The chapter discusses the uneven nature of economic development globally. It begins by defining economic development and explaining different theories for why some regions are more developed than others. The key aspects covered include the structure of economies, international trade, development models, and pathways to regional development. Globalization has meant that local and regional economic development is more influenced by external forces. Overall, the chapter examines the patterns and processes of economic development worldwide and how this development is spatially uneven across different regions.

1. Human Geography: Places
and Regions in Global
Context, 5e
Chapter 7: The Geography of Economic
Development
Paul L. Knox & Sallie A. Marston
PowerPoint Author: Keith M. Bell

2. Overview
Economic development is a global concern affecting every region on Earth. The
key aspect of economic development worldwide is its unevenness. Some
countries are highly developed—in the sense of having greater economic
prosperity, low unemployment, a high level of health and well-being, and so on—
while others languish. What causes these differences, and why do some regions
experience difficulties in becoming more developed? These are the basic
questions asked by development scholars.
This chapter begins by discussing what economic development means. Western
economists and development scholars usually define development as a high
level of economic prosperity, a high level of advanced technology in use, and a
high level of productivity, along with high levels of health and well-being.
Different explanations have been proposed as to how countries and regions are
able to obtain these goals. After explaining the basic principles of economic
location—why economic activities take place where they do—this chapter
elaborates on each region’s participation in the world-system or global economy.

3. Chapter Objectives
• The objectives of this chapter are to:
• Examine the unevenness of economic development in
various parts of the world
• Investigate the economic structure of countries and
regions, and explore the various stages of economic
development
• Survey principles of commercial and industrial location
and how they affect economic interdependence
• Examine core-periphery patterns and how they are
created
• Explore the pleasure periphery

4. Chapter Outline
• Patterns of Economic Development (p. 250)
– Economic development is uneven
– The role of resources in development
– Economic structure and the division of labor
– International trade, aid, and debt
– Development theories and models
• Pathways to Development (p. 271)
– How regional economic cores are created
– How core-periphery patterns are modified
• Globalization and Economic Development (p. 276)
– Foreign direct investment
– Transnational corporations
– Offshore financial centers
– Tourism and economic development
• Conclusion (p. 293)

5. Geography Matters
• 7.1 Window on the World—China’s Economic
Development (p. 262)
– The rise of China as an economic power
• 7.2 Geography Matters—Fair Trade (p. 268)
– The Fair Trade movement, which aims to build more equitable
relationships between producers and consumers and to alleviate
poverty
• 7.3 Geography Matters—Changing Geography of the
Clothing Industry (p. 280)
– The global nature of the garment industry
• 7.4 Geography Matters—Wal-Mart’s Economic
Landscape (p. 286)
– The growth of the retail giant Wal-Mart and its local and global
impact

6. The Geography of Economic Development
Geographically, the single most important
feature of economic development is that it is
highly uneven.
Geographical divisions of labor have evolved
with the growth of the world-system of trade
and politics.
Regional cores of economic development are
created cumulatively through the operation of
several basic principles of spatial
organization.
Spirals of economic development can be
arrested in various ways which follow major
shifts in technology systems and
international geopolitics.
The globalization of the economy has meant
that patterns and processes of local and
regional economic development are much
more open to external influences than
before.

7. Patterns of Economic Development
• The term economic development refers to
processes of change involving the nature and
composition of the economy of a particular
region, as well as to increases in the overall
prosperity of a region.
• These processes can involve three types of
changes:
– Structure of the region’s economy
– Forms of economic organization within the region
– Availability and use of technology within the region

8. Gross National Income (GNI)
per capita
Most of the highest levels of economic development are to be found in northern
latitudes, which has given rise to a division between “North” (the core) and
“South” (the periphery).

9. Persistent Poverty—Child Labor
Haiti: handed into
servitude India: making fireworks
Globally, an estimated 114 million children of primary school age are not
enrolled in school, depriving one in five children of an education. They become
exposed to exploitation and abuse, trapped in a cycle of poverty.

10. Long-term Trends in Per
Capita GNI
• This graphs shows the
steady divergence in
international economic
prosperity between the
richest and poorest of
the world’s population.
– 1960: the richest 20
percent of the world’s
population accounted for
over 70 percent of global
income, a ratio of 30 to 1
– 1980: the ratio had
increased to 45 to 1
– 2000: the ratio was 72 to
1

11. UNDP Human Development
Index
• The UNDP HDI is based
on measures of life
expectancy, educational
attainment, and personal
income.
• A perfect score is 1.0,
and most of the affluent
core countries have index
scores of 0.9 or more.
• The worst scores—those
less than 0.4—are
concentrated in Africa.

12. An Index of Human
Development, 2005
Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the best way to compare economies across the globe
because it calculates what the local currency can purchase, a “market basket” of goods.

13. Human Development in the
United States
Comparing congressional districts across the United States shows that even within
countries that have a high level of income per capita, there are wide variations from
place to place.

