Economic Geography Increasingly free essay sample

Economic Geography increasingly rests upon the social, the environmental as well as the economic dimensions of contemporary life. Discuss (1500-2000 words) Economic geography is a broad term which can define many aspects of everyday life, in reference to everyday people, from all types of backgrounds. Economic Geography has to do with things, and services. It concerns not only the people and places that provide them, but the people and places that consume them as well. Economic Geography discusses things as commodities, created for exchange, and the exploitation of the labour invested. It concerns the mediation of exchange amp; pathways which move from production to consumption (from the birth to the death of a product) (Mackinnon and Cumbers, 2007, p. 173-213). In this essay I will talk about many ways in which the above statement can be proved, by using well-known examples to demonstrate my case. With regards to the social dimensions of contemporary life, they make up a big part of Economic Geography. We will write a custom essay sample on Economic Geography Increasingly or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are many social aspects of economic geography to do with all stages of production of a product, from start to finish. These aspects have to do mainly with (1) workers, and (2) consumers and buyers. Socialisation occurs between workers as they become acquainted with each other, mainly through the communication of business deals. These business deals are vital to ensure that everything runs smoothly. They occur when the journey of a product is being planned and supervised from beginning to end. Take for example the rice crop. It would need a plan of where and how the plant would be grown, how it would be cultivated, prepared for consumption and packaged, as well as transportation to the marketplace. This would all involve work by many people by communicating with one another and making a set plan, so that the product would be able to be sold on the marketplace for the cheapest price with a marginal profit, so as to provide for all the workers along the way. Exploitation can often happen as part of the manufacturing process of a product, whereby a person of authority would exploit a worker to make a better profit for themselves, without thinking of the working/payment conditions that the worker needs. Workers are often forced to work in poor conditions like a complete disregard for health and safety measures, such as little ventilation, cramped working spaces, and working with dangerous equipment without the proper safety precautions being taken. They are often made work long hours while being paid below the minimum wage, which isn’t sufficient for the workers financial needs. Conflict can arise between the employees and employers when the employees stand up for themselves and fight for their rights. The main concern of a business is to make a profit. As a result many workers are inevitably mistreated in the workplace. This conflict between employers and employees leads to many trade unions fighting for the rights of these employees. Fair Trade is an option whereby consumers can pay a slightly higher than average price for a select amount of goods, while the farmers, workers, and manufacturers are paid a fair price for partaking in the production process. There is a set clear minimum and progressive criteria to ensure that the conditions for the production and trade of a product are socially and economically fair and environmentally responsible (http://fairtrade. e). They are given good working conditions, and they are not mistreated by their employers, unlike what happens in some countries. Take for example the banana tree crop. If one buys fair trade bananas, they are contributing to the wellbeing of the farmers who grow and produce the crop, as well as the people who work in the manufacturing process to maintain a superior quality of the product. There are many environmental issues which can be discussed when talking about Economic Geography. An example I will talk about is the story of Love Canal in Niagara, in America. This is a strong example of how one does not need a lot of money to make a huge environmental impact. What happened in Love Canal over the last decade was clearly extremely damaging to the land used and also to the lives of what would be the future inhabitants of the area. Love Canal was a 1 mile long trench that was built in the town of Niagara in the 1890’s. Due to unforeseen economic circumstances the project was cancelled and what was left was a long vacant trench . This was to have a huge impact on the environment around this area, and as a result this influenced many families in the vicinity. In 1920 the city of Niagara used the canal as a landfill and then in 1942, Hooker chemicals used the site for burial of ‘nearly 20,000 tonnes of toxic waste’. ‘The waste was sealed in metal drums in a manner that has since been declared illegal. The canal was then filled in and the land was given to the expanding city of Niagara Falls by the chemical company. ’(http://education. yahoo. com) Niagara then built residential units and a school on the site. As a result, there was ill-health in the community in the years that followed, with ‘unusually high rates of birth defects, miscarriages, cancer, illness, and chromosome damage’ (http://education. yahoo. com). The Love Canal Homeowners association were opposed by Hooker Chemicals and the government because they had ‘no proof’. In 1978, the President of the USA at the time, Jimmy Carter, announced a federal emergency at Love Canal and he relocated 800 