GEO-201-A Economic Geography
Spring 2011
Department of Geography and Meteorology
Professor: Michael Longan Ph.D.
Office: Kallay-Christopher
201C
Phone 464-6874
E-mail:
Mike.Longan@valpo.edu
Office Hours: MWF 10:10-11:00 a.m., MW 12:00-12:50, R 1:00-1:50
and by appointment.
Consider the above photograph of the beach in
Economic geography differs from the discipline of
economics in that place and space are its primary concerns.
Traditional economic theory often does not consider the spatial
quality of economic processes and treats the world as if specific
places do not matter. Once spatial differences are considered,
economic theory becomes much more complicated.
One of the most valuable aspects of economic geography is that
it makes connections between seemingly abstract economic processes and
their effects in specific places.
Thus economic geography is often less about abstract models
than it is about how economic processes work themselves out for
specific people in specific places.
Economic Geography is a rapidly changing and innovative field. In this class we will sample a few classical theories and models even as we explore emerging perspectives and themes. Among the most recent developments in economic geography is a greater engagement with the goal of sustainability. Sustainable development involves a threefold concern with issues of environmental quality, economic well-being, and social justice. Furthermore, these issues are increasingly important at the global scale as we deal with global environmental issues (including climate change) a globalized economy, and large contrasts in levels of development at the global scale. How can we simultaneously achieve economic growth, decrease poverty, and nurture a healthy environment? That is the big question we will ask this semester.
Course Objectives
After
this course is over, students will
1.
Understand and remember major concepts in economic geography including
friction of distance, spatial interaction, time-space compression,
etc.
2.
Understand and remember major conceptual models in economic geography
including transportation models, the gravity model, urban land use
models, central place theory, industrial location models, and theories
of development, models of economic growth and decline (among others).
Students will also understand the strengths and weaknesses of
these models.
3.
Be able to use conceptual models, theories, and perspectives from
economic geography to interpret the economic geography of specific
places or commodities.
4.
Be able to recognize and analyze the geographical dimensions of
economic problems they encounter in the media, in their future
studies, or in their future vocations.
5.
Be prepared to identify the interaction between economic geography and
other subfields of human geography (including urban geography, social
geography, population geography, environmental geography, etc.) or
their own majors and vocational aspirations.
6.
Understand how economic processes connect their own lives to
those of others and how economic choices they make affect the lives of
other people.
7.
Be able to assess how economic processes help to structure specific
places and the lives of people living in those places.
8. Develop a greater
interest in how economic processes shape the geography of places and
of people’s lives.
9.
Be familiar with a number of sources of data for understanding
economic geography of regions and products.
10. Be able to understand economic and geographic
models and ideas they encounter in the future.
Course
Web Site and E-mail List
The course website will have the most up-to date
information about the course.
On the website you will find this syllabus, a detailed
schedule, links to interesting internet resources, and copies of your
homework assignments. I
will also use the e-mail list to send you important reminders or to
comment further on material covered in class.
You may also use the e-mail list to extend discussion after
class. Sometimes our best
ideas occur to us after we have been thinking about things awhile.
Feel free to use the e-mail list to share your important
insights with me and with the rest of the class. The course web site
will be moved to a different server shortly after the semester ends.
The anticipated address is included above.
The
Student’s Responsibility for Learning Course Content
It is the student’s responsibility to learn the
content of the course (theories, concepts, ideas, etc.) by doing the
reading, thinking about it before class, and talking to the professor
about gaps in understanding.
Our class sessions will be devoted to reviewing the material
you have read in order to solidify your understanding, answering
questions prompted by the reading, introducing new material where
appropriate, applying what you have learned to understand specific
cases, and critically analyzing the material you have read.
You should expect to do two to three hours of work outside of
class for every hour in class.
Please manage your time appropriately.
Policy on
Late Assignments You must hand in all of your
assignments on time. If
because of circumstances beyond your control you need more time to
complete an assignment please see me ahead of time (at least a day in
advance) to ask for an extension.
