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Chapter 1-7 Human Geography
break-of-bulk point
a place where cargo is unloaded from one form of transportation, often broken up, and then sent out loaded onto different forms of transport to other locations.
Example One: A ship is unloaded in Oakland, California. Shipping containers are placed on to trucks to be driven away.
bulk-gaining industry
Industrial activity in which the made product gains volume or weight during production.
Materials are lighter and easier to ship than the final product.
bulk-reducing industry
industrial activity in which the made product loses volume or weight during production.
Materials are heavier and more costly to ship than the final product.
Comparative advantage
An economic concept related to Free Trade that says a country should specialize in certain products for export when they have an advantage in producing those products, and import other products in which they do not have an advantage as compared to other countries.
Theoretically, this would bring costs down for products globally and make everyone richer.
Example: Your friend lives in a coastal town and loves fishing, while you live inland and have a huge garden. Your friend has a comparative advantage in fishing. You are advantaged in producing vegetables. Everyone benefits from trading what they're good at producing.
This applies to countries! Countries can specialize in what they're good at producing, like coffee or computers, and then trade with other countries for things they don't make themselves. Comparative advantage, theoretically, helps everyone get the goods they want and need. (Although... can the coffee grower's actually afford the computers?)
Development
Usually refers to industrialization: changes that occur as a country transitions from an agricultural economy to industry-based economy with rising living standards.
Also refers commonly to improvements in standards of living (income), health (life expectancy), education (years of schooling), and many other indicators of human well being.
Can also refer to transitioning toward a post-industrial service-based economy for some highly developed countries.
Fair trade
A movement that encourages multi-national corporations to pay living wages to workers in LDCs instead of the lowest possible wage
Fordist production
Refers to the mass production system that is part of the basis for the modern industrial world. Goods are produced through assembly line production, featuring low-skilled workers using specialized tools or machines. Each worker assembles only a small part, but all workers together produce large quantities of standardized finished goods.
Foreign direct investment (FDI)
A company or private investors from one country invest money (capital) in businesses or infrastructure within another country. They expect to earn income on the investment through owning a share of economic activities, like manufacturing, shipping, mining, etc.
Examples: China's Belt and Road Initiative; Nike building shoe assembly factories in Vietnam.
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
Another index of indicators created by the UN to measure inequality between men and women in countries. Measures women's position relative to men in three main areas: income levels, participation in high power/pay jobs, participation in significant political decisions making positions.
Gender-related Development Index (GDI)
A statistical index that is based on HDI. It measures differences in life expectancy, education, and incomes for men and women.
This is one of several measurements that hope to reveal gender based inequality differences between countries.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total monetary value of all the goods and services produced in a year in an area (usually national scale, but can be regional, subnational, city level, etc.)
Gross National Income (GNI)
Attempts to measure the total income of citizens of a country (including citizens overseas) in a year.
This adjusts GDP to reflect income in a country that may leave as remittances or foreign individual/corporate income. It would likewise also adjust GDP to add income made by citizens of a country that are making money abroad.
Example: Ireland has GNI that is much lower than GDP because many foreign tech companies have offices and headquarters in Ireland due to very low corporate taxes. Therefore, a significant amount of the GDP in Ireland is actually the income of foreign individuals.
Human Development Index (HDI)
A statistical index created by the United Nations that measures standard of living, health, and education. The measure seeks to assess the economic and social development of a country with a more complete picture than GDP per capita (economic productivity).
Informal economy
The part of an economy that is neither taxed, nor monitored or regulated by government. In low developing countries, this may be a significant share of the economy but would not show up in GDP because the activity isn't being monitored.
Impacts: fewer taxes collected by governments; businesses that can't get loans because they don't have tax history or a business license.
This term also includes illegal / black market activities: drugs, prostitution, etc.
Just-in-time delivery
A 21st century business strategy for maintaining just the right amount of inventory so as to not have to deal with the problems of storing lots of inventory in warehouses.
Example: Imagine a factory that builds bicycles. In the past, they might have ordered a huge shipment of handlebars every month, regardless of how many bikes they planned to produce. This results in lots of extra handlebars taking up valuable space and big upfront cost to buy all the handlebars. Also... What if bike designs change, and those handlebars become outdated?
