Economic Geography: Introduction

Lecture by Jinat Hossain Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

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 earths 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

Location (where is it?)

Absolute (or mathematical) location describes an exact position or point on the earths 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' 23N , longitude 90 24' 31E 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

Latitude and Longitude:

The latitude of a location on the earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. Longitude is a geographic term that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degree, minutes and seconds.

Geographical Position of Bangladesh

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.

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 earths 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) Exchanging services and ideas by telecommunication or face-to-face contact Warehousing and distribution function Wholesale trade Retail trade
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Telecommunications

Trade

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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