Manufacturing and Economic Geography

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the fundamentals of manufacturing, including factors of industrial location, historical shifts, urban impacts, and modern industrial policy.

Manufacturing

The process of transforming raw materials into a finished good, creating value added.

Value Added

The increase in worth of a product during production, such as wheat becoming flour and then bread, or copper being transformed into cell phone circuits.

Industrializing

The process of a country modernizing its economy by moving from developing to developed status through manufacturing.

Weight gaining / Weight reducing

Factors of industrial location based on the weight of inputs relative to the finished product, which impact transportation costs.

Urbanization

The movement of populations from farms to cities, historically driven by the rise of factories and assembly lines.

Suburbanization

The decline of intensive manufacturing in cities as industrial activity became more extensive and moved outward, facilitated by highways.

White flight

A period during the 1970s and 1980s when many Western cities unraveled and lost population as manufacturing declined.

Initial Advantage

The early industrial lead held by the US, Europe, and the Soviet Union due to established roads, ports, workers, and energy sources.

Asian Tigers (NIEs)

Newly Industrializing Economies that followed Japan's lead in industrializing after the 1950s.

First Industrial Revolution

A historical era defined by the rise of mechanization.

Second Industrial Revolution

A historical era defined by the introduction of mass production.

Third Industrial Revolution

A shift occurring around $1990$ characterized by the internet, computers, and automation.

Maquiladoras

Manufacturing operations in Mexico often linked to trade with the US, facilitated by agreements like NAFTA.

Special Economic Zones (SEZ) / Export Processing Zones (EPZ)

Designated areas, particularly in China, created to facilitate modernization and the surge in global trade.

Intermediate goods

Goods used as inputs in the production of other goods, which have seen a significant rise in international trade.

Deindustrialization

The permanent decline of manufacturing in regions like the US Rustbelt, the North of the UK, and Germany's Ruhr.

Multipliers in reverse

The process where the loss of manufacturing jobs leads to the subsequent closure of locally owned retail, schools, hospitals, and car dealerships.

Industrial Policy

The steering of public resources to lubricate an innovative economic ecosystem, targeting $R&D$, education, and technology for long-term societal benefits.

Chaebols

Large industrial conglomerates in South Korea that were part of state-supported industrial policy.

Advanced Manufacturing

High-tech production processes that include technologies like 3D printing, robotics, AI, and therapeutics.

Shoring (On / Re / Near / Friend)

The strategy of moving manufacturing closer to home or to allied nations due to national security concerns, nationalism, or eroding labor cost advantages in China.

Decoupling

The future trend of reducing interdependence between economies, particularly in critical manufacturing and technology sectors.