Instead, with modern shipping and telecommunications and stuff...
The factory plans how many bikes they'll build in a certain timeframe - say, every month. They organize to purchase smaller shipments of handlebars at a time from a supplier. The supplier delivers handlebars only as needed for production, maybe a few times a week.
This can benefit both the factory and the supplier:
Factory: Saves on storage space and frees up cash flow. They also reduce the risk of having outdated parts.
Supplier: Can plan their production more efficiently based on the bicycle factory's schedule, rather than receiving giant orders all at once and then having no business at other times.
Literacy Rate
the percentage of people in an area that can read and write
Maquiladora
A factory in Mexico owned by a foreign company that only creates products to export (mostly to the USA and Canada). Improves GDP in Mexico. Lower cost goods for US residents, but also fewer factory jobs for US workers.
Example of FDI and 'Free Trade' policies like NAFTA (now called USMCA).
Outsourcing
When part of a company's operations is transferred to an outside company in another place (usually another country — but could be a different area of the same country)
Example: Schwan Corp used to have its own marketing department, but they decided to outsource marketing operations to a company in Poland that could do the work more cheaply.
Post-Fordist production
Production methods that differ significantly from the standard method of large assembly line factory production. Production is decentralized and able to change flexibly due to modern communication, shipping, and computer technology.
MORE BELOW:
Flexibility: Factories can quickly switch between making different products or variations of the same product. Whether companies need knowledge workers in design teams, or low skilled production of parts, they can outsource activities as needed and change the location of productive activities
Customization: Companies consider what features customers want and may even allow some personalization of products (Google custom Nike shoes, or custom Toyotas in Japan).
Skilled workers: Computers and robots are used to improve efficiency, but more emphasis is put on skilled knowledge workers who can adapt to different tasks and solve problems.
Basically, this newer production method is all about making what people want, when they want it, and with more options.
Right-to-work state
States in the USA whose laws prevent unions from requiring people to join the union to work in an industry (mainly Republican states)
Industrialization
the process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to one based around manufacturing jobs and industries.
Standard of living
Level of earnings/income or wealth available to a person or community.
Core
in World's Systems Theory, the core are the powerful, wealthy countries that have great influence on the world economy
Weber's least cost theory
Factory owners consider shipping/transport costs when finding the location of an industrial factory:
If resource/materials are very bulky and heavy for your product (like iron ore to make steel), then you should locate near the resource.
If your finished product is bulky and hard to ship (like furniture, or an automobile), then you will locate near the market where the good will be sold.
Industrialists try to find the sweet spot where total transport costs are minimized, depending on resources and products.
Remember, this theory is a simplified model.
It doesn't consider everything, like government policies or environmental regulations. In fact, it basically assumed that labor costs were the same everywhere to make the model work, which is definitely not the case.
Periphery
These are the least developed countries that supply the core with the basic necessities for their wealth - raw materials like oil, minerals and other commodities, and cheap labor.
Characterized by primary activities like mining, logging, or farming cash crops. Countries lack significant industrial capability and struggle to invest in things like education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
Semi-periphery
Think of these countries like as not quite as rich and powerful as the core, but they're doing better than the periphery.
Characteristics:
In the Middle: Think of these countries as acting both like a boss and an employee. They can exploit weaker periphery countries for cheap labor and resources, just like the core countries do. But at the same time, they still get bossed around by the truly powerful core countries.
Industrializing: These countries are on the rise! They're building their own factories, industries, and tech sectors, but they're not quite at the level of the core countries.
Geographic Location: Often, semi-periphery countries are geographically situated between core and periphery regions. They might even be former colonies that are trying to become more independent.
Example: Brazil might be considered a semi-periphery country. It has a growing industrial sector and can exploit some of its neighbors for resources. But compared to the US or Japan, it still has a developing economy.
Formal economy
Basically the "official" part of the economy.
Key features include:
Registered Businesses: Companies (in theory) pay taxes and follow government regulations.
