HIST363: Global Perspectives on Industrialization

The search for cheap labor and resources drives the need for profits by multinational corporations that fuel the global economy. This activity is creating a second major wave of globalization, often referred to as neocolonialism or corporate colonialism.

The concepts of opportunity and advantage provide a means to understand the attractiveness or unattractiveness of a place to immigrants or economic activities. Opportunities and advantages drive rural-to-urban shift, migration, and movement of corporate activity.

Core areas are usually urban with high levels of industrial and economic development. Peripheral areas are typically suppliers of food and raw materials used in the core. Political and economic power is held in the core, while the periphery suffers from lower incomes and brain drain.

National income methods are based on standard economic practices and value-added principles. Agricultural activities are renewable, but extractive activities are not. Manufacturing has historically provided the highest value-added profits and has been the main means of the core economic regions of the world to gain income. The service sector provides a high number of jobs but might not contribute to national income at the same levels as agriculture, extraction activities, or manufacturing.

Development and population models can help one understand a country's socioeconomic dynamics. Family size and economic income are two indicators that can be tracked to assist in understanding the industrialization or urbanization levels of a country or demographic region.

Globalization has prompted a greater understanding of how opportunities and advantages relate to haves and have-nots. Whether it is individuals or countries, some have greater levels of opportunity and advantage than others. Human migration patterns usually coincide with the push-pull forces of opportunity or advantage levels.