Human geo part one unit 7 Flashcards
Acid rain
created when oxides of sulfur and nitrogen change chemically as they dissolve in water vapor in the atmosphere and return to earth as rain, snow, or fog.
Agglomeration
the spatial grouping of people or activities for mutual benefit.
Bid Rent Theory
different land users are prepared to pay different amounts, the bid rents, for locations at various distances from the city center.
Break-of-bulk point
a location where transfer is possible from one mode of transportation to another; a location along a transport route where goods must be transferred from one carrier to another.
Bulk-gaining industry
an industry where the finished product weighs more than the raw materials.
Bulk-reducing industry
an industry where the raw materials weigh more than the finished product.
Capitalism
an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
Commodity chain
series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is then exchanged on the world market.
Communism
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
Comparative advantage
the principle that an area produces the items for which it has the greatest ratio of advantage or the least ratio of disadvantage in comparison to other areas, assuming free trade exists.
Deglomeration
the process of deconcentration; the location of industrial or other activities away from established agglomerations in response to growing costs of congestion, competition, and regulation.
Deindustrialization
the cumulative and sustained decline in the contribution of manufacturing to a national economy.
Entrepot
is a trading center, or simply a warehouse, where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit.
Export processing zones (EPZ’s)
designated areas of countries where governments create conditions conducive to export-oriented production.
Fixed costs
an activity cost (as of investment in land, plant, and equipment) that must be met without regard to level of output.
Footloose industry
a descriptive term applied to manufacturing activities for which the cost of transporting material or product is not important in determining location of production; an industry or firm showing neither market nor material orientation.
Fordism
the manufacturing economy and system derived from assembly-line mass production and the mass consumption of standardized goods.
Greenhouse effect
anticipated increase in Earth’s temperature, caused by carbon dioxide (emitted by burning fossil fuels) trapping some of the radiation emitted by the surface.
Growth Pole
where economic development, or growth, is not uniform over an entire region, but instead takes place around a specific pole.
High-technology corridors
areas along or near major transportation arteries that are devoted to the research, development, and sale of high-technology products.
Industrial Revolution
a series of inventions and innovations, arising in England in the 1700s, that led to the use of machines and inanimate power in manufacturing process.
International division of labor
the specialization, by countries, in particular products for exports.
“Just in time” manufacturing (JIT)
seeks to reduce inventories for the production process of purchasing inputs for arrival just in time to use and producing output just in time to sell.
Labor-intensive industry
an industry for which labor costs represent a large proportion of total production costs.
Locational interdependence
theory developed by economist Harold Hotelling that suggests competitors, in trying to maximize sales, will seek to constrain each other’s territory as much as possible which will therefore lead them to locate adjacent to one another in the middle of their collective customer base.
Maquiladora
factories built by U.S. companies in Mexico near the U.S. border, to take advantage of much lower labor costs in Mexico.
Market orientation
the tendency of an economic activity to locate close to its market
Material orientation
the tendency of an economic activity to locate near or at its source of raw material.
Multiplier effect
the direct, indirect, and induced consequences of change in an activity. In industrial agglomerations, the cumulative processes by which a given change (such as a new plant opening) sets in motion a sequence of further industrial employment and infrastructure growth.
New International Division of Labor
transfer of some types of jobs, especially those requiring low paid, less skilled workers, from more developed countries to less developed countries.
Newly Industrialized Country (NIC)
a country that exhibits rapid economic growth but has not yet reached the full level of developed countries by a variety of different measures.
Outsourcing
subcontracting production or services rather than performing those activities “in house.”
Post-Fordism
adoption by companies of flexible work rules, such as the allocation of workers to team that perform a variety of tasks
Right to work laws
laws preventing a union and a company from negotiating a contract that requires workers to join a union as a condition of employment.
Site factors
location factors related to the costs of factors of production inside the plant, such as land, labor, and capital
Situation factors
location factors related to the transportation of materials into and from a factory.
Socialism
a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s)
specific areas within a country in which tax incentives and less stringent environmental regulations are implemented to attract foreign business and investment.
Substitution principle
in industry, the tendency to substitute one factor of production for another in order to achieve optimum plant location.
Transnational corporation
companies that have international production, marketing, and management facilities.
Ubiquitous
something’s ability to be found anywhere at any time
Variable costs
costs that change directly with the amount of production such as energy supply, transport expenses, labor costs, and other costs relating to the industrialization of an area.
Weber’s Least Cost Theory
when the location of manufacturing establishments is determined by the minimization of three critical expenses; labor, transportation, and agglomeration.