14. Agriculture—Women in
Development
• Much more than half of Earth’s
land surface is unsuitable for
any productive form of arable
farming.
• Cultivable land isn’t the same
quality and it may be quite
easy to exceed the carrying
capacity of these marginal
lands.
• In peripheral countries, women
constitute the majority of
workers in the formal sector.
• In these countries, women
earn 40–50 percent less than
men for the same work, but it
is women who hold societies
and families together.

15. Resources and Development
• Most of the world’s core
economies are reasonably
well off in terms of energy
production, with the
exception being Japan and
parts of Europe.
• It is generally agreed that
peak oil discovery was
passed in the 1960s.
• Few peripheral countries can
afford to consume energy on
the scale of the developed
economies, so patterns of
commercial energy
consumption tend to mirror
the fundamental core–
periphery cleavage of the
world economy.

16. Economic • Primary activities are those
concerned directly with natural
Structure resources of any kind.
– Agriculture, mining, fishing, etc.
• Secondary activities are those
that process, transform,
fabricate, or assemble the raw
materials from the primary
sector.
– Steelmaking, food processing,
textiles
• Tertiary activities involve the
sale and exchange of personal
services.
– Warehousing, retail stores,
accounting
• Quaternary activities deal with
the handling and processing of
knowledge and information.
– Education, research and
development, data processing

17. Emerging Growth Zones
The growth of manufacturing in Pacific Asia
has generated agglomerations of economic
activity at a scale that sometimes crosses
national boundaries, as with the Southern
China–Hong Kong–Taiwan triangle and the
Singapore–Batam–Johor triangle.

18. China’s Economic Development
New affluence Real estate boom
Deng Xiaoping established a program of “Four Modernizations” (industry, agriculture,
science, and defense) and an “open-door policy” that allowed China to be plugged in to
the intermediate circuits of the global economy.

19. International Trade, Aid, and Debt
• The fundamental structure of
international trade is based on a
few trading blocs—groups of
countries with formalized systems
of trading agreements—with most
of the world’s trade taking place
within four trading blocs:
– Western Europe, together with
some former European colonies in
Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean,
and Australiasia
– North America, together with
some Latin American states
– The countries of the former Soviet
world-empire
– Japan, together with other East
Asian states and the oil-exporting
states of Saudi Arabia and
Bahrain

20. Patterns of Aid & Fair Trade
For many countries, the only alternative to crippling debt, short of opting for self-
sufficiency or opting out of the capitalist world economy altogether, is to raise the
capital as loans.

21. Fair Trade
• The Fair Trade movement is a
global network focused on
building equitable trading
relationships between
consumers and the world’s most
economically disadvantaged
artisans and farmers. The key
principles include:
– Creating opportunities for
economically disadvantaged
producers
– Capacity building
– Ensuring that women’s work
is properly valued and
rewarded
– Ensuring a safe and healthy
working environment for
producers
– Payment of a fair price for
goods that is socially just and
environmentally sound

22. Stages for
Economic
Development
Rostow’s model, now regarded as overly simplistic, perpetuates the myth of
“developmentalism,” the idea that every country and region will eventually make economic
progress toward “high mass consumption” provided that they compete to the best of their
ability within the world economy.

23. Pathways to Regional Development
• Geographers are interested in
geographical path dependence,
the relationship between present-
day activities in a place and the
past experiences of that place.
• Initial advantage highlights the
importance of an early start in
economic development.
• New phases of economic
development will take hold first in
settings that offer external
economies.
• The initial advantages will be
consolidated by localization
economies, those being clustered
industries.

24. Regional Economic Decline
This derelict steel mill in New Jersey
is testament to the downward
economic spiral in what was once one
of the world’s most important heavy
manufacturing regions.

25. The Global Assembly Line
Transnational corporations are companies that participate no only in international trade
but also in production, manufacturing, and/or sales operations in several countries.

26. Flexible Production Systems
In neo-Fordism the logic of mass production coupled with mass consumption has been
modified by the addition of more flexible production, distribution, and marketing systems.

27. Principal Maquiladora Centers
< Hyundai factory, Tijuana, Mexico

28. Wal-Mart’s Economic
Landscape
• Wal-Mart’s emphasis was on a
business model that rests on high-
volume turnover through low
prices.
• The company’s rapid expansion
and tremendous profitability
“allowed it to become a market
power unequalled by any of its
large competitors.”
• “Far from being simply a store,
Wal-Mart is also a moral universe
external to the community.”
• Its greatest global impact is
through its supply chain, and 50–
60 percent of imports come from
China.

29. Electronic Offices, Decentralization, and
Outsourcing
Samsung: Cikarang, ITC Limited: Bangalore,
Indonesia India
Global outsourcing expenditures are expected
to grow significantly as large transnational
companies take advantage of low wages in
non-core countries.

