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GDP (Gross Domestic Product)

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An estimate of the total value of all materials, foodstuffs, goods, and services that are produced by a country in a particular year

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GNI (Gross National Income)

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A measure of the income to a country from production wherever in the world it occurs

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Carrying capacity

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The maximum population that can be maintained in a place with rates of resource use and waste production that are sustainable in the long term without damaging the overall productivity of that or other places

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Sustainable development

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A vision of development that seeks balance among considerations of economic growth, environmental impacts, and social equity

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Primary activities

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Activities that are concerned directly with natural resources of any kind and include agriculture, mining, fishing, and forestry.

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Secondary activities

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Activities that process, transform, fabricate, or assemble the raw materials derived from primary activities or that reassemble, refinish, or package manufactured goods

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Tertiary activities

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Activities involving the sale and exchange of goods and services and include warehousing, retail stores, personal services, commercial services, and entertainment

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Quaternary activities

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Activities dealing with the handling and processing of knowledge and information

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Newly industrializing countries

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Formerly peripheral countries within the world-system that have acquired a significant industrial sector, usually through direct foreign investment

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Trading blocs

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Groups of countries with formalized systems of trading agreements

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Autarky

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Insignificant contributions to the flows of imports and exports that constitute the geography of trade

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Dependency

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Involves a high level of reliance by a country on foreign enterprises, investment, or technology

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International division of labor

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The specialization, by countries, in particular products for export

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Elastic demand

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The degree to which levels of demand for a product or service change in response to changes in price

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Terms of trade

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The ratio of the prices at which exports and imports are exchanged

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Import substitution

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The process by which domestic producers provide goods or services that formerly were bought from foreign producers

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Debt trap

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The syndrome of having to constantly borrow in order to fund "development"

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OECD

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Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development

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Geographical path dependence

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The relationship between present-day activities in a place and the past experiences of that place

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Initial advantage

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Highlights the importance of an early start in economic development

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External economies

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Cost savings resulting from advantages that are derived from circumstances beyond a firm's organization and methods of production

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Localization economies

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Cost savings that accrue to particular industries as a result of clustering together at a specific location

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Agglomeration effects

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The cost advantage that accrue to individual firms because of their location among functionally related activities

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Ancillary industries

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Maintenance and repair, recycling, security, and business services

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Cumulative causation

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The spiraling buildup of advantages that occurs in specific geographic settings as a result of the development of external economies, agglomeration effects, and localization economies

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Infrastructure

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(aka fixed social capital) The underlying framework of services and amenities needed to facilitate productive activity

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Backwash effects

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The negative impacts on a region (or regions) of the economic growth of some other region

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Agglomeration diseconomies

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The negative economic effects of urbanization and the local concentration of industry

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Deindustrialization

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Involves the relative decline (and in extreme cases an absolute decline) in industrial employment in core regions as firms scale back their activities in response to lower levels of profitability

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Creative destruction

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Involves the withdrawal of investments from activities (and regions) that yield low rates of profit in order to reinvest in new activities and new regions

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Growth poles

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Places of economic activity deliberately organized around one or more high-growth industries

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Foreign direct investment

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The total of overseas business investments made by private companies

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Transnational corporations

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Companies that participate not only in international trade but also in production, manufacturing, and/or sales operations in several countries

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Conglomerate corporations

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Companies that have diversified into various economic activities, usually through a process of mergers and acquisitions

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Fordism

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Named after Henry Ford, the principles for mass production based on assembly-line techniques, scientific management, mass consumption based on higher wages, and sophisticated advertising techniques

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Neo-Fordism

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The logic of mass production coupled with mass consumption has been modified by the addition of more flexible production, distribution, and marketing systems

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Flexible production system

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The ability of manufacturers to shift quickly and efficiently from one level of output to another, or from one product configuration to another

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Just in time production

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Manufacturing process where daily or hourly delivery schedules of materials allow for minimal or zero inventories

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Strategic alliances

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Commercial agreements between transnational corporations, usually involving shared technologies, marketing networks, market research, or product development

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Export processing zones (EPZ)

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Small areas within which especially favorable investment and trading conditions are created by governments in order to attract export-oriented industries

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Inflation

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The increase of printed currency that leads to higher prices and international financial differentials

