External agencies driving change. Flashcards
How are government policies affecting the demographic characteristics of places?
Can do so in a variety of ways - e.g. population control in China, decrease the proportion of children and adolescents, whereas in France, to combat underpopulation, financial incentives were offered to women for giving birth -this increased the proportion of younger people.
How are government policies affecting the cultural characteristics of places?
Can do so in a variety of ways - immigration control, in the 1960s the German gov invited Turkish people to live and work in Germany; many stayed and Turkish culture has spread in Germany - Turkish food very popular, second most spoken language, Islam widely practiced. Can work both ways - Brexit in UK 2016.
How are government policies affecting the socioeconomic characters of place?
Can do so in a variety of ways - Governments can regenerate areas that are run down for example, the regeneration of Stratford in East London created lots of parks and green spaces, restaurants and leisure activities to attract people, also built lots of modern houses originally designed for Olympians in the 2012 became open for the public after the Olympics. This increased population, created jobs and reduced unemployment in the area, also increasing QOL for many people - however, have to consider if the original locals actually benefitted.
How are TNCs affecting the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of places?
TNCs can have major impacts on this, for example, in the 1950s, Detroit in Michigan, USA was a global centre of car manufacturing in the early and mid 20th century, with TNCs like Ford and General Motors located there; their investment employed huge amounts of people and massively boosted the areas economy, many people got higher wages, improving average QOL.
- This changed the demographic characteristics of the area as well as there was huge migration to the area from the South of the USA and other parts of the world; the pop peaked at 1.8 mil in 1950s.
-However, many of the TNCs here relocated their manufacture to where they could get cheaper labour (Mexico) causing mass deindustrialisation.
- In 2010 it was shown Detroit had lost 1.1mil of their previous 1.8 million population, it was also shown that 24.8% of the workforce was unemployed and there was huge social deprivation as Detroit had some of the highest violence and crime in the USA by 2010.
How do international or global institutions affect the characteristics of places?
The World Food Programme (WFP) is an international organisation that provides food assistance and emergency aid where required. This affects the social and demographic features of places by ensuring places have enough food, whilst preventing populations to fall from deaths of famine or malnutrition. The WFP has helped millions of people in Yemen, where conflict since 2015 has caused mass starvation.
The World Bank is an international organisation that that aims to invest in thousands of global projects that are aimed at reducing poverty. Many of these projects affect the demographic, economic and social characteristics of places where they are set up. For example, between 2010 and 2016, The WB funded the Ningbo New Countryside Development Project in Ningbo, China. This project improved the social conditions in many rural areas in China for example, providing wastewater disposal services to 144 rural villages to improve sanitation.