Extensions may or may not be granted depending upon the
circumstances. If you
must turn in an assignment late and you did not ask for an extension,
include a written explanation of the reason for its tardiness along
with the assignment. If
the explanation is judged to be inadequate the assignment will not be
accepted or will be accepted for reduced credit.
Assignments
You need to purchase the following textbooks:
-
Coe, Neil, Philip Kelly, and Henry Yeung. 2007. Economic Geography: A Contemporary Introduction.
- Robbins, Pual, John Hintz, and Sarah A. Moore.
2010.
Environment and Society,
Critical Introductions to Geography. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
One additional reading will be required and will
be made available through the course web site (see Analytical Essay
Instructions below). You will need to do the assigned reading before
each class meeting. You should also review relevant sections of the
text after each class meeting to cement your understanding.
The Economic Geography
text provides foundational knowledge of contemporary economic
geography and will inform most of the lectures in the course.
You may need to do more than casual reading to fully understand
many of the concepts and models the text introduces.
The second text,
Environment and Society provides us with additional perspectives
and case studies to help us broaden our focus and understand the
complexity of economic geography and the world.
Homework
Assignments and In Class Assignments
One of the most exciting aspects of economic
geography is the extent to which the ideas and models we discuss can
be applied to examine real-world data and case studies.
Working out examples and applying models and theories to
interpret specific cases will be the major focus of your homework and
in-class assignments. You
will have three types of homework and in-class assignments. I have
listed anticipated specific assignments here but I may or may not be
inspired to create more or to drop some of those listed.
Type 1.
On any given day I may ask you to make some observations, find
examples, or reflect in writing on ideas we will discuss in the next
class period. These
assignments will be vital for discussion in the next class period so
do not forget to do them.
They will be graded on a pass fail basis and may not necessarily be
handed in. Here’s an anticipated list:
·
Everyday:
Come to class having completed the assigned reading! You may be
asked about it.
·
Friday January 7: Bring an example of
globalization, uneven development, environmental sustainability.
·
Friday January 14: Bring an
advertisement from an energy company, an environmental group, or a
financial firm or bank to class that illustrates a particular
discourse about the economy, globalization, or the environment.
·
Friday March 18:
Battle of the paradigms. Come
to class ready to argue about solutions to the problem of
deforestation from the market, political economy, or ethics approach.
·
Friday March 25: Come to class ready to
play the role of one of the stakeholders in the debate over wolf
management.
Type 2.
A second type of homework or in-class assignments will
typically ask you to work through examples of models covered in class,
or you will be asked to respond to questions about applications of
theory in economic geography.
These assignments will be graded based upon the quality of the
work you hand in. Here is
an anticipated list:
·
Wednesday Feb 9th Network
Assignment handed out, due Wednesday Feb 16th
·
Monday April 4th Central
Place Exercise handed out, due Friday April 8th.
Type 3.
There will be three occasions when an extended assignment will
be assigned. For the
first, you will write an analytical essay on
The Tragedy of the Commons
(see below). For the
second you will keep track of your consumption for a week and report
on the geography of your consumption habits.
For the third assignment you will conduct a study of Lincolnway
with other students in the class.
It will involve both field work during class and work outside
of class interpreting your results. The due dates for these projects
are:
·
Friday January 28th draft of
your essay due. Final Essay due Wednesday February 2.
·
Wednesday March 30 come to class with
your consumption project completed.
·
Monday April 25 Lincolnway Field Study
Project and Group Presentation due.
Analytical
Essay Instructions
You will be asked to write a short analytical
essay evaluating Garrett Hardin’s
Tragedy of the Commons.
In your essay you should briefly summarize Hardin’s
argument about the tragedy of the commons and his proposed solutions
(no more than a page).
Then in the rest of your essay answer the Exercise Question “A Commons
Nearby” on pg. 61 of The Environment and Society textbook (Robbins).
You will need to complete a draft of your essay on the day we
discuss the article so that you are prepared for discussion. A final
revised paper is due the next class period.
