Course Description:
This course offers an overview of various aspects of global economy within the field of economic geography and its linkages to related issues of resources, development, international business and trade. It investigates the phenomenon of globalization and seeks to provide understanding of today’s increasingly interdependent world. Geographers are interested in examining the difference location makes to how economic activity is organized as globalization makes small differences among places increasingly important. This course recognizes that economy cannot be treated separately from other domains of social studies so such topics as political economic theories and models, historical context, consumption trends, role of telecommunications, and others will be discussed.
Course Objectives:
- Fundamentals regarding the dynamics of the global economy and a basic understanding of the evolution of spatial organization theory
- Characteristics of capitalist economies; examine economic causes of population change and new trends in urban sprawl, human modification of environment and impact of mass consumption, role play location decisions of firms and reveal geographic organization of corporations
- The effects of agricultural practices on the land, recent global shifts in manufacturing, growth of service sector, innovations in transport and communications
