Geog 5 MT 4

Types of Economies

• subsistence

  • prod is just enough to meet survival needs, no accumulation of wealth or transfer of prod from 1 period to the next

• commercial/market economy

  • property rights are exchanged based on the law of supply + demand

• planned economy

  • central gov manages economy either through central control or through a system of influ, subsidies, grants, and taxes

    • EX: N Korea

Categories of Economic Activity

Primary

• agriculture, natural resource gathering + extraction

Secondary

• material transformation, processing, manufacturing

Tertiary

• Merchants, professional services—> services econ

Quaternary (services econ as well)

• info + admin services (research, edu)

Quinary (services econ)

• management, executive decision making in (business, gov)

  • location is essential for primary activities/the lower sectors, the higher the economic activity, the less essential location is

  • transportation is what connects all of these activities together

  • pre developed country—> most workers are primary workers

    • more developed your country becomes, the workers shift towards higher ranks of economic activity

• why do economic activities change over time?

  • automation, economic globalization, increasing wealth + edu, public sector employment growth

Location + Economy Types

• subsistence

  • climate, soils, availability of materials, knowledge + culture

• commercial

  • power, availability of materials, location of markets

• planned

  • effects of gov policies + enforcement

Location + Economics: 2 Types of Cost

• spatially-fixed costs (don’t vary w/ location)

  • uniformity across space

    • EX: union-set wages, federal taxes

• spatially variable costs (vary from location to location)

  • only variable costs are relevant to location decisions

    • EX: market wages, labor, raw materials

• footloose industries

  • can be placed at any locations w/o effects from resoruces/transportation

    • spatially fixed costs only

    • don’t need to be right next to a resource or transportation

    • don’t need to be right next to a market

      • typically lightweight

      • EX: computer chips, diamonds

Primary Sector: Agriculture

• Developed countries have the least people working in agriculture 

• Developed countries have the largest people working in services

• Developing countries have the largest people working in agricultural, but it’s slowly reducing over time to move towards people work in services  

Agriculture Timeline

• Hunter-gatherer 

  • Difficult to support large/dense pops 

• Early farming 

  • Plant + animal domestication 

  • Agricultural hearths 

• Agricultural revolution 

  • Selective breeding in response to human needs

• Subsequent agricultural innovations/revolutions 

  • The Green Revolution, Biotech Revolution 

Subsistence vs Commercial (vs. Planned)

• Subsistence

  • farm economies in which crops are grown nearly exclusively for local or family consumption

• Commercial

  • farm economies where goal is profit maximization, not subsistence

• Extensive vs Intensive (labor and land area)

  • extensive

    • smaller amount of labor but large areas of land

  • intensive

    • larger amount of labor in smaller areas of land

• Extensive Subsistence Agriculture

  • subsistence agriculture

  • large areas of land

  • minimal inputs of labor per hectare

    • EX: nomadic herding, shifting cultivation (slash + burn agriculture)

      • shifting cultivation

        • oldest, most widely used agricultural system

        • vegetation is cut + burned

        • field is planted

        • stumps + trees left after burn

        • move to another site (cut + burned site allowed to rest)

      • Advs

        • high initial yields

        • works if a lot of land available and if land can rest

        • doesn't need fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides

      • Disadv

        • not sustainable w/ larger pops

        • land increasingly not available

        • modern techs lead to deforestation

• Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

  • subsistence agriculture

  • small areas of land

  • large inputs (labor per hectare)

    • EX: rice farming, millet, yams, corn

• Extensive Commerical Agriculture

  • commercial agriculture

  • large areas of land

  • minimal inputs (labor per hectare)

  • high prod costs

  • intensive capital inputs (seed, fuel, fertilizer)

    • EX: cattle ranching, wheat farming

• Intensive Commercial Agriculture

  • commercial agriculture

  • smaller areas of land

  • intensive inputs (labor per hectare)

    • EX: specialty prods

    • fruit + veggie farming

    • dairy farms

    • truck farms

Thuenen’s Model of Agricultural Land Use

• goal—> spatial model of agricultural land use, what is grown where?

