Transcript GEOG 240 Day 7

GEOG 240 DAY 7
CHAPTER 4
(CONT’D)
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS
• Outlines are due today.
• I skipped over Lee on Monday.
• Reminder that tomorrow is the talk by Mike Lewis at 5 p.m. in
the Malaspina Theatre. It’s free, they have snacks, and there
will be a cash bar.
• Members of the VIU Board of Governors have invited the
Faculty of Social Sciences (students, faculty members, &
staff) to join them for a complementary Meet & Greet lunch
on Thursday from 12:00 to 1:00 in the Dean’s Office 356/310.
• In addition to deindustrialization of traditional industrial areas,
new industrial spaces have emerged: ∙craft-based districts
with small and medium firms (watch-making in Jura;
specialty co-ops in Emilia-Romagna); ∙centres of high
technology close to major cities (Silicon Valley, Boston 128,
etc.), and ∙clusters of advanced financial & producer
services (e.g. New York, etc.).
Craft-Based Districts Are Not Entirely New…
 An interesting example of a highly successful region that
relies on relatively small, skill-intensive enterprises and coops is Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, an area centered
on Bologna.
 The region has 4.4 million people and boasts a business
ratio of one business for every 11 persons, 90% of which
have fewer than 99 employees. In Capri, the knitwear
capital of Europe (population: 60,000), businesses do over
$2 billion in sales, and the average enterprise has five
employees.
 Collaboration amongst businesses is a prominent feature
of economic life, as are co-ops.
EMILIA-ROMAGNA
EMILIA-ROMAGNA
• In Emilia-Romagna is noted for its parmesan cheese,
produced by over 700 farm co-operatives:
 cooperatives make up over 40% of the GDP of the
E-R region
 in Bologna two out of three adult citizens are
members of a cooperative
 in Bologna, over 85% of the city's social services
are provided by social co-ops
 per capita income in E-R has risen from 17th to
second among Italy's 20 regions
 per capital income is 50% higher than the national.
EMILIA-ROMAGNA
 Of the European regions, E-R is number 11 of 122
regions in terms of GNP per inhabitant
 Bologna has the highest disposable income of any of
Italy's 103 provinces
 Bologna has the highest per capita expenditure on the
arts of any city in Italy
 The unemployment rate of 4% is virtually full
employment
 70% of Bologna's households have home ownership.
Source: http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/articles/index.php?id=483
EMILIA-ROMAGNA
• If you Google “co-ops in Emilia-Romagna,” you'll find lots
of other interesting info as well.
• Another famous example of a co-op economy is the
system of famous Mondragon co-ops centred in the
Basque country of northern Spain.
Source: Wikipedia
SILICON VALLEY
• See page 80 for a description
of its origins and
development.
• Cooperation between firms
and their personnel, and
constant innovation give the
Valley a comparative
advantage.
• Home to Intel, Apple, and
Sun Microsystems.
• Similar high tech hub near
Boston Route 28.
MAJOR FINANCIAL CENTRES
SPACES OF CONSUMPTION
• There are a number of issues involved here. If time and
her schedule permits, I will bring in Pam to address
changes in the retail landscape over time. See also the
article she and I wrote in the summer issue of Plan
Canada.
concentration of retail activity increasingly in the hands
of large corporations;
corresponding changes in the scale of retail activity;
transformation of the landscape by retail activity and
loss of the uniqueness of place, and
spread of a global consumer culture around the world,
aided by advertising and multinational corporations.
SPACES OF CONSUMPTION
• There are a number of issues involved here. If time and
her schedule permits, I will bring in Pam to address
changes in the retail landscape over time. See also the
article she and I wrote in the summer issue of Plan
Canada.
concentration of retail activity increasingly in the hands
of large corporations;
corresponding changes in the scale of retail activity;
transformation of the landscape by retail activity and
loss of the uniqueness of place, and
spread of a global consumer culture around the world,
aided by advertising and multinational corporations.
CONCENTRATION OF RETAIL
LOSS OF UNIQUE PLACES
Artist: Andy Singer
NEW SPACES OF CONSUMPTION: LOCATION,
MARKETING, AND PACKAGING OF COMMODITIES AS
PART OF AN ALL-EMBRACING SPECTACLE
GLOBAL CONSUMER CULTURE
MODIFICATIONS
• As the text and someone in this class have pointed
out, there is variation in how products are used and
consumed in different parts of the world. How
significant is this in the larger scheme of things?
• What about the positive aspect of globalization –
the flow of local influences back into the global pot,
thereby enriching it and transforming specific
places. Can you think of examples?
• This ties in with Doreen Massey’s theory that places
are not airtight containers but are constantly being
redefined by the in and out flow of people, ideas,
and cultural products.