Employee Rights: Workers have contracts with specific hours, pay, and sometimes benefits, like health insurance.
Job Security: There are often laws in place to protect workers from being abused, fired unfairly, etc.
Important because it creates more stable jobs, contributes taxes to fund things like roads and schools, and helps the economy run smoothly.
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
A measurement tool used by the United Nations to see how big the gap is between men and women in a country. It focuses on three main areas:
Health: This checks if women and men have similar health outcomes, like how many women die giving birth compared to men.
Empowerment: This looks at things like education and how much say women have in important decisions, both in their families and in the country's politics.
Jobs: This compares things like how many women have jobs compared to men, and if they get paid the same amount for similar work.
This index provides a score between 0 and 1. A score closer to 0 means men and women are pretty much equal, while a score closer to 1 means there's a big difference between status and opportunity for men and women.
Gross National Product (GNP)
See description of GNI. There are small differences between terms, but not necessary to know for this class. Basically the same measurement.
Nonrenewable energy
Energy from a source that is depleted when used, such as coal, natural gas, oil, gasoline, or other fossil fuels. Nuclear power also counts (at least until we figure out fusion...), although it is significantly more efficient than fossil fuels in generating electricity.
Renewable energy
Energy from a source that is not depleted when used, such as wind, hydro power, solar power, geothermal power, etc.
Dependency Theory
Based on the idea that certain types of political and economic relations (especially colonialism) between countries and regions of the world have created arrangements that both control and limit the extent to which regions can develop.
Microloans
A small sum of money lent at low interest to a small business, farmer, etc. Commonly described as important financial solutions that can help 'underbanked' populations in LDCs improve productivity and living standards.
Complementarity
The term means that these countries have economies that benefit each other because they have different strengths.
Imagine two countries, Schwanistan and Hesstopia. Schwanistan has tons of sunshine and grows delicious fruits all year round, but has bad wheat yields. Hesstopia, on the other hand, has the right climate for wheat and grows heaps of it, but struggles to produce fruit.
Specialization: Each country can focus on what they're really good at and avoid wasting energy doing what they aren't good at.
Trade: The countries exchange and everyone gets what they need.
Mutual Benefit: Both countries benefit.
Economists would even say that when the two countries specialize and trade together, more fruit and wheat are created overall - making both societies richer.
European Union (EU)
a supranational organization in Europe that allows for free trade, freedom of movement between members states, and a common currency (the Euro)
Free trade agreement
A treaty between countries that eliminates tariffs on goods sent between the countries.
This increases trade and encourages specialization - each country focuses on certain economic activities and trade for things they produce less efficiently.
Example: USMCA (Formerly NAFTA) that provides very low tariffs on goods moving between USA, Canada, and Mexico.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
An supranational organization that aims to promote global economic stability and help LDCs maintain economic stability and work toward economic growth. It's main role is providing emergency loans to countries in financial crisis when other banks won't lend to them.
Mercosur (or Southern Common Market)
an economic supranational organization dedicated to improving trade between its members in South America
Neoliberal policies
These are policies that promote 'liberalization' of the global economy: this means reducing or eliminating trade barriers like tariffs, encouraging free trade across national borders.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
A supranational organization of countries (mainly in Southwest Asia and Africa with Venezuela) dedicated to controlling the supply of oil and influencing oil prices.
Tariff
a tax a country puts on goods that were created in an outside country encouraging people to buy locally produced goods
World Trade Organization (WTO)
An economic supranational organization that functions to help countries agree on trade rules and settle disputes over trade issues. Promotes a globalized 'free trade' system.
Agglomeration
This refers to:
1. The common pattern of some economic activities to cluster closely together.
2. The benefits that companies experience due to being clumped closely together. (Having lots of similarly skilled workers nearby, lots of investors nearby, lots of customers with similar interests nearby, etc.)
Deindustrialization
This is when a country’s manufacturing sector declines. Usually the result of offshoring or outsourcing manufacturing industries to other countries with lower wages, taxes, and/or less regulation. It often leads to job losses and economic shifts toward service-oriented industries.
