Unit 5: Development & Resources

Vocabulary flashcards for key terms related to development and resources.

Development

The process of improving the conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology; synonyms are: growth, evolution, progress and expansion.

Less Developed Country (LDC)

Also known as a developing country, a country that is at a relatively early stage in the process of economic development.

Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs)

Countries that are shifting from agricultural to industrial economies.

More Developed Country (MDC)

Also known as a relatively developed country or a developed country; a country that has progressed further along the development continuum.

Agriculture

The deliberate modification of Earth's surface through cultivation of plants and raising of animals for sustenance or economic gain.

Agricultural Revolutions

The times when human beings domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering; and when innovations increased food productivity.

Domestication

The process of changing plants or animals to make them more useful to humans.

Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid growth in the use of machines in manufacturing and production that began in the mid-1700s.

Core Country

Countries that dominate trade, control the most advanced technologies, and have high levels of productivity within diversified economies.

Periphery Country

A less developed, economically poorer country that has lower levels of education, salaries, and technology.

Semi-Periphery Country

Industrializing countries which are economically in the middle between the core and periphery countries.

Globalization

The process by which businesses or other organizations start operating on an international scale.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Total value of officially recorded goods & services produced by the citizens & corporations of a country in a given year - inside only.

Per Capita

Per person.

Informal Economy

The illegal or uncounted economy that governments do not tax or keep track of.

Life Expectancy

The average number of years an individual will probably live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions.

Birth Rate (CBR)

The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The total number of deaths in a year among infants under one year old for every 1,000 live births in a society.

Literacy Rate

The percentage of a country's people who can read and write.

Economic Sectors

Categories of jobs which range from jobs within the natural environment to intellectual jobs.

Primary Sector

This sector of the economy extracts or harvests products from the earth, such as raw materials and basic foods: i.e. agriculture, mining, forestry, farming, grazing, hunting and gathering, fishing, and quarrying.

Secondary Sector

This sector of the economy produces finished goods from raw materials and includes manufacturing, processing, and construction.

Tertiary Sector

This sector of the economy is also known as the service industry - consisting of retail and wholesale sales, transportation and distribution, restaurants, clerical services, and intellectual activities such as education, technology, consulting, research, healthcare, and high-level decision makers.

Outsourcing

Hiring workers in other countries to do a set of jobs (either goods or services).

Infrastructure

Facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, such as transportation and communication systems, power plants, and schools.

Arable Land

Land that can be used to grow crops.

Cash Crop

Farm crop raised to be sold for money (is not used/consumed by the grower).

Subsistence Farming

Farming in which only enough food to feed one's family is produced.

Commercial Farming

Growing large quantities of crops or livestock in order to sell them for a profit.

Monoculture

An agricultural strategy in which a single crop is planted (cultivated) in a given area.

Capitalism

A type of economic system where businesses are owned by private individuals and corporations not the government. Prices for goods and services are determined by competition and how much people want them - AKA a free market economy.

Socialism

An economic system that calls for putting the major means of production in the hands of the people, either directly or through the government. Modern followers of this system say it is somewhere between communism and capitalism and they believe wealth and income should be shared more equally among people.

Communism

A type of economic system where there is no private ownership; everything is shared among the people with the goal of trying to make everyone economically equal.

Market Economy

An economy based on free enterprise; where privately owned businesses and consumers decide what to buy and sell.

Command Economy

An economic system where the government closely controls the economy. The government determines what goods are manufactured, the price at which they will be sold, and who gets the profits. The government owns many of the major industries.

Mixed Economy

An economy in which private enterprise exists in combination with government regulation and intervention for the public good.

Supply and Demand

An economic concept that states that the value or price of a good rises and falls depending on how many people want it and depending on how much of the good is available.

Consumer

A person who purchases goods and services for personal use.

Private Goods

A product or service that is purchased and consumed by a single individual or entity.

Public Goods

A product, service, or commodity that is available to everyone in a society.

Tariff

A government tax on imported (sometimes exported) goods as a way to regulate foreign trade, protect domestic industries, or raise government income.

Currency

A system of money in general use in a particular country.

Monopoly

The complete control of a product or service by one person or company.

Resource

A substance in the environment that is useful to people, is economically and technologically feasible to access, and is socially acceptable to use.

Scarcity

Limited quantities/amounts of something that does not meet the quantity desired.

Abundance

A very large quantity/amount of something.

Renewable Resource

Something produced in nature more rapidly than it is consumed by humans (i.e. naturally sustaining).

Nonrenewable Resource

Something produced in nature more slowly than it is consumed by humans (i.e. supplies can "run out").

Resource Curse

The concept that money made from large quantities of natural resources, such as oil, often brings problems to less developed countries (i.e. corruption, dependency, war, etc.).

Sustainability

The use of Earth's resources in ways that ensure their availability in the future.

Deforestation

The removal of trees faster than forests can replace themselves.

Desertification

Human action that cause land to deteriorate to a desert-like condition.

Irrigation

The process of applying controlled amounts of water to plants at needed intervals using either channels or drips within field rows or high-tech sprinkler systems.