AP Human Geography Vocabulary Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes 2025

Industrial revolution

term for the social and economic changes in agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing resulting from technological innovation and specialization in the late 18th c. Europe.

Cottage industry

industry in which the production of goods and services is based in homes (not factories); specialty goods (assembled individually or in small quantities) are often produced in this manner.

Brick-and-mortar industry

industry with actual stores in which trade or retail occurs; doesn't solely exist on the internet.

Footloose industry

industry in which the cost of transporting both raw materials and finished product is not important for the location of firms (e.g., diamonds, computer chips, or E-commerce (web-based economic activities)).

Primary vs. secondary industrial location

Von Thünen only had to deal with primary industries, which are obviously located adjacent to the natural resources (farming, ranching,...). Secondary industries are less dependent on resource location; they deal with more variable costs such as energy, transportation, and labor.

Complementarity

when two regions, through trade, can specifically satisfy each other's demands.

Intervening Opportunity/Obstacle

presence of a nearer opportunity diminishes the attractiveness of sites farther away.

Weber's Least cost theory

Alfred Weber described the optimal location of a manufacturing firm in relation to the cost of transportation, labor, and advantages through agglomeration.

Weber's Least cost theory Weight-losing case (bulk reducing)

if the finished product costs less to transport, the firm will be located closer to the raw materials to reduce cost.

Weber's Least cost theory Weight-gaining case (bulk gaining)

if the finished product costs more to transport, the firm will be located closer to the market to reduce cost.

Substitution principle

losses in one area may be offset by savings in another (e.g., higher labor costs could be offset by lower taxes).

First-round industrialization (up to WWI)

England had a comparative advantage with the rest of the world (e.g., natural resources, cheap labor, ports, ...) and began industrializing with textiles; industrial pace rapidly increased and England created several break-of-bulk locations (where goods are transferred from one type of carrier to another) primarily along its port cities (e.g., London, Liverpool, ...); industrialization diffused into Western Europe and into the United States; the industrialized nations engage in imperialism, seeking out new regions for resources and markets for their goods.

Mid-twentieth century industrialization

after WWII the US became the strongest industrial nation (NAMB (North American manufacturing belt)) with the USSR as the other superpower; oil & natural gas rose to become virtually the most important resources driving the industrialized world; Japan rises to a major industrial power (initially due to its cheap labor).

Late twentieth century industrialization & beyond

the four primary industrial zones are still dominant, however, secondary industrial regions are making great strides; many developed economies have been expanding into tertiary, quaternary and quinary activities - diverting (or outsourcing) more manufacturing to other regions (e.g., China, India, Four Tigers, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, ...).

Network

a set of interconnected nodes without a center (e.g., financial, transportation, communication, governmental, ...) with modern [information] technology, networks enable globalization to occur and create a higher degree of interaction and interdependence than ever before.

Mass production (assembly line production/Fordism)

industrial arrangement of machines, equipment, and workers for continuous flow of work pieces in mass production operations, each movement of material is made as simple and short as possible. Important because it allowed for goods to be produced at a rate comparable to the demand for many of those products, made for more efficient manufacturing industries.

Lean production (lean manufacturing/Toyotism)

production that is centered around creating more value with less work; using modern transportation, efficiency is maximized by obtaining components and parts through just-in-time delivery from varying competing companies around the world (as opposed to keeping large stockpiles in warehouses as in mass production); this is largely a system pioneered by the Toyota Motor Corporation (can also be described as flexible accumulation (of components)).

Global (New international) division of labor

phenomenon whereby corporations and others can draw from labor markets around the world ; made possible through improvements in communication and transportation systems (resulting in time-space compression) - The NIDL is a system of spatial disaggregation - high tech and final assembly (core), manufacturing (increasingly in the semi-periphery), raw materials (many from the periphery)

Outsourcing

(turning over production in part or in total) to another firm or business outside of the country (offshoring - specifically refers to moving production overseas (e.g., China)).

Measures of development

used to distinguish LDCs from MDCs. They include GDP, literacy rate, life expectancy, caloric intake, etc.

Measures of development GDP

(gross domestic product) the total value of goods and services produced in a year in a given country. The value varies greatly between MDCs and LDCs and is one of the best indicators of development.

Measures of development GNP

(gross national product) similar to GDP except that includes income that people earn abroad.

Measures of development GNI PPP

(gross national income with purchasing power parity) PPP takes into account price differences between countries. Usually goods in LDCs are priced lower, so this makes the difference between LDCs and MDCs less.

Measures of development HDI

(human development index) an aggregate index of development, which takes into account economic, social and demographic factors, using GDP, literacy and education, and life expectancy.

World Systems Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein)

illuminated by a three-tier structure (core, semi-periphery, periphery); refers to perspective that seeks to explain the dynamics of the "capitalist world economy" as a "total social system". Important because explains the power hierarchy in which powerful and wealthy "core" societies dominate and exploit weak and poor peripheral societies.

World Systems Theory Stage 1

Traditional

World Systems Theory Stage 2

Preconditions for takeoff

World Systems Theory Stage 3

Takeoff

World Systems Theory Stage 4

Drive to Maturity

World Systems Theory Stage 5

Age of Mass Consumption

Dependency Theory

(structuralist) states that political & economic relationships b/w countries & regions control & limit the developmental possibilities of less well-off areas (e.g., imperialism caused colonies to be dependent - this helps sustain the prosperity of dominant areas & poverty of other regions); only at later stages of development does the core have a positive impact on the periphery (grants, loans, specialized economic zones,...).

Neocolonialism

the economic control that MDCs are sometimes believed to have over LDCs. Through organizations such as the IMF, the MDCs are able to dictate precisely what LDCs economic policies are, or are able to use their economic subsidies to put LDCs industries out of business.

