Chapter 10 notes

Timbuktu: at first very wealthy, then trade patterns shifted, lost position: WHERE A
PLACE IS LOCATED IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN COMMODITIES FOUND IN THAT PLACE
Commodity chain: each link along the chain adds certain value to the
commodity, producing different levels of wealth for the place and the people
where production occur
(production and distribution of certain products affecting different places and
affecting world market)

#1 HOW IS DEVELOPLEMT DEFINED AND MEASURED?

-different markets around the world produce differently. Japan can use super technologies
whiles papua new guinea still manually plows the land
***wealth does not depend on what is produced, but on HOW ANS WHERE IT IS
PRODUCED
developing: progress is being made in technology and socioeconomic well
being
-idea of develop tied to Indus. Rev: tech improves lives, BUT NOT ALL THAT MAKES
PEOPLE HAPPy
A) Gross National Income: measure of total value of produced goods by citizens and
corporations in a country in a given year (includes what is made in and out of US,
broader than GDP , gross domestic product (value of stuff WITHIN COUNTRY)
GNI gross national income, GNI: monetary worth of what is produced within a
country
-ways of measuring development: eco welfare, tech and production, and social welfare
per capita GNI: common way to standardize GNI data by dividing it by the
population of the country
-per capita has shortcomings: only says formal eco: legal eco that gov tax and
monitor NOT informal eco: stuff gov does not tax/monitor from garden plot in
backyard to illegal drug trade
*even with wealthy countries with high per capita GNI like United Arab Emirates have
very uneven distribution of wealth and so it masks overall participation of all citizens
-dependency ratio: a measure of the number of dependent, young and old that each 100
employed people must support.
*other factors must be considered: literacy rates, infant mortality rates, life expectancy,
family income on food , etc.
-develop models: are critizied b/c countries do not just improve one way or improve the
same way. Not all Asian countries will improve like Japan from rural to urbanized. An
increase of tourism some countries use to improve themselves might cause further social
eco damage.
*modernization model: Walt Rostow assumes that all countries follow similar path to
development or modernization. (5 stages) ladder of development
1. traditional: farming, rigid, slow tech.
2. preconditions of takeoff: more flexible, openness, diverse
3. takeoff: like industrial rev, sustained growth, urbanization increases, tech increase
4. drive to maturity: tech diffuses, international trade expands
5. **high mass consumption: high incomes, diffusion of goods and services
problem with model: provides no larger context to develop, misses other factors: cultural
and political differences

#2. HOW DOES GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION AFFECT DEVELOPMENT?

-develop happens in context: reflects what is happening in a place as a result of
forces operating at once at different scales

GLOBAL SCALE: colonialism, made countries dependent on colonizers, ppl still

experiencing neo-colonialism: where major world powers continue to control the eco of
the poor countries even if they are now independent
Structuralist theory: holds disparate differences btw countries due to historically derived
power relations
A) Dependency theory: political and eco of wealthy countries and regions control eco
developmental possibilities of poor areas (eco prosperity hard for countries that have
been colonized)
-EX) dollarization: poor countries tying currency to wealthy county or adapting it as its
own (El Salvadors colon given up for US $)
B) Geography and Context
World systems theory: Immanuel Wallerstein (division of core, periphery, and
semi periphery) helps explain the interconnections btw places in the global economy
Core: generate wealth, require higher levels of education, more tech, higher wages,
benefits
Periphery: little edu, low tech, low wages/benefits, dependent on the core, cannot
control own affairs
Semi periphery: both core and periphery, countries exert more power than peripheral
but are still heavily influenced by core countries
-Geographer Peter Taylor: analogy of tadpoles, survival of the fittest: different places of
the world as tadpoles, not all can survive to turn into toads, some dominate, others
perish
-world systems theory can also be used at local/state scale:EX Los Angeles is the core of
Southern CA

#3: WHAT ARE THE BARRIER TO AND THE COSTS OF ECO DEVELOP?

