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Mapping development - Different ways of classifying different parts of the world.

One of the most useful things we can do to understand development and how it changes over space from place to place is map it! There are many different things that we could map to show how development varies from place to place, and we could map them at different scales. The most common way to map data or information is to use a choropleth map, which is basically a coloured in map where the colours represent certain values. We could map the number of people per doctor, the literacy level of a place, the number of calories consumed, the number of mobile phones in a population, the average wage, the number of AIDS sufferers etc. to see how these features of a population vary over space.

For a long time Geographers have been trying to CLASSIFY or put into groups countries around the globe with similar characteristics.  This has been particularly relevant to development, and these characteristics have changed over time.

First, second, and third worlds

One of the earliest classifications was a 3 fold division used by the United Nations for the first time in 1945. 

1.     The First World included mainly capitalist free-market countries found in Western Europe and their old colonies such as the USA and Australia.

2.     The second world comprised centrally planned, socialist or communist countries.  These countries had different structure to those of the first world and had much more government control of business and public services.  The second and first worlds were at odds for decades during the cold war.

3.     The third world comprised the least developed countries and developing countries. 

This division had a bias towards the democratic first world and hid huge differences between countries in the third world.

The North-South Divide

The North-South Divide is a division that exists between the wealthy developed countries, known collectively as "the North", and the poorer developing countries (least developed countries), or "the South." The divide was part of a report by Brandt on the state of world development in 1971 and classified countries broadly as economically wealthy manufacturing countries (the North) or agricultural (the South).

The “North”;

1.     Is home to four of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council

2.     Has all members of the G8, the group of the 8 most powerful nations/economies on Planet Earth

3.     Has enough food and water for 95% of its population

4.     Has 95% of people with access to a functioning education system.

5.     Controls four fifths of the world income.

6.     Owns 90% of the manufacturing industries

This distinction has fallen out of favour because;

·         It is too simple – large variations in wealth are hidden in both the rich North and poor south

·         It is geographically incorrect – Australia and New Zealand are geographically south but included in the North, whilst more poor countries that make up the South are above the Equator than below it!

·         Development changes over time –the BRIC economies of Brazil, India and China (but not Russia as it was already north of the line) have grown massively since the map was made

·         Economies have become more varied that manufacturing and agriculture.

 

   

Countries at different stages of development

This is a more recent classification that groups countries into;

l  MEDC – More Economically Developed Country (UK, USA, Japan, and France).  These are richer countries that have lots of industry and service jobs such as the UK and Japan.

l  LEDC means Less Economically Developed Countries.  These are poorer countries that have mainly primary jobs such as farming and mining.  Countries include Bangladesh and Mali.

l  NIC – Newly Industrialised Country (Taiwan, Singapore, India).  These countries are those that have developed fastest over the latter part of the 20th Century, profiting from globalisation and technology transfer.

The five - fold division based on wealth

1. Rich industrialising countries e.g. UK, USA, Japan, Australia, etc.

2. Oil Exporting countries e.g. UAE.

3. New Industrializing countries e.g. India, China.

4. Former centrally planned economies (previous communist systems) e.g. Russia.

5. Heavily indebted poor countries e.g. Chad, Congo.

This is a more recent method designed to try and classify countries and their level of development. It makes a better distinction between countries of lower levels of development and accounts for different reasons for wealth.  It also takes into account the variable success of the formally centrally planned economies such as Russia.  The UN also has a program for LDCs, the Least Developed Countries.

 
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