Topic 5 - Urban Features

• World Cities: Hubs of the world economy, also usually culturally important (command + control centrals of the world economy).

  Centuries World Cities

  • 14th - Bergen

  • 17th to 18th - London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome

  • 19th - Berlin, Chicago, NYC, St. Petersburg

• Megacities: Cities that have 10 million + people (Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, New York).

• Push Factors: Factors that make people unhappy with their current location (more common) ex. No job opportunities, no freedom of speech, no government representation.

• Pull Factors: Factors that attract people to another place (more job opportunities, more culturally similar people, family, weather).

• Urban Growth: More people are moving to cities than ever before and this is mostly in Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs), there are two main causes: natural increase and migration.

  • Migration occurs in LIDS because more industrialized jobs are opening up, which results in migration to large cities.

• Rapid Urbanization: Urbanization is occurring at a large rate, like in Accra, Ghana (a LIDC), this impacts social life, education, job opportunities, and resources.

• Rural-Urban Migration: People moving from the countryside to the big city Ex: Mumbai

  • People leave the countryside for Mumbai in India (an EDC) because of the Opportunities they see, like better healthcare, weather, and job opportunities. 

  • But there may also be Struggles such as pollution, and poor wages.

• Squatter Settlement: informal housing, usually has no water, no electricity, may be dangerous, commonly found in the large cities of LIDCs.

• Internal Growth: Growth in a city from the result of a natural increase rather than migration.

• Urban Trends: Some trends occurring in urban areas

• Suburbanization: Movement of people from urban to the outskirts of a city.

• Counter Urbanization: Opposite of urbanization, people move from the city to the countryside, most commonly because of the push factors with urban environments. Such as pollution, congestion, lack of greenery, and high crime.

• Reurbanization: People move back into the city after the population declines.

• Urban Planning: Planning the use of land in a city.

Topic 6 - Dynamic Development

• Development: “More development” is when a country has more resources, better living standards, and a more overall desirable place to live. 

• AC, EDC, and LIDCS: Names used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 

  • AC: Advanced Countries, USA, France

  • EDC’s: Emerging and Developing Countries, India, Mexico

  • LIDCS: Low Income Developing Countries, Ethiopia, Chad

• GNI per capita: Gross National Income per person, Country income divided by the number of people in the country.

• HDI: Human Development Index, measured by the UN, calculated using average life expectancy and level of education + income, for each country, measured from 0-1, higher = more developed.

• IMF: Infant mortality rate, number of babies that died before the age of 1 per 1,000 live births.

• DTM: Demographic Transition Model, 5 stages, shows how CBR (Crude birth rate), CDR (Crude Death Rate), and Natural Increase change over time as countries become more urbanized and industrialized.

  • Stage 1: High Stationary Stage

    • Preindustrial, high birth, high death, slow/no growth, no country here only some isolated tribes.

  • Stage 2: Early Expanding Stage

    • Death rates drop rapidly (healthcare), so rapid population growth because the birth rate is the same as stage one (it takes a while for society to change and smaller families to become the norm).

  • Stage 3: Late Expanding Rate

    • Birth rates start declining, the Rate of Natural Increase also declines, and many EDCs are here.

  • Stage 4: Low Stationary Stage

    • Birth and death rates are similar, countries start losing populations, aging becomes a problem, and most ACs are here.

  • Stage 5: Natural Decrease Stage

    • Most recent DTM stage, birth rates below death rates, may still grow because of immigration.

• Cycle of Debt: Ex. Europeans came to Africa and started sending Cocoa Beans back, customers in Europe bought beans from African farmers, and the economy in Europe influenced the market, if the market wasn't doing well people wouldn't buy extra things, when something happened in Europe it leaves the farmers in Africa hopeless as they will have no income now, LIDC’s depend on AC’s continuously 

• Aid: Relief given to countries in the form of money, resources, or military, primarily given to LIDCs. Four types of aid are long-term, short-term, bilateral, and multilateral.

  • Long Term: Tries to solve a problem permanently.

  • Short Term: Solves an immediate problem. 

  • Bilateral: One country giving aid to another (two countries in this situation).

  • Multilateral: A group of countries give aid to a place (UN, NATO, EU).

  • Advantages of aid + disadvantages = can help LDC’s development but may not get to the people it is meant to be given to because of Political Unrest or Government Corruption also may be unsustainable to the environment.

• Rostow's model: This is a positive overview of the world, the main idea is that “every state has the potential and ability to develop”.

  • Traditional Society: Farming

  • Pre Conditions to Take Off: Make Infrastructure

  • Take Off: Urbanization, industrialization, global trade

  • Mature: Improve transportation, many types of products being sold

  • Mass Consumption: Independent from trade

• The 5 Economic Sectors: Grouping of Industries based on Workforce.

  • Primary: extract from the environment, farmers, miners, and fishers, mostly in LIDCs because ACs have more technology.

  • Secondary: manufacturing, Value value-added products (ex. Taking raw wood and making a chair, the chair will be sold for more, or milk will become cheese), this sector is increasing in LIDCs and decreasing in ACs.

  • Tertiary: services, retail, transportation, teachers, police

    • Quaternary: share knowledge/information, teachers, news reporters, library, research scientists

    • Quinary: shapes economy, decision-makers, CEO’s, government, priests, influencers

• India overview: 

  • Somewhere between 3-4 of the DMT model

  • Population growing, median age 28 in 2022

• Transnational Corporations (TNCs): since India is not an AC it has lower wages so companies choose to make their products in these countries so that they can be sold for a higher price in ACs and make more profit.