  • perhaps the 1st geographic model ever

  • dist of agricultural land use to achieve greatest profit

  • purely economic model

• Assumptions

  • flat plain

  • uniform arability ]

  • one market (higher value land near market)

  • one mode of transportation (cost increases w/ distance)

  • farmers are economically rational

• Features

  • w/ increased distance, transportation costs increase

  • land value decreases as one moves away from the market—> distance decay

  • heavy prods—> diary are closest to the market, cattle/grain—> farthest b/c you need more land for this

Natural Resource Gathering

• fishing

  • stabilized over time

  • aquaculture (ocean farming) has increased, growing rapidly b/c demand for seafood + global consumption of fish has increased

• logging

  • natural resource extraction

    • mining—> coal—> increased over time

    • oil

    • natural gas prod—> increased over time

Secondary Activities

• as a country goes from preindustrial to industrial increase in secondary activities but as they move from industrial to post industrial, it declines

• Deindustrialization

  • Declining relative share of manufacturing in a nation’s economy 

• Nondurable goods in the US 

  • Chemical products, food + beverage + plastics, gas/coal 

• Most durable in the US

  • Machinery, computers, cars, metal prods

Weber Model/Least Cost Theory(Weber’s Triangle) 

• Key Question: where should a factory be located? 

• Normative model = looking for optimal location 

• Least-cost theory

  • Optimal location of a manufacturing plant is a location that minimizes costs of transportation + labor to yield max profit 

  • Account for + minimize 

    • Transportation costs 

    • Labor osts 

    • Agglomeration 

• Model Assumptions

  • Isotropic plain 

  • Manufacturing of a single product to be shipped to 1 market

  • Raw materials can be from more than one location 

  • Labor infinitely available but immobile + costs of labor can vary 

  • Transportation by shortest path, transport costs reflect weight of items + distance 

  • Land rents are constant 

• Model Components 

  • Key locations 

    • Raw materials sites (known) 

    • Market (known) 

    • factory/plant (unknown) 

• Material Index 

  • Transportation costs shaped by weight of the materials and the distances over the prods needing to be transported 

  • MI (material index) = ration btw the weight of raw material and the weight of the finished prod 

    • Total weight of raw materials/ total weight of prod 

  • MI (greater than 1)--> factory near materials → finished prod is lighter than the raw materials 

  • MI (less than 1) → factory near market → finished prod is heavier than raw material

Weber Model Limitations

• Single markets not likely 

• Heavy emphasis on transport costs 

• Labor migration 

• Often large # of inputs 

• No true single plants/factories 

• Does not recog substitution principle 

  • Can sub inputs 

  • Trade automation for labor 

  • Increase transportation costs but reduce land rent 

• violations of weber’s assumptions

  • globalization of manufacturing violates all assumptions

Flexible Production 

• Flexible Production 

  • Supplies fo prod come from outside 

  • Modular assembly→ pieces come from multiple suppliers and then assembled in one location 

• Just In Time Prod 

  • Acquire inputs just b4 prod, produce output just in time to sell 

  • Reduces storage costs 

  • Prod can fluctuate w/ supply + demand 

Outsourcing + Offshoring 

• Outsourcing 

  • Where does the work take place?

    • Moving manufacturing from more developed to less developed countries (b/c of lower-cost for land, labor, capital) 

    • Subcontracting prod work to outside companies 

• Offshoring 

  • Who is conducting the work? Where are they located? 

    • Hiring workers in other countries 

    • Contracting foreign 3rd party service provider for certain operations or processes

• Transnational Corporations 

  • • Private firm w/ branch operations in nations other than where they’re headquartered 

      • High annual revenues→ like the GDP of some countries 

      • Home offices in major global cities 

      • EX: Walmart, Apple 

Agglomeration 

• Agglomeration 

  • Clustering of productive activities and people for mutual advantage 

• Agglomeration economy 

  • A large # of companies, services, and industries exist in close proximity to one another + benefit from cost reductions + gains in efficiency that result from this proximity 

• Multiplier Effect

  • Each new firm added to the agglomeration creates more infrastructure and linkages (btw firms) 

