Notes on all the case studies for AQA A Level Geography - human topics. Matches the notes made for each topic. Also includes general facts.
Globalisation - NAFTA, Uganda, China, Nigeria, Longbridge, Coca Cola, Coffee trade, Antarctica.
Contemporary Urban Environments - Shanghai, Ubisoft, Bangalore...
General facts
- The number of people employed in manufacturing in the UK fell from more than 5 million in 1985 to
around 2.6 million in 2014.
- Vacuum manufacturer Dyson moved the production side of its business to Malaysia in 2002, but the
vacuums are still sold in the UK.
- The UK imported £200 billion of manufactured goods in 1990, and £550 billion in 2008.
- International migration increased by over 40% between 2000 and 2015.
- High speed rail networks such as HS1 in the UK.
- Dubai has now overtaken Heathrow as the world’s busiest airport.
- During the 1970s and 80s there was deregulation and opening up of national financial markets to the
rest of the world e.g. in the USA and UK. This meant that it was easier for banks and other financial
institutions to do business with other countries.
- Global FDI increased from about $400 billion in 1996 to nearly $1500 billion in 2016.
- In 1954, around 95% of manufacturing was concentrated in the industrialised economies of Western
Europe, North America and Japan.
- Employment in manufacturing in the UK fell by around 50% between 1983 and 2013.
- More than 50% of all manufacturing jobs are located in the developing world and over 60% of exports
from those countries to the developed world are of manufactured goods.
- The 2007 collapse of US house prices led to a credit squeeze and then a global banking crisis in 2008.
- WTO established in 1995 and sets rules on how countries can trade with each other. Oversees 97% of
trade and the agreement is over 26,000 pages long.
- Deals between rich and emerging economies had lifted the number of goods that are traded duty-free
from 68% to 87% over the previous 10 years.
- Containerisation began in the 1950s.
- There are around 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally and nearly 3 billion internet users.
- In 2016 the leak of 11.5 million financial and legal records exposed wrongdoing on a global scale.
- In the UK the average cost of the most severe online security breaches for big corporations now starts
at nearly £1.5 million.
- In 2015 there were 244 million migrants worldwide.
- In 1986 a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine exploded. Radiation from the explosion led
to an increase in some cancers and birth defects in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, and possibly further
afield.
- In 2017, UK citizens could travel to 173 countries without a visa, while for citizens of Afghanistan it was
only 24.
- In Qatar, several thousand migrants have died building facilities for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
- In 2016, 97% of the Netherlands’ citizens had access to the internet, compared to around 20% in
Myanmar.
- There are about 700 million mobile phone subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa.
- The most visited website in the world is Twitter.
- Every 60 seconds, 204 million emails are sent, 75 hours of video are uploaded, 4 million Google
searches and 100,000 Facebook friend requests are made.
- Only around 40% of the world’s population have an internet connection.
- Global trade has increased by nearly 8 times between 1980 and 2008.
- In 1995, African countries accounted for around 2% of world trade, whereas in 2010 they accounted for
just over 3%.
- The poorest 49 countries make up 10% of the world’s population, but still only account for 0.4% of
world trade.
- Since the 1970s, nearly 1000 fair trade producer groups have been set up in less developed countries.
- The amount of ethical investment by US companies almost tripled between 2005 and 2016.
, - In 2016, German exports to other EU countries were 708 billion euros, compared to 501 billion euros to
countries outside the EU.
- In 2013, imports and exports between the US and EU accounted for over 30% of the global products
trade.
- China has become the EU’s second largest trading partner after the US, and the EU imports more