SEVEN: INDUSTRIAL & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS & PROCESSES
7.1 The Industrial Revolution
- Industrialization began as a result of new technologies and was facilitated by the availability of natural resources.
- As industrialization spread it caused food supplies to increase and populations to grow; it allowed workers to seek new industrial jobs in cities and changed class structures.
- Investors in industry sought out more raw materials and new markets, a factor that contributed to the rise of colonialism and imperialism.
7.2 Economic Sectors and Patterns
- The different economic sectors- including primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and quinary- are characterized by distinct development patterns.
- Labor, transportation (including shipping containers), the break-of-bulk point, least cost theory, markets and resources influence the location of manufacturing such as core, semi-periphery, and periphery locations.
7.3 Measures of Development
- Measures of social and economic development include Gross Domestic Product (GDP); Gross National Product (GNP); and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita; sectoral structure of the economy, both formal and informal; income distribution, fertility rates, infant mortality rates; access to healthcare; use of fossil fuels and renewable energy; and literacy rates.
- Measures of gender inequality, such as the Gender Inequality Index (GII), include reproductive health, indices of empowerment, and labor-market participation.
- The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure used to show spatial variation among states in levels of development.
7.4 Women and Economic Development
- The roles of women change as countries develop economically.
- Although there are more women in the workforce, they do not have equity in wages or employment opportunities.
- Microloans have provided opportunities for women to create small local businesses, which have improved standards of living.
7.5 Theories of Development
- Different theories, such as Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth, Wallerstein’s World System Theory, dependency theory, and commodity dependence, help explain spatial variations in development.
7.6 Trade and the World Economy
- Complementarity and comparative advantage establish the basis for trade.
- Neoliberal policies, including free trade agreements, have created new organizations, spatial connections, and trade relationships, such as the EU, World Trade Organization (WTO), Mercosur, and OPEC, that foster greater globalization.
- Government initiatives at all scales may affect economic development, including tariffs.
- Global financial crises, international lending agencies (International Monetary Fund), and strategies of development (microlending) demonstrate how different economies have become more closely connected, even interdependent.
7.7 Changes as a Result of the World Economy
- Outsourcing and economic restructuring have led to a decline in jobs in core regions and an increase in jobs in newly industrialized countries.
- In countries outside of the core, the growth of industry has resulted in the creation of new manufacturing zones- including special economic zones, free-trade zones, and export processing zones-and the emergence of an international division of labor in which developing countries have lower-paying jobs.
- The contemporary economic landscape has been transformed by post-Fordist methods of production, multiplier effects, economies of scale, agglomeration, just-in-time delivery, the emergence of service sectors, high technology industries, and growth poles.
7.8 Sustainable Development
- Sustainable development policies attempt to remedy problems stemming from natural-resource depletion, mass consumption, the effects of pollution, and the impact of climate change.
- Ecotourism is tourism based in natural environments- often environments that are threatened by looming industrialization or development- that frequently helps to protect the environment in question while also providing jobs for the local population.
- The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals help measure progress in development, such as small-scale finance and public transportation projects.
Favorite Specific Resources for this Unit (links in progress):
- Modern Slavery
- TED Talk: The Economics of Sustainability
- The Economist: The Third Industrial Revolution
- Ted-Ed video: How Containerization Shaped Globalization
- World Bank’s Global Development: Interactive mapping tool
- NPR article: What America Manufactures
- YouTube: How China Manufactures so cheaply
- The Economist: The End of Cheap China
- Foreign Policy: Africa’s Economic Growth
- NPR Podcast: India’s uneven development–too many cell phone, too few toilets
- U.S. AID infographic: Learning out of Poverty
- Video on Development in India: Bridging the Digital Divide
- Hans Rosling video: Visualizing Development Data
- Comparing Development Stats: If It were my Home
- Interactive Map: Geography of a Recession
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