• Diseconomies 

  • Competition for resources (materials,labor) leads to diff wage levels

Types of Tertiary Employment 

• Tertiary 

  • Retail, hospitality, financial services, real estate 

• Quaternary 

  • Education, public sector, research + development 

Consumer v Producer Services 

• Consumer services 

  • Caters to consumers 

    • EX: tourism, gambling 

      • Tourism, one of the largest industries in the world(for developing + developed) 

• Producer Services 

  • Caters to producers 

  • “Knowledge activities” 

    • EX: law firms, business consultants, ad agencies 

Tech Sector

• IT 

  • High growth of jobs % 

• High tech industries 

  • Mix of Secondary + Tertiary activities 

    • Secondary 

      • Blue collar workforce 

      • Less skilled production may be offshored or outsourced 

      • More higher skilled prod occurs in developed countries 

      • Important source of development in developing countries 

    • Tertiary 

      • White collar workforce in developed countries

      • EX: scientists, technicians 

      • Agglomeration economies = hubs 

Rejuvenation of Rust Belt Cities?

• Rust Belt + Urban Decline 

  • Area where lots of cars are made, but started to decline during the rise of the services sector 

  • But there’s a rise in education in these areas 

  • Urban decay 

Hotelling’s Locational Interdependence Theory 

• Tertiary activities are market oriented 

  • Go where customers are 

  • Don’t have to worry abt raw materials 

• Hotelling Model→ used to predict the location of retail services 

  • Competition oriented 

  • Locational interdependence

  • Focus on revenue → getting as many customers as possible 

• Hotelling Model Assumptions 

  • Retailers sell same exact prod at same price 

  • Customers evenly spread in a linear market 

  • Customers purchase the same amount 

  • Customers will go to the store closest to them 

• Beach Example 

  • Splitting an area in half where sales of part of the beach goes to X and the other sales goes to Y→ Socially Optimal Solution 

    • Not a soln in equil b/c it does not maximize profit 

• Hotelling Model Summary 

  • Customer + competitor locations affect locational controls for services 

  • A clustered pattern of service locations may occur under certain conditions

• Hotelling Model Limitations 

  • Not customer oriented→ customers on the ends of market area will need to expend extra effort 

  • Real world conditions 

    • Prod prices usually not the same 

    • Demand for product may vary 

    • Geographic clustering of customers 

 

Comparing Hotelling v Weber Model

Hotelling Model

• where to locate retail?

• market oriented

• emphasis on location of competitors

• goal: maximizing revs (via spatial monopoly)

Weber Model

• where to locate manufacturing?

• raw material Site/s + market

• emphasis on transportation costs

• goal: minimizing costs, maximize profit (via optimal location)

Human Envr Relations

The Human Component 

• Economic geography 

  • How people support themselves/make a living 

• Urban geography 

  • how /where people live 

• Population geography + devel 

  • Density, distribution, envr degradation from poverty + affluence/consumption

The Envr Component 

• The sum outcome of interaction btw living (plant/animals) and non-living things (air, water, E) 

  • Divided into natural and built envr 

    • Natural envr 

      • Rainfall, soil, sunlight, ecosystem 

    • Built envr 

      • Housing, traffic, parks

Events vs Climate Change 

• Evnr/weather events 

  • Acute impacts 

  • Direct impacts 

  • Localized in scale 

  • Might be specific to a given location 

• Climate change 

  • Long term impacts 

  • Indirect impacts 

  • Considered to be global in scale 

  • Diff from weather (but may include weather events) 

• Direct vs Indirect Impacts 

  • Direct impact 

    • A tornado destroys a home 

  • Indirect impact 

    • Climate change lowers agricultural productivity 

    • Loss of food supply + livelihoods leads to food insecurity, poverty, and/or migration 

Effects of Climate Change

• Rise in sea level 

• Climatic events-> more frequent + intense storms 

• Timing of rainfall, flowers, animal migrations thrown off 

• Drought 

• Crop failures 

• Mass extinctions of plants + animals 

• Acidification of the oceans 

• Causes of sea level change 

  • Coastal land subsidence/sinking, thermal expansion, melting of glaciers 

• Most affected by sea level rise 

  • Lack of sea walls, lives in areas that are at or below sea level 

• Social vulnerability index 

  • Measure of a community’s level of risk or resilience to specific types of climate change effects 

