Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the neat systematic categories. This interpretation, however,
is contested: many economic geographers ignore the debate
surrounding the claims of the cultural turn. Furthermore, in
Britain at least, economists have increasingly taken up the
rigorous methods of spatial science and it is they who offer a 'new'
economic geography that is evidence-based and tackles existing
problems in society.
Geographies of development have a strong economic content
but also demonstrate the importance of recognizing the power
of cultural and political factors. Traditionally, development
geography studied the disparities between different countries of
the world and the causes that underlay these disparities. There
has long been a distinction between More Developed Countries
(MDCs) and Less Developed Countries (LDCs), with the addition
of Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) to recognize change.
Countries were placed in categories defi ned by measures such
as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Human Development
Indices that combine measures such as life expectancy and
literacy levels. Causes are many, but there are wider explanations
such as dependency theory, which suggests that LDCs continue
to be exploited by MDCs and global corporate investment.
Organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank
are major players in attempts to reduce disparities, and there
are detailed studies of debts carried by LDCs. The debt burden
remains and is exacerbated by civil wars, famines, and the onset
of pandemic diseases such as AIDS. The politics of development
is also a major issue that covers both the 'benevolence' of the
MDCs and the attitudes of LDCs towards change. Questions
of sustainability fi gure increasingly in development geography
as the tensions between development and the needs of the
environment become clearer. Here again, MDCs and LDCs may
have quite separate agendas. There is also strong awareness of the
need to avoid the abandonment of local modes of agriculture and
native economies and to use the consultative channels that are
available.
