Global Inequality Edexcel GCSE Geography B - Summary Notes

Defining & Measuring Development

  • Development: Progress of a country becoming economically and technologically advanced, improving quality of life (happiness, education, income, rights, access to clean water, health).
  • Strands of Development:
    • Economic: Pay, living standards, productivity.
    • Demographic: Life expectancy, birth control, migration rights.
    • Social: Equal opportunities, access to services.
    • Cultural: Education, diversity, traditions.
    • Political: Free speech, democracy, human rights.
    • Environmental: Pollution controls, conservation.

Economic Development

  • Key to overall development, dependent on:

    • Resources: Natural (minerals, climate) & human (workers, technology).
    • Internal Boosters: Government intervention, businesses.
    • External Boosters: TNCs, globalization, international agencies.

  • Development Can Occur Through:

    • Investment in agriculture (tractors, fertilizers, etc.)
    • Improvements in power supplies to rural areas.
    • Improvements in access to education for females and overall literacy rates.

  • Levels of Development:

    • Developing: Low human development (LHD), poor quality of life.
    • Emerging: Medium/High human development (HMHD), rapid economic growth.
    • Developed: Very high human development (VHHD), modern industries, good living standards.

Measuring Development

  • Measured using indicators; hard to measure due to features/strands it covers.

  • Economic Indicators

    • Employment, income, wealth, savings, spending, trade, resources, pollution controls, and conservation

  • Social Indicators

    • Quality of life, social well-being, equal opportunities, diversity, traditions, heritage.

  • Key Measures:

    • Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Total value of a country's output of goods and services in a year.
    • GDP per capita: GDP divided by the country's population.
    • Gross National Income (GNI): Total income received by a country from its residents and businesses.
    • GNI per head: GNI dividend by number of people living in that country.
    • Human Development Index (HDI): Uses life expectancy, literacy, education, and GNI (score 0-1).
    • Indices of political corruption

Social Measures of Development

  • Literacy Rate: Percentage of adults who can read and write.
  • Life Expectancy: Average years a person is expected to live.
  • Birth Rate: Live births per 1,000 population.
  • Infant Mortality Rate: Deaths of children under one year per 1,000 births.
  • Death Rate: Deaths per 1,000 population.
  • Access to Safe Water: Percentage of people with access to safe drinking water.
  • People per Doctor

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

  • Illustrates stages of population change as countries develop.
  • Based on changes in Western countries.
  • Stages:
    • Stage 1: High birth/death rates, low total population. Traditional rainforest tribes.
    • Stage 2: High birth rates, falling death rates, rising population. Afghanistan.
    • Stage 3: Falling birth rates, low death rates, rapidly increasing population. Nigeria.
    • Stage 4: Low birth/death rates, high, slowly increasing population. USA.
    • Stage 5: Death rate exceeds birth rate. South Korea.

Population Pyramids

  • Displays age and gender structure of a population.
  • Used to assess needs for healthcare, education, etc.
  • Key Groups:
    • Young dependents
    • Old dependents
    • Economically Active (Working population)
  • Dependency Ratio: dependency ratio = \frac{young dependents + old dependents}{working population} × 100

Global Inequality in Development Factors

  • Environmental: Climate, topography, landlocked status.
  • Social: Healthcare, education, demography, poverty.
  • Political/Economic: Governance, international relations, corruption.
    *Historical: Colonialism, neo-colonialism, trade.

Consequences of Global Inequalities

  • Cycle of Wealth: Economic development creates wealth, leading to further development with stable government.
  • Income Inequalities: Imbalance between rich and poor.
  • Migration: Movement due to uneven development.

Causes of International Migration

  • Economic: Search for better pay/opportunities.
  • Social: Lack of clean water/healthcare.
  • Political: Desire for safer, less corrupt countries.
  • Environmental: Vulnerability to natural disasters.

Rostow's Modernisation Theory

  • Linear stages of economic growth:
    • Stage 1: Traditional society (bartering, subsistence farming).
    • Stage 2: Pre-conditions for take-off (improved infrastructure, manufacturing).
    • Stage 3: Take-off (industrial/regional growth, investment).
    • Stage 4: Drive to maturity (technological innovation, diversification, investment).
    • Stage 5: High mass consumption (consumer-oriented society).

Frank's Dependency Theory

  • Countries are poor due to past relationships. Core (developed countries) exploits periphery (developing nations) for raw materials.

Approaches to Development

  • Top-Down Strategies:
    • Large projects to improve incomes (roads, dams, airports).
    • Free trade, investment, industrial development, tourism, debt relief.
  • Bottom-Up Strategies:
    • Community projects (wells, schools, clinics).
    • Aid, intermediate technology (appropriate, sustainable projects).
    • Fairtrade, microfinance loans.

Globalisation and Development

  • Globalisation has played a significant role in development.

  • Globalisation:

    • Rise in internet and mobile communications making data transfer cheaper, faster and easier than ever before.
    • Goods are moved around the globe cheaply and in bulk on container ships.
    • People travel easier and cheaper around the world on aircraft etc.
    • Creating special economic zones (SEZs) and export processing zones (EPZs) which have no, or very low taxes
    • Restricting workers' rights, banning workers from joining unions and having no, or very low minimum wage.
    • Limiting environmental, pollution, health and safety laws, to reduce costs for new factories and offices.