Introduction to
Geography:
Economic Geography
Geography 1010
6-10 February 2006
Ian MacLachlan
http://people.uleth.ca/~maclachlan/
What is economic geography?

“Economic geography is the study of how
people earn their living, how livelihood
systems vary by area, and how economic
activities are spatially interrelated and
linked”
– Getis, Getis and Fellman, p. 355
 Empirically based: to understand what we see
and measure in the real world
 Theoretically based: generalization and
modelling of processes and spatial diversity
Economic Geography Week

It’s about Time!
– Geography of Prime Meridian and time zones
– Politics of Prime Meridian and time zones
– Telling time

Regional Economic Structure
– Categories of Economic Activity
– Economic Sectors

Regional Economic Development
– Micro scale
– Macro scale
What was the key machine
of the modern industrial age?
Watt’s steam engine
Stevenson’s locomotive
Jacquard loom
Whitney’s cotton gin
Colt revolver & interchangeable parts
Ford Model T & assembly line
What was the key machine
of the modern industrial age?
The clock, not the steam engine, is the
key machine of the modern industrial
age.
– Lewis Mumford Technics of Civilization
World Scale Time Zone Map
Solar Time

Apparent local time
– Centred on solar noon

Egyptians divide day and night
into 12 equal parts
– Temporal hours – unequal
– At Thebes, summer solstice, June 21
 Daytime temporal hour was 69 minutes
 Nighttime temporal hour was 51 minutes
– March 21 & September 21 – temporal equality
– Hipparchus: 24 equal “equinoctial hours” c. 127 BCE
Solar Time
Temporal hours until 15th century
 London

– Hour ranges from 38-82 minutes
Mechanical clocks appear c. 1270 CE
 Apparent solar time varies from place to place
 Apparent length of solar day varies in length
through the year
 Mean time introduced by nineteenth century

– Celestial adjustment to sun time

Time balls
Nelson's Monument on Edinburgh’s
Calton Hill, visible to ships on the
Firth of Forth, 1852.
Commemorates Admiral Lord Nelson's
death at the Battle of Trafalgar in
1805.
Where should time begin?
Any arbitrary meridian could be chosen as origin
 Prime Meridian, Royal Greenwich Observatory

Where does time begin?

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
– Solar day varies…
– Celestial time became basis for ‘mean time’
– Zulu time (zero hours) ± n

UTC = Coordinated Universal Time, 1928
– Atomic clocks
– Earth’s rotational speed may be measured
– Leap seconds have been added
Geography of Time Zones
Prime Meridian is basis for UTC
 UTC is origin of time zones: UTC ± n

– E.g. Mountain Standard Time is UTC-7

Centered on meridians: multiples of 15°
– 360°/24hours = 15° time zones in theory
– Adjacent time zones usually one hour apart.

But…
– one hour separation is not universal (India UTC+5:30)
– shape and longitudinal extent vary
Politics and Science!

‘Science-based’ decisions are also…
– Political decisions based on
economic conditions, social relations, and
technological change.


Geometrically rational time zones = 15°
Geographically rational time zones:
1. Time zone boundaries arranged to coincide with
boundaries of human interaction patterns
2. Need to reach consensus – politics
Politics of Time

Until 1800s, solar time was adequate
– High-speed railway transportation
– Telegraph and telephone communications
British railways started using GMT in 1847
 Multiple reference meridians:

– Greenwich, Paris, Rome, Copenhagen, Oslo, Pisa,
Jerusalem, St. Petersburg, Washington,
Philadelphia

World system of time zones proposed by Sir
Sandford Fleming, 1873
International Meridian Conference, 1884
delegates from 25 nations
 Agrees on Greenwich as 0°

– 24 hour day
– Longitude measured as 180°
east and west of Greenwich

Who abstained?
– Did not agree until 1911!
The Time Zone System

Canada established time zones in 1891
– Provinces may adjust as local needs require

