GEOG 106 Introductory Economic Geography Fall 2016 Instructor: Sriram Khé Email: [email protected] Office location: HSS 219 Office phone: 503-838-8852 Take a look at the following graph: Notice how two countries dominated the global economy until the 19th century? Do you also see that those two countries have started making their presence felt over the past four decades? That is an example of a mega-story that we can begin to understand through the lens of economic geography. In the university catalog, we have provided a short description of this course: Course addresses the important role of geography in the highly inter-connected global economy, by examining the spatial patterns in population, resources, and the primary, secondary, and tertiary economic sectors. Course will also highlight the relationship between economics and the environment, and explore sustainable development. Here’s how I want to parse that catalog description: I want you to:  Appreciate and understand the role played by geography and geographic barriers in the development of the world economy and within national economies;  Understand the dynamics of the global economy, resource use, and the relationship between population and the resource base;  Understand location theory and the rationale for the location of industry, cities, and systems in their current location; and  Develop an understanding and appreciation of the solutions devised by societies to economic problems Thus, the Outcomes:  Explain how economic activities are located and organized in space  Explain how interregional differences in economic well-being may come about, and how such processes affect your own daily life and professional plans; and  Develop conceptual, analytical, and critical thinking skills that will be useful for courses in geography, and in other branches of the social sciences as well. The course is more than merely about an LACC requirement I have excerpted the following from the National Geography Standards in order to highlight the importance of this course to be infinitely more than merely fulfilling the LACC requirements: The goal of the National Geography Standards is to produce a geographically informed person who sees meaning in the arrangement of things in space and applies a spatial perspective to life situations. The geographically informed person knows and understands: The World in Spatial Terms 1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective 2. How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context 3. How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on earth’s surface Places and Regions 4. The physical and human characteristics of places 5. That people create regions to in ...

1. GEOG 106
Introductory
Economic Geography
Fall 2016
Instructor: Sriram Khé
Email: [email protected]
Office location: HSS 219
Office phone: 503-838-8852
Take a look at the following graph:
Notice how two countries dominated the global economy until
the 19th century? Do you also see
that those two countries have started making their presence felt
over the past four decades? That is
an example of a mega-story that we can begin to understand
through the lens of economic
geography.
In the university catalog, we have provided a short description
of this course:
Course addresses the important role of geography in the highly
inter-connected global

2. economy, by examining the spatial patterns in population,
resources, and the primary,
secondary, and tertiary economic sectors. Course will also
highlight the relationship between
economics and the environment, and explore sustainable
development.
Here’s how I want to parse that catalog description: I want you
to:
geographic barriers in the
development of the world economy and within national
economies;
use, and the relationship between
population and the resource base;
of industry, cities, and systems
in their current location; and
devised by societies to
economic problems

3. Thus, the Outcomes:
space
-being
may come about, and how
such processes affect your own daily life and professional
plans; and
that will be useful for courses in
geography, and in other branches of the social sciences as well.
The course is more than merely about an LACC requirement
I have excerpted the following from the National Geography
Standards in order to highlight the
importance of this course to be infinitely more than merely
fulfilling the LACC requirements:
The goal of the National Geography Standards is to produce a
geographically informed
person who sees meaning in the arrangement of things in space
and applies a spatial
perspective to life situations. The geographically informed
person knows and understands:
The World in Spatial Terms
1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools,
and technologies to

4. acquire, process, and report information from a spatial
perspective
2. How to use mental maps to organize information about
people, places, and environments
in a spatial context
3. How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places,
and environments on earth’s
surface
Places and Regions
4. The physical and human characteristics of places
5. That people create regions to interpret earth’s complexity
6. How culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of
places and regions
Physical Systems
7. The physical processes that shape the patterns of earth’s
surface
8. The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on
earth’s surface
Human Systems
9. The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human
populations on earth’s surface
10. The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of earth’s
cultural mosaics
11. The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on
earth’s surface
12. The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement
13. How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people
influence the division and
control of earth’s surface
Environment and Society

5. 14. How human actions modify the physical environment
15. How physical systems affect human systems
16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution,
and importance of resources
The Uses of Geography
17. How to apply geography to interpret the past
18. How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for
the future
Earning the letter-grade for this course
Learning will be constructed rather than received; i.e., I will not
lecture all the time. Instead, my
comments and explanations in the classroom, aided by web
pages and videos will be augmented
through your informed and thoughtful participation in the class.
By critically thinking through the
ideas, we will construct our knowledge of economic geography.
I expect you to attend all the
sessions and arrive on time. If conflicting commitments compel
you to skip a meeting, I expect you
to notify me in advance so that I can, if needed, appropriately
restructure the learning plan for that
meeting. When you attend the meetings, I expect you to be
actively engaged, which will also require
putting away all the electronic gadgets so that neither you nor
the rest of the learning community