This will allow you to refine your arguments and improve you
paper based upon what you learn in discussion.
The paper should be 4-5 pages (double spaced, stapled, one inch
margins). Use section headings to separate the two parts of the paper
and subheadings as necessary. See Standards for written work below.
Attendance
and Participation
I expect early or
on-time attendance for all
class sessions unless you are ill, you are required to attend a
university event, you have a family emergency, or you have made prior
arrangements with me. If you must miss class for these reasons please
provide me with a written note or an e-mail so that I can excuse your
absence in my records. If you send me e-mail please place the words
“GEO201 Absence” in the subject line to help me in my record keeping.
Absences for any other reason will lower your grade. Please be early
for class. Coming in late distracts your professor and your fellow
students and often some of the most important ideas are presented at
the beginning of class. You will lose attendance points if you are
consistently late.
Your active participation in class is essential
for this class to go well.
I will do my best to provide a comfortable and welcoming
environment for discussion. Participation will not be formally graded,
but you will lose points from your Type 1 grade if you are not
prepared to participate because you either did not complete the
reading assignment or did not complete a homework assignment essential
for class discussion.
Exams
There will be three exams in this course; two
midterms and a final exam.
They will be a combination of short answer and essay questions.
They may also include some multiple choice questions.
The exams will focus primarily upon the topics discussed in the
preceding section of the course.
However, the second midterm and the final exam will also ask
you to integrate knowledge gained throughout the course.
Thus while the exams are not comprehensive, you will not be
able to forget everything you learned in the previous section of the
course.
Research
Project
You have two options for your final project.
1)
Geography of a Commodity. Write a case study
on the economic geography of commodity much like those in the
Environment and Society
book that makes use of concepts and theories learned in this course.
Your paper should briefly trace the history of the commodity
and then analyze it using at least three of the perspectives about
environment-society relationship discussed in the book (Population and
Scarcity, Markets and Commodities, Institutions and “The Commons,”
Environmental Ethics, Risks and Hazards, Political Economy, Social
Construction of Nature).
2) Regional Economic Geography. Use concepts and theories learned in this course to do an analysis of some aspect of Northwest Indiana's or Chicago's Economic Geography. For instance, you might want to use theories from economic geography to help explain the locations of a certain category of businesses in Valparaiso or Chicago. You might report on the impact of economic restructuring on Gary and the surrounding region or on efforts to compensate for the loss of industrial sector jobs. You could report on the effects of industrial development on the environment in NW Indiana. You might want to look at issues of poverty or economic aspects of transportation issues. Although your project focus is upon this region, this does not mean that it necessarily is local in concern. For instance, you may want to consider how changes within the global economy affect this region or trace economic flows among this region and other regions. Your project may employ the use of GIS analysis if that is something that you are familiar and comfortable with.
For both options, you will need to complete a
final written report (approximately 7-10 pages).
Your final written report will consist of four parts.
The first part will be an introduction that introduces your
commodity or topic. The
second part will explain in depth the theories, concepts, and
perspectives that are relevant to your particular project.
The third part part will apply those theories, concepts, and
perspectives to the analysis of the commodity you chose or to local
economic geographies. The
fourth part will be a conclusion that ties together discussion of
theories, concepts, and perspectives and your specific case.
Your paper should combine background information
from secondary sources (existing research on your topic) and should
analyze data from primary sources (newspaper articles, the landscape
itself, interviews, statistics, advertisements, billboards, etc.). For
the second part of the paper explaining theories and concepts your
primary source will be your text along with a few additional secondary
sources (see the ends of the chapters for good lists of additional
sources). You may also
find journal articles or even books on the economic geography of this
region or on your commodity.
For part three of the commodity paper, you might turn to
industry publications, advertising, or other primary source materials.
For part three of the regional economic geography option, an
initial source of inspiration may be the landscape itself.
For instance, the picture on the front of this syllabus spurs
any number of questions about the economic geography of
We will not cover all aspects of economic
geography until the end of the semester.
