Essential Element: Human Systems
The patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth’s surface.
The geographically informed person must understand the spatial organization of the economic, transportation, and communication systems that support networks of trade in raw materials, manufactured goods, capital (human and monetary), ideas, and services. Resources are unevenly distributed on Earth, and no country has all of the resources it needs to survive and grow independently. Thus, people must trade with others in increasingly complex global networks.
Therefore, Standard 11 contains these themes: Economic Activities, Location and Spatial Patterns of Economic Activities, and Connecting Economic Activities.
Economic activities depend upon capital, resources, energy, labor, information, and land. The spatial patterns of resources create the networks of trade and economic interdependence that exist at local, regional, national, and international scales. Local and world economies mesh to create networks, movement patterns, transportation routes, communications systems, markets, and hinterlands.
The spatial dimensions of economic activity are increasingly complex. Raw materials may be shipped to locations thousands of miles away for processing and then transported again over equally long distances for assembly or sale. Subsistence farming often exists side by side with commercial agriculture. In many developing countries, millions of people leave rural areas for cities in search of jobs, some of which have been outsourced from industrialized countries. Technology and telecommunications have freed many jobs from being tied to specific locations. Work can be done collaboratively in different locations, taking advantage of different time zones to increase efficiency.
As world population grows, as energy costs increase, as time becomes more valuable, as resources become depleted or discovered, and as new products meet new demands, economic systems need to be more efficient and responsive.
Students must understand world patterns and networks of economic interdependence and realize that traditional patterns of trade, human migration, and cultural and political alliances are being reshaped as a consequence of global interdependence. Understanding these themes enables students to appreciate the impact of global economic processes on places regardless of their size and location.