  • Advantages (for India): creates jobs, stimulates the economy

  • Disadvantages (for India): harsh working conditions for workers, use of India’s resources

• UN Sustainable Development Goals: Development without sacrificing resources, 17 goals created by the UN, set in 2015. 

• Commodities influence on development: Commodities increase the reliance LIDCs have on ACs, this creates a cycle of dependence as the economy in the AC affects the purchase of goods in the LIDCs, LIDCs mostly have one major commodity that they export so their economy depends on that one good entirely.

Topic 7 - UK in the 21st century

• Overview of general characteristics: 

  • Population Density: high density in South East England, low density in North East Scotland

• Population Trends: Stage 1 of the DTM in 1760 - 1880, drop in death (medical advancements) up to 1940 (Stage 3) with birth rates staying the same, in 1940 UK entered Stage 4.

• Population Pyramids: Graphs that show a country's population growth/patterns, generally males on the left side and females on the right, the x-axis shows the aging distribution.

  • Rapid Growth: narrow at the top, and gets wider going down, few old people and a booming growth of children

  • Stable: two almost straight lines on either side which show that the number of old people and young people is relatively similar

  • Slow Growth: narrows from the top, and starts to get wider, but before reaching the bottom it becomes a straight line, the bottom is wider than the top but the growth is slow

  • Decline: narrow from the bottom and wide from the top, fewer kids compared to the elderly, aging population

• Ethnic Diversity: There has been an increase in the number of Asians, Blacks, and other white people recently, primarily because of migration from ex-colonial states of the UK.

• Aging Population

  • Causes: After the country finishes developing with improved healthcare, this causes people to have fewer babies as they know that they won't die. Fewer babies being born results in a ratio of more elderly.

  • Effects: More healthcare is needed, but not enough working population, so higher taxes

  • Spatial Distribution: Areas along the south and east coast have an older population in the UK and major cities have a youthful population, this may be because when people migrate from countries they mainly come to large cities. Immigrants in the UK usually have more kids than white British people.

  • Responses: Higher taxes because of a larger need for healthcare, more elderly homes will be needed. 

• Economic Changes in the UK since 2001 

  • Employment sectors: Since the UK has developed, the rise of the tertiary sector has resulted in the fall of the primary and secondary sectors

• UK economic hubs: There is a divide between the north and the south, the south has more income and the north has fewer opportunities and more homelessness. 

Topic 8 - Resource Analysis

• Low supply of resources

  • Food:  Results in people having less energy and loss of weight

  • Energy: Little to no energy means putting more effort into making food, which results in less food being made

  • Water: Needed for the body to function properly, also affects the supply of food negatively if it's unavailable

• Achieve food security: Trying to achieve a situation where everyone in the world has a sufficient amount of food available to them for a healthy life. 

• Food security factors: 

  • Climate Change: In some places, climate change has caused a large increase in rain which results in crops being destroyed. Likewise, climate change has also resulted in previously wet areas becoming dry, which also kills crops. 

  • Technology: This has improved food security, as more technology helps food produce faster and in larger quantities.

  • Poverty: Higher poverty results in people not being able to grow/buy their food.

• World patterns: More food is consumed in ACs generally because they can afford to buy more food compared to LIDCs

  • World Hunger Index: Calculated using undernourishment, child mortality rate, and percentage of children underweight, ranges from 0 (no hunger) to 100

  • Average Daily Calorie Consumption: HIgher in countries like the US and Europe

• Malthusian vs Boserupian:

  • Malthusian: Mainly argued that population growth grew exponentially while the food supply grew linearly which resulted in not enough food being grown for the population, he believed that this would result in “Checks” like famine, war, and diseases to keep the population back in line with the amount of resources, negative outlook

  • Boserupian: Argued that population growth will cause technological and agricultural Innovations to occur, a more positive outlook by stating that as the population grows people will adapt and start growing more food, and people will adapt to new agricultural practices to increase crop yield, positive outlook

• Achieving food security: 

  • Statistics: Looking through numbers and reliable information can help pinpoint trends in food consumption.

  • Local Scale: 

    • Food banks: Place a supply of food free of cost to people in need

    • Urban gardens: Increases local food production

    • Allotments: Designated plots of land rented by individuals for growing vegetation  

  • National Scale: 

    • Global Food Trade: Keeping an eye on the impact global trade has on food security in a country.

    • GM crops: Looking at the impact GMOs have on food production

    • The Green Revolution: Also known as the Third Agricultural Revolution which resulted in the mass use of new technology in agriculture

• Attempts to achieve food security: 

  • Ethical Consumerism

    • Fairly Traded Goods: Making sure that each person involved in the production of food is getting their fair share

    • Food Waste: Reducing the waste of food to increase sustainability

  • Food Production

    • Organic Methods

    • Intensive Farming: An increase in food production by putting more energy and more money into agricultural productivity

  • Technological Developments

    • GM crops: The use of GM crops may increase productivity as they are more resistant to more things

    • Hydroponics: Use of Hydroponics for a more sustainable and secure production

  • Small Scale

    • Urban Gardens: Increases food at a small scale which increases food security

    • Permaculture: This practice increases food production and security