Regional Economic Development:
An Introduction to Economic Geography
Geography 1010A
Wednesday/Friday
10-12 October 2007
Ian MacLachlan
http://people.uleth.ca/~maclachlan/
Questions? maclachlan@uleth.ca
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What is economic geography?

* Economic geography studies how people
earn a living, how livelihood systems vary
by region, and how economic activities are
interconnected in space
– Empirically based: to gather information and measure
what we perceive in the real world
– Theoretically based: generalization and modelling of
processes and spatial diversity
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Economic Geography Week
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Regional Economic Structure
– Growth and Development: Case of Coalhurst
– Economic Sectors
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Regional Economic Development
– Modernization Theory
– Dependency Theory
Agglomeration
 Global Assembly Line
 Global Office
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3
Introduction to Regional
Development
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Structure
Growth
Structural Change
Development
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Structure
 “the way in which parts are arranged to
form a whole”
 Structure as a framework
 Structure as a nested hierarchy
 Economic structure
1. Classification of regional economy into sectors
2. Measure their size (count, employment, value)
3. Describe components of the structure
5
Regional Economic Structure
 Experiential introduction
 Coalhurst
 Structure
 Growth
 Development
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Economic Structure of a Dormitory Suburb:
The Case of Coalhurst
 Town of Coalhurst: 1,523 in 2006
 Economic activity:
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1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
post office
elementary school
high school
bar/restaurant
Royal Canadian Legion
gas station and convenience store
bakery
specialized lumber distributor
custom millwork & cabinetry shop
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Suppose Coalhurst were to Grow...
A projection…a hypothetical case
 Town of Coalhurst: 1,523,000
 Economic activity:
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1,000 post offices
1,000 elementary schools
1,000 high schools
1,000 bar/restaurants
1,000 Royal Canadian Legions
1,000 gas station and convenience stores
1,000 bakeries
1,000 specialized lumber distributors
1,000 custom millwork & cabinetry shops
What would be missing?
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Is the Population of Coalhurst Growing?
Year
Population
Population 2006
1,523
Population 2001
1,476
Population 1996
1,439
Population 1991
1,322
Percent change 2001-2006
3.2%
Percent change 1996-2001
2.5%
Percent change 1991-1996
8.9%
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Is Coalhurst Developing?
Compare economic structure 1989-2007
 1989
 2007
 Town of Coalhurst: 1,289  Town of Coalhurst: 1,523
 Economic activity:
 Economic activity:
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1 post office
1 elementary school
1 high school
1 bar/restaurant: Trackside
1 Royal Canadian Legion
1 gas station and convenience
store
1 convenience store
1 specialized lumber distributor
1 concrete fountain
manufacturer
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1 post office
1 elementary school
1 high school
1 bar/restaurant Coalhurst Pub
1 Royal Canadian Legion
1 gas station and convenience
store
1 bakery
1 specialized lumber distributor
1 custom millwork & cabinetry
shop
Is Coalhurst Developing?
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What do we learn from Coalhurst?
 Distinction between growth and development
 Calculated growth rates
 Structure in the context of economic
geography:
 Economic structure
 Little change between 1989 and 2007
 Slow growth but no evidence of structural
change
 How can this community be sustainable?
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Understanding locations in space:
Site and Situation
 Site - absolute locational concept
 Physical characteristics
 Economic and cultural attributes
 Situation – relative locational concept
 External relationships with other places
 …location relative to other features
 Markets
 Services
 Employment
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The Geography of Coalhurst
 Site: Undifferentiated prairie
 Shallow coal deposit
 Coal mine closed in 1936
 Situation: 10 minutes from Lethbridge
 Suburban satellite of Lethbridge
 Employment
 Shopping
 Services
 Residents choose Coalhurst for its lack of development
 Dependency relationship is an asset!
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What does regional development mean?
 It depends on scale of analysis!
 Micro-scale:
 Diversification, commercial selfsufficiency, social and physical
infrastructure, and sustainability in a
volatile environment
 Macro-scale:
 Share of the world’s wealth, income,
social well-being, and human potential
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Regional Economic Structure
How can we classify regional economic activity
as a measure of structure?
 Identify categories as a classification tool
 Let’s begin at a coarse level of aggregation
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Quaternary
Sectoral
Classification
(information)
• Education
• Government/Administration
Tertiary
• Communications/Media
(services)
• Retail & wholesale trade
• Services
Secondary
•Personal
(transformative)
• Business (FIRE)
• Processing
Primary
• Manufacturing
• Agriculture
• Construction
• Forest products
• Power generation
• Transport/Utilities
• Mineral extraction
• Gathering industries
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Quaternary (information)
• Education
• Government / Administration
Tertiary (services)
• Communications / Media
• Retail & wholesale trade
• Services
• Personal
Secondary
(transformative)
• Processing
• Business (FIRE)
• Transport/Utilities
Primary
• Manufacturing
• Agriculture
• Construction
• Forest products
• Power generation
• Mineral extraction
• Gathering industries
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A Finer scale of analysis…
Don’t study this, please!
•20 sectors,
•103 subsectors,
•328 industry groups,
•728 industries and
•928 national industries
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See white board
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So that is economic structure…
How do we get to regional economic
development ?
We could model a process!
Coarser scale:
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Primary
Secondary
Services (Tertiary & quaternary)
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Canada’s Sectoral Employment
Structure, 1911-2001
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
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A Model of the Economic Transition
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So that is economic development…
How do we get to regional economic
structure?
We could draw a map!
Let’s begin with a macro scale view
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Macro-scale Employment Structure
Pearson School Atlas, p. 92
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Other measures of economic
development
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Income
Human development
Gender empowerment
Let’s look at your text!
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Gross National Product (GNP)
Per Capita, 1999
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Human Development
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“growth from a one-celled zygote to an
adult human being”
Undefined in text
Human well-being based on some
measure of good health, ability to
participate fully in society & access to
material goods
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anthropocentric ?
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Human Development Index, 1999
HDI scores are based on
measures of life expectancy,
educational attainment, and
personal income.
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Gender Empowerment Index, 1999
GEI scores are based on measures of
women’s incomes; LFP as adm., mgrs,
prof. and tech. workers; & women as pct
of parliamentary seats
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To Learn More about HDI
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Human Development Reports
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http://hdr.undp.org/
Nov 27 for 2007 report
Climate change as greatest challenge facing
humanity
United Nations Development Program
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http://www.undp.org/
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Provincial and Territorial Differences in
Average Earnings: Canada, 2001
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