Export processing zone
Regions of LDCs that offer special tax breaks to attract export-driven production processes like factories producing goods for foreign markets
This can overlap with 'free trade zones'.
Free trade zone
Regions in LDCs where tariffs are waived by governments wanting to encourage MultiNational Corporations to invest in their countries.
This can overlap with 'export processing zones'.
Growth Pole
A specific region or industry that is booming economically. It attracts workers, but also additional businesses. It generates a lot of economic growth.
Picture a node of economic activity (a tech company, or an automobile assembly plant) that radiates economic growth outward, attracting related businesses (more tech companies and investment banks, or automobile parts manufacturers)
International division of labor
Refers to the fact that the different jobs/activities required to producing one product (iPhone, Honda Civic, Nike hoodie, etc.) often occur internationally, not all in one place.
This feature of the global economy has accelerated in the last 70 years (telecommunications, shipping, GPS, and other tech advances). There has been a shift in manufacturing away from the wealthiest economies, where most multi-national corporations are from, to developing countries - where labor costs are lower and environmental regulations are less strict.
Multiplier Effects
When investments in a foundational (or basic) economic activity (like a factory, or tech industry) generates income in an area by producing exports and providing jobs. This then boosts spending and consumption in the area as employees earn income. Employees spend in the area, which produces more economic activity in other businesses (like car dealerships, restaurants, salons, insurance companies, etc.).
The idea is that certain economic investments in productive industries amplify incomes and increase spending. This creates much more economic activity in an area than the initial investment.
Special economic zone
An area that has different laws governing trade and business than the rest of the country in order to attract foreign direct investment (FDI).
Example: China is a communist country, but has 'islands of capitalism' in certain cities in which the laws about property ownership and more function very differently in order to increase productivity.
Ecotourism
Tourism directed toward natural environments (often threatened) intended to support conservation efforts.
Instead of cutting down the forests to make them produce money, you can keep them pristine and build some airbnbs/hotels/restaurants nearby that attract tourists to see the beautiful sights and smell the clean air. (A different way for the forest to make money).
Mass consumption
Pattern of social and economic life in which an area's inhabitants purchase vast quantities of products or services. (Amazon Basics)
A society that reaches a level of development to afford to engage in this at a large scale may produce few of the items that it consumes, but will also have significant influence over the global economy that produces the goods it consumes.
Natural resource depletion
When raw materials are consumed much faster than they can be replenished. Relates to overconsumption and can lead to environmental degradation and scarcity.
Sustainable development
Economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources at rapid rates. This is a major challenge for the world to achieve in the near future to avoid serious climate, ecological, and social problems.
In the last 200 years, much of industrial development has been extractive (depleting natural resources), polluting (harming natural resource quality), and exploitative (taking advantage of unequal social relationships)
The UN has 17 specific goals that feature the name of this term :) How can we achieve these?
Wallerstein's World Systems Theory
The world economy has one market and a global division of labor. Although the world has multiple states, almost everything takes place within the context of the world economy. The world economy has a three-tier structure. (Peripheral, Semi-peripheral, Core). Countries have distinct and unequal roles in the world economy.
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
A collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations to mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.
Rostow's Stages of Development
A theory of development that proposes a linear path of progress for countries in economic development, through 5 stages.
Also called: Modernization Theory.
More Below:
1. 'Traditional Society': subsistence farming, pre-industrial production. Surplus wealth supports military and religious class.
2. 'Transition': Elite (local or foreign) invests in primary industrial activity (mining, improved agriculture, railroads, etc.)
3. 'Take Off': Rapid economic growth in a new manufacturing industry (commonly textiles). While the rest of the country stay traditional, industrial city centers rapidly transform.
4. 'Drive to Maturity': Industrial tech from the booming industry diffuses to more and more industries in the country, causing rapid industrialization. Society urbanizes and workers become more skilled in modern industry.
5. 'High Mass Consumption': Industrial sector specializes in high value goods, may other industrial sector jobs decline. Services expand to dominate economy. People purchase in mass to meet needs and many new wants.
Theory comes from American Walter Rostow's The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960).
