Week 1: What in the World do Economic Geographers do?

• Let's explore the general nature and scope of this introductory economic geography course, including its general objectives, the nature of its content, its embeddedness within the Social Sciences, its learning tools and resources, and its logistics.
  • Scope of Economic Geography
    • Economics + Geography
      • Economic Geographers as Geographers
      • Economic Geographers as Economists
      • Economic Geographers as Social Scientists
    • What is the "Geography of the New Economy"? Find out!
    • Is there a "New Economic Geography"? Let's explore and answer this question together during this quarter!
  • Economic Geography at the local or global Level? Geographic scale and complexity.
  • First Week's Resources:
    • Glossary [Look up all terms new to you; send Krumme (econgeog@u) an email whenever you come across an unknown term which you cannot find in this glossary]
    • Readings for this Thursday: Read the introductions and skim the remainder of all 207 books you can lay your hands on (incl. the "Preface" to your Stutz text, pp.xi-xii and chapter 1 (pp.4-27 and pp.43/44)!

Week 2: Conceptualizing the "Real World":

• In Economic Geography, we need sharply defined concepts and concisely articulated conceptualizations for the pursuit of 'real-world' issues and theoretical questions. How do we advance from "terms" to "concepts" to theories and conceptual frameworks?
  • Let's start with Basic Concepts: Economic Activities, Factors of Production, Spatial Differentiation, Urbanization & Globalization and more....
  • What Should be Produced? Opportunity Costs, Trade-Offs and the Production Possibility Curve
    • Stutz, pp.38/9

  • Spatial Organization: Relative Location & Interaction
    • What Differentiates Places and Spaces? Location Forces:
      1. "Frictions of Space": Cost of Communication & Transportation
         • Stutz, pp.165-72 (ch.4); and 345-49 (ch.8)
         • Accessibility [Stutz, p.332]
      2. How and how intensively should we use our Land and our Resources?
         Or: How much land is used by an activity?
         • Stutz, pp.262-269 (Ch.5) (Thunen's Land-Use Model)
      3. Internal & External Economies of Juxtaposition (Agglomeration, Scale and Scope)
         • Stutz, pp.278-81 (ch.6)
         • Stutz, pp.363-5 (ch.8)
    • The Bases for Spatial Interaction (Communications, Trade, Transportation and Migration) [Please read: Edward L. Ullman (password-protected)] Important Definitions:
      1. Complementarity
      2. Transferability
      3. Structure (and Impact) of Intervening Opportunities
  • Glossary

Week 3: Economic Geography of Time and Economic Change

• You do not have to be Albert Einstein to recognize that "time" and "space" interact in many fascinating ways... (Remember, Einstein wanted to become a geographer but figured that it would be too difficult). Let's give it a try...
  1. Economic Geography of Time
     • Time-Space Convergence (Stutz, pp.187-88)
     • Hagerstrand's Time Geography
     • Cost of Time in Transportation
     • Periodic Markets [Stutz, pp.329-31]

  2. Economic Change and Development
     • From 'Simple Change' to 'Development' as 'Complex Change'
     • Compositional Change: Sector Theory of Employment Change
       • Stutz, p.538 [figure 12.3] Three Sectors
       • Quaternary & Quinary Sectors
       • Informal Sector Activities
       • Rifkin's Third Sector & Civil Society
       • Stutz, pp.383-6 ("Industrial Evolution", from Ch.8)
     • Population Change: Economic Geography of Demographic Processes
       • Stutz, pp.62-67 and 75-80 (ch.2)
     • Structural Change as Interdependence Change
     • Change as Turbulence in lives and environments of individuals and organizations: Economic Restructuring, Downsizing, Income Inequalities, and Changes in the Service Sector.

     • Have a "generalized look" at (i.e.skim) the Stutz readings for weeks 9 & 10 ["Development"]
  • Glossary

Week 4: Measuring Regional Economic Structure

• We will be proposing that many geographic "complexities" can be better understood by regionalizing spatial phenomena and by recognizing patterns and structures in a regional context.
  • What is a "Region"?
    
  • Regional Economic Structure
  • Regional Specialization & Diversification
  • Local Regional Economic Analysis and Economic Forcasters
    
  • Location Quotient and similar Measures
  • Numerical Data Sources
  • Lab Task: Calculate your very own, most favorite Location Quotient! (Lab)

• Readings for Week #4: Edgar M. Hoover and Frank Giarratani. An Introduction to Regional Economics, Chapter 9, Section 9.1 (only), "The Nature of Regions".