Most countries accepted time zones by
1929
Canadian Time Zones
in theory
TIME ZONES
PACIFIC
MOUNTAIN
CENTRAL
EASTERN
ATLANTIC
NFLD
Time
Meridian
120°W 105° W 90° W 75° W 60° W 52.5°W
Time
1:00
difference
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
5:30
UTC
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3½
-8
Empirical reality is a little different…
110°W
102°W
Exceptions by Local Agreement
Source: H. David Matthews and Mary Vincent “It's about TIME” Canadian Geographic
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Magazine/SO98/geomap.asp
World Time Zones
How to Tell the Time? I
We are in Lethbridge. What time is it in
Winnipeg?
 Lethbridge is UTC-7, Winnipeg is UTC-6

(-6)-(-7)=1
– Winnipeg time is 1 hour ahead of Lethbridge
Suppose we are in Shanghai. What time is it in
Paris?
 Shanghai is UTC+9, Paris is UTC+1

(1)-(9)=-8
– Paris time is 8 hours behind Shanghai
How to Tell the Time? II


Suppose we are in Washington D.C. What time is it in
Sydney, Australia?
Washington is UTC-5, Sydney is UTC+11
(11)-(-5)=16
– Sydney time is 16 hours ahead of Washington


Suppose we are in Bangkok. What time is it in Honolulu?
Bangkok is UTC+7, Honolulu is UTC-10
– (-10)-(7)=-17
– Honolulu time is 17 hours behind Bangkok

Daylight Saving Time UTC+1
– But DST depends on latitude and
– Local preferences e.g. Saskatchewan, Arizona, Hawaii
Daylight Saving Time

World War I
– Sommerzeit 1916
– British Summer Time 1916
– U.S. & Canada Daylight Saving Time 1918

World War II
– British Double Summer Time
U.S. Uniform Time Act of 1966
 Urban – rural division

Daylight Saving Time

1974 OPEC oil embargo
– Nixon experiment, year-round DST

1986 – extra month of DST
– $150 million for barbecue industry
– $200-400 million for golf industry
Savings in lighting cost
 Added cost in petroleum for daylight driving in
longer evenings
 No saving in energy use!

– See Michael Downing, Tufts University Spring
Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Savings
Time
Daylight Saving Time

2007 U.S. will spring ahead the second Sunday
in March, three weeks earlier than now.
Additionally the clocks will fall back the first
Sunday in November, one week later than the
current standard.

2007 Alberta’s Daylight Saving Time Act,
– Will conform to U.S.
Time and Space Themes
Time may be defined and measured
scientifically
 But the map of time is a human creation

– Political decision – social process
– Depends on spatial patterns of human activity
– Technology change – social process

Time is money!
Introduction to Regional
Development




Structure
Growth
Structural Change
Development
Regional Economic Structure
 Shift from time to space: case study
 Coalhurst
 Heuristic
 Structure
 Growth
 Development
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
Commercial Structure of a Service Centre:
The Economic Geography of Coalhurst
 Town of Coalhurst: 1,493 in 2004
 Services:








1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
post office
elementary school
high school
bar/restaurant
Royal Canadian Legion
gas station and convenience store
specialized lumber distributor
manufacturer of cement lawn ornaments
Is Coalhurst Growing?
Year
Population Dwellings
Population 2004
1,493
Population 2002
1,476
Population 2001
1,475
Population 2000
1,465
Population 1999
1,465
Population 1996
1,439
470
Population 1991
1,322
415
510
Percent change 1991-1996
8.9
13.3
Percent change 1996-2001
2.5
8.5
Is Coalhurst Developing?
Commercial Structure of Coalhurst in 1989
 Town of Coalhurst: 1,289
 Services:









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 (new)
convenience store
specialized lumber distributor
manufacturer of cement lawn ornaments
A different kind of regional structure…
Coalhurst’s Demographic Structure, 2003
Suppose Coalhurst were to Grow...
 Town of Coalhurst: 1,493,000
 Services:








1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
post offices
elementary schools
high schools
bar/restaurants
Royal Canadian Legions
gas station and convenience stores
specialized lumber distributors
fountain manufacturers
 What would be missing?
What have we learned from Coalhurst?
 Experienced distinction between growth and
development
 Calculated growth rates
 Structure in the context of economic
geography:
 Commercial structure
 Little change between 1989 and 2004
 Demographic Structure
 Family-oriented
 Slow growth but no evidence of structural
change
 How can this community be sustainable?
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
How Can We Understand the location 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