6. will be distracted.
Thirty percent of the grade is for in-class and take home
assignments. A test, on the Thursday of
Week 6, will be worth thirty percent. A comprehensive final
exam will be worth the remaining forty
percent of the grade for this course.
Whenever the task requires you to write essays, you have to
word-process--double-spaced, spell-
checked, grammatically correct, and with reference sources
listed--and provide me with a print copy.
If your response is over multiple sheets, make sure you staple
them together. Submitting loose
sheets is not a professional behavior. Do not email the
assignment to me, unless you have prior
approval.
When putting together your thoughts in the essays—and,
definitely in the final paper—you should
make sure that you are clearly communicating your ideas and
with appropriate support. And, of
course, make sure that you do not commit flagrant grammatical
errors.
Instructor contact info

7. My email address is [email protected], and the phone number in
my office is 503-838-8852. The
hours that I will be in my office, HSS 219, to meet with
students:
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 1:00 to 3:30
If those hours will not work with your schedule, then give me a
few options and we can arrive at a
mutually convenient time to meet and talk.
https://twitter.com/congoboy/status/775435242005856256
mailto:[email protected]
Key ideas
Make sure you know what the following concepts mean, and
how you can apply them in the context
of the readings in the syllabus. Note that you need to be
familiar with all the readings.
However, when it comes to the final exam, we will be able to
relate many of the concepts even to
readings across different weeks too.
Population:
o Replacement fertility rate

8. aphic momentum
o The Malthusian Trap
overpopulation
Resources:
the
resources that we looked at
o The advantages and
disadvantages of using those
resources
growth/development and resources
Agriculture

9. sus commercial
economy
Economic sectors:
Primary, secondary, tertiary
Subsistence & commercial agriculture
o Role of distance and transport
costs
Manufacturing & Services
o Transporting raw materials
o Transporting the finished
product to the market
-in-time manufacturing
imate”
Spatial Interaction
intervening opportunities

10. interaction
o Distance decay
o Contagious diffusion
o Relocation diffusion
o Hierarchical diffusion
o Forced
o Voluntary
The learning schedule is as follows:
Week of September 26th
First, we will make sure to get to know each other, and I want
to make sure you have an idea
of what this course will be about.
We will watch this video in class and talk about economic
geography.
Work due: Prior to the meeting on Thursday:
1. I want you to read:
o I, Pencil: My family tree as told to Leonard E. Read

11. And
2. Come to Thursday’s class with a 500-word write-up on how
the “I, Pencil” essay relates
to economic geography, and whether you agree with Read’s
arguments that individuals
pursuing their selfish economic interests will work out to a
better world.
Weeks of October 3rd and October 10th
We will spend these two weeks understanding the geographic
distribution of human
population and its changes over time, and the importance of
population in economic
geography.
Learning materials:
-driven demographics
Work due before class starts on October 4th:
Based on the learning materials for this week, put together a
500-word response to this task:
What did you find to be the most interesting and important point
from the

12. materials? Why is it important for the class to understand it in
the context of
economic geography?
Work due before class starts on October 11th:
A special assignment that the instructor will discuss in class on
October 6th.
Towards the end of Week 3, if there is time, the instructor will
introduce concepts that are
relevant to the contents of the week that follows in the week of
October 17th.
http://aeon.co/video/society/who-makes-your-t-shirts-how-the-
garment-industry-works/
http://www.fee.org/files/doclib/20121114_IPencilUpdatedCover
2012.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/
16/the-amazing-surprising-africa-driven-demographic-future-of-
the-earth-in-9-charts/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/03/home_cooked
_family_dinners_a_major_burden_for_working_mothers.html
http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/08/the-historic-reversal-of-
populations/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/europe/italy-births-
fertility-europe.html?_r=1
Week of October 17th
The focus this week will be the geographic patterns in the
economic geography as it pertains to the
primary sector. In doing so, we will mostly look at agriculture.

13. Learning materials:
Work due before class starts on October 18th:
With appropriate references to the materials this week and the
earlier weeks, draw
your conclusions on whether there will be enough food for all
the human population
in 2050.
Week of October 24th
We use the term “resources” a lot, right? What is a resource?
It turns out that anything that is
naturally out there is a resource. Yep. Anything. But, of
course, it all depends on whether we know
how to make use of them. The story of economic progress has
also been a story of how we use
various kinds of resources, which is what we will focus on this
week.
We will try to understand some of the geographic aspects of

14. resources, by focusing quite a bit on
energy; after all, we can’t have economic activities without
energy.
Learning materials:
ticle 1 and article 2
Work due before class starts on October 25th:
With appropriate references to the materials this week, put
together your
understanding of the most important energy-related issue as you
see it.
Week of October 31st
We will use Tuesday to catch-up, and get ready for the midterm
exam.
Work due before class starts on October 25th: A special
assignment that the instructor would
have previously discussed in class.
https://reason.com/archives/2016/09/06/advances-in-agriculture-
in-the-us-and-ar
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/13/agricult
ure-farming-food-addiction-meat-harvest-hungry-world
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/roads/2015/02/

