I. The Theory
The study of economic development detached from political, cultural, or regional context does not reflect reality. Immanuel Wallerstein’s World-Systems Theory, the best known core-periphery model, provided a framework that takes into account geography, scale, place, and culture. This theory holds that the world is much more than the sum total of the world’s states.
Much like a pointillist painting, we must understand a states’ spatial and functional relationship within the world economy. The development of a world economy began with capitalist exchange as a result of the European Age of Colonialism and the Commercial Revolution, in which corporations and states produce goods and services to be exchanged for profit. The Europeans exported their political concepts of the nation-state, facilitating the construction of an interdependent global economy.
There are three basic tenets to the World-Systems Theory:
The world economy:
- is a single market with a global division of labor.
- contains multiple interconnected states.
- has a three-tie structure (core, periphery, and semi-periphery).
Today, a global division of labor (1) has emerged in which corporations can draw from labor markets around the world. This has been made possible largely due to due to time-space convergence – the accelerated movement of goods and information through improvements in transportation and telecommunications (time-space compression is the psychological effect). The friction of distance – the increase in time and cost along with increasing distance – has been dramatically reduced due to technologies like containerization and the Internet.
Despite the existence of around 200 states, everything takes place within the context of the world economy (2). These states are aligned along a spectrum of three tiers: the core, periphery, and semi-periphery (3). The core states contain populations with higher levels of health, wealth, education, and technology. They generate more wealth for the world economy. The periphery contains populations with lower health, wealth, education, and less technology. These states maintain a more marginal position in the world economy. Additionally, the semi-periphery has both core and peripheral processes occurring within and outside of their borders. They may be exploited by the core states, but in turn exploit the periphery.
The core-periphery model is fundamentally different from the modernization model because it holds that not all places can be equally wealthy in the capitalist world-economy. It also presumes that socioeconomic change will not occur the same way in all places, and is there therefore sensitive to the geographic context in economic terms, at least. However, it does suggest that countries do not necessarily develop in stages, rather, the entire system does. New technologies require the use of different resources, which may alter the importance of some regions over others (which helps to explain why some states have developed faster than other states). The core-periphery model is also applicable at multiple scales. For instance, it can exist within a local area (a central business district in a city), within a region (Miami is the core of South Florida), within a country (Johannesburg is the core of South Africa), or within the context of the world (Japan is a core state).
|
III. Instructional Procedures
1. Look at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) Data Sheet and pay attention to the top where several values are listed. You may also look at the CIA World Factbook, select a country to view, and pay particular attention to the tabs labeled "People and Society" and "Economy". Focus on the values for more developed countries (MDC) versus less developed countries (LDC).
2. Determine which indicators from the PRB Data Sheet or CIA World Factbook are most important and why. Select four key indicators you will use to determine the development of a country. It is best to select a variety of indicators that help determine relative measures of health, wealth, education, and technology (e.g., infant mortality rate (health), per capita GNI PPP (wealth), etc.).
3. Take out the data sheet and fill in the information on each region, and two countries per region. Note: It would be wise to choose countries that fit the norm for each respective region, rather than the exception (e.g., Mauritius – in Eastern Africa - has a much higher per capita GNI PPP than the next highest in that region - Zimbabwe). *This is the only step in which you may wok with a partner (the rest must be done independently).
4. Using the data gathered, you are to establish categories for each of the regions according to levels of development. Use the three categories of core, periphery, and semi-periphery. Now, create break points by determining what values you will use from each of the key indicators to classify where a country will fall within one of those three categories (will need to come up with these break point values on your own, and you may need to adjust them if your categories seem inaccurate). You may look up reputable organizations that already categorize countries according to development to check your accuracy (e.g., World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund, CIA, etc.)
5. Once you have classified the levels of development, assign each of them a color (e.g., core = blue, semi-periphery = green, periphery = red). Fill in the selected color for each country on your table sheet. Pay attention to some of the cartographic principles involved in making a choropleth map.
6. Create your map using the gathered information. Fill in the region (not just the two countries per region) with the color you chose. If two countries within one region have different colors on your data sheet, select which one would best fit the region as a whole (blue for high, green for upper-middle,...). The map should have most of the TODALSIG elements (Title, Orientation, Date, Author, Legend, Scale, Index (not applicable) Grid (not necessary)). Note: some countries are notable exceptions, with levels of development much higher than the states adjacent to them. States such as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand could be labeled differently if you choose.
7. Once the maps are completed, notice the implications of the pattern. Draw a line separating developed and developing countries using the data to guide you. Note the general location of this line as drawn on the maps. This line occurs at approximately 30 N latitude (with the obvious exception of Australia and New Zealand) and is commonly called the "Brandt Line", or the North-South Divide.
|
IV. Assessment
Data sheets and core-periphery chloropleth maps
will be turned in and graded for completeness, accuracy and aesthetics. In
addition, the following questions are to be answered and turned in:
1. Explain your rationale in choosing the four
key indicators you selected, as well as the categories you established for each
indicator.
2. Discuss the geographic implications of the
north/south divide revealed by this map?
3. Why might the pattern on this map be a
geographic critique of Rostow's model of development? (Hint: Consider if
development levels might be different if developed and less developed countries
were more geographically intertwined)
4. What problems of development might this
geographic pattern imply? Discuss the validity of the core-periphery model.
5. What limitations might the core-periphery
model have as a geographic critique of economic models of development? What are
some other critiques? |