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World cities

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Places in the globalized world economy are able not only to generate powerful spirals of local economic development but also to act as pivotal points in the reorganization of global space

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Agrarian

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The adjective used to describe the way of life that is deeply embedded in the demands of agricultural production

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Agriculture

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A science, an art, and a business directed at the cultivation of crops, and the raising of livestock for sustenance and profit

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Hunting and gathering

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Characterizes activities whereby people feed themselves by killing wild animals and gathering fruits, roots, nuts, and other edible

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Subsistence agriculture

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A system in which agriculturists consume all they produce

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Commercial agriculture

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A system in which farmers produce crops and animals primarily for sale rather than for direct consumption by themselves and their families

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Shifting cultivation

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A form of agriculture usually found in tropical forests, farms aim to maintain soil fertility by rotating the fields they cultivate

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Crop rotation

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The fields under cultivation remain the same but the crops planted are changed to balance the types of nutrients withdrawn from and delivered to the soil

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Swidden

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Land that is cleared using the slash-and-burn process and is ready for cultivation

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Intertillage

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The practice of mixing different seeds and seedlings in the same swidden

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Intensive subsistence agriculture

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A practice involving the effective and efficient use of a small parcel of land in order to maximize crop yield; a considerable expenditure of human labor and application of fertilizer is also usually involved

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Double cropping

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A practice used in milder climates, where intensive subsistence fields are planted and harvested more than once a year

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Pastoralism

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The breeding and herding of animals to satisfy human needs for food, shelter, and clothing

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Transhumance

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The movement of herds according to seasonal rhythms; warmer, lowland areas in the winter, and cooler, highland areas in the summer

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Mechanization

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The replacement of human farm labor with machines

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Chemical farming

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The application of synthetic fertilizers to the soil to enhance yields

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Food manufacturing

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Adding economic value to agricultural products through a range of treatments occurring off the farm and before the products reach the market

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Blue Revolution

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The introduction of motorized and larger boats, processing technology and infrastructure, and new production techniques into peripheral country fisheries

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Aquaculture

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The growing of aquatic creatures in ponds on shore or in pens suspended in water

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Agricultural industrialization

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The process whereby the farm has moved from being the centerpiece of agricultural production to being one part of an integrated multilevel industrial process including production, storage, processing, distribution, marketing, and retailing

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Green revolution

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The export of a technological package of fertilizers and high-yielding seeds, from the core to the periphery. to increase global agricultural productivity

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Globalized agriculture

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A system of food production increasingly dependent upon an economy and set of regulatory practices that are global in scope and organization

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Land reform

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The redistribution of land by the states with a goal of increasing productivity and reducing social unrest, was see as a solution and was implemented by revolutionary governments and others seeking to reduce the risk of rural uprising

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NTAE (Nontraditional Agricultural exports)

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New export crops that contrast with traditional exports, such as sugar and coffee have become increasingly important in areas of Mexico, Central America, Colombia, And Chile, replacing grain production and traditional exports, such as coffee and cotton

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Agribusiness

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A system rather than a kind of corporate entity; a set of economic and political relationships that organizes food production from the development of of seeds to the retailing and consumption of the agricultural product

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Food chain

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Composed of five central and connected sectors (inputs, production, processing, distribution, and consumption) with four contextual elements acting as external mediating forces (the state, international trade, the physical environment, and credit and finance)

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Farm crisis

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The financial failure and eventual foreclosure of thousands of family farms across the Midwest

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Biotechnology

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Any technique that uses living organisms (or parts of organisms) to make or modify products, to improve plants and animals, or to develop microorganisms for specific uses

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Undernutrition

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The inadequate intake of one or more nutrients and/or of calories

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Famine

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Acute starvation associated with a sharp increase in mortality

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Food security

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A person, household, or even a country has assured access to enough food at all times to ensure active and healthy lives

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GMO (genetically modified organisms)

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Any organism that has had its DNA modified in a laboratory rather than through cross-pollunation or other forms of evolution

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Economic development

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Processes of change involving the nature and composition of the economy of a particular region as well as to increases in the overall prosperity of a region

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Ecological footprint

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A measure of the human pressures on the natural environment from the consumption of renewable resources and the production of pollution

Human Geography Ch. 7-8 – Flashcards

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