-help improve condition of poor countries through organizations and programs

-by measuring human develop, org figure out how to break barriers and improve human
condition
EX: United Nations Human Develop Index: long, healthy life, knowledge and decent
standard of living
-Millennium Developmental Goals: their goals to increase edu, end poverty, hunger,
more health, combat AIDS, diseases etc (to be reached by 2015, NOT HAPPENIGN)
A) BARRIERS TO ECO DEVELOPMENT
-conditions within the periphery (high pop rates, foreign debt, corrupt leadership,
political instability) hamper development
Social Conditions: in poor states, high birth rates ,but low life expectancies at birth,
half of pop less than 15 yrs olf, low # of adults, lack of acess to edu, lack of edu for girls
Trafficking: when adults and children fleeing poverty trapped and manipulated in
working in conditions that they would not choose, not considered slavery (sent to
wealthier countries to work as street vendors, servants,)
Foreign Debt: common in periphery and semi-periphery,
-after decolonization wave of the 1960s. banks and international financial inst. Sent
large sums of $ to newly independent states with strings attached to secure loans:
countries had to agree to implement eco or gov reforms: structural adjustment loans:
opening country to foreign trade, reducing tariffs, foreign direct investment etc
-countries end up spending large part of budget of repayment, unable to use it for other
develop projects
-loans/refinancing programs part of NEOLIBERALISM: idea that gov intervention
into markets is inefficient and bad, transfer of eco control from states to
private sector, led to expansion of corporate control,a states not having
control over economy

Ex) reason for Argentinas drop in eco, overreliance on private/corporate sector, weak
exports, Venezuela helped with reconstructing plan, country rose back with rise of
corn/soy prices
Disease: high rates of disease, low healthcare vectored diseases: transmitted
through host
-high AIDS in Subsaharan Africa
-malaria: (silent tsunami in periphery) infectious disease spread by mosquitoes that carry
parasite in saliva, get fevers, anemia, enlarged spleen. DOESNT OCCUR IN HIGHER
LATITUDES AND DRY ENVIRON.
(China, India, Asia, tropical Americas affected)
-1940s: Sri Lanka launched massive attack on mosquito with pesticide DDT rates of
deaths decreased ! but led to other diseases such as cancer, and rise in pop growth rate
(population explosion)
-now genetic interference with mosquitoes to make them nonvirulent
Political Corruption and Instability: no gov that can control low income state, WIDE
GAP BTW RICH &POOR
-B/C colonizers left countries with a hierarchal form of gov, many poorer countries
struggle btw democracy and a military gov (PERU), corrupt politicians
Ex: Zimbabwe: has president and prime minister after political instability almost
starving in 2002, shows that corrupt leaders can stay in power for a long time, for ppl are
too scared to confront them

B) COSTS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENt

Industrialization:
-in effort to attract new industries, periph/semiperiph have set up export processing
zones (EPZS): offer good tax, regulatory and trade arrangements to foreign firms
EX) Mexican maquiladoras, places where goods produced and sent back to US free of
tariffs (across US border) and special economic zones of China (near major
ports)
-1992 NAFTA : manuf. Plants & make it easy to transport US/Canada/MX, relations btw
MX and US not good due to illegal immigrant fiasco
Agriculture: in poor states, focused on personal consumption and production for large
foreign corporation, little goes to local marketplaces
-even large acres of land hard to manage with bad tools, land fragmented btw ppl, soil
erosion
desertification: humans destroying vegetation and eroding soils through overuse of
lands for livestock/crop production EX: AFRICA!
Tourism: peripheral islands in the Caribbean=summer destination for tourists
-tourism: major industries in the world, surpassing oil in overall eco value, it brings
wealth/jobs BUT also has negative impacts: host country needs to invest, build new
hotels, attractions, etc, invades local culture

4. how do political and eco institution influence uneven develop

within states?
-poverty not confined to periphery, peoples eco lives do not improve even when
countrys eco grows
-actions of gov influence how and where wealth is produced b/c distribution affected by
tariffs, taxes, regulations, etc

Ex) New Orleans was affected by the natural disaster, but also because it the result of
gov to build levies and settle flood prone areas
-gov policies favors some regions over others, creating uneven development EX: QUOTA
LAWS CAN AFFECT WHETHER AND HOW REGIONS CAN PRODUCE AND ECHANGE
GOODS ON WORLD MARKET
ISLANDS OF DEVELOPMENT -the capital city: where both core and periphery prioritize
creation of wealth, a concentration EU colonizers did so: Paris, London, Amsterstam
-some new states have moved capital city to highlight diversiy and separate themselves
from colonizers Brazil moved capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia to direct attanetion to
poor central population.
Creating growth in the periphery of the periphery
-greatest challenges: creating development opportunities outside of island of develop
-nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) : try to help people, esp in most poor, rural
areas, not run by state/local gov, non profit
-some countries have so many NGOS that they operate as a parallel state , financed by
foreigners and accountable to nobody Ex) Bangladesh
-microcredit program: NGO program (successful in South American and South Asia)
that gives loans to poor ppl to encourage development of small businesses (mostly
women), can alter geneder balance in region, and give more fiscal power to women, can
lower mens status of power, lower birth rates
not so successful with places with mortality rates from diseases like AIDS