WebText- GEOGRAPHY OF UTAH

 

Chapter 13 –Utah Geography and Issues of ECONOMICS

DRAFT webtext by G. Atwood, 2012 --- Still DRAFT as of Oct 1… will be updated again for the midterm exam.

 

Use with professional courtesy and attribution including attribution of original sources where indicated.

LINK to printable version… it may differ a bit from this web-posted version.

 

NOTE: Students of GEOG3600 Geography of Utah are expected to view Dr Pamela Perlich (awesome) 2012 Spring semester lecture on ISSUES of Demographics, Economics and Utah – iTunesU – GEOG3600 – audio and video March 22, 2012. NOTE… the video has no images until 5 minutes into the podcast. AND the lecture of April 4, 2012 by Bob Springmeyer, advisor on economic development, Bonneville Research. What is extra remarkable about Bob’s lecture is toward the end of the session he marches through economic development history and potential, county after county. 

 

Subtitle:

Economics… and the distribution of resources.

 

BIG CONCEPTS (several of these overlap with issues of politics and sociology), DRAFT… : 

 

Economic geography examines spatial relationships of economic factors such as trade, jobs, and economic development.

Economic development includes concepts such as: primary economies depend on resource extraction such as coal, copper, magnesium; secondary economies add value via manufacturing; tertiary economies are service economies; and quaternary economies are high-tech information economies.

The more extensive and diverse trade, the healthier the economy. More “developed” economies have trade that goes beyond local and regional to global.

Economic productivity has traditionally been measured by agricultural productivity per acre; mined tonnage per hour; or manufacturing value added.

The geography of jobs includes patterns of job losses from the Northeast and job gains of the West and South.

Distribution of resources via economic systems includes issues of: equity, opportunity,

Economic indicators calculated per capita versus per household result in somewhat different economic snapshots of Utah.

Economic health of Utah has been credited to policies to diversify Utah’s economic base; to an educated populace; and a populace with high work ethic. Challenges include: availability of capital; distances to transport goods; vulnerability to external forces such as energy boom and bust; infrastructure to meet population expansions.

Some economies are localized, for example, Carbon County has coal, and Utah County has developed high tech.

 

 

EVIDENCE. Examine these figures from Zick and Smith (2006)… wonderful book, although data are dated. .

Zick and Smith, 2006,

 

Quotation:

Need an awesome quotation…

 

LINK to The 15 Words of GEOG3600 and version that can be printed.

 

CASES:

Utah in the News – every day.

 

Topics… Questions to Ponder –

How … and why… has Utah’s economics changed in your lifetime?

How will they change in your lifetime?

So what? How have / will the changes affect you?

 

Overarching Goal of the Chapter:

Look at the people you interact with and recognize how economic issues affect you. … your job (or lack of one) … your life style, your sense of place. How are population patterns of Utah changing? How did they come to be the way they are? Embrace uncertainty. Embrace curiosity. Embrace wonder.

 

MAJOR CONCEPT:

Utah’s economy is not that of Wyoming… or California… or Michigan. Why is that?

Every county in Utah has different economic strengths, challenges, and history. What are they? Why are they?

 

Specifics: by the end of this chapter… you should:

Be able to discuss news articles about Utah in the context of (a) existing and (b) changing economics using skills of a geographer.

Recognize how economics affects you, has affected the State, and will affect your future and Utah’s future. .

 

Coaching for students of UofU GEOG3600-Geography of Utah:

You’ve memorized the Five Themes of Geography. (Location, Place, Interaction, Migration/Movement, and Region), now, memorize the five issues of social and behavioral sciences we’ll explore in Part II of the course: 

DEMOGRAPHICS

ECONOMICS

POLITICS

SOCIOLOGY

ANTRHOPOLOGY

 

 

Terms to understand with respect to issues of ECONOMICS

Understand these terms and have a sense of how they related to Geography of Utah… (a) because an understanding of these terms indicates mastery of content, and (b) because these terms may be on the midterm of final exam.

 

Economics

Trade

Markets

Capital

Wealth

Issues of equity

Consumption

Bankruptcy

Scarcity

Production

Economic productivity

Economic development

GDP – gross domestic product

Jobs / Employment

Labor

Extraction-based economy

Manufacturing

Service economy

Information-based economy

 

THEORY / CONCEPTS towards an understanding of ECONOMICS and geography of UTAH – watch the podcasts of Dr Prelich and Bob Springmeyer’s lectures. 

 

FINAL SECTION OF THIS CHAPTER… So What?

GeogUtah Mantra. That’s the underlying assumption of UofU GEOG3600-Geography of Utah.

Understanding leads to a sense of place… understand Utah, understand human geography… specifically…

Tie ECONOMICS to others of the 15 Themes of Geography of Utah. See the web of relationships among Utah’s peoples, places and environments. See the web of The 15 Words of GEOG3600… the matrix.

 

For ECONOMICS… webs will be immediately apparent for the four other issues of social and behavioral science. But think about how demographics affects water (the HYDROSPHERE); and how it is linked to MOVEMENT. Are any of the 15 themes of Geography of Utah not woven in some way into webs of relationships with ECONOMICS?

 

LIST of “The 15 Words”

Loc

Place

Migra

Inter

Region

 

Geo

Hydro

Atmo

Bio

Anthro

 

Econ

Demog

PoliSci

Sociol

QLife

 

SELF QUIZ

What is meant by economics, economic development, or a healthy economy?

As you look around you… do you see some of the patterns presented as graphs and maps in the “Evidence” section…

And as you think about economics and a place (school, school district, community, county) in Utah, can you hypothesize why its economics are those of the “evidence” section? For example, does it make sense that Salt Lake County’s economic development is more similar to Utah County’s than to those of Rich County?

Could you enjoy exploring the following question: Compare and contrast the information of Zick and Smith, Table 8.2, Annual new vehicle market shared in Utah and in the US by brand?

 

SUMMARY:

Utah’s economics today partly determined by global and national factors and by governmental policies… State policies as well as national policies. Utah’s economy has evolved differently than that of Wyoming or Iowa or Michigan. Understanding National contrasts and contrast within Utah is a topic of human geography. The big concepts of this chapter… however DRAFT in 2012… provide ways to examine economic change. The 15 Themes of Geography of Utah are affected by issues of economics and make the topic of economics and geography of Utah timely and important to Utah’s future.