Made in...? Appreciating the everyday geographies of connected lives

Labels and ingredient information may not tell much of the connections between consumers and producers but they can help both teachers and students to piece together their understanding of commodities and their complex geographies. This topic may also provoke classroom discussion about the impacts of consumers' decisions that draw upon key geographic concepts including globalization, uneven development, interdependence, scale and connection, proximity and distance, relational thinking, identity, responsibility and futures. An overview is given of connections and issues that can be made and raised through such exercise. The additional concepts of 'cyborgs' and 'commodity fetishism' are also outlined.