Lesson designed for A-Level Geography (Edexcel) Unit 3 – Globalisation

1. Globalisation, development and the
environment
By the end of this lesson you will have:
• Understood the economic and social
development measures
• Discovered the varying geographical scales
in a multi-speed world
• Looked at the development and
environmental trends for global regions

3. Globalisation – Enquiry Question 3
• What are the consequences of globalisation for global development and
the physical environment and how should different players respond to its
challenges?
3.7 Economic measures (both
single and composite indices)
of development (income per
capita, economic sector
balance) contrast with those
focused on social development
(Human Development Index
(HDI), Gender Inequality Index
(GII)) and environmental
quality (air pollution indices).
a. Economic measures (both single and composite indices) of development (income per
capita, economic sector balance) contrast with those focused on social development
(Human Development Index (HDI), Gender Inequality Index (GII)) and environmental
quality (air pollution indices). (7)
b. Trends in widening income inequality, globally and nationally (measured using the Gini
Coefficient), suggest globalisation has created winners and losers for people and physical
environments between and within developed, emerging and developing economies. (8)
c. Contrasting trends in economic development and environmental management between
global regions since 1970 indicate differential progress that can be related to the
outcomes from globalisation.

4. What is development?
What does the term development mean?
In pairs, write down your thoughts.

5. Think – Pair - Share
• We need to consider whether globalisation has aided development.
Critics think globalisation has infact left the rich richer and the poor
poorer – but are they right?
• What does it mean to say ‘the rich get rich and the poor get
poorer’?
• Do you agree with this statement?
• Really – the rich get richer (the richest 1% have seen their share of
the global wealth increase from 44% in 2009 to 99% in 2016) but the
poor simply stay poor. Globalisation hasn’t pushed anyone into
absolute poverty, but may have seen people experience more
relative poverty

6. Rich get Richer
• Absolute poverty = when a person’s income is too low for basic human
needs to be met (less than $1.25 dollars a day)
• Relative poverty = When a person’s income is too low to maintain the
average standard of living in a particular society
• In 2000, the UN came together to create 8 millennium development goals
and global poverty has halved since they were introduced. This is largely
because they have taken people in Asia out of absolute poverty.
• However, people living in relative poverty has increased as the average
wealth of a country increases
• Q: Why does the average wealth of a country increase?

7. http://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/datablog/2015/jul/06/what-
millennium-development-goals-achieved-mdgs

8. Relative or Absolute poverty?

9. Relative or Absolute poverty?

10. Relative or Absolute poverty?

11. Relative or Absolute poverty?

12. Development – The Development Cable
• In pairs, analyse the development cable and
figure 14.3 and answer the following
questions:
• 1. Why is economic growth linked to
technology and enterprise?
• 2. What 5 strands are an outcome of
development and integral to development?
• 3. Give an environmental impact of
development
• 4. What are the economic and social
development linkages?
• 5. Why do social changes sometimes occur
when the world’s poorest farmers get a
boost in income?

13. The Development Cable
• 1. Why is economic growth linked to technology and enterprise?
• Enterprise (business) and technology encourage competition (capitalism) which leads to
economic growth
• 2. What 5 strands are an outcome of development and integral to development?
• Environmental, demographic, social, cultural, political
• 3. Give an environmental impact of development
• More sustainable environments (i.e. recycling)
• 4. What are the economic and social development linkages?
• This is where economic changes such as Fairtrade and microloans make a country
richer which then means they develop socially (i.e. start going to school)
• 5. Why do social changes sometimes occur when the world’s poorest farmers get a boost
in income?
• When the poorest start getting a higher income, they don’t need to work for food as
much. This leads to social changes

15. The Development Cable
• Shows us that there are many strands which stem from economic
development (political, cultural, demographic, social, environmental)
• Shows us that development is COMPLEX. It has a series of interlinked
outcomes for people and places. These outcomes are INTEGRAL to overall
development (aka – development can’t just be seen in economic terms)
• Shows us that when the poorest farmers get an economic boost – social
development takes place too
• However, all development needs to be seen on a scale within the countries
as well as between countries
• i.e. are all genders, sections, minorities within a society sharing the same
opportunities?

