UNIT 6 AP HUMAN

Agglomeration

The spatial grouping of people or activities for mutual benefit

Alfred Weber, Least Cost Theory

theory of industrial location, explaining and predicting where industries will locate based on cost analysis of transportation, labor, and agglomeration factors

Backwash effects

The negative effects on one region that result from economic growth within another region

Brandt Line

divides the more developed north from the less developed south

Break-of-bulk point

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

Bulk-gaining industries

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

Bulk-reducing industries

an industry in which the final product weighs less or comprises a lower volume than the inputs

Commodification of Labor

process through which labor is given monetary value

Commodity chain

series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then exchanged on the world market

Comparative advantage

The principle that an area produces the items for which it has the greatest ratio of advantage or the least ratio of disadvantage in comparison to other areas, assuming free trade exists

Core-Periphery Model

A model of the spatial structure of an economic system in which underdeveloped or declining peripheral areas are defined with respect to their dependence on a dominating developed core region

Deglomeration

The process of deconcentration; the location of industrial or other activities away from established agglomerations in response to growing costs of congestion, competition, and regulation

Deindustrialization

Process by which companies move industrial jobs to other regions with cheaper labor, leaving the newly deindustrialized region to switch to a service economy and to work through a period of high unemployment

Dependency theory

The theory that LDCs tend to have a higher dependency ratio, the ratio of the number of people under 15 or over 64 to the number in the labor force

Development Gap

the widening difference between development levels in MDCs and LDCs

Fair Trade

an alternative to international trade that emphasizes small businesses and worker-owned and democratically run cooperatives and requires employers to pay workers fair wages, permit union organization, and comply with minimum environmental and safety standards

Fixed costs

An activity cost (as of investment in land, plant, and equipment) that must be met without regard to level of output; an input cost that is spatially constant

Footloose Industry

A firm with manufacturing activities for which the cost of transporting activities or product is not important in determining location of production; an industry or firm showing neither market nor material orientation

Fordism

The manufacturing economy and system derived from assembly-line mass production and the mass consumption of standardized goods

Free Trade

Market forces direct trade

GDP

the value of the total output of goods and services produced in a country in a given time period (normally one year)

Global Division of Labor

phenomenon whereby corporations and others can draw from labor markets around the world, made possible by the compression of time and space thru innovation in communication and transportation systems

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope

Growth pole

An urban center with certain attributes that, if augmented by a measure of investment support, will stimulate regional economic development in its hinterland

High technology corridors

areas designated by local government to benefit from lower taxes and high-technology infrastructure to provide high tech jobs for the local population

Import substitution

government policy of encouraging local manufacturers to produce goods that would replace imports

Industrial revolution

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

Locational interdependence theory

Theory developed by economist Harold Hotelling that suggests competitors, in trying to maximize sales, will seek to constrain each other's territory as much as possible which will therefore lead them to locate adjacent to one another in the middle of their collective customer base

Maquiladoras

Factories built by US companies in Mexico near the US porder to take advantage of much lower labor costs

Multinational/transnational corporations

(MNC) - an organization that manufactures and markets products in many different countries and has multinational stock ownership and multinational management

Neocolonialism

the economic control MDCs are sometimes believed to have over LDCs

Offshoring

The practice of exporting U.S. jobs to lower paid employees in other nations

Outsourcing

sending parts of a product out for production to another factory for cost savings

Post-Fordist

World economic system characterized by a more flexible set of production practices in which goods are not mass produced; instead, production has been accelerated and dispersed around the globe by multinational companies that shift production, outsourcing it around the world and bringing places closer together in time and space than would have been imaginable at the beginning of the 20th century

PPP

(Purchasing power parity) The amount of money needed in one country to purchase the same goods and services in another country; PPP adjusts income figures to account for differences among countries in the cost of goods

primary economic activity level

The portion of the economy concerned with the direct extraction of materials from Earth's surface, generally through agriculture, although sometimes by mining, fishing, and forestry. User-contributed

secondary economic activity level

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

tertiary economic activity level

the service industry; provides services to the general population and to businesses; activities associated with this sector include retail, transportation, entertainment, media, tourism, insurance, banking, healthcare, and law

quaternary economic activity level

QUATERNARY: Service sector industries concerned with the collection, processing, and manipulation of information and capital. Examples include finance, administration, insurance, and legal services

quinary economic activity level

Activities involve facilitating complex decision making and the advancement of human capacities
-Includes business executives, government officials, research scientists, financial and legal consultants

Rostow's Development Model

According to the Rostow Modernization model, each stage is a function of productivity, economic exchange, technological improvements, and income. Economic growth occurs when advancing from one stage to another.

1. Traditional Society

2. Transitional Society

3. Take-off

4. The Drive to maturity

5. High Mass Consumption

Spread Effects

The diffusion outward of the benefits of economic growth and prosperity from the power center or core area to poorer districts and people

Sunbelt

U.S. region, mostly comprised of southeastern and southwestern states, which has grown most dramatically since World War I

Sustainable development

Global environmental change, environmental economics, women and development, children and development

-Partnership with developed countries, foreign direct investment, market mechanisms for environmental regulation, resource conservation, renewable resources, loads to women and very poor, women's and children's rights, appropriate technology

Technopole

A center of high-tech manufacturing and information-based industry

US industrial regions

Two largest industrial regions are Northeast and Southern California

Variable costs

Costs such as energy supply, transport expenses, labor costs, and other costs relating to the industrialization of an area

World systems theory

Theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein and illuminated by his three-tier structure, proposing that social change in the developing world in inextricably linked to the economic activities of the developed world