15. colombia_s_flower_industry_on_farms_outside_bogota_valentin
e_s_day_is_less.html
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ng-live/151027-
harper-technology-food-lecture-nglive
http://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Powering-the-Fight-Against-
Poverty
http://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Two-Videos-Illuminate-
Energy-Poverty-Bjorn-Lomborg
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/most-electricity-in-u-s-still-
comes-from-coal-where-does-your-state-stand-1705/
https://reason.com/blog/2015/01/12/oil-prices-never-again-over-
100
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/30/alaska-governor-unless-oil-
hits-110-we-need-a-tax-hike.html
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/30/truth-
behind-costa-rica-renewable-energy-reservoirs-climate-change
Thursday: Midterm exam
Week of November 7th
In the story of economic progress, once agriculture became
productive, secondary economic
activities began, and then soon enough economies of countries
came to be dominated by the tertiary
(service) sector. This week, we will look at some of the
geographic aspects of manufacturing and
services.
Learning Materials:

16. Work due before class starts on November 8th:
Will leave it as an open topic. Focus on any one idea in the
learning materials that
appealed to you the most. What are the implications of that
idea, and why is it
important for the class to discuss them?
Week of November 14th
Note that we will not meet on Thursday, the 17th, because the
instructor will
be traveling to a professional meeting in Washington, DC.
Whether it is moving bananas from one geographic area to
another, or people moving from India to
the US, or the trucks on the road, there is a great deal of spatial
interaction that we want to
understand.
Learning materials:
the stories here

17. Work due before class starts on November 15th:
What is your biggest takeaway from the two materials on the
displaced people, and
internal migration in the US? Why is it important for the class
to discuss it?
http://www.psmag.com/magazines/march-april-2013/hotellings-
law-averageness-53350/
http://www.citylab.com/tech/2016/02/food-trucks-location-
geography-economy/460308/
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/16/naraffar-sweden-
unmanned-grocery-store_n_9480270.html
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/09/made
-in-germany-eu-labelling-regulations.html
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/amazon-reveals-robots-heart-
epic-cyber-monday-operation/
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/transport/2012/08/pallets
_the_single_most_important_object_in_the_global_economy_.si
ngle.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/syrian-refugees/story/refuge/
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2014/04/2-very-
different-migrations-driving-growth-us-cities/8873/
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/the-economic-impact-of-
autonomous-vehicles/?mbid=synd_slate
Week of November 21st (Thanksgiving week)
Another short week because we won’t meet on Thursday.

18. Economic activities have impacts on the environment. Even the
"green" activities have
environmental impacts. This week, we will spend some time
looking at this relationship between
economics and the natural environment.
Learning materials:
th is good
Work due before class starts on November 15th:
Based on the learning materials this week and throughout the
term, put forward your
argument on whether we can have economic prosperity and a
clean environment at
the same time, and well into the future.
Week of November 28th (Dead Week)
In my approach to teaching and learning, the final week of
classes is about wrapping up the
discussions--a mirror image of how the term began with
introductions. A course over a term is
similar to how we write papers or do presentations:
introduction, the main body, and conclusions.
There will be activity, yes. Details on these as the term
progresses.

19. Week of December 5th
Final exam on December 8th
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/14
/having-kids-is-terrible-for-the-environment-so-im-not-having-
any/?utm_content=buffera775c&utm_medium=social&utm_sour
ce=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2016/03/poop_and_ba
cillus_subtilis_may_create_a_major_new_biofuel_video.html
http://robertreich.org/post/968048444/why-growth-is-good
Choose the defense mechanism that best fits the explanation
(repression, reaction formation, regression, displacement,
sublimation, denial, rationalization, or compensation).
1) Sally is 18 years old and unexpectedly pregnant. She had big
plans to go to college, but now tells everyone how much she is
looking forward to being a mother.
2) Juan recently broke up with his fiance. Now he is telling all
of his friends that he was bored with the relationship.
3) Frankie is always trying to keep up with his older brother
when playing sports, but he can't. He takes great delight in
bringing home a good report card instead.
4) LaVonne was broken hearted when her dream date stood her
up for the prom. Now, one year later, she is having trouble
remembering what his last name was.
5) Ali is six years old. After the new baby arrives, he becomes
jealous and clings to his parents for attention.
6) Tess hates her new boss. One night, her racquetball partner
notices that Tess' game has become much more competitive
lately. She also notices that she is hitting the ball much harder
than she used to.
7) Sarah's children know that whenever Sarah has a fight with
her husband, the kids get assigned more chores.

20. 8) Morgan just lost a promotion at work and now wonders
whether he will be able to advance in the company at all. He
starts going to bars and drinking with his friends more often
than he used to. He tells people that he has decided that there is
more to life than just money.
9) Jeremy was caught by his mother trying to peek into the girls'
locker room. Now that Jeremy has grown up, he has become
active in anti-pornography political activities.