2023-2024 Pierce College Catalog 
    
    Nov 21, 2024  
2023-2024 Pierce College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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GEOG 207 Economic Geography (5 credits)



Distribution Area Fulfilled Social Sciences; General Transfer Elective
Course Description
The changing locations and spatial patterns of economic activity, including: production in agriculture, manufacturing, and services; spatial economic principles of trade, transportation, communications, and corporate organization; regional economic development, and the diffusion of technological innovation. Topics include international trade, colonialism, industrial capitalism, advanced capitalism, and the globalization of labor markets.

Course Content
A. Introducing Economic Geography
B. From Commercial Geography to the “Cultural Turn”? Approaches to Economic Geography
C. Shaping the Capitalist Economy: Key Actors and Processes
D. Spaces of Production and Consumption
E. Globalization and Uneven Development
F. The State and the Economy
G. The Changing Geography of the Multinational Corporation
H. Geographies of the New Service Economy
I. Changing Geographies of Work and Employment
J. Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy: Innovation, Learning and Clusters
K. Geographies of Development
L. Tourism, Culture and Economic Development

Student Outcomes
1. Recognize the need for sharply defined concepts and concisely articulated conceptualizations in the pursuits of topics and issues in the social sciences, in general, and economic geography

2. Account for different ways in which time is an important dependent or independent variable in economic-geographic analyses and be able to articulate instances where time and space interact and constrain each other.

3. Recognizes different kinds and levels of “complexities” in a regional economy and in the spatial facets of the economic composition of, and interdependencies within such an economy.

4. Describe the effects of geographic scale on spatial processes: Is able to provide examples for principles and dynamic processes which apply (with or without modifications) at different geographic levels.

5. Articulate some of the relationships between an economic actor and her/his decision environment which may be relatively simple or complex, certain or uncertain, local or global, placid or turbulent.

6. Appreciate the diversity and complexity of the economies of cities and has some understanding of the way in which general principles of economic geography can be applied to urban economies, their functions and spatial structure.

7. Recognize the importance of (access to) information sources and the need to evaluate critically the quality and reliability of such sources in light of the research question(s), the costs (including limitations) and benefits of that information and the information from alternative sources and (last not least) the possible availability of alternative conceptual frameworks and analytical methods with different information needs.

8. Express how society and its economic actors organize themselves in space, how spatial, economic, institutional and other variables interact in the evolution of such organizational structures, and how organizational configurations in space have, in turn important implications for the economic and social well-being of affected groups and societies.

9. Describe the relationships between technological change (including change in information technologies) and regional economic development.

10. Characterize the complexity of economic development processes anywhere in the world, the difficulty of describing such processes and the impossibility of ever reaching a total agreement on how to explain such processes satisfactorily and fully.

Degree Outcomes
Social Sciences: Graduates analyze and interpret social phenomenon using social science theories and methods.

Critical, Creative and Reflective Thinking: Graduates will evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and generate ideas; construct informed, meaningful, and justifiable conclusions; and process feelings, beliefs, biases, strengths, and weaknesses as they relate to their thinking, decisions, and creations.

Global Citizenship: Graduates will be able to critically examine the relationship between self, community, and/or environments, and to evaluate and articulate potential impacts of choices, actions, and contributions for the creation of sustainable and equitable systems.

Lecture Contact Hours 50
Lab Contact Hours 0
Clinical Contact Hours 0
Total Contact Hours 50

Potential Methods
A. Written assignments
B. Online discussions
C. Quizzes
D. Exams
E. Observation of student participation in class discussions and other class activities



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