    • EX: overall vulnerability score is based on socioeconomic status, household characteristics, racial + ethnic minority status, housing type/transportation 

Direct vs Indirect Human Impacts on the Envr

• Direct Impacts 

  • cutting/burning forests 

  • Clearing land 

    • More immediately visible 

• Indirect Impacts 

  • Using fossil fuels 

  • Emitting CO2 through vehicle use

  • Living in cities and creating excess heat 

  • (less immediately visible) 

• Urban + developed areas = large indirect impact→ daily commuting to work 

• Rural + developing areas = small but direct impact→ slash + burn agriculture

More tech that a society uses = more total impact via indirect means

Scale + Cumulative Effects

• EX: Air pollution in LA 

  • Point sources of pollution may have global impacts (spillover) → smoke + air pollution from LA fires spilled over to nearby areas 

  • Cumulative impacts and synergistic effects → air pollution over time 

  • Measurement difficulties 

Problems at All Scales

• Barriers to mitigating environmental impacts at diff scales 

  • Global 

    • Certain countries don’t sign or comply w/ international protocol 

    • Enforcement is often non-existent 

  • National 

    • Bureaucracy, competing interests 

  • Local 

    • Property rights, requires grass roots efforts 

  • Individ 

    • consumer mentality, inability to see indirect effects 

Responses to Envr Problems At All Scales

• Global scale 

  • Paris agreement 

• National scale 

  • Endangered species act 

• Local Scale 

  • Zoning laws, land trusts 

• Individ 

  • Conscious consumerism 

Summary: Envr Scale, Reponses, and Problems

scale

• global

  • environmental responses

    • paris agreement (past: kyoto, montreal)

  • problems

    • certain countries don’t sign or comply

• national (US)

  • endangered species Act

  • problems

    • bureaucracy, competing interests

• local

  • zoning laws

  • land trusts

  • problems

    • property rights, requires grass roots efforts

• individ

  • conscious conumerism

  • problems

    • consumer mentality—> inability to see indirect effects

I = P A T 

• Model to descr the impact of human activity on the envr 

  • I = P A T 

  • I = (Human) Envr Impact = 

  • P = population 

    • Increased pop = increased probs

  • A = level of affluence 

    • Increased affluence = increasing use per capita

  • T = level of technology

    • Increased tech = more problems 

Human Envr Interactions II 

• Urban Human-Envr Interactions 

  • More urbanized countries = more E use than rural countries/areas

  • Envr degradation affects urbanizing places 

  • Global climate change effects on cities 

    • Rise in sea level 

    • More severe storms 

    • Climate  induced human migration 

• Urban Land Use + Envr 

  • Urban structure 

    • Zoning 

      • Mix or separation of land uses (commercial, residential)

      • Related to urban sprawl 

    • Sprawl 

      • Air pollution, E consumption, wasteful land uses, loss of habitat + species diversity 

    • Characteristics of sprawl 

      • Push for growth at exurbs 

      • Segregated land uses 

      • Emphasis on automobile for transportation 

      • Residential + employment densities that are lower than in inner suburbs or the city center 

      • Homogenous pops w/ race, ethn, class, housing status 

      • Disjointed local gov policies to address these probs

• Density 

  • Urban density 

    • Less gasoline consumption per person 

    • Shared E use? 

  • But is urban living actually greener? 

    • Common spaces add up→ hallways, fitness centers 

    • Extra heat (insulation in buildings) 

    • Buildings may be older (less E efficient) 

• Brownfields 

  • Abandoned sites from former industrial use, perceived as polluted or contaminated 

  • Public perception of disamenities 

    • Why redevelop brownfields? 

      • Economic improvement of urban core, reuse abandoned properties 

    • Why not rehabilitate brownfields? 

