Impacts of External Agents on Places Flashcards
Agents of change are…
Individuals/ groups that drive change in a place (either intentionally or unintentionally)
True or false, agents of change always intentionally drive change in a place
False
It can be unintentional
Examples of agents of change
Travel companies (package holidays transform a place- as more tourists are encouraged to travel there, more hotels and resorts etc are built) E.g Benidorm turned from a fishing village to a major tourist destination characterised by huge skyscraper buildings)
Government (direct investment e.g regeneration/ transport (HS2))
Trade blocs (The EU invests in rural places)
National institutions (E.g the National Trust protects coastlines, archaeological remains, historic sites etc)
Demographic groups (e.g Gentrifiers change the social chafardee and wealth of a place)
Charities/ NGOs (e.g they rebuild houses and infrastructure after natural disasters)
The media (e.g The film, The Lord of The Rings encourages tourism in New Zealand)
TNCs e.g in Detroit the establishment of the automotive industries including Ford and General Motors led to increased job opportunities and population growth. Competition from overseas TNcs where there was cheaper labour and more efficient car models lead to the original TNC in Detroit closing which caused economic decline, social deprivation , population loss etc in that area
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A key place (mini case study) that has seen different agents of change affect the place both economically, socially, physically etc is…
Detroit
Detroit is located in the USA but is it a town/ city/ neighbourhood/ state etc?
Detroit is a city
Detroit is a city located ….
In the state of Michigan in the north east of the USA just south of the Canadian border
Detroit experienced rapid economic growth in the …century and at the beginning of the…century
19th (1800s)
20th (early 1900s)
As a result of Detroit’s industrial growth (and the consequential growth of the surrounding region), in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the area became known as the….
Steel Belt
Why did Detroit and its surrounding area become known as the ‘Steel Belt’ and when
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it experienced an economic boom with a large amount of shipbuilding and shipping and, later on, automobile manufacturing.
(These extremely successful industries were mostly down to Detroit’s endogenous factors such as access to resources like iron ore, limestone and coals fields and its close proximity to canals which allowed for easy trade)
The main reason Detroit experienced rapid economic growth (an economic boom) in the 19th and early 20th centuries was due to its…factors including its location and physical geography
Endogenous
(E.g it had access to resources like coalfields, iron ore, limestone, as well as canals to allow for easy trade access)
Why did Detroit having lots of coalfields make its shipbuilding industry very successful
Steel is needed to make ships with and coals is needed in the process of steel production
Why did the automobile industry decline and car manufacturing decrease in the mid to late 20th century in Detroit (2 reasons)
Overseas competition- E.g Cheaper Labour In Germany and Japan meant that Americans could buy cars from overseas at a cheaper price to cars manufactured nearbye.
The 1970s oil crisis (there were problems with oil production in the Middle East due to conflicts/ political issues there which made fuel more expensive)- Americans wanted cars with more efficient engines so that they could spend less money on fuel and they could only buy these more efficient cars from other countries
Why did the ‘Steel belt’ have its name changed to the ‘Rust Belt’ in Detroit in the late 20th century
Detroit and its surrounding area that were previously a place of rapid economic growth experienced a period of deindustrialisation and economic bust due to the 1970s oil crisis and competition from overseas TNCs in car manufacturing which meant that Americans were no longer buying cars so the low demand meant that less cars needed to be made so one by one factories were forced to close down etc.
During the 20th century, millions of African Americans migrated from the rural southern states to the urban North East (including Detroit) to apply for jobs in the automotive industry. This was known as the…
Great Migration
(Apart from to take advantage of the job opportunities that the automotive industry provided, the African Americans also migrated away from the south as the north typically had a lot less segregation)
In the mid to late 20th century, the automotive industry based around Detroit (e.g Ford and General Motors) experienced overseas competition from car manufacturing companies in Germany and Japan such as…
Honda, Nissan, Toyota
