Transcript Measuring Wellbeing and Cont. World Order

Geographers Making Sense of the World 2:
Measuring Well-Being and Contemporary World Order
Measurements of Economic Health and Social Well-Being
a) Gross Domestic Product (GDP): an estimate of the total value of all materials,
foodstuffs, goods, and services produced by a country in a particular year. (normally given
per capita)
b) Gross National Income (GNI):
The value of all final goods and services produced within a country’s borders
(gross domestic product GDP), plus the net income from abroad (formerly
referred to as gross national product, or GNP)
c) Various other measures such as:
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life expectancy,
infant mortality,
adult literacy,
access to internet,
gender equity,
physicians per capita, etc.
Thrilling Example of Graphing Measurements!
Gapminder:
http://graphs.gapminder.org/world
d) Population pyramids. These display the population of a country by age and
gender.
World Population Change over Time:
http://content.bfwpub.com/webroot_pubcontent/Content/BCS_4/Pulsipher5e/T
hematic_Interactive_Maps/ch01/pr01pm01.htm
d. Population Pyramids
Figure 1.33
Dynamic population pyramids:
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/pyramids.html
e) Measurements of Equity
United Nations’ Development Programme’s Gender Empowerment Index.
women’s incomes, their participation in labor force in professional and
managerial roles, number of government seats held.
UN’s Gender Development Index
Ranks countries on whether they provide basic literacy, health care, access to
income available to both men and women.
f. Alternative Measurements of Well-Being
1. Material Culture: the stuff people own
A Californian Family’s Possessions
A Mongolian Family’s Possessions
2. What People in a Place Eat
3. Gross National Happiness Index
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/gnhIndex/intruductionGNH.aspx
Mastering Geography Video: Gross National Happiness
Measurements of Economic Health and Social Well-Being:
Summary
a) Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
b) Gross National Product (GNP)
c) Various measures such as: life expectancy, infant mortality, adult literacy, etc.
d) Population pyramids
e) ) Alternative Measures: Gross National Happiness
f) UNDP’s Gender Equity Index and UN’s Gender Development Index
Contemporary World Order
This lecture focuses on the
way that power is organized
among the world’s regions,
and how this order came to
be.
Contemporary World Order:
Three Tiers
The Core: those regions that dominate trade, control the most advanced
technologies, and have high levels of productivity within diversified
economies.
They enjoy relatively high per capita incomes. The success of core countries
depends on their dominance and control over other regions.
The Periphery: regions that have resisted or remained economically and
politically unable to participate in this process of incorporation into the world system.
Peripheral regions are characterized by dependent and disadvantageous trading
relationships, by inadequate or obsolete technologies, and by undeveloped or narrowly
specialized economies with low levels of productivity.
Semi-Periphery are able to exploit peripheral regions but are
themselves exploited and dominated by the core regions.
The status of states is fluid and change over time.
Developed countries are shown in blue. (According to the International
Monetary Fund, as of 2008).
Least developed: pink
How did this World Order come to be?
European Colonization and Imperialism: late 1500s-early 1900s
Example:
1880-1912: Europeans carved up the African continent.
Reason behind colonization and imperialism:
search for expanded arena for trade, need for raw materials, commercial
opportunities
Colonial
Resource
Extraction
Colonialism and Imperialism Created an International Division of Labor that
persists in many places today:
wherein countries and regions specialized in a product or material that the core
needed, that the core couldn’t produce itself, and that the country could produce
with comparative advantage over other countries.
Neo-colonialism: refers to economic and political strategies by which powerful
states in core economies indirectly maintain or extend their influence over
other areas or people.
Globalization: the growth of interregional and worldwide linkages and the
changes they are bringing about.
Interconnectedness…
Globalization and
Culture Change
• Cultural homogeneity
– A perceived lack of diversity
– Seen as resulting from globalization
• Cultural identity
– Sense of distinctiveness
– Revived by ease of telecommunication,
transportation
• Multiculturalism
– The state of relating to, reflecting, or being
adapted to several cultures
How is Global Economy Organized?
in other words: where’s the power?
• World War II saw the end of old colonial
system
• Replaced by multinational corporations, who:
– Control vast amounts of capital
– Operate across conventional borders, maximizing
profit by operating globally
– Use disparities in labor costs and standard of
wealth across borders
There are three main consequences of today’s economic globalization:
1. There are three main core areas in the world which house the major
transnational corporations and financial institutions. The three cores are
connected through investment, trade, and communication.
The Triadic Core
2. Economic globalization has intensified the differences between rich and poor.
2. Economic globalization has intensified the differences between rich and
poor.
•The top fifth of the world’s population has 74% of the world’s income, while the
bottom fifth of the world’s population has 1% of the world income.
2. Economic globalization has intensified the differences between rich and
poor.
•The top fifth of the world’s population has 74% of the world’s income, while the
bottom fifth of the world’s population has 1% of the world income.
•If you remove the countries that contribute 5% of the global GDP from a world
map, you remove nearly half of the world’s population from the map.
The World Map Minus Those Countries that Contribute
the Bottom 5% of Global Gross Domestic Product
(constitutes 2.9 billion people)
Origin: FiveThirtyEight website
Retrieved from: Strangemaps.com
•The top fifth of the world’s population has 74% of the world’s income, while the
bottom fifth of the world’s population has 1% of the world income.
•If you remove the countries that contribute 5% of the global GDP from a world
map, you remove nearly half of the world’s population from the map.
•The top fifth of the world’s population has 74% of the world’s telephone lines,
the bottom fifth has 1.5%
•The top fifth of the world’s population has 74% of the world’s income, while the
bottom fifth of the world’s population has 1% of the world income.
•If you remove the countries that contribute 5% of the global GDP from a world
map, you remove nearly half of the world’s population from the map.
•The top fifth of the world’s population has 74% of the world’s telephone lines,
the bottom fifth has 1.5%
•In 2000 life expectancy in Australia was 79 years, in Ethiopia it was 42 years. In
most African countries, only 60-70% of the population will live to age 40.
•Consider other Life Expectancy rates: http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/
3. Economic globalization is not matched by political globalization. In other words, there
is no political globalization or system that provides an adequate framework for coping
with the consequences of globalization.
“Traders work on the New York Stock Exchange floor, Monday Oct. 6, 2008. Wall Street tumbled
again Monday, joining a sell-off around the world as fears grew that the financial crisis will cascade
through economies globally despite bailout efforts by the U.S. and other governments. (AP
Photo/Richard Drew)” (the day the Dow dropped below 10,000 shares for first time since 2004)
From: Huffington Post.com
Have a great day!