Foreign direct investment

investment in the economies of LDCs by transnational corporations based in MDCs. However, all countries are not recipients of this investment. Brazil, China and Mexico were the LDCs that received most of the investment.

Venture capital

investments typically made in the early stages of developing companies in the hope of generating a favorable return through the growth or sale of the companies; venture capital investments are generally made as cash in exchange for shares in the invested company.

Deindustrialization

process where the companies move industrial jobs to other regions (typically with cheaper labor), leaving the newly deindustrialized region to switch to a service economy and work through a period of high unemployment. (e.g., the US "Rustbelt"; Northeastern China).In Detroit (2009), three downtown businesses created a local currency, or scrip, to keep dollars earned locally in the community.

Backwash effect

when one region's economic gain translates into another region's economic loss.

NGO (non-governmental organization)

organization not run by state or local governments that generally operate as nonprofits; they have created a web of global development networks in response to top-down (governmental) decision making dominated by the core (e.g., World Bank, WTO (World Trade Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund)). The goal of NGOs is to have peripheral countries partake in participatory development (locals should be engaged in deciding what development for them is and how it should be achieved); this is seen as counter-hegemonic (hegemons are nations that dominate other nations - economically, politically, culturally, ...).

Special Economic Zone (SEZ)

specific area within a country in which tax and investment incentives are implemented to attract foreign (and domestic) businesses and investment.

Export processing zone (EPZ)

established by many countries in the periphery and semi-periphery where they offer favorable tax, regulatory, and trade arrangements to attract business and investment (labor is cheaper and environmental restrictions are relatively weak).

Maquiladora

an EPZ in northern Mexico with factories supplying manufactured goods to the US market; primarily foreign-owned factories that assemble imported components (or raw materials) and export finished goods.

High technology corridor

(technopole) areas devoted to research, development, and sale of high technology products; the networking and synergistic advantages of concentrating in these areas (with good universities and infrastructure) facilitate modern technological innovation (e.g., Silicon Valley, Boston).

Time-space convergence

refers to the greatly accelerated movement of goods, information, and ideas during the 20th c. made possible through modern technology (and obviously has continued to accelerate into today).

Time-space compression

the social and psychological effects of living in the modern technological world (the world seems smaller, or compressed). Standard of living- refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people and the way they are distributed within a population. Higher standards of living are found in MDC's rather than LDC's.

Globalization

expansion of economic, political, and cultural processes to a global scale and impact; these processes transcend state boundaries.

Colonization

laid the groundwork for today's globalized networks; physical process of a state putting its government in charge of a foreign place to gain control of its people and resources.

Commodification

process through which something is given monetary value (e.g., bottled water).

Commercialization

transformation of an area of a city into an area attractive to residents and tourists alike in terms of economic activity (spaces of consumption such as Riverfront in Ft. Lauderdale, Times Square, ...).

Homogenization

popular culture tends to create a more similar and homogenous cultural landscape; many criticize that globalization has promoted this and has reduced the distinctiveness of the world in general.

Vertical integration

ownership by the same firm of a number of companies that exist along a variety of points on a commodity chain (e.g., Perdue Farms).

Horizontal integration

ownership by the same firm of a number of companies that exist at the same point on a commodity chain (e.g., PepsiCo owns Gatorade, Frito-Lay, Quaker, ... YUM! owns Taco Bell, KFC, A&W, ...).

Synergy

is the cross promotion of vertically integrated goods & services (e.g., Magic Kingdom - Frontierland Fries - hosted by McDonald's, Mickey's PhilharMagic - presented by Kodak ...).

Gatekeepers

people or companies who control access to information (e.g., CNN, Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, ...).

Market economy

capitalist economy based on the division of labor in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free enterprise system set by supply and demand.

Mixed economy

economic system that incorporates a mixture of private and government ownership or control, or a mixture of capitalism and socialism.

Informal economy

economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government (not included in GNP as the formal economy is); examples are the black market, illegal drug trade, odd jobs or work done "under the table", and remittances (money migrants send back to family and friends in their home countries).

What is a location where transfer is possible from one mode of transportation to another?

Break-of-Bulk Point

What portion of the economy involves using high technology to produce, retrieve, store, and distribute information?

Quaternary Sector

Crude or processed material that can be converted by manufacture, processing, or combination into a new and useful product.

Raw Material

A series of technological improvements has transformed the manufacturing process.

Industrial Revolution

Less Developed Countries (less economic influence)

Periphery

More Developed Countries (more economic influence)

Core

Portion of the economy that includes the highest levels of decision making in a society or economy.

Quinary Sector

The portion of the economy concerned with manufacturing useful products through processing, transforming, and assembling raw materials.

Secondary Sector

What are in-between areas that exhibit both core and periphery characteristics called?

Semi-peripheral regions.

The portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth, generally through agriculture.

Primary Sector

What is a system of intermodal freight transport using standardized containers?

Containerization

What does the tertiary sector of the economy encompass?

Transportation, communications, and utilities, along with providing goods and services for payment.

What factors do manufacturing plants consider when locating?

Transportation costs, labor, and agglomeration. (Least Cost Theory)

What characterizes an industry where the final product weighs more than the inputs?

Bulk-gaining industry.

What characterizes an industry where the final product weighs less than the inputs?

Bulk-reducing industry.

What is the total value of all goods and services produced in a nation called?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former

dependency theory

What does the United Nations use to construct an indicator of a country's development level?

Income, literacy, education, and life expectancy. (Human Development Index or HDI)

What is the monetary worth of what is produced within a country plus income from investments outside called?

Gross National Income (GNI).

What is the gross value of the product minus the costs of raw materials and energy known as?

Value added.