commodity chain
series of links connecting the many places of production and distribution and resulting in a commodity that is on world market
developing
with respect to a country, making progress in technology, production, and socioeconomic welfare
gross national product (GNP)
the total value of all goods and services produced by a countries economy in a year. it includes all goods and services produced by corporations and individuals of a country, whether or not they are located within the country
gross domestic product (GDP)
total value of all goods and services produced within a country during a given year
gross national income (GNI)
similar to GDP, but also includes the value of income from abroad
per capita GNI
the gross national product of a given country divided by its population
formal economy
the legal economy that is taxed and monitored by a government and is included in a government's Gross National Product; as opposed to an informal economy
informal economy
economic activity that is neither taxed nor monitored by a government; and is not included in that government's gross national product
modernization model
a model of economic development most closely associated with the work of economist Walter Rostow. The modernization model (sometimes referred to as modernization theory) maintains that all countries go through five interrelated stages of development, which culminate in an economic state of self-sustained economic growth and high levels of mass consumption
context
the geographical situation in which something occurs; the combination of what is happening at a variety of scales concurrently
neocolonialism
the entrenchment of the colonial order, such as trade and investment, under a new guise
structuralist theory
a general term for a model of economic development that treats economic disparities among countries or regions as the result of historically derived power relations within the global economic system
dependency theory
a structuralist theory that offers a critique of the modernization model of development. Based on the idea that certain types of political and economic relations (especially colonialism) between countries and regions of the world have created arrangements that both control and limit the extent to which regions can develop
dollarization
when a poorer country ties the value of its currency to that of a wealthier country, or when it abandons its currency and adopts the wealthier country's currency as its own
world- systems theory
theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein and illuminated by his three- tier structure, proposing that social change in the developing world is inextricably linked to the economic activities of the developed world
three- tier structure
with reference to Immanuel Wallerstein's world systems theory, the division of the world into the core, the periphery, and the semi-periphery as a means to help explain the interconnections between places in the global economy
trafficking
when a family sends a child or an adult to a labor recruiter in hopes that the labor recruiter will send money, and the family member will earn money to send home
structural adjustment loans
loans granted by international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to countries in the periphery and the semi periphery in exchange for certain economic and governmental reforms in that country(e.g. privatization of certain government entities and opening the country to foreign trade and investment)
vectored diseases
disease carried from a host to another by an intermediate host
malaria
vectored disease spread by mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite in their saliva and which kills approximately 150,000 children in the global periphery each month
export processing zones
zones established by many countries in the periphery and semi-periphery where they offer favorable tax, regulatory, and trade arrangements to attract foreign trade and investment
maquiladoras
the term given to zones in northern Mexico with factories supplying manufactured goods to the U.S. market. The low-wage workers in the primarily foreign-owned factories assemble imported components and/or raw materials and then export finished goods
special economic zones
specific area within a country in which tax incentives and less stringent environmental regulations are implemented to attract foreign business and investment
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
agreement entered into by Canada, Mexico, and the US in December, 1992 and which took effect on January, 1 1994, to eliminate the barriers to trade in, and facilitate and cross-border movement of goods and services between the countries
desertification
the encroachment of desert conditions on moister zones along the desert margins, wehre plant cover and soils are threatedned by dessiccation-through overuse in part by humans and their domestic animals and possibly in part becouse of the inexorable shifts in the earths environmental zones
island of development
place built up by a government or corporation to attract foreign investment and which has relatively high concentrations of paying jobs and infrastructure
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
international organizations that operate outside of the formal political arena but that are nevertheless influential in spearheading international initiatives on social, economic, and environmental issues
microcredit program
program that provides small loans to poor people, especially women, to encourgae development of small businesses