Industrialization and Global Economic Sectors
Economic Development and the Impact of Industrialization
Development refers to a country’s relative level of economic well-being, which serves as a metric for how rich or poor a country is.
A country’s level of development is almost exclusively an indicator of its level of industrialization.
Global globalization has integrated the world’s economy into an interdependent whole, yet this has resulted in uneven patterns of spatial economic development.
The Five Sectors of Economic Activity
An economic sector is defined by the specific kinds of products produced in a location and the types of jobs available to the workforce. These sectors range from the least developed to the most developed.
The Primary Sector - Focuses on the extraction of raw materials from the earth. - Activities include mining, fishing, farming, and logging. - Economies dominated by this sector are generally considered the least developed (e.g., the Ethiopian economy, which specializes in mineral extraction).
The Secondary Sector - Focuses on processing raw materials extracted in the primary sector into usable products. - This sector is responsible for the majority of the world’s manufacturing. - Example: Processing raw timber into usable, uniform lumber for construction. - These economies are more developed than primary sector economies because manufacturing requires sophisticated machinery and engineering.
The Tertiary Sector (The Service Sector) - Devoted to providing intangible services to businesses or consumers rather than tangible goods. - Examples include teaching, legal services, shipping, storage, entertainment, and media. - In the lumber example, this involves retail workers selling furniture to customers. - The United States economy is largely comprised of tertiary service jobs.
The Quaternary Sector - A specialized category of the service sector requiring a high degree of education and expertise. - Focuses on research and development (R&D), the high-tech industry, the biomedical industry, and financial services like stock brokerage.
The Quinary Sector - Includes the most influential economic movement makers, such as top government officials and powerful CEOs of large global corporations. - This is a specialized subcategory of the quaternary sector. - Decisions made at this level have significant global effects.
Spatial Distribution and Historical Patterns
As countries progress through industrialization, they move along the spectrum from primary to quinary sectors.
Historical Correlations: - Primary and secondary sectors are often found in nations with a colonial past (e.g., much of Sub-Saharan Africa). - Tertiary through quinary sectors are typically found in countries that were colonizers and early adopters of industrialization.
Connection to the Demographic Transition Model (DTM): - Movement through developmental levels (economic sectors) corresponds with becoming more industrialized and increasingly urbanized. - This progression mirrors a country’s movement through the various stages of the DTM.
Alfred Weber’s Least Cost Theory
Developed in the early century, this model attempts to predict the geographical distribution of industrial activity and where factories choose to locate. It is conceptually similar to Von Thünen’s model but applied to industry rather than agriculture.
Core Principle: Factories locate in places that are most cost-efficient (the "least cost") for business operations.
Weber’s Triangle: The model is depicted as a triangle where two points represent access to raw materials and one point represents the market.
Determining Factors: Distance and Weight. - Factory owners must minimize transportation costs to maximize profitability.
Bulk-Reducing Products: - If raw materials weigh more than the finished product, the factory should locate near the raw materials. - Example: Paper manufacturing. Trees are significantly heavier than paper; therefore, factories are located near forests to avoid the high cost of transporting heavy logs.
Bulk-Gaining Products: - If the finished product is heavier or more expensive to transport than the raw materials, the factory should locate near the market.
The Fragility Exception: - The fragility of goods can override weight considerations. - Example: Potato chips. Although potatoes are heavier than bags of chips, chip factories locate near the market because finished chips are fragile and easily crumbled during long-distance transport.
Limitations: Like the Von Thünen model, the Least Cost Theory is based on abstractions rather than the complexities of real-world land and societies.
Additional Factors in Industrial Location
Access to Energy: Manufacturing requires abundant and reliable power; factories often locate in close proximity to energy sources.
Access to Materials and Break of Bulk Points: - While factories often locate near raw materials, they may also locate near break of bulk points. - A break of bulk point is a location where goods are transferred from one mode of transport to another (e.g., seaports, airports, railroad stations). - These hubs handle bulk quantities of unpackaged goods like coal or timber.
Transportation and Containerization: - Cargo planes (introduced mid- century) allow industries to locate near major airports. - Containerization: The use of standardized metal boxes (shipping containers) that can be stacked uniformly for non-bulk cargo (food, clothing). - This development has allowed businesses to relocate manufacturing to the "periphery" where labor costs are lower, as shipping cost and efficiency have improved.
The Global Economic Hierarchy
This hierarchy consists of three layers reflecting the uneven spatial distribution of economic development:
Core Countries: - Characterized by the highest level of economic development. - Historically moved from primary to secondary, and now focus on tertiary, quaternary, and quinary sectors. - Examples: United Kingdom, United States, and other European nations.
Periphery Countries: - Characterized by the least development. - Economies remain dominated by primary sector work (extraction). - Often historically were colonies of industrial powers.
Semi-Periphery Countries: - A category developed in the late century for countries that are neither core nor periphery. - They exhibit characteristics of both, having emerged as core countries outsourced manufacturing to them. - They have moved beyond primary and secondary sectors and are seeing a rise in tertiary jobs. - Examples: Mexico and India.