That does not mean that you have to limit your analysis to
issues we discuss at the beginning of class--you may read ahead if
something discussed later in the course is of interest to you.
To facilitate getting the project completed you
need to observe the following due dates.
·
February 25 A research proposal that:
includes a general research question, identifies the concepts,
theories, and perspectives that you think will be relevant for your
analysis, and a preliminary list of primary and secondary sources, or
a list of the kinds of primary and secondary sources that you plan to
employ in answering your research question.
(Worth 5 points or 1% of final grade)
·
April 20 A draft of your paper.
(Worth 5 points or 1% of final grade)
·
Monday May 2 Final Paper Due
Failure to
hand in the research proposal, the first draft, or to hand in the
final draft on time will result in a deduction from the final grade on
your paper.
Standards
for Written Work
Your written work (the analytical essays and the
final paper, etc.) should conform to the following standards:
·
Papers should be typed, double spaced
with one inch margins, using a Times Roman or other similar serif
font.
Courier style fonts
are not to be used).
Papers should be stapled in the upper left hand corner. Plastic
report covers should not be used.
·
Papers should cite sources and use the
author date style of referencing commonly used in the discipline of
geography. See a copy of
the Annals of the Association
of American Geographers for examples.
·
Research papers should make use of
sources from the World Wide Web only when the source is a government
agency or other reliable institution, and online version of a print
resource (i.e. article databases), or when it is the online source
itself that is the subject of the research.
See your professor concerning the appropriateness of using
sources from the Web. You
should not use Wikipedia or other online encyclopedic references in a
college level paper.
·
Papers should be free of mechanical and
grammatical errors.
·
Papers should conform to the
requirements of the specific assignments (given above).
Grading
| Attendance | 5% | 25 points |
| Type 1 Homework | 7% | 35 points |
| Type 2 Homework | 4% | 20 points |
| Analytical Essay | 10% | 50 points |
| Consumption Project | 6% | 30 points |
| Lincolnway Field Study | 6% | 30 points |
| Research Project (30% for paper 1%
each |
||
| for proposal and draft) | 32% | 160 points |
| Exams (3 @ 10% each) | 30% | 150 |
| Total | 100% | 500 points |
Accommodations for Students With Disabilities
If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or
learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know
during the first week of class so that your learning needs may be
appropriately met. All discussions will remain confidential.
Authorized Aid and the Honor Code
The Honor Code will be upheld in this course.
Authorized aid in this class will be limited to your own personal
knowledge during exams and your own work on all written exercises.
When preparing your homework you may discuss the assignments with
others but your written answers should be your own.
You are encouraged to use the services of the writing center
and you should have someone else proofread or offer suggestions on
your essay assignments before handing them in.
You must use quotation marks for direct quotes,
cite your sources, and include a list of works cited on your essay
assignments. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and may be
considered unauthorized aid because you are essentially representing
someone else’s work as your own. Many first year students mistakenly
believe that it is OK to cut and paste text from web sites into their
papers without providing both quotation marks and a proper citation.
Web sites are no different from any other source and need to be cited
fully. If you do not know how to cite your sources or have any
questions about this, please ask your professor. Finally sharing your
papers written for this class with others on the Internet without
notifying the professor first or downloading papers written by others
to hand in (either in part or in their entirety) constitutes
unauthorized aid.
The
Structure of the Course
The course is divided into two major parts.
The first part introduces the major themes and explores the
major perspectives we might employ to understand the economic
geography of our world and environmental problems.
Also in the first part of the class we explore the spatial
dynamics of economies and the economic dynamics of space.
The second part of class focuses upon the spatial behavior of
economic actors, including nature.
In order to understand why corporations, laborers, and people
in general act like they do, we also need to understand something
about the culture of economics and the economics of culture. We tie
everything in the course together on Commodity Fridays (and one
Monday) with a look at the complex economic and social geographies
behind a variety of “Objects of Concern.”
