Overview to Second Exam

The second exam will cover Chapters 4-7 (third edition) and will focus on the following issues:

1. the importance of transportation in development

2. transportation and communication systems (density and networks)

3.  commercial agriculture and the importance of market linkages

4. the city as a site of production and consumption

5. urbanization patterns; impact of transportation/communicationsystems upon settlement and industrial location

6. the city as a market; theories which evaluate market demand and locational pull of city centers

I realize that the text addresses much more material than that which I listed above. The authors want to introduce you to geographical processes, such as suburbanization and transportation networks. They also include much more economic theory than I discuss. I try to remember that this is an introductory course, so I will discuss the most important economic theories that pertain to the topics above (Von Thunen, Losch, Christaller and some Weber). But, please try to keep the broad issues above in your mind as you are reading the text. It is the significance of transportation, agglomeration and capital location (markets) to economic development which is the central focus in such geography.

The first exam spent much time explaining population clusters (density and urbanization).  Try to see how geographers elaborate upon this idea in order to understand how such population density can be supported (agriculture types), and how distance between clusters determines market areas.  Such demand may lead to the creation of large transport systems.  Thus, expanding the market area will encompass greater population, leading to greater sales. 

A. THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS:

As we begin to explore the location of economic activity (primary through quinary) more fully, it is important to understand the linkages which exist between each activity. Geographers have termed this the production or manufacturing process. The Manufacturing process includes the following stages:

        1. raw materials acquisition
        2. processing raw materials - creating such things as pig iron (transportable)  
        3. intermediate parts creation - stamping, casting...
        4. final assembly
        5. marketing - including retailing, advertising
        6. disposal

This last item was not truly addressed by economists until the early 1980s. Disposal was simply thought of as an externality, a cost of production which was borne by the consumer or society as a whole.

Prior to the 1600s (through mercantilism), and up to the 1970s in most countries, the manufacturing process took place within the confines of national boundaries. With improved transportation and communication we have begun to see the diffusion of this process on a global basis, we call this the GLOBALIZATION OF THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS. Cheap, efficient and reliable transportation and communication has allowed many industries to relocate one or more stages of production to locations which have low wages, lax environmental laws, few child labor laws, few unions and superb transportation facilities (Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul...).

The questions that most economists focus upon are:

*   will this diffusion stimulate global economic development? More markets? Higher standards of living and a better quality of life?

*  does diffusion stimulate a greater maldistribution of wealth (profit maximiziation by corporations), de-industrialization in first world societies, and exploitation of labor in less developed societies?

B. Key geographers (Dickens and Lloyd) who study manufacturing identify five elements which need to be evaluated within the production system in order to answer the questions above:

Dickens and Lloyd define the PRODUCTION SYSTEM as:

        1. the production process (identified above)
        2. the circulation process - transport, communication, finance, advertising
        3. the distribution process - retailing (making the product available to the consumer)
        4. the regulation process - laws which govern the production system
        5. final demand and consumption

Keep these two matrices in mind as you read through the chapters (4-7).