Unit 6 & 7 Vocabulary

Agglomeration

The spatial grouping of businesses in the same industry in a specific area for mutual benefit, such as shared services, labor pools, and infrastructure.

Asian Tigers

The four highly developed economies in East and Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan) known for rapid industrialization and high growth rates between the 1960s and 1990s.

Offices located outside of expensive central business districts, often in countries like India, Ireland, or Kenya, where routine clerical work (e.g., customer service, data entry) is done due to lower labor costs.

Back Offices

Basic and non-basic

A basic business is a business that sells its products or Services primarily to Consumers outside the settlement (exports). A non-basic business is a business that sells its products primarily to consumers in the same settlement (local).

Blockbusting

The process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of the fear that persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood.

Borchert’s 4 Epochs

The evolution of the American metropolis based on the impact of transportation & communication: 1) Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790-1830) – associated with low technology 2) Iron Horse Epoch (1830-70); steam-powered locomotive & spreading rails 3) Steel-Rail Epoch (1870-1920); full impact of Ind. Rev. (steel), hinterlands expand 4) Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920-70); gas-powered internal combustion engine

Breaking Point

Line where customers will choose to go to another business for a service/good. The outer edge of a service’s market area where customers are more likely to choose a competitor due to distance.

Break-of-bulk point

A location where transfer is possible from one mode of transportation to another.

Bulk Gaining Industry

An industry in which the final product weighs more or comprises a greater volume than the inputs.

Bulk Reducing Industry

Industry in which the final product weighs less or comprises a lower volume than the inputs.sces; larger settlements are fewer and further apart than smaller settlements and provide service for a larger number of people who are willing to travel further. Cities and towns exist to provide services to people in the surrounding area. Bigger places offer more unique services (like heart surgery or designer clothes). People will only travel farther for rare services, not for everyday stuff like groceries. These services are placed in a hexagon pattern to evenly cover space.

Concentric Zone Model

A model of the internal structure of cities in which social groups are spatially arranged in a series of rings.

Conglomerate corporations

Large companies that own multiple smaller companies across various unrelated industries to diversify and reduce risks.

Cottage Industry

Manufacturing based in homes rather than in factories, most common prior to the industrial revolution.

Daily urban system

The functional area around a city within which people commute daily, including suburbs and surrounding towns that interact economically and socially with the core city.

DeBiji Model

A model of African cities showing three CBDs (colonial, traditional, and market zone) and a lack of suburban development; reflects colonial legacies and rapid urban growth.

Deglomeration

The process by which businesses move away from agglomerated clusters due to rising costs or competition.

Deindustrialization

The decline of industrial activity in a region or economy, often leading to job loss and urban decay, especially in former manufacturing hubs.

Density Gradient

The change in density in an urban area from the center to the periphery.

Dispersed settlements

A rural settlement pattern where houses and farms are spread out over a large area rather than clustered in a village.

Economic base

A community's collection of basic businesses.

Ecotourism

Tourism directed toward natural environments, especially threatened ecosystems, intended to support conservation and observe wildlife responsibly.

Edge Cities- A large node of office and retail activities on the edge of an urban area.

Favelas, barrio

Informal settlements (often slums) found in Latin American cities, typically characterized by poverty, informal construction, and lack of services.

Footloose industries

Industries that can be located anywhere without being affected by factors like transportation or resource location (e.g., software firms, call centers).

Fordism/Post-Fordism

A form of mass production in which each worker is assigned one specific task to perform repeatedly this is fordist production. Post-Fordism: A more flexible production system using automation, varied tasks, and teams instead of assembly lines, often in globalized supply chains.

Forward capitals

Moving the capital’s location in order to achieve a certain goal (Brazil: Rio De Janeiro ---> Brasília).

Functional specialization

When cities or regions focus on specific economic roles or industries, like finance in NYC or car manufacturing in Detroit.

Gentrification

A process of converting an urban neighborhood from a predominantly low income, renter occupied area to a predominantly middle class, owner occupied area.

Ghettoization

The process by which certain minority groups are confined to specific urban areas, often due to discrimination, redlining, or poverty.

Global Assembly Line

A system where products are manufactured using parts produced and assembled in different countries around the world to minimize costs.

Gravity Model

A model which holds that the potential use of a service at a particular location is directly related to the number of people in the location and inversely related to the distance people must travel to reach that service. People, goods, and ideas are more likely to move between larger and closer places.

Greenbelt

Area around a city that is restricted from housing 🡪 must remain open space. Prevents cities from merging into one another. Restricts countryside from overdevelopment. Encourages gentrification (housing prices go up though).

Griffin-Ford Model

A model of Latin American cities showing a blend of traditional and colonial city patterns with a spine of commercial development from the CBD outward, surrounded by zones of increasing poverty.

Growth Pole

An area where economic growth is centered, which spreads development to surrounding areas through investment and innovation.

Hinterland

The area surrounding a central place from which people are attracted to use the place is good and services, also known as market area.

Hotelling Theory of Spatial Competition

Theory that businesses will locate near each other in the center of a market area to maximize access to customers and reduce competitive disadvantage.

Hoyt Sector Model

A model of urban structure in which cities develop in sectors or wedges outward from the CBD, rather than in rings, with different types of land use along each sector.

Industrial Revolution

A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.

Investor flight

When investors rapidly withdraw capital from an economy or region due to instability or loss of confidence.