      • (-) public perception

• Heat + Cities 

  • Urban heat island 

    • City that has much warmer temps than nearby rural areas

      • Cooler neighborhoods 

        • Parks, yards, trees 

        • Lower density housing

        • More affluent 

        • Whiter 

      • Hotter neighborhoods 

        • Fewer parks, yards, trees

        • Higher density housing 

        • Less affluent 

        • Mostly Af-Amr 

Envr Hazards + Envr Movement

• Hazard 

  • Prob of occurence of a potentially harmful event 

• Events 

  • Cuyahoga River Fire 

    • Industrial wave regularly dumped into this river 

    • Perceived as an essential consequence of progress + prod 

    • River caught fire several times 

  • SB Oil Spill

    • Oil spill from offshore drilling 

    • Little knowledge of how to cntrl spread of oil 

    • Over 3 M gallons of oil spilled 

• Envr Movement 

  • Increased recog of air + water pollution links to human health 

  • First Earth Day 

  • Inspired creation of EPA + clean water + clean air acts 

  • Greta Thunberg 

  • Recent trends: 

    • “green cities” → innovative urban planning, be green: green roofs 

    • Innovative urban planning: preventing urban sprawl, promote mixed land use

    • Sustainable devel: sustainability combined w/ economic growth 

    • Resilience: mitigation against climate change, not prevention: acceptance that climate change is happening 

    • Vulnerability: weaknesses in some aspects of urban envr that make people especially vulnerable to harm 

    • Social vulnerability index: measure of a community’s level of risk or resilience to specific types of climate change effects

States

• Indep political unit

• Permanently populated territory 

• Have full sovereign control over its internal + foreign affairs 

• Usually termed as country 

Not states

• Antarctica 

• Some colonies or protectorates

• US states = provinces 

  • Political geo sense→ US = state, CA = province 

Nations 

• Group of people w/ common culture occupying a particular territory

• Refers to people rather than structure 

• Self identify as a nation based on shared beliefs + customs 

• May have a claim to a homeland

• More nations than states 

Vocab

• Nation States 

  • A state whose territory contains only one nationality 

    • Japan 

• Multinational states 

  • States containing multiple nations 

    • US, China, India 

• Part-nation-state

  • Single nation spread across 2 or more states 

    • Arab nation, Korean nation 

• Stateless nations 

  • Nation that does not have sovereignty over its territorial region

    • Kurds (Iraq, Iran, Turkey) 

Israel and Palestine 

• Jews were a stateless nation prior to 1948 

• Israel is now the state for the Jewish nation 

• Palestine is considered a stateless nation 

  • But is recognized as a state by 147 countries in the UN 

  • In the UN it’s considered as a non member observer state 

• Evolution of States

• Modern state idea developed in the 1700s 

• Revolutions + indp movements → former colonies became their own states 

• Multi-State Organizations

  • Political, military, economic (3+ states getting together) 

    • NATO 

    • UN 

    • EU 

• EU + Brexit 

  • 27 countries 

  • Common currency for most (EURO) 

  • Freedom of movement throughout EU 

  • European Parliament 

  • Court of justice of the EU 

    • Brexit

      • Britons voted to leave EU → Brexit

Internal Admin Regions

• Counties, school districts, voting districts 

• Characteristics of States 

• Size 

  • Large size pros 

    • Large area = more resources 

    • Culturally heterogeneous

    • Ease of tourism within country 

    • Pooling of pop + resources 

  • Large size cons 

    • Areas w/ resources may be a small portion of country 

    • Culturally heterogeneous 

    • More difficult/expensive to develop transportation 

    • Larger borders to defend 

• Shape 

  • Compact, elongated, prorupt, fragmented, perforated

• 

• Enclave 

  • State that is completely surrounded by another state 

• Semi-enclaves 

  • A state that’s surrounded by another state + another state’s territorial waters 

• eXclaves

  • Part of a state is discontiguous from the mother state

location

• Absolute location→ site→ physical characteristics of a place 

• Relative location→ situation→ location relative to other things 

• Boundaries

• Line separating one political unit from another

  • Natural boundaries 

    • Follow physical patterns in landscape

  • Geometric boundaries 

    • Lines drawn on the land to designate territories 

  • Antecedent boundaries 

    • Est b4 features of a cultural landscape are developed, b4 an area is well populated 

  • Subsequent boundaries 

    • Est after the cultural landscape exists, pop growth 

      • consequent → accommodates cultural groups 

      • superimposed –. Disregards cultural groups 

Maritime boundaries

• Where does a country’s border end in the ocean? 