30. Ecotourism
Alternative tourism emphasizes self-determination, authenticity, social
harmony, preservation of the existing environment, small-scale development,
and greater use of local techniques, materials, and architectural styles.

31. End of Chapter 7

32. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Consider your own state or region. Is the level
of economic development even or uneven
throughout the state or region? What are some
examples of the unevenness of economic
development? Why does this unevenness
exist?
– Data on regional development can be obtained from
state or local agencies. Some states may even have
regional planning or development authorities
charged with improving economic conditions in
underdeveloped parts of the state. Core-periphery
theories may also be useful at the regional level for
explaining uneven regional development.

33. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Uneven economic development is a characteristic of the world-
system. Consider two countries, for example, Switzerland and
Bolivia. Both are landlocked countries with no access to the sea.
Switzerland has few natural resources, while Bolivia has many.
Yet Switzerland is a prosperous, developed, core country, while
Bolivia is economically weak, underdeveloped, and part of the
periphery. Why do these differences exist?
– World-systems theory argues that it is the relationship between states
that helps establish their place in the core-semiperiphery-periphery
hierarchy. Much of the difference derives from the effectiveness of a
state in insuring the international competitiveness of its products.
Switzerland, for example, produces high-value goods—such as
watches—and important services—such as banking—while Bolivia
relies on low-value exports that are not processed locally—such
things as tin ore and fruit.

34. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• The status of women in a society is closely linked with the level of
economic development in that society: the higher the level of
economic development, the higher the status of women, and vice
versa. What might be responsible for this connection? Discuss
some efforts of women in less-developed societies to improve
their position. What can women do to improve their position in
less-developed societies?
– Reasons for the lower status of women include discrimination and
denial of access to resources and wage-employment. Increased
development allows more women to enter the labor force by providing
employment opportunities, increased access to affordable child care,
and increased political recognition of women’s rights. There are
numerous websites devoted to women and development—one of the
most interesting is the Women in Development Network (WIDNET) at
http://www.focusintl.com/widnet.htm.

35. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Discuss the “Stages of Growth” model of economic
development as developed by Walt Rostow in his book
The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist
Manifesto. Has this model successfully explained
changes in economic development? What policies
might be based on this model? Given the discussion of
Postmodernity in Chapter 6 of the textbook, might
there be a sixth stage in this model?
– Rostow’s “modernization” model has been much debated and
critiqued and there is plenty of available academic literature
about it. The “dependency” school of development emerged
largely as a response to Rostow’s model. See page 270 in the
textbook for a brief elaboration of the model. A sixth,
Postmodern, stage might be distinguished by mass
consumption of images (e.g., entertainment, tourism, and
fashion) rather than material goods.

36. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• What are the principal economic
activities in the local area? Are they
mainly primary, secondary, tertiary, or
quaternary, or some combination of the
above? Why did these activities develop
in this particular area?
– Data on local economic activity can often be
obtained from the local Chamber of
Commerce and from municipal and county
agencies.

37. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• What is meant by the term “global assembly line”? Is
the local community linked to this assembly line? If so,
how? How does this linkage affect the future of
economic development in the local area?
– “Global assembly line” refers to a network of labor and
production processes that produce a finished global product
for a global market. Different components or stages of
production are manufactured or outsourced in several different
countries, taking advantage of labor costs and other kinds of
savings. The local Chamber of Commerce, business council,
or public relations office of locally-based industry may be able
to provide information about the global activities of local
businesses. The Geography Matters 7.3 boxed text on pages
280–281 also illustrates a global assembly line.

38. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• What are some of the positive and negative
features of tourism as an economic
development strategy? Is there evidence of
both positive and negative impacts on the local
community?
– Tourism can provide jobs and inject new money into
a local economy, and it is a relatively “clean” or non-
polluting industry. On the other hand, tourism can
lead to dependency, many tourism jobs are low
paid, and tourists can disrupt the social and cultural
values of communities. There is a large literature on
tourism impacts and, in addition to books, many
articles can be found in such journals as the Annals
of Tourism Research and Tourism Management.

39. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Sustainable development is a popular though
controversial issue. How can sustainable development
be defined and applied in a practical sense?
– There is a vast literature on sustainable development but
hardly any clear definitions. The following readings might
provide a starting point: D. Pearce, E. Barbier, and A.
Markandya, Sustainable Development: Economics and
Environment in the Third World (Aldershot, England: Edward
Elgar, 1990); Michael Redclift, Sustainable Development:
Exploring the Contradictions (London: Routledge, 1987);
Thomas Wilbanks, “Sustainable Development in Geographic
Perspective,” Annals of the Association of American
Geographers 84, pp. 541–556, 1994; and World Commission
on Environment and Development, Our Common Future
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).

40. Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• To which countries does the United
States donate aid, and why?
– See the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) website
at http://www.usaid.gov for further
information. Much foreign aid is tied to
political issues.