural or industrial landscapes.
Global scale: worldwide patterns of commercial and technological infrastructure.
At the global scale, maps of franchise locations show how a particular cultural trait has diffused from a limited hearth to a near-worldwide presence.
This world map illustrates the global spread of McDonald’s restaurants, demonstrating extensive diffusion of a commercial cultural trait. It visualises how a phenomenon originating in one cultural hearth can achieve global reach. The inclusion of small territories extends beyond AP scope but supports conceptual understanding. Source.
Identity and Linguistic Landscapes
Diffusion is also visible in linguistic landscapes, where shop signs, street names, and advertisements appear in multiple languages.
This bilingual street sign from London’s Chinatown shows how cultural diffusion reshapes visible public language use. It reflects the lasting influence of migrant communities on local landscapes. The specific location is extra contextual detail beyond the syllabus but clearly supports the core concept. Source.
Diffusion shapes how languages coexist and how identities are expressed through visible markers of belonging.
FAQ
Diffusion can alter how people use existing spaces, shifting the cultural meaning of the landscape without changing its physical structure. Behavioural changes—such as new leisure activities, food practices, or transport habits—reshape the way spaces function.
For example, a rise in café culture may turn streets into social gathering spaces, or the adoption of new festivals may transform how public squares are used at certain times of year.
Different landscape elements respond at different speeds. Commercial spaces, signage, and everyday consumption patterns often change quickly because businesses rapidly adopt new trends.
By contrast, architectural forms, religious institutions, and long-standing neighbourhood identities tend to change slowly due to stronger attachment, regulation, or cultural significance.
Yes. Groups may disagree about which cultural traits should be visible or dominant in shared spaces. Conflicts can emerge over:
Preservation of heritage buildings
Introduction of new religious or commercial symbols
Renaming of streets or public spaces
Changing language on signage
These tensions reflect competing identities and visions for the future of a place.
Migration physically relocates people and cultural practices, introducing new languages, foods, and religious structures directly into the built environment.
Media-driven diffusion, however, spreads ideas without the movement of people. It tends to influence commercial landscapes, fashion, and behaviour before affecting structural features.
Most cultural diffusion is selective. Communities adopt certain elements of incoming cultures while retaining meaningful aspects of their own traditions.
Hybrid landscapes emerge from blending:
Architectural styles
Linguistic signage
Food practices
Symbolic or ceremonial uses of space
This mixture reflects continuous negotiation between global influences and local identity.
Practice Questions
Question 1 (1–3 marks)
Identify one visible feature of a cultural landscape that may change as a result of cultural diffusion, and briefly explain how diffusion leads to this change.
Mark scheme:
1 mark for naming a visible landscape feature (e.g., signage, architecture, commercial branding, places of worship).
1 mark for identifying the cultural trait diffusing (e.g., religion, language, global brands).
1 mark for explaining how diffusion causes the feature to appear, increase, or transform in the landscape.
Question 2 (4–6 marks)
Explain how both convergence and divergence resulting from cultural diffusion can reshape cultural landscapes. Refer to specific types of landscape features in your answer.
Mark scheme:
1 mark for describing convergence (e.g., landscapes becoming more similar due to globalised traits).
1 mark for describing divergence (e.g., landscapes becoming more distinct as groups emphasise local identity).
1–2 marks for explaining how diffusion causes each process to occur, with reference to behaviours, identities, or visible traits.
1–2 marks for accurate examples of landscape features, such as global chain architecture, bilingual signage, traditional building revivals, or culturally specific public spaces.
1 mark for coherent structure and correct geographical terminology.