Commodity dependence
Economic dependence on exports of usually one or two agricultural and mineral raw materials. When prices for those primary commodities in the world market go up or down, the country is significantly impacted.
Industrial Revolution
A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods. (Started around 1800 in England)
This is a historical term, but it also relates to the process of industrialization, which is still in various stages around the world.
Economic Sectors
"sections" of an economy. The three sectors are the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. Tertiary is often expanded to also include quaternary and quinary sectors.
Trade bloc
a group of countries that work together to promote trade with one another (BRICS, ASEAN, etc.)
Newly industrialized countries (NICs)
Countries that are undergoing or have recently undergone rapid industrialization and economic grown. (BRICS, MINT, etc.)
BRICS countries
Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa: Rapidly growing economies listed by Fidelity bank as important countries to invest in. These countries also hold meetings and strategize together for mutually beneficial industrial growth.
MINT countries
Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey -- countries listed by Fidelity (investment bank) as important growth countries for investment opportunities.
Asian Tigers/Dragons
Group of 'new' (last 50 years) industrial countries comprising Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Specialized in electronics manufacturing, received ample Foreign Direct Investment from Western 'core' countries. Economies exploded with growth.
Transnational Corporation
A company that conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters or shareholders are located.
AKA Multinational Corporation
Basic Industries
Industries that sell their products or services primarily to consumers outside the settlement (city, town, community).
These are the foundational businesses of the economy. They bring profits in from selling to outside consumers/businesses. Intel or Micron in Folsom are strong examples - these companies do business around the world and bring money into Folsom in the form of employee income. That income then gets spent and circulates in the local community, supporting many other businesses (which is an example of the multiplier effect!)
Non-basic Industries
Industries that sell their products primarily to consumers in the settlement (city, town, community).
These are not the foundational elements of the local economy - they serve the needs of local consumers (haircuts, groceries, movie theaters). These businesses need the other businesses that bring money into the community in order to support local incomes so that they can thrive.
Economies of scale
Refers basically to cost savings that come with increasing production. These are factors that cause a large producer's average cost per unit to fall as output rises, making large industrial producers more competitive than small producers.
Example, Shoe Factory: Must pay for machines nd a building, no matter how many shoes they make (these are fixed costs, they don't change with additional shoes produced). If they only make a few shoes, the cost per shoe is high because they have to spread the fixed costs (rent, machines) over just a few shoes. But, if they make a lot of shoes, the cost per shoe goes down. The fixed costs are still there, but they are divided among many more shoes, bringing the cost per shoe way down.
Basically, bigger companies can spread their costs over more products, making each one cheaper.
Silicon Valley
Example of high skill and capital agglomeration (economic activities that have a tightly clustered distribution): a region in California south of San Francisco that is noted for its concentration of high-technology industries, location near top universities, etc.
"Research Triangle"
Example of high skilled agglomeration (economic activities that have a tightly clustered distribution): Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill are called the Research Triangle in North Carolina, because of the several universities and many research organizations located there.
Global Financial Crisis
A worldwide period of significant economic difficulty experienced by stock markets, producers, and consumers. (2008 was the most recent one, the Great Depression is a historic one from the 20th century)
break-of-bulk point
a place where cargo is unloaded from one form of transportation, often broken up, and then sent out loaded onto different form of transport to other locations.
Example One: A ship is unloaded in Oakland, California. Shipping containers are placed on to trucks to be driven away.
Example Two: a truck carrying a shipping container arrives at a warehouse. Contents are unloaded and recombined in smaller cargo loads and placed on separate trucks to deliver to separate retail stores.
bulk-gaining industry
Industrial activity in which the made product gains volume or weight during production.
Materials are lighter and easier to ship than the final product.
bulk-reducing industry
industrial activity in which the made product loses volume or weight during production.
Materials are heavier and more costly to ship than the final product.
Comparative advantage
An economic concept related to Free Trade that says a country should specialize in certain products for export when they have an advantage in producing those products, and import other products in which they do not have an advantage as compared to other countries.
Theoretically, this would bring costs down for products globally and make everyone richer.