  • Glossary

Week 5: Does Location Matter? Site Selection and Market Area Analysis

• As geographers we will explore ways to adapt introductory, micro-economic concepts and principles to the analysis of a variety of locational behaviors as well as market areas.
  • Where will you Locate your Newly Founded Small Business, if you Want to Keep your Production Costs Down? Is There Sufficient Demand for your New Business? (Market Area Analysis)
  • Industrial and Cost-Oriented Location Theory (Slide52)
    • Stutz, pp.344-67 (in: Ch.8)
  • Demand and Consumer Oriented Location Theory
    • Stutz, pp.307-16 (in Ch.7)
  • Coping with Locational Uncertainties: "Decisions", "Strategies", "Organization" and Decision Support Systems

Week 6: Cities: Urban Spatial Organization & Economic Functions

• Let's have a glimpse at the chaos of cities: Is there any order? Are their any rules? Who determines where one should live and work? And, to start with, how do cities make a living when everybody seems to be on the street or in the car all day?
  1. Intra-Urban Spatial Organization: Stutz, pp.281ff.
     • Bid price/rent concept (Stutz, p.265)
     • Residential location and land use (Stutz, pp.282ff.)
     • The urban firm (Stutz, pp.284ff.)
     • Where do we need Public Services and "Infrastructure"? What is a LULU, NIMBY, NIMTOO, BANANA? (Stutz, p.299)
     • Locational Mis-Matches in Cities & Suburbs, Sprawl and the Role of Urban Spatial Policies (Stutz, pp.289-304)

  2. Urban Functions & Information Technologies
     • Historical: Stutz, pp.274-8
     • World Cities & the U.S. Urban Hierarchy (Stutz, pp.333-5)
     • Basic and Non-Basic Activities and Firms (Stutz, p.284)
     • Cities in the New Economy: Centers of Innovation
       [Online Reading: Norton, "Strategic Cities," in: Geography of the New Economy (2000)]
     • Smart Cities (Stutz, pp.335ff.)

Week 7: Linkage Systems: Communications, Transportation, Trade & Migration

• We all know that we are not islands but that everybody is connected to everybody else -- somehow. But how? Let's take a first stab at some geographic interdependence analyses (and then sign up for Geog 350 or 440 later).
  • Transporting Mass or Messages: The Big Trade-Off
    • Stutz, pp.184-191 (in Ch.4)
  • Complexity & Interdependence: From 'Networks' to 'Input-Output'
    • Stutz, pp.173-181 (in: Ch.4; "Networks")
  • Trade (emphasis on international trade)
    • Stutz, pp. 429-436 (in: Ch.10 - Trade Principles)
      • Why Trade Occurs: Stutz, pp.429-33
      • Terms of Trade: Stutz, pp.433-6
    • The 'Battle of Seattle' and the Complexities of the WTO issues [Website]
    • Can We Trace (Economic) Impacts of Layoffs or Plant Closures? The 'Economic Base' Concept
  • Capital Flows (Stutz, pp.438-444)
  • Information Flows
  • Migration and Immigration: Impacts and Issues (Who are 'Guest-Workers'?)

Week 8: Spatial Organization of Production in the New Economy

• Society organizes itself and its economic relations in countless ways, including "in space", and not just on the basis of market mechanisms. What can we learn from folks like "organization theorists" about spatial processes and "spatial organization"?
  • Are big corporations like Boeing or nonprofit organization like the Red Cross important geographic actors?
  • Aren't Companies Big Enough? Why do they Marry and Merge or Create "Strategic Alliances"?
  • Why do Companies seek their Fortunes Abraod? What is "F.D.I."?
  • Could it really be that "What is good for General Motors is ..." not necessarily good for the World, the U.S., Detroit or you?
    • Stutz, pp.368-381 (in: Ch.8) and446-450 + p.468 (mergers) (in: Ch.10)

Week 9: "High-Tech" Activities and Regional Development

• Let's improve our understanding of some of the relationships between technological change (including change in information technologies) and regional economic change and development.
  • Innovative Activity, Product Cycles and Geographic Implications
  • Technology, Innovation and Growth
    • Stutz,
      • pp. 193-218 (in: Ch.4 - "Personal Mobility")
      • pp. 335-40 (in: Ch.7 - "Smart Cities")
  • Implications: Winners and Losers
    • Jeremy Rifkin, The End of Work - 5 Years Later" ("Hightech Winners and Losers")]
      OR (a bit longer)
    • Dicken, Global Shift, Ch.13 ("Making a Living in the Global Economy")

Week 10: Patterns of Trade, International Finance & Economic Development

• If we have learned anything during the course of this quarter it should be that we appreciate more the complexity of economic development processes anywhere in the world, the difficulty of describing such processes and the impossibility of ever reaching a total agreement on how to explain such processes satisfactorily and fully.
  • Stutz,
    • Ch.10: pp.436-446 (Factor Conditions: Capital)
    • Ch.11: pp.474-479 (Composition of World Trade)
    • Ch.12: pp.528-550 (Development)