A. WHAT IS ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY?

Many of you have little experience with the subject of geography.  This is typical for most Americans, but not so typical for students in most other countries. Having completed my graduate degrees in London, I am aware of how much geography most Europeans have had. Similarly, many of my students from Russia, Iraq, Japan, Colombia, and many Southeast Asian countries have had extensive physical or vocational geography prior to college. I am not saying this to intimidate you regarding our lack of geography in the U.S., rather to give you a full perspective of other cultures, and insight to areas with which you may have difficulty at first.

To introduce you to the discipline, geography can be defined as the study of spatial relationships. I have always liked this definition because it is very broad, but it also focuses upon space (spatial) and encourages the examination of how we look at space or places. Most of you are quite familiar with the study of history or how people, places, or things change over time and could easily write your own personal history. But, would you feel comfortable giving me a description of your daily geography?

Geography has many definitions and many sub disciplines. There is physical geography which looks at earth processes and how humans interact with the environment. And another lower division geography course is cultural or human geography which examines religion, language, dietary preferences as well as many other cultural traits found across the globe.

Economic geography uniquely combines the fields of economics and geography. If you recall from high school or an introductory economics course, economics examines production, consumption and distribution.  Economics attempts to explain what is produced, who consumes it, and how it is distributed. In modern economics, we put faith in capitalism and the laws of supply and demand that this economic structure (the market system) best distributes what is produced.

Economic geography takes these issues of; production, consumption and distribution and adds a locational component to them. Economic geographers try to understand where production occurs, where consumption occurs, and what linkages (rail, roads, shipping, email) are needed to distribute that production. This course is a good example of economic geography.

I am the producer, creating a service you demand. You are the consumers, paying for my services, and thanks to modern technology, the location of where this consumption occurs is on the internet. This means that the location of teaching Geog 5 is no longer static, or confined to one location. But, due to new linkages, I can teach from Turlock (production) and you can consume from anywhere in the world. I have had students from London, Minnesota, and Palo Alto.

So a key area of research for economic geographers in the twentieth century has been the globalization of production. Areas such as Mexico, Guatemala, Singapore, and Indonesia have become places of industrial production. Geographers want to know why, how this affects consumption and the distribution of such production, and whether this relocation stimulates economic development in these areas. We also want to know what impact this relocation may have upon industrial jobs in developed societies, such as the U.S. How do we as Americans need to educate our youth to guarantee that they can compete in a global workplace? These are some of the issues we will address in this course.

1. APPROACH OF TEXT - As you will see through reading chapter one, De Sousa and Stutz focus upon global patterns of production, consumption and distribution. If you examine the map on page 9, GNP per capita, you will see that there is a large gap between more advanced countries such as the United States and less developed countries such as Ethiopia.  Why does such a gap exist? This is a key focal point for the authors. Be sure you carefully read pages 18-22 to see some of the areas of debate surrounding this issue. Some geographers take a human-environmental approach and explain this gap according to resources located in the natural environment (oil, coal, iron, copper), while other geographers examine the cultural, political, or historical factors of the specific society in describing the areal differences (uniqueness) which accounts for a country's level of development. A third approach, is to look at models or structures of the global economy and examine the relationships which may exist between advanced and less developed countries. This brings up the question of "for whom is it produced"? For example, if you compare the GNP per capita map with table 1.3 on page 10 (petro supply), you will see that countries which are major petro producers do not have the highest GNP per capita. There are many theories and debates which arise to explain this discrepancy and they will be discussed throughout the lectures.

2. APPROACH FOR STUDENTS (MY EXPECTATIONS) Due to the fact that De Sousa and Stutz explain all arguments; classical, liberal and radical, for each topic they discuss, I like to have students examine each argument. The most significant elements which you should learn in each chapter are the geographical processes, such as population growth and migration (ch 3), resources and how they are consumed (ch 4). Yet, beyond the basic processes of production, consumption and distribution, please try to comprehend all three perspectives regarding the distribution of such processes. Do not simply read the one with which you most agree, but take the time to understand the basis for each perspective. This will allow you to support and justify your own perspective in a much more thorough manner.

3. METHODOLOGY OF GEOGRAPHY

Two key questions that geographers ask are:

1) Where is it?

2) Why is it there?

These two questions breakdown geographical analysis to a very clear and workable level.

Next, add the use of maps to locate geographical patterns and you're on your way to becoming a solid geographer. Maps are the most significant tools used by geographers.

Geographers use maps to

a) locate phenomena,

b) demonstrate relationships

c) validate their ideas

d) ask questions.

We will use maps in these ways as we go through the course. Lecture two will take you through a tutorial regarding how to read maps and use them to prove your ideas.

4. APPROACH TO ONLINE COURSE
a. Focus upon the text - be sure that you read all chapters and understand the broad processes which each chapter discusses. My lectures will elaborate upon these processes and will reiterate areas which you need to focus upon.

b. web based assignments - in order to make this course more interactive and more stimulating, I will create hyperlinks on my website to related sites. Try to check in weekly to see what sites I want you to view. This will be the focus of your paper on corporate behavior as well. There is tremendous amount of corporate info on the web, corporations seem to tell all about themselves and we can examine this geographically.

I will also list key website locations within lectures, for more rapid access. Also, if you use sites that I do not list on the exams, please send the actual web address as your citation..

 c. questions regarding texts and lectures- if you have questions regarding the materials, please send them to me. I am creating a section called frequently asked questions on the website and also setting up a bulletin board. This interaction will help stimulate all of us!

 Please, if you have any questions regarding materials above--please contact me or go to the online economic geography menu

Welcome to the course!!

Cecelia