Example: Your friend lives in a coastal town and loves fishing, while you live inland and have a huge garden. Your friend has a comparative advantage in fishing. You are advantaged in producing vegetables. Everyone benefits from trading what they're good at producing.
This applies to countries! Countries can specialize in what they're good at producing, like coffee or computers, and then trade with other countries for things they don't make themselves. Comparative advantage, theoretically, helps everyone get the goods they want and need. (Although... can the coffee grower's actually afford the computers?)
Development
Usually refers to industrialization: changes that occur as a country transitions from an agricultural economy to industry-based economy with rising living standards.
Also refers commonly to improvements in standards of living (income), health (life expectancy), education (years of schooling), and many other indicators of human well being.
Can also refer to transitioning toward a post-industrial service-based economy for some highly developed countries.
Fair trade
A movement that encourages multi-national corporations to pay living wages to workers in LDCs instead of the lowest possible wage
Fordist production
Refers to the mass production system that is part of the basis for the modern industrial world. Goods are produced through assembly line production, featuring low-skilled workers using specialized tools or machines. Each worker assembles only a small part, but all workers together produce large quantities of standardized finished goods.
Foreign direct investment (FDI)
A company or private investors from one country invest money (capital) in businesses or infrastructure within another country. They expect to earn income on the investment through owning a share of economic activities, like manufacturing, shipping, mining, etc.
Examples: China's Belt and Road Initiative; Nike building shoe assembly factories in Vietnam.
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
Another index of indicators created by the UN to measure inequality between men and women in countries. Measures women's position relative to men in three main areas: income levels, participation in high power/pay jobs, participation in significant political decisions making positions.
Gender-related Development Index (GDI)
A statistical index that is based on HDI. It measures differences in life expectancy, education, and incomes for men and women.
This is one of several measurements that hope to reveal gender based inequality differences between countries.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total monetary value of all the goods and services produced in a year in an area (usually national scale, but can be regional, subnational, city level, etc.)
Gross National Income (GNI)
Attempts to measure the total income of citizens of a country (including citizens overseas) in a year.
This adjusts GDP to reflect income in a country that may leave as remittances or foreign individual/corporate income. It would likewise also adjust GDP to add income made by citizens of a country that are making money abroad.
Example: Ireland has GNI that is much lower than GDP because many foreign tech companies have offices and headquarters in Ireland due to very low corporate taxes. Therefore, a significant amount of the GDP in Ireland is actually the income of foreign individuals.
Human Development Index (HDI)
A statistical index created by the United Nations that measures standard of living, health, and education. The measure seeks to assess the economic and social development of a country with a more complete picture than GDP per capita (economic productivity).
Informal economy
The part of an economy that is neither taxed, nor monitored or regulated by government. In low developing countries, this may be a significant share of the economy but would not show up in GDP because the activity isn't being monitored.
Impacts: fewer taxes collected by governments; businesses that can't get loans because they don't have tax history or a business license.
This term also includes illegal / black market activities: drugs, prostitution, etc.
Just-in-time delivery
A 21st century business strategy for maintaining just the right amount of inventory so as to not have to deal with the problems of storing lots of inventory in warehouses.
Example: Imagine a factory that builds bicycles. In the past, they might have ordered a huge shipment of handlebars every month, regardless of how many bikes they planned to produce. This results in lots of extra handlebars taking up valuable space and big upfront cost to buy all the handlebars. Also... What if bike designs change, and those handlebars become outdated?
Instead, with modern shipping and telecommunications and stuff...
The factory plans how many bikes they'll build in a certain timeframe - say, every month. They organize to purchase smaller shipments of handlebars at a time from a supplier. The supplier delivers handlebars only as needed for production, maybe a few times a week.
This can benefit both the factory and the supplier:
Factory: Saves on storage space and frees up cash flow. They also reduce the risk of having outdated parts.
Supplier: Can plan their production more efficiently based on the bicycle factory's schedule, rather than receiving giant orders all at once and then having no business at other times.
Literacy Rate
the percentage of people in an area that can read and write
Maquiladora
A factory in Mexico owned by a foreign company that only creates products to export (mostly to the USA and Canada). Improves GDP in Mexico. Lower cost goods for US residents, but also fewer factory jobs for US workers.