families . A superfund law was passed, and in 1995, Hooker Chemicals (now Occidental) were sued and agreed to pay the federal government $129,000,000. http://education. yahoo. com) This story shows how Hooker Chemicals mistreated the land that they bought, and how this brought about grave consequences for the residents in the area. Hooker chemicals believed that they could escape any penalties for what they did, by selling the land back to the government for $1. Consequently they had to pay for the many lives that they devastated due to their carelessness. This demonstrates how economic geography rests upon environmental dimensions of contemporary life. Another way in which environmental dimensions can be thought about when in relation to economic geography is by thinking about the significance of natural resources as part of economic development, and to highlight their continuing importance in the world, national and regional economies. One way in which we can think about natural resources and economic development is the topic of sustainable development. The main way in which we can put rates of resource use into line with the process of sustainable development is through using renewable resources as energy. Most of these esources are natural, and they can all be relatively cheap, as well as being environmentally friendly. There are many types of renewable resources that can be used as energy, such as solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, biomass, and geothermal energy. Not all of these can be applied to every area of the world, as weather conditions can restrict the use of some of these, for example, wind power would not be very effective if it was to be put in force in an area which has little wind, i. e. Spain. Ireland itself is very suitable for wind farm’s as there is a vast amount of hilly terrain with high speeds of wind in plentiful supply. As for economic dimensions of contemporary life themselves, they have probably had the biggest influence on economic geography. Wall Street, in particular is the single most influential entity to affect the world’s economy. Wall Street, in New York City, is the most powerful stock market in the world. Depending on whether shares in stock’s rise or fall, these can make or break a person’s financial state. For example, this recent recession that we are still trying to overcome is due to the fall in many stock shares in a short space of time. Anybody who had a large amount of shares at that time would have lost a substantial amount of money. Many businesses and firms went bankrupt and a countless amount of jobs were lost. Due to this economic recession, our economic climate, in particular Ireland has been left in complete chaos. Many people have been put under extra financial stress to try and cope with the increase in prices. Also, for many businesses to stay up and running, it has been necessary to cut the pay of many workers, putting additional financial stress on the employees. Many people have been forced to cut down everyday living essentials just to keep going. Also, as a result of the amount of jobs that have been lost, many people have resorted to living from the jobseeker’s allowance (the dole), as there are very few jobs available for people who may be unskilled. The problem with the jobseeker’s allowance is that it is often easier to live off of it rather than to get a small job, which may be all that is available. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, the salary they receive may be less than what they would get if they were living from the jobseeker’s allowance. As a result, many unemployed people in Ireland at the moment have a disincentive to go back to work. This is having a worse impact on our economy as fewer people are out there working to build Ireland’s economy back up to what it used to be. Thus, at this current time, Ireland is still finding it difficult to overcome this major economic depression that we are still presently in. To conclude the thesis that economic geography not only rests on the economic dimensions of contemporary life, but also the environmental and social dimensions of contemporary life, I will summarise my main points to follow through this argument. To prove that economic geography rests on the social dimensions of contemporary life, I will state that business would not be possible without manual labour, and business deals made by humans. The ways in which our economies work in today’s world would completely fall apart if we left it all to the work of computers alone. In order to demonstrate how the environmental dimensions of contemporary life are constantly rested upon by economic geography, I shall express how important they are, as a part of economic geography. I have previously talked about the story of Love Canal, and renewable resources as sources of energy. These two cases show how one does not need to use a lot of finance to destroy an environment, or in order to preserve an environment. With regards to the economic dimensions of economic geography, one could not be without the other. The economic state of the world was tipped upside down by the change in stock shares in a matter of days. This one thing, even as small as it seems, had a major impact on the economies of the world, and we are all still trying to recover from the recession that shortly followed. These verify that the statement that ‘economic geography increasingly rests upon the social, the environmental as well as the economic dimensions of contemporary life’ is indeed true and that there are many ways in which this can be interpreted, as well as the many ideas that I have discussed above.