Chapter 10/12:
Development, Industry and
Services
Concept Caching: Bicycle Use and
Production in China
© Barbara Weightman
How Development Is Defined
and Measured
• Developing country: is making progress in
technology, production, and socioeconomic wellbeing.
– Wealth depends in large part on how and where it is
produced, as well as what is produced.
• Measuring development - 3 major areas of concern:
1. economic welfare.
2. technology and production.
3. social welfare.
Gross National Income
• GNP = a measure of the total value of officially
recorded goods and services produced by a country
in a given year, includes outside goods/services.
– Gross domestic product (GDP) = measure of goods and
services annually produced within the country.
• Gross national income (GNI): monetary worth of
what is produced within a country plus income
received from investments outside the country
minus income payments to other countries.
– Per capita GNI = average income per person.
*Political and Economic Influences – national
government policies, big business encouraging urban
development, and groups facilitating rural microcredit loans.
• United Nations Human Development Index:
economics + a long and healthy life, knowledge,
and a decent standard of living.
– Stats include per capita GDP, literacy rates, school
enrollment rates, life expectancy at birth, etc.
Barriers to and Costs of Economic
Development
Millennium Development Goals:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
Achieve universal primary education.
Promote gender equality and empower women.
Reduce child mortality.
Improve maternal health.
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
Ensure environmental sustainability.
Develop a global partnership for development.
Barriers to Economic Development
•
•
•
•
Social Conditions
Foreign Debt
Disease
Political Corruption and Instability
Costs of Economic Development
• Industrialization
• Agriculture
• Tourism
The Industrial Revolution
• 18th-century inventions - new uses for energy
sources (coal), machines to improve efficiencies
(railroad and steam ships), iron manufacturing
(many products), expanding trade.
• Great Britain with great advantages at beginning
of the Industrial Revolution.
Diffusion and Production
• Primary industrial regions: western Europe,
eastern North America, western Russia and
Ukraine, and East Asia.
• Fordist period: the dominant mode of mass
production (1945 to 1970) named for Henry Ford.
• Major surge in both mass production and mass
consumption.
• Economic and cultural shift of commodification
(Ex. USA public demand for goods).
• Least cost theory: factories reduce production
cost through changes in transportation, labor,
and agglomeration (ex. New York City’s Textile
Factories).
Made in America vs. Designed in America
• Commodity Chain: Consumption, or purchasing an item, is the
end point in a commodity chain that affects places in a variety
of ways.
Where
electronic
materials
are from…
Major Influences on Contemporary
Geography of Manufacturing
• Transportation and intermodal connections.
• Regulatory Circumstances and regional trade
organizations.
• Energy supply and industrial locations.
New Centers of Industrial Activity
The Rise of East Asia and China
• ‘Four Tigers’ = South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong,
and Singapore.
– Hong Kong became mainland China’s gateway (bustling
port, financial center, and break-of-bulk point).
– China’s major industrial centers: Northeast district
(heartland basin of the Liao River), Chang Jiang district
(Shanghai port city).
– China’s large labor force has attracted hundreds of
international companies.
• BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and
South Africa; these countries are evidence
of a shift in global economic power away
from the traditional economic core.
Field Note
“Humen is one of the Pearl River Delta cities that has been transformed
by the rise of China. The small textile factory I visited provided insights
into the opportunities and challenges that are confronting China today.
The 40 or so employees were mostly young, but there were a few older
folks. They were making women’s clothes for the French market.”
Deindustrialization, Service
Industries and Production
• Service industries (tertiary industries) encompass
the range of services that are found in modern
societies.
– Includes: the collection, processing, and manipulation of
information and capital; and activities that facilitate
complex decision making and the advancement of human
capacities.
Geographical changes of Service Economy
• Disparities between core and periphery have long
characterized the global economy.
• USA’s primary industrial zone (North American Core) in the
northeastern United States lost industrial base/jobs (now
called the Rust Belt).
• The Sun Belt is a secondary industrial region that has made
the transition to a viable service economy fairly successfully.
New Patterns of Economic Activity
• Technologies such as GIS can help to model the
best locations for new businesses, office complexes,
government centers, or transportation connections.
• Major retailers change the economic prospects and
physical landscapes of the places where their
headquarters are located. Ex.: Walmart.
• The locational influences on info/capital services
are more diverse.
• People who work in decision making/human
capacities sector tend to be concentrated around
governmental seats, universities, and corporate
headquarters.
Guest Field Note
Fayetteville, Arkansas
“For most geographers, the
simple act of daily observation
of the world around them
becomes a profoundly
satisfying habit. For the last 17
years, my daily observations
have been of the rapidly
changing urban/economic
landscape of northwest
Arkansas, one of the fastest
growing metropolitan areas in
the United States.”
Credit: Fiona M. Davidson,
University of Arkansas
Figure 12.18
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
High-Technology Clusters
• Goal of a high-technology corridor: to attract
designers of computers, semiconductors,
telecommunications, sophisticated medical
equipment, etc. (Ex.: California’s Silicon Valley)
• Growth and technopole spurred economic
development in urban and surrounding areas.
• High-technology industries have become such an
important symbol of the postindustrial world that
local, regional, and national governments often
aggressively pursue firms in this sector.
Plano-Richardson, Texas. The Plano-Richardson Telecom Corridor is
located just north of Dallas and is home to telecom corporate headquarters,
such as Electronic Data Systems Corp headquarters in this photograph.
Tourism Services
• The tourism boom: began in the global
economic core as incomes and leisure time
increased for the local population.
•
•
Tourism likely to continue/expand despite dips
in travel during the first decade of the 21st
century (recession).
The economic impacts of tourist-related
development are far-reaching.
• Big-business Tourism vs. Eco-Tourism
If given a choice, which would you support?
Place Vulnerabilities in Service Economy
• Mechanization can have a negative impact on
service jobs.
• Places dominated by the service sector cannot
exist without extensive connections with other
places (labor needs food, housing, and material
products).
• Economic decision making in a globalized
economy can easily become disconnected from
the fate of individual places and regions.
– Example: the Financial Services Industry.
• Bank subprime mortgage loans cause an economic disaster!
• USA’s housing market collapse (2008).
• Long-term financial, social, political ramifications.
Homework
Read textbook ch.10/12
Homework: Choose one “Thinking
Geographically” topic in Ch.10 or
Ch. 12 textbook and answer (1 page).
OR
Choose an important modern economic
topic to research and summarize
findings. Possibly a business, industry,
or labor group as an example. List global
influences (benefits and consequences).