Example of FDI and 'Free Trade' policies like NAFTA (now called USMCA).
Outsourcing
When part of a company's operations is transferred to an outside company in another place (usually another country — but could be a different area of the same country)
Example: Schwan Corp used to have its own marketing department, but they decided to outsource marketing operations to a company in Poland that could do the work more cheaply.
Post-Fordist production
Production methods that differ significantly from the standard method of large assembly line factory production. Production is decentralized and able to change flexibly due to modern communication, shipping, and computer technology.
MORE BELOW:
Flexibility: Factories can quickly switch between making different products or variations of the same product. Whether companies need knowledge workers in design teams, or low skilled production of parts, they can outsource activities as needed and change the location of productive activities
Customization: Companies consider what features customers want and may even allow some personalization of products (Google custom Nike shoes, or custom Toyotas in Japan).
Skilled workers: Computers and robots are used to improve efficiency, but more emphasis is put on skilled knowledge workers who can adapt to different tasks and solve problems.
Basically, this newer production method is all about making what people want, when they want it, and with more options.
Right-to-work state
States in the USA whose laws prevent unions from requiring people to join the union to work in an industry (mainly Republican states)
Industrialization
the process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to one based around manufacturing jobs and industries.
Standard of living
Level of earnings/income or wealth available to a person or community.
Core
in World's Systems Theory, the core are the powerful, wealthy countries that have great influence on the world economy
Weber's least cost theory
Factory owners consider shipping/transport costs when finding the location of an industrial factory:
If resource/materials are very bulky and heavy for your product (like iron ore to make steel), then you should locate near the resource.
If your finished product is bulky and hard to ship (like furniture, or an automobile), then you will locate near the market where the good will be sold.
Industrialists try to find the sweet spot where total transport costs are minimized, depending on resources and products.
Remember, this theory is a simplified model.
It doesn't consider everything, like government policies or environmental regulations. In fact, it basically assumed that labor costs were the same everywhere to make the model work, which is definitely not the case.
Periphery
These are the least developed countries that supply the core with the basic necessities for their wealth - raw materials like oil, minerals and other commodities, and cheap labor.
Characterized by primary activities like mining, logging, or farming cash crops. Countries lack significant industrial capability and struggle to invest in things like education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
Semi-periphery
Think of these countries like as not quite as rich and powerful as the core, but they're doing better than the periphery.
Characteristics:
In the Middle: Think of these countries as acting both like a boss and an employee. They can exploit weaker periphery countries for cheap labor and resources, just like the core countries do. But at the same time, they still get bossed around by the truly powerful core countries.
Industrializing: These countries are on the rise! They're building their own factories, industries, and tech sectors, but they're not quite at the level of the core countries.
Geographic Location: Often, semi-periphery countries are geographically situated between core and periphery regions. They might even be former colonies that are trying to become more independent.
Example: Brazil might be considered a semi-periphery country. It has a growing industrial sector and can exploit some of its neighbors for resources. But compared to the US or Japan, it still has a developing economy.
Formal economy
Basically the "official" part of the economy.
Key features include:
Registered Businesses: Companies (in theory) pay taxes and follow government regulations.
Employee Rights: Workers have contracts with specific hours, pay, and sometimes benefits, like health insurance.
Job Security: There are often laws in place to protect workers from being abused, fired unfairly, etc.
Important because it creates more stable jobs, contributes taxes to fund things like roads and schools, and helps the economy run smoothly.
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
A measurement tool used by the United Nations to see how big the gap is between men and women in a country. It focuses on three main areas:
Health: This checks if women and men have similar health outcomes, like how many women die giving birth compared to men.
Empowerment: This looks at things like education and how much say women have in important decisions, both in their families and in the country's politics.
Jobs: This compares things like how many women have jobs compared to men, and if they get paid the same amount for similar work.
This index provides a score between 0 and 1. A score closer to 0 means men and women are pretty much equal, while a score closer to 1 means there's a big difference between status and opportunity for men and women.
Note 
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