homework

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 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 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

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 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.

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:

 Birth and death rates

 Fertility rate o Replacement fertility rate

 Global trends in all these rates

 Population pyramid

 Demographic transition

 Demographic momentum

 Malthus’s argument o The Malthusian Trap

 Population density and overpopulation

 Carrying capacity

 Population projections and prospects Resources:

 Resource  Reserve  Projected reserves  Geographic distribution of the

resources that we looked at o The advantages and

disadvantages of using those resources

 The relationship between economic growth/development and resources

 Resource management  Sustainable development

Agriculture

 Subsistence versus commercial economy Economic sectors: Primary, secondary, tertiary

 Extensive versus intensive agriculture Subsistence & commercial agriculture

 Von Thunen’s observations

o Role of distance and transport costs

 Maximum sustainable yield Manufacturing & Services

 The role of transport cost o Transporting raw materials o Transporting the finished

product to the market  Just-in-time manufacturing  The spatial margin of profitability  Outsourcing and offshoring  “Business climate”  The role of technology  Hotelling's Law

Spatial Interaction

 Complementarity, transferability, and intervening opportunities

 Factors affecting mobility  The role of distance in spatial

interaction o Distance decay

 Diffusion o Contagious diffusion o Relocation diffusion o Hierarchical diffusion

 Types of migration o Forced o Voluntary

 Push versus pull

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

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:

 Africa-driven demographics  The economic case for having just one child  The historic reversal of populations  Italy’s ‘fertility day’

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 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.

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.

Learning materials:

 Advances in agriculture

 Feeding nine billion humans in 2050

 From Colombia with love

 Growing food in the future

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 resources, by focusing quite a bit on

energy; after all, we can’t have economic activities without energy.

Learning materials:

 Energy and poverty: article 1 and article 2  Electricity in the US  Oil prices: article 1 and article/video 2  Green Costa Rica

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.

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:

 The law of averageness  Food truck locations  24x7 shopping  What does "Made in" label mean anymore  Humans need not apply?

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 single most important object in the global economy  Nearly 60 million displaced people in the world; read any of the stories here  Migration and US cities  Fewer cars in the future?

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?

Week of November 21st (Thanksgiving week)

Another short week because we won’t meet on Thursday.

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:

 No kids = good environment?  Poop to clean energy  Why growth 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.

Week of December 5th

Final exam on December 8th