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Think about how phones are designed in the USA, raw metals are extracted in Guinea, shipped and manufactured in China, and sold in stores throughout Europe. Pretty cool, right? What about how India is now one of the world's fastest-growing economies? The world is becoming increasingly interconnected through Globalisation, and development is increasing across the globe. These are great examples of how our changing economic world is taking shape. This is the beginning of an entirely new topic, where we'll be exploring examples of world economic change, and challenges in the global economy. This explanation will outline the topics you'll learn about in simpler detail, but make sure you read the explanations linked throughout! Let's dive right in.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenThink about how phones are designed in the USA, raw metals are extracted in Guinea, shipped and manufactured in China, and sold in stores throughout Europe. Pretty cool, right? What about how India is now one of the world's fastest-growing economies? The world is becoming increasingly interconnected through Globalisation, and development is increasing across the globe. These are great examples of how our changing economic world is taking shape. This is the beginning of an entirely new topic, where we'll be exploring examples of world economic change, and challenges in the global economy. This explanation will outline the topics you'll learn about in simpler detail, but make sure you read the explanations linked throughout! Let's dive right in.
Economies and Economic Activity vary from place to place and country to country, and have been rapidly changing over time. This is the definition of our changing economic world.
The economic activities that take place around the world can be understood as the world economy.
Through processes such as Globalisation and development, our economic world has and is continuing to change. In this topic, you're going to learn about Globalisation and the economy, as well as development across the world.
Globalisation has had a huge impact on the economic world that we live in.
Globalisation is the way that the world has become more connected, through increased flows of people, technology, goods etc.
Globalisation has impacted economies across the world; cheaper products, improved standards of living, expanding markets, improving innovation, and the list goes on. Take a look at the Economic Impacts of Globalisation explanation for information on how the UK has been impacted by globalisation processes.
As geographers, development is a super important theme within geography. Development refers to the progress of a country's economy, living standards, and quality of life. As countries develop, the economic world changes.
Development indicators are measurements to show levels of economic and social development within a country, or quite simply, how developed a country is. These indicators are measurements like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Human Development Index (HDI), Life Expectancy, literacy rate, and many others. Make sure you take a look at the Development Indicators explanation for more details on what these indicators mean and what they measure.
Some countries have high levels of development, while others have lower development levels. To better understand how they compare to each other, the World Bank publishes information on the income and economic development of each country. They categorise countries into three classifications:
This means that there is a big difference between LICs and HICs in their levels of development. This difference is known as the Development Gap. With this gap, it is clear that development across the world is uneven.
Uneven development is the varying levels of development between countries. Uneven development contributes to the development gap and global inequality.
Global inequality is unequal access to resources and services across the world. HICs tend to have more of these than LICs or NEEs, creating inequality among each other.
The causes of uneven development across the world can be split into three categories; physical, economic and historical.
As a result, uneven development can cause wealth disparities (between countries and within countries), health disparities (changes in Life Expectancy), and international migration (as a result of push and pull factors).
The consequences of uneven development are issues that not only residents in LICs and NEEs experience, but also HICs. This is because the world economy is closely linked (globalised), with uneven development occurring in one place and the consequences having a ripple effect throughout the world.
Make sure you read the explanation on Uneven Development, for more details on causes and consequences!
Population levels are a pretty big part of development. Generally, higher populations are found in less developed countries, whilst lower population rates are found in more developed countries. This can be demonstrated by Demographic Transition Model (DTM). This is a graph demonstrating the different development stages a country may go through over time, based on population measurements (birth rates, death rates, and total population). These 5 stages are outlined in detail in the Demographic Transition Model explanation!
Population Pyramids can also show this; these are graphs demonstrating the population structures of a country. As a country develops socially and economically along these stages, different population structures can take place.
Fig. 1 - the Demographic Transition Model and population pyramids
Make sure you read the explanations on Population and Development and Rapid Population Growth for more on how population and development are intertwined.
A big challenge in the global economy is the development gap, and how it can be closed. The global development gap is a pretty big issue, which is why finding strategies to close the gap, is super important. Some of these methods include:
Now, closing this gap brings some pretty big challenges. Some countries just happen to be more vulnerable to things like Natural Disasters or climate change or may be so tied up in conflict and corruption, further development is difficult. Even tourism and TNC investment have their problems.
As different countries' economies continue to develop, many changes occur within their country as well as internationally. These changes are caused by major shifts in technology, the economy, and politics. In the next section, we'll take a brief look into examples of economic changes that have been occurring in the UK, a developed country, and Nigeria, a developing country.
The Changing UK Economy has been visible throughout history, and the place of the UK in the World is pretty important. The UK's economic growth began well before the 1800s. Like many countries at the time, most people took up jobs in the primary sector e.g. farming, fishing, or mining. However, after the 1800s, a strong period of industrialisation shifted the economic structure towards the secondary sector.
Industrialisation is the process of an economy changing from the primary sector to the secondary sector through increased manufacturing.
After the industrial period (around the 1960s), jobs in the tertiary and quaternary sectors began to dominate. Currently, the tertiary and quaternary sectors dominate most jobs available, employing over 80% of the UK workforce. This is usually the case for most HICs.
| Economic sector | What does it do? |
| Primary sector | Jobs that include extracting raw materials from the land (e.g. farming and fishing). |
| Secondary sector | Jobs that process raw materials (e.g. manufacturing). |
| Tertiary sector | Jobs that provide services (e.g. grocery store clerk, nurse). |
| Quaternary sector | Jobs that provide information (e.g. research, software development). |
The UK economy has been changing as a result of quite a few different factors:
These changes are not unique to the UK. They are reasons for a changing economic world.
What is very interesting about the UK, is that the country is economically uneven. The south of the UK is significantly more economically developed than the north, creating a North-South divide. Rural Change is also occurring in the UK, with some areas experiencing growth, and others experiencing a decline.
Some NEEs are also experiencing significant economic change and rapid growth. Let's briefly outline how economic development is occurring in Nigeria. Nigeria is rapidly developing, however, issues such as corruption and conflict may hold them back from developing further. Take a look at the explanations on the Development of Nigeria, Environmental Development of Nigeria, Social Development of Nigeria, Economic Development of Nigeria, and Nigeria Country Profile for more!
Development and globalisation are the main reasons for the change in the world economy.
There are several changes going on, for example, uneven development, de-industrialisation, and globalisation.
NEE stands for Newly Emerging Economy in Geography. Examples include India or Nigeria.
Economic change is important because it can indicate increased development or increased globalisation.
The UK economy has moved away from the secondary sector and primarily has jobs in the tertiary and quaternary sectors. This is due to de-industrialisation, globalisation, and government policies.
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SIGNUP SIGNUPFlashcards in Changing Economic World359
Start learningWhy is Nigeria referred to as the "giant of Africa"?
Nigeria is known as the "giant of Africa" because it has the continent's largest economy and population.
________ is a Nigerian megacity and the largest urban area in Africa
Lagos
(True or False) Nigeria’s Muslim North is wealthier and more developed than its Christian South
False
How many ethnic groups and languages does Nigeria have?
250 ethnic groups and 500 languages
By 2050, Nigeria’s population is projected to reach and surpass____million
400
(True or False) Most of Nigeria’s earnings from oil go to fund its government.
True
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