16. Measuring Development
• Development is measured in many different ways using either single
(i.e. GDP) or composite (i.e. HDI) measures.
• As Geographers we MUST question the validity (whether the
measurement itself is valid) and reliability of such measures (whether
the data is accurate)
• TASK: Analyse the Clark-fisher model for development and try and
explain it in your own words. Which pair can come up with the best
definition? Hint – the model shows the four different SECTORS of
work. You need to know what they are.

19. Pros and Cons of using GDP as a measure of
Development
Advantages Disadvantages
It is useful for comparison (all
countries changed to $)
However, using dollars can give a
false representation because of
exchange rates
It is universally used, has a
common framework
Ignores the work of informal
sector or unregistered work
There is some attempt to change
a GDP to reflect the real cost of
living

20. Economic Sector Balancing
• A country can re-balance their economic sectors in order to change their
GDP.
• There are four economic sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary and
quaternary
• A country might rebalance their worth by suggesting that more people are
actually working in one sector than another to boost their GDP ‘worth’
(nominal GDP)
• For example, Nigeria in 2013 re-calculated their GDP to suggest that its
tertiary sector was more influential than they had previously thought. They
cut the share of the primary sector (agriculture) by 13%. They can do this
because if someone owns a small farm for the family, but still works with
computers, could we not say they were tertiary rather than primary?

21. Learning Check
• On your whiteboards, in pairs or threes, make notes to cover as much
information as you can remember from last week:
• Development (what is it)
• Poverty (how is absolute poverty different to relative poverty)
• The Development Cable (what strands of development come out of the
development cable?)
• Development linkages (how is economic development linked to social
development?)
• GDP (what is it? How is it measured?)
• Employment sectors (what are the four sectors and how are they linked to
development?)

22. Measuring Development
• There are different ways of measuring development.
• Traditionally this was done by looking at a countries
GDP.
• However, as we have seen, this can be problematic.
The distribution of people living in poverty, as well as
elite groups, has become more complex in the era of
globalisation.

23. Measuring Development
• Now, there tends to be a focus on economic and human indicators
• Economic development indicators focus on the wealth of a country.
To standardise them they are measured in US dollars
• Social development indicators are used to assess the well-being of a
nations’ people.
• TASK 1: In pairs you will EITHER get ‘economic development
indicators’ or ‘social development indicators’. Using your
phones/tablets to help you, explain they key words on your
respective sheets.
• TASK 2: Once we have these, use your textbooks pages 199-200 to
complete your graphic organiser for the other measurements

24. Economic Measures of development and
welfare

25. Social Measures of development and
welfare

26. Human Development Index
• Is a common framework of development which LINKS
both economic and social development measures. It
looks at life expectancy, income, education
• TASK: Summarise the GENDER INEQUALITY INDEX
• And the ENVIRONEMNTAL MEASURES OF
DEVELOPMENT

27. Environmental quality and development
• There is a link between environmental quality and development
• In poorer countries, there tends to be more air pollution. This tends
to improve as countries develop more.
• The Environmental Performance Index ranks countries.
• Ireland rated the highest, Bangladesh rated the lowest
• There are anomalies; Caribbean was rated high yet is a poorer
country

28. Map Task
Using your A3 maps, analyse the human development index for 2016
and create a global distribution map. Annotate your map with stats and
figures.
EXTENSION: Use the Environmental Performance Index to add to your
global distribution map (or create another map if you want) – notice
the differences and clashes

29. Globalisation, development and the
environment
By the end of this lesson you will have:
• Understood the economic and social
development measures
• Discovered the varying geographical scales
in a multi-speed world
• Looked at the development and
environmental trends for global regions