This document provides an overview of key concepts from the first chapter of a geography textbook on world regional geography and development. It defines development and discusses theories and explanations of the development process. Population growth and its relationship to development is examined. The chapter also covers globalization, environmental factors like climate and vegetation, cultural influences, and approaches to planning for sustainable development.

1. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 1 Lecture
World Regional
Geography
A Developmental Approach
11th Edition
Geography and
Development in
an Era of
Globalization

2. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter Learning Outcomes
• Define development and list the various ways in which it can be interpreted.
• Describe the major economic revolutions and show how they inform our
understanding of development.
• Explain population growth through human history and link this to development.
• Identify and characterize the major “players” in the globalization process.
• Discuss the environmental challenges facing the world today and connect these
challenges to human activities and the development process.
• Define “environmental stewardship” and outline this concept in the context of
development.
• Describe cultural attributes and processes and how these influence
development.
• Evaluate the role of per capita income in the development process and suggest
other measures.
• Characterize the actual and potential role women play in development.
• Examine the role of different energy sources in sustainable energy futures,
particularly for populations currently without access to electricity.

3. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Map

4. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Development—What’s in a Name?
• More than just an economic component
• One of many terms applied to processes
of change, or lack of change, to describe
economic and political circumstances of
different countries

5. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Development—What’s in a Name?
• Underdevelopment—suggests an absence of characteristics associated with
modern economies and societies
• Less developed countries
– Avoids negative connotations
– More benign/clinical term
• Assumptions
– Predominantly drawn from Western, North American/European ideas–May
not work everywhere.
– Processes of change are not necessarily synonymous with economic
growth.
– Sustainable in the dual sense that changes in human welfare should not
harm future generations.
– Particular sensitivity to environmental concerns
• Four components
1. People
2. Natural environment
3. Culture rules
4. History remains

6. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Measures of Development
• Industrial production
– Manufacturing
– Less developed countries (LDCs) portion mostly drawn by Foreign Direct
Investment
• Post-industrial production
• Energy consumption
• Other measures
– Life expectancy
– Food supply
– Number of calories
– Protein supply
• Combined measures–Human Development Index (HDI)–Derived from
three variables
1. Life expectancy at birth
2. Educational attainment
3. Income

7. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Where Does Population Change Fit In?
• Dynamic behavior of human populations
produce some of the most pronounced
and enduring transformations.
• Global population patterns
• Predominantly now an urban world
• Urban growth is growing exponentially in
the global south.

8. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Population
• Indicators
– Population distribution—Spatial distribution of people
– Population density—The number of people per unit area
– Physiologic density—The number of people per square mile of
arable (farmable) land
– Show strong similarities with the past
• Dense population
– Indian subcontinent
– Eastern China and adjacent areas
– Europe—Predominantly urban
– Indonesia, Maya Peninsula, Japan, the Philippines, and parts of
the Middle East—pockets of density
– Parts of urban areas of Latin America—locally dense areas

9. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Population

10. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Population Growth

11. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
World Population Growth

12. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Population Growth: Stages 1 and 2
• Stage 1—Agrarian society with high birth
and death rates becomes stable and
population slowly grows.
• Stage 2—While cultural customs and birth
rates remain high, death rates decline.

13. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Urban Centers

14. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Population Growth: Stages 3 and 4
• Stage 3—Continued urbanization, industrialization, and other economic
trends started from Stage 2
– Birth rates decline.
– Better access to birth control and family planning
– Procreation not always seen as a positive in cities.
• Rapid population growth
• Better sanitation
• Better medical treatment
• Greater productivity
• Industrialization
• Labor specialization
• Urbanity
• Stage 4—Rapid population growth rates
– Birth rates low
– Death rates low
– Urbanized population
– Educated populace
– Population density typically quite high

15. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Malthusian Theory
• Two promises
1. Humans tends to reproduce
prolifically/geometrically.
2. The capacity to produce food and
fiber expands more slowly, that
is, arithmetically. Therefore,
population will eventually exceed
food supply unless population
growth is checked.
• Three stages
1. Stage 1—Human needs are not as great as production capacity.
2. Stage 2—Production capacity and increased human needs are
roughly equal.
3. Stage 3—Population has grown to the point where its needs can no
longer be met.
• Assumptions
– Malthus assumed that people would reject birth control on moral
grounds.
– He could not foresee the impact of the industrial revolution.

16. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
What is Globalization?
• A growing integration and interdependence of world
communities through a vast network of trade and
communication
• Associated with a wide range of technological,
cultural, and economic outcomes affecting our
daily lives
• Not a new phenomenon
• Response to two major forces
1. Technology change
2. Global capitalism
• Free markets
• Rule of law

17. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Climate
• Affects ability to produce food and industrial crops required by humans
• Two important elements
1. Temperature
2. Precipitation
• Average annual precipitation
– Tropics
– Middle latitudes
• Evapotranspiration rate
– Evaporation and plant transpiration as a result of high temperatures
– Plant growth is limited.
• Frost-free period
– Length of time is important.
• Other controls of climate
– Latitude
– Marine exposure
– Prevailing winds
– Atmospheric pressure systems
– Elevation

18. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Climate

19. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Climate

20. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Precipitation

21. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Vegetation
• Closely associated with climate
– Cold climate
– Little woody vegetation
– Growing season short/subsoil permanently frozen
• Natural vegetation
– What would be expected in an area if vegetation succession
were allowed to proceed over a long period without human
interference?
– Greatly altered by humankind
– Attitudes toward natural vegetation has begun to change
dramatically.
• Increasingly mindful that vegetation is significant in many aspects
of life
• Related to other components of life, such as soil and air
• Forest vegetation especially becoming more mindful with greater
amounts of lumber and paper consumed

22. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Vegetation

23. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Soils
• Nutrients derived both from minerals in the earth and from humus—
organic materials added to the soil by vegetation
• Processes
– Laterization
– Podzolization
– Alluvium
• Soil Degradation
• Three kinds
1. Soil erosion—Closely associated with loss of protective vegetative cover
as a result of deforestation
2. Salinization—Excessive buildup of salts and minerals
3. Chemical contamination
• Agricultural insecticides and herbicides
• Chemical fertilizers
• Sprays to control plant diseases

24. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Water Impacts
• Alluvium—Soil transported and deposited
by water.
• Loess—Soil transported and deposited
by wind

25. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Centers of Origin

26. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Culture
• Use of land is impacted by behavioral patterns
• Kinds
– Inherited culture—A society’s earlier experiences
– Diffused culture—Experiences of other societies to which a
society has contact
• Culture can be seen as a hierarchy of traits, complexes,
and realms.
– Culture complex—A group of traits that are employed together in
a more general activity
– Cultural realm—A region in which most of the production
adheres to similar cultural complexes
– Cultural hearth—A source area in which a culture complex has
become so well established and advanced that its attributes
are passed on to future generations inside and outside the
hearth area

27. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Per Capita Income

28. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Agricultural Production
• How land is tilled and food is produced
• Surpluses
– Producing more than consumption
– Not everyone needs to be involved in food gathering.
– Partially led to rise of towns and cities
• 17th century Europe
– Technological
– Process
• 20th century
– Mechanization
– Ended the family farm as dominant
• Gave rise to the corporate-owned farm

29. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Agricultural Production

30. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Agricultural Production

31. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Industrial Revolution
• Mid-18th century
• Fundamentally, a shift in the way goods were made
• Factories
– Machinery replaced muscle power.
– Inanimate energy replaced animate energy.
• Mass production
• Volume production
• Didn’t happen everywhere
– Europe and North America
– Japan, elsewhere later
• Led to other revolutions
– Transportation
• Labor displacement

32. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Industrial Production

33. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Per Capita Inanimate Energy Consumption

34. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Other Measures of Development
• Life Expectancy

35. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Development Explanations/Theories
• No real consensus on a dominant theory
• Environmental determinism (1920s/1930s)
– The physical environment, especially climate, controls or
predestines human behavior.
– Other factors seen as also impacting
• Cultural determinism
– A person’s action/range is determined by the culture in which
he/she is resident.
– Will differ between cultures
• Mercantilism (1600–1700s)
– Trade between colonies and mother countries
– Benefits mother countries—exploitative
– Colonies provide raw materials.
– Mother country makes products and sells back to colonies.

36. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Development Explanations/Theories
• Neocolonialism
– Frequently cited as a reason for continuing uneven
distributions of wealth
– Formerly colonial countries still needing to depend on
former colonial rulers/more developed countries
• Dependency theory
– Present situation in countries is directly attributable to
ongoing perpetuation on inequitable trade relationships of
colonial past.
– Variation is core-periphery model.
– Core is Western Europe.
• Periphery is Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• Trade relationships work to the disadvantage of less
industrialized regions of the periphery.

37. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Development Explanations/Theories
• Circular causation
– Downward or upward
– Have less/produce less
– Have more/produce more
– Theory is applicable to groups or nations.

38. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Development Explanations/Theories
• Stages theory
• Rostow–Five historical stages
1. Traditional society
• Agrarian
• Limited savings
2. “Preconditions for takeoff”
3. Takeoff
• New technology and capital introduced
• Production greatly increased
4. “Drive to maturity”
• Urbanization progresses.
• Trends toward service economy
5. High mass consumption
• Personal incomes high
• Abundant goods and services
• No need to focus on securing bare necessities of life.
• Lacostian theory
• Several cautions on various theories
– Avoid the view that population growth per se causes underdevelopment.
– External forces as sole impetus for development are questionable.

39. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The Question of Sustainability
• Sustainable development—How do we “grow”
economically without negative consequences on
resources? (sustainability)
• Globalization threatens environmental destabilization.
– Ties distant places together
– Diffusing new technologies faster to distant lands
– Encouraging changes that may not fit harmoniously into local
cultures
– May produce unintended effects
• Place provides an answer.
– Genius loci principle
– Locally accumulated knowledge
– Norms, customers, and beliefs
– Knowledge of the ecosystem

40. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Planning for Sustainability
• Precautionary principle
• Sacrifice zones
• Creative destruction
– In some ways, a metaphor for globalization.
– Razing in order to raise.
– Joseph Schumpeter
• Planning for sustainability
– Precautionary principle
• Whenever significant change is about to occur, implementation
must proceed slowly.
• Proper examination and evaluation of likely impacts
– Holistic planning
• Plan in a comprehensive fashion.
• Use different analysis.
• Notably, have someone as a champion for the ecosystem.

41. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Summary of Chapter
• To apply the geographer’s approach to understanding what
development involves within a world region framework
• To understand the revolutionary kinds of change that reshape
societies and economies, with special emphasis on globalization
• To identify the growing need to guide change so it is sustainable
and beneficial
• Globalization plays an increasingly significant role in the
development process, although the blending, culturally transforming
effects of globalization should not be overstated.
• Sustainable development should promote change that leads to
improved well-being in people’s lives, takes into account the needs
of future generations, is based on principles of stewardship, and is
compatible with local cultural and environmental contexts.
• Per capita income, agricultural employment, energy use, and other
measures are potential indicators of development, but each
measure has drawbacks.