Economic Geography: Introduction
Discussion points
What is geography?
What are the themes of geography? Explanation
of each theme with example.
What are the types of geography? Where does
economic geography fall?
What are the major economic activities?
Importance of learning economic geography?
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1. Geography
Greek roots:
Geo means ‘earth’
Graphos means ‘description’
However many disciplines ‘describe the
earth’: geology, botany, zoology,
meteorology, etc.
Geographers study the earth from a spatial
perspective.
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2. The study of spatial variation on the
earth’s surface.
‘There would be no geography if physical and
human phenomena were distributed uniformly
over the face of the earth’
Harthshorn, 2000:4
The geographer is concerned primarily with
variations from place to place, as opposed to
historians’ focus on variations from time to
time.
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3. Five Unifying Themes in Geography
There are five themes in geography:
Location
Place
Region
Human environment relations
Movement
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Location (where is it?)
Absolute (or mathematical) location describes an exact
position or point on the earth’s surface as defined by a set of
mapped coordinates obtained from a superimposed grid or
measurement system. The use of latitude and longitude, e.g.:
Dhaka - latitude 23° 43' 23 '' N , longitude 90° 24' 31'' E
Relative location refers to the relational characteristics of a
location as described in generalized terms or with respect to
other areas or reference points on the earth. Measuring: N, S, E
and W; km/ml; in Asia, etc
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Latitude and Longitude
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DEFINITION
Latitude (shown as a horizontal line) is the angular
distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds of a point
north or south of the Equator. Lines of latitude are
often referred to as parallels.
Longitude (shown as a vertical line) is the angular
distance, in degrees, minutes, and seconds, of a point
east or west of the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian. Lines
of longitude are often referred to as meridians.
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Place
(What makes a place different from other places?)
Differences might be defined in terms of climate, physical
features, or the people who live there and their traditions.
Places have both human and physical characteristics:
Physical characteristics include mountains, rivers, soil, beaches,
wildlife, soil.
Human characteristics are derived from the ideas and actions of
people that result in changes to the environment, such as buildings,
roads, clothing, food habits and above all cultural aspects.
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Regions
Regions is defined by a number of characteristics including
area, language, political divisions, religions, and nature.
There are three basic types of regions.
Formal regions are those defined by governmental or administrative
boundaries (i. e., United States, France, China, Brazil). These
regional boundaries are not open to dispute.
Functional regions are those defined by a function (e.g. free trade
zones, EPZ or a newspaper service area). If the function ceases to
exist, the region would no longer exist either.
Vernacular regions are those loosely defined by people's perception
(i. e., The South, The Middle East).
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Human-environment interaction
What are the relationships among people and places?
Humans adapt to the environment (hunting, horticulture)
Humans modify the environment
Humans depend on the environment (rain in deserts,
sunny days in cold regions)
(When humans modify their environment through economic
activities, such as deforestation and expansion of irrigated
areas, it can cause nature degradations such as soil erosion
and floods or desertification in dry areas)
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Movement –
Patterns of movement of people, products, and information
A study of movement includes learning about
major modes of transportation used by people,
an area's major exports and imports, and ways
in which people communicate (move ideas).
Global village
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4. Types of Geography
Any phenomenon whose distribution differs from
place to place is termed a spatial variable and
qualifies as an element of geography.
There are many phenomena that can be a focus of
geographers, e.g. natural resources, humans, political
systems, economic activities, travel patterns, etc.
These elements determine the type of geography in
focus.
Ggeography broadly is divided into physical
geography and cultural geography.
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Physical Geography
Physical geography includes the following
fields: geomorphology (through geology),
climatology (including meteorology),
biogeography (distribution of plants and
animals, uses biology), soils geography, and
oceanography,
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Cultural geography
Cultural geography is also called human
geography, involves all phases of human social
life in relation to the physical earth.
It includes economic geography, political
geography (application of political sciences),
military geography, ethnography, historical
geography, urban geography, demography,
linguistic geography, travel geography, etc.
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Economic geography
Economic Geography refers to the field of study
focused on the location of economic activity at the
local, national and world scale
(see Hartshorn ed. 2000:1-6)
The main goal of economic geographers is whenever
possible to develop generalizations and theories to
account for the spatial variations on the earth’s surface.
Economic geographers study countries with all types
of economies and states; from both developed and
developing worlds.
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5. Economic activities
A. Production
Primary: harvesting commodities from nature (subsistence
agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining)
Secondary:
Purposeful tending of crops and livestock (commercial agriculture)
Increasing the value of commodities by changing their form (manufacturing)
Tertiary: services – financial, health, entertainment, education,
information, and data-processing services; middle-management
administrative services; government bureaucrats
Quaternary:
high-level managerial and executive positions (public and private)
Scientific research and development services
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B. Exchange
Transportation and distribution services:
Increasing the value of commodities by changing their location (freight
transportation)
Satisfying the needs of people by changing their location (Passenger
transportation)
Telecommunications
Exchanging services and ideas by telecommunication or face-to-face contact
Trade
Warehousing and distribution function
Wholesale trade
Retail trade
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6. World divisions
1st World (Developed countries) / More developed
countries (MDC) / High income countries (HIC)
2nd World (Developing countries) / Less Developed
Countries (LDC)/ / Middle income countries (MIC)
3rd World (Under-developed) / Least developed
countries (LLDC)/ Low income countries (LIC)
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