  • Territorial waters 

    • 12 nautical miles from shore, all national laws apply 

  • Contiguous Zone

    • 24 nautical miles from shore, some national laws

  • Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

    • 200 nautical miles from shore, rights to all resources in zone 

  • International waters 

    • Open access 

Review: States v Nations

• states

  • indep political unit

  • occupying a defined permanently populated territory

  • full sovereign control over internal + foreign affairs

  • recognized by international community as states

  • administrative region

  • country

• nations

  • group of people w/ a common culture occupying a particular territory

  • refers to people rather than structure

  • self-identify as a nation based on shared beliefs and customs (religion, language, emotional conviction)

  • may have a claim to a homeland

Political Stability

• Durability + integrity of a current gov regime 

  • Related to amount of violence + terrosim + expressions of dissatisfaction by citizens 

  • Stable society = satisfied w/ the ruling party + system of gov, not interested in revolutionary or despotic ideas 

Centripetal Forces

• Forces that promote unity + stability 

  • Nationalism 

    • Identification w/ and loyalty to a country 

  • Unifying Institutions

    • Schools 

    • Church groups 

    • Volunteer groups 

    • Military 

  • Effective Administration 

    • Fair + reliable justice system 

    • Insurance of domestic tranquility 

    • Defense system 

    • Promotion of general welfare 

  • Infrastructure 

    • Effective transportation + communication system 

      • Promotes commercial + social interaction 

      • Indication of development

      • Political integration 

Centrifugal Forces

• Destabilize + weaken a state, lead to political instability 

  • Opposite of all the centripetal forces 

    • Nationalism as a centrifugal force→ subnationalism 

      • No shared sense of nationalism within a state, local primary allegiances within a state 

        • States w/ subnationalism have 

          • Many nationalities

          • Many minority groups 

          • Many ethnic, cultural, or religious groups

        • Regionalism

          • minority group self awareness + identify w/ a region rather than a state —> EX: im a CA b4 im an American

        • Separatism

          • dissident minority wants total or partial secession from the state

        • Devolution

          • transfer of some central pwrs to regional or local govs—> federalism

        • Corruption/Ineffective Administration

          • low scores are considered really corrupt

          • when public officials can’t be bought = not corrupt

        • Lack of unifying Institutions

          • multinational states do not always need to have separatism or a unifying lang or culture

        • ways that multinational states can stay cohesive

          • emphasis on equality

          • national narratives (USA = land of opportunity, Nation of Immigrants)

          • some devolution of pwr from central authority

Voting Patterns

• Urban. Suburban, and Rural voting Patterns  

  • Rural votes repub 

  • Suburbs = split 

    • Majority of where US pop lives 

  • Partisan (residential) segregation 

    • Cities w/ high partisan segregation are typically in the S 

    • Occurs in areas w/ large white + black pops 

US Electoral Process 

• US senate 

  • 100 senators 

  • 2 per state 

  • 6 year terms 

• US house 

  • 435 total reps

    • #depends on state pop 

    • Each rep represents a diff congressional district

    • 2 year terms 

• Electoral geography 

  • Analyzes how the shape + location of voting district boundaries influence electoral process 

2 properties of Electoral Districts

• reapportionment (apportionment)

  • the process of allocating electoral seats to geographical areas

    • happens every 10 years after US census

    • total seats is 435, state totals fluctuate w/ pop

• redistricting

  • the defining + redefining of territorial district boundaries

    • happens repeatedly

    • theoretical goal: to ensure the equal prob of representation among all groups

• Reapportionment + Redistricting 

  • Step 1 → census counts 

  • Step 2 → apportionment → based on the census aka pop, this state gets this many seats 

  • Step 3 → redistricting → states draw district lines based on census + apportionment 

Gerrymandering

• Redistricting such that a particular person, party, or people will be favored or will lose 

Packing

• Putting all of your opponents into a single district give them one safe seat, but which dilutes their overall power 

Cracking

• Spreading like minded voters apart across multiple districts to dilute their voting power in each 

• Opposite of packing