Just in time delivery

Shipment of parts and materials to arrive at a factory moments before they are needed. This is in order to conserve space.

Location Theory

Explains the geographic location of economic activities based on factors like transportation costs, agglomeration, and accessibility. (Broader; businesses, cities; why something is where it is).

Maquiladora

A factory built by a US company in Mexico near the US border to take advantage of how much lower labor costs are in Mexico.

McGee Model

A model describing Southeast Asian cities with a focus on port zones and hybrid land use patterns combining traditional, colonial, and modern elements.

Medical tourism

Traveling to another country for medical procedures, often to access cheaper or higher-quality healthcare.

Mega city

Cities with 10 million or more residents.

Megalopolis

A continuous Urban complex in the northeastern United states.

Metropolitan Area Digital Divide

The gap between those in urban areas with access to high-speed internet and digital services and those in suburban or rural areas with limited access.

MSA

Metropolitan statistical area, in the United states, an urbanized area of at least 50,000 population, the country within which the city is located, and adjacent countries meeting one of several tests indicating a functional connection to the central city.

Minimills

Smaller, more flexible steel production facilities that use scrap metal and require less capital and labor than traditional steel mills.

Multiple Nuclei Model

A model of urban structure with multiple centers (nuclei) of activity (e.g., airports, universities) rather than a single CBD.

Multiplier Effect

One basic job produces two non-basic jobs. When a new business (like a factory or tech company) opens, it creates more jobs indirectly in the area (people eating lunch in the area).

New International Division of Labor

Transfer of some types of jobs, especially those requiring low paid, less skilled workers, from more developed to less developed countries.

Offshore Financial Centers

Countries or territories with low taxes and regulations, used by corporations and wealthy individuals to store money and avoid taxes.

Peripheral Model

A model of North American urban areas consisting of an inner city surrounded by large Suburban residential and business areas tied together by beltoit or ring road. This is a model of U.S. cities that shows how suburbs and edge cities grow around a central city.

Primate City rule

A pattern of settlements in a country such that the largest settlement has more than twice as many people as a second ranking settlement.

Racial Steering

A discriminatory practice where real estate agents guide prospective buyers toward or away from neighborhoods based on race.

Range

The maximum distance people are willing to travel to use a service.

Rank-size rule

A pattern of settlements in a country such that the nth largest settlement is 1/n the population of the largest settlement.

Redlining

A process by which financial institutions draw red color lines on a map and refuse to lend money for people to purchase or improve property within the lines.

Right to Work laws

A US law that prevents a union and a company from negotiating a contract that requires workers to join the Union as a condition of employment.

Rostow Model

A development model outlining five stages of economic growth: traditional society, preconditions for takeoff, takeoff, drive to maturity, and age of mass consumption.

Rust Belt

Former industrial region of the Northeastern and Midwestern US that has experienced deindustrialization, job loss, and population decline.

SEZ (Special Economic Zone)

Zones in countries like China with special economic regulations that differ from other areas, designed to attract foreign investment and boost exports.

Single market manufacturers

Manufacturers that produce goods for one type of market or customer and locate close to that market (e.g., parts suppliers near auto plants).

Site Factors, Situation Factors

Site factors, location factors related to the cost of factors of production inside a plant, such as land, labor, and capital. Situation factors, location factors related to transportation of materials into and from a factory.

Social Area Analysis

Statistical analysis used to identify where people of similar living standards, ethnic background, and lifestyle live within an urban area.

Squatter settlement

Informal housing areas where people build homes without legal claim to the land, often lacking basic services like water and electricity.

Subsidized housing

Housing funded or supported by the government to provide affordable homes to low-income individuals.

Tariffs

Taxes on imported goods, used to protect domestic industries or generate revenue.

Tax Abatement

Temporary reduction or elimination of taxes to encourage development or investment in certain areas.

Tax Havens

Countries or territories with low or no taxes, attracting foreign companies or individuals seeking to reduce tax liability.

Telecommuting

Reduces transportation costs/traffic issues. Working from home or remotely using the internet.

Threshold

The minimum number of people needed to support a service.

Unplanned city

Cities that develop without formal planning or infrastructure, often resulting in inefficient layouts and service gaps.

Urban Banana

Crescent-shaped zone of early urbanization extending across Eurasia from England to Japan.

Urban Hierarchy

World cities at the top, a city that has influence within its region and throughout the world. Hamlet, village, town, specialized cities, mega-cities, world city. This is a ranking of cities based on their size and services.

Urban Realms Model

A model of urban structure where suburban regions develop their own independent downtowns (realms) that interact with the central city but are functionally separate.

Urban Sprawl

The uncontrolled expansion of urban areas into rural land, often characterized by car dependency and low-density development.

Vertical geography

The use of vertical space (like skyscrapers) in dense urban areas to maximize land efficiency and support high population or business density.

Weber Least Cost Theory

A theory that states industries will locate where costs are minimized: including transportation, labor, and agglomeration costs. Focused on factories, wants to minimize transportation, labor, and agglomeration.

World city

has influence within its region and throughout the world. the center of the financial world, have stock exchanges as well as banking industries. Also centers of multinational company corporate headquarters and international organizations and are cultural meccas.

Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory

A theory that sees the world economy as a system divided into core (developed), semi-periphery (emerging), and periphery (developing) regions, linked by political and economic relationships.

Zoning Laws

A law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community. Prevents mixing of land uses – no “adult stores” next to schools.