ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
SPRING 2011
FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS

Directions: Students must create outlines for all 6 questions (or lose 20 points).  Outlines should consist of 2-3 word phrases to trigger your memory, full sentences are not allowed.  Each essay should refer to videos, articles, and maps to be geographical.

 

1.       Describe and demonstrate Weber's Industrial Location Theory.  How does Weber's theory help to explain the global locations of agriculture, manufacturing and service activities?  Be sure to give one specific case study for each type of economic activity to demonstrate the dominant pulls affecting these patterns.  Should countries maintain employment in all sectors?  If so, how should the United States attempt to retain agricultural, manufacturing and back office jobs?

 

2.        How does transport effect economic development?  Describe and demonstrate how the mode of transport affects agriculture, industrial location, and urbanization on a national and global basis. Be sure to define the focus Von Thunen, Weber, and Christaller place upon the role of transport.  What can governments do to stimulate greater personal mobility and market demand?

 

3.       Why is the city important to economic development?  Identify the dominant urban hierarchy in the United States (page 328). Describe how the city may affect patterns of agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and market location.  Be sure to refer to theories and maps which explain these patterns.  If the city is central to economic development, why does inner-city decay and suburbanization occur?

 

4.        Describe and demonstrate the process of suburbanization in the United States. Be sure to examine how changes in transportation affect the urban form of American cities.  How has freeway development affected market areas, central business districts, and personal mobility? Can Transport Oriented Development and Smart Cities reduce the harmful effects of suburbanization?

 

5.       What is a core-periphery relationship?  Describe how this model can be used to demonstrate the differences which exist in economic activities, urbanization, and levels of development on a national and global basis.  Based on this information, what projects would you propose to stimulate economic development in rural or peripheral communities?  What projects would you not allow?  Why?

 

6.       What is the global division of labor?  Describe and demonstrate the dominant economic activities found on a global basis and explain how these activities determine the classification of the world economy into first, second, third and fourth world societies.    What causes the gap between wealthy and poor countries?  Be sure to give examples of social and economic indicators found in both types of societies. Will theories, such as modernization, dependency or world systems theory, offer attainable goals for less developed countries?