Geography
Industry
Why is it called a system?
Because it has imputs, processes and outputs.
Factors affecting the location of industry:
Physical factors Human and economic factors
Raw materials should be near the factory if Labour quantity and quality (special skills)
they are dif cult to transport. Capital (money) used to depend on loans,
Power - energy for machinery. Used to need now banks and governments may provide to
be near coal or rivers, but now electricity can money.
be transported easily. Markets size and location of markets more
Natural routes rivers and at areas were important than source of raw materials.
needed before the railway, car or lorry. Transport costs increase with dif culty of
Site and land early industry needed at land transporting raw materals.
and now it tends to be on green eld locations. Economies of scale small units=unpro table
so they merge or are taken over by larger ones
Government policies control most wealth
and in uence industrial location.
Improved technology
Leisure facilities
Some reasons for job losses:
● Exhaustion / lack / shortage of resources.
● Introduction of new machinery / methods needing fewer workers.
● Fall in demand for product.
● Site needed for other uses.
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● Competition from overseas.
● Lack of money for investment.
● Competition from rival products.
● Global recession.
The high-technology industry
Refers to industries developed within the last 25 years and whose processing techniques
often involve microelectronics, but could also involve high-tech clothes, research, vaccines,
drugs (pharmaceutical industry), etc.
Type of industry:
Tertiary and quaternary.
Workers needed:
Few, skilled, creative, intelligent, inventive, etc.
Very little raw material needed means they can be in any place = "footloose companies".
Sunset industries: older, in decline.
Sunrise industries: are new.
Where are they located?
In the outskirts (edge-of-city), closer among them, nice conditions/atmosphere to attract
workforce, near main roads, leisure facilities, open green spaces, ornaments, alternative
sources of energy ("green eld sites"), with modern buildings, also capital $.
Why do similar industries locate together?
To exchange ideas and information between them, sharing maintenance, support services,
basic amenities like connecting roads and building a pool of highly skilled labour.
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CASE STUDY: "M4 Corridor"
Bussiness parks: include supermarkets, more leisure facilities.
Science parks: same but with connections/links with universities.
Transnational corporations
These are the ones that operate in many countries regardless of national boundaries, and
sees the world as its supplier of labour, raw materials, component parts and its area of sale.
The headquarters are located in MEDCs and most of its manufacturing and assembling
plants in LEDCs.
CASE STUDY: "Ford in Detroit"
The rst Ford factory was located on at land next to the Detroit River. The owner payed his
workers a high wage to encourage them to buy their own cars, which he produced. This
attracted workers from all over the world, and, nowadays, Ford is manufacturing/assembling
its cars worldwide.
CASE STUDY: Nike
Nike trainers are sold all around the world, but its headquarters are in the USA. The company
subcontracts independently owned factories in LEDCs to produce its trainers (where labour
costs are lower). Their main activities used to be in South Korea, but labour costs rose and
NIke decided to move production to Indonesia. Many of the Indonesian workers lived in
poverty, but the conditions they moved to were not so much better: they had long hours and
low wages, industrial accidents and no workers' rights (trade unions are illegal in Indonesia).
If they protest they lose their jobs, so they just have to stay open to exploitation.
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CASE STUDY: "A newly industralising country (NIC)" - Malaysia
Paci c Rim: "tiger economies" are newly industralised countries like South Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong that have been developing and industralising over the last
decades. Industry has grown and continues to grow in Malaysia since it started to export
manufactured goods instead of primary products. This was possible because the government
was stable and wanted the change, multi-national companies were encouraged to invest,
wage rates were very low, there was plenty of labour (well educated compared with other
LEDCs) and access to ports and main shipping routes. Industrial areas were set aside for
factories, some make clothing, but many make goods and software for the high-technology
sector. Malaysia also has its own car company, which exports worldwide.
Industry in LEDCs
Formal and informal sectors:
The cities in LEDCs have a high level of unemployment because of overpopulation (not
enough jobs available), and it has been worsening.
·
Formal Informal
Employee of a large rm. Self-employed.
Often a transnational. Small-scale/family enterprise.
Much capital employed. Little capital involved.
Capital-intensive with relatively few workers, Labour-intensive with the use of very few
mechanised. tools.
Expensive raw materials. Using cheap or recycled waste materials.
Regular hours and wages. Irregular hours and uncertain wages.
Legal. Often outside the law (illegal).
Manufacturing. Distributive.
Government-created jobs such as the police. Services such as shoecleaners.
Small-scale industry.
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Advantages
Uses some skilled and many unskilled workers Employs many thousands of unskilledworkers
Provides permanent jobs and regular wages. May provide skills for better future jobs.
Produces goods for the wealthy within their Pro t used within the city, products for local
own country, as well as the pro ts. low-paid people.
Waste materials provide raw materials for the Uses local and waste materials.
informal sector.
CASE STUDY: "Industry in a LEDC" - India
"The Jewel of the Crown"; India used to be very rich until Britain made it part of the British
Empire and exhausted its resources, leaving it as one of the world's poorest nations.
After independance from Britain, the Indian government put into action a series of ve-years
plans called import substitution, which means it needed to produce all the goods so it would
not be necessary to import from abroad. It also tried investing great amounts of money on
developing a manufacturing industry, but they faced several problems: power shortages,
trade de cits (imported more than exported), poor transport links, corruption and inef ciency
led to waste. Also, the population is too poor to afford consumer goods, so they can not sell
anything.
Unemployment is also a huge problem in India, so the informal sector is the main activity,
although it is hard to estimate numbers because informal activities are illegal.
Sustainable development and appropriate technology
High-tech industries are too expensive for most LECDs, but are also inappropiate to the
needs of the local people and to the environment they live in.
Appropiate technology:
Technology that suits the needs of the place in which is used. It can contribute to a more
sustainable lifestyle for both rich and poor people living iin both MEDCs and LEDCs.
Appropiate technology for the rich would be high-tech related, and for the poor there are
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alternative forms of technology to be adopted:
● labour-intensive projects without machines helps with unemployment.
● sustainable technology that uses the existing skills and techniques of local people.
● the use of tools designed to take advantage of local knowledge and resources.
● low-cost schemes using affordable and manageable technologies.
● developing projects in harmony with the environment.
Sustainable development:
A way of improving people's standard of living and quality of life without wasting resources or
harming the environment for the future.
CASE STUDY: "Practical Action" - Kenya
1) The Maasai Housing Project: Towards sustainable rural housing improvement. The
traditional Maasai house was made from posts, a soil/cowdung mixture, and grass, with a
narrow space for an entrance and ventilation. It was a cramped space shared with the sheep
and goats, often termite-infested posts and full of health risks. Practical Action is helping to
nd sustainable and affordable ways to upgrade them, such as a thin layer of cement
covering the roofs, where water is now collected, saving the women the daily labour of
walking several kilometers to the nearest river. They are also changing the termite-infested
posts for another material of better quality (termite-proof) that allowed larger openings and a
chimney.
2) Roo ng materials: Improved urban building materials include better roo ng tiles that are
proved to be far less expensive than commercially produced tiles.
3) Energy: Potters are trained in the productio of two types of fuel-ef cient cooking stoves
that reduce the amounts of fuel needed, and are made from recycled scrap and ceramic.
They save people time in collecting wood and money buying charcoal, as well as improving
women's health by reducing the amount of smoke produced.
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CASE STUDY: "Industry in MEDCs" - Osaka-Kobe, Japan
Osaka Kobe is one of Japan's mayor conurbation areas thanks to its natural harbour, the
imports and processes of the mayority of raw materials needed in Japan, and the relatively
at land around the bay. Land in Osaka Bay has been reclaimed for port development, new
industries and an international airport. There is a wealthy domestic market because of the
large population in Osaka. There has been a rapid growth in high-tech industries. Osaka is
the centre of many banks and companies.
Japan's industrial pyramid: Their industry is based on hard work, loyalty and trust. They
use a pyramid to organize it, divided into 3 parts: on top, the large transnational companies
like Panasonic, in the middle the medium-sized companies like Kawasaki, and in the base of
the pyramid, the thousands of small, family-run rms.
From oil to camcorders: There are port petrochemical industries that process oil into plastic,
this plastic is taken to the workshop district of Osaka. In this area lives a couple that produces
plastic parts and sells pieces to the Kawasakis that at the same time sell to Panasonic, a
transnational corporation.
Panasonic - Transnational company: This company only assembles the component parts
and employs few skilled people. The mayor problem the company faces are related to
competition from the NIC's, they're trying to meet this challenge by: investing in setting up
assemblies in other countries, research and development and seeking to develop new
products.
Two recent developments: First, the demolishing of the 100 year old Nippon steelworks,
and the using of former employees to create and develop new forms of technology. And
second, building up 11 new science parks that paid for Japan's leading corporations with their
research and their purpose is to maintain japan's high-technology as one of the most
developed ones.
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CASE STUDY: Industry in LEDCs - São Paulo, Brasil
Brazil is the most industralised of the world's LEDCs, but it is not evenly spread, mainly
concentrated in São Paulo.
"Economic miracle": The city is surrounded by minerals and has access to energy
resources, so transnational companies settle there, because it is cheaper for them, but also
developing industries. Even though this industralization brought employment, it also created
problems like air pollution, traf c jams, high land prices and lack of open spaces.
Jundaia: All those problems led to the movement of industries to other towns like Jundaia, to
attract industry by building major roads and locating in a cleaner, less congested
environment. Transnational companies here provide employment in the formal sector, like
Pepsi, that employs 350 people, rising their standards of living.
Edith Gardens: Residents from this favela usually work for the informal sector, unable to
enjoy better standards of living.
Alcione Florencia: She lived for 3 years in the Edith Gardens unemployed, until she turned
her house into a bar. Now, the government wants to demolish the favela for redevelopment,
but the money they offer is not enough for her to relocate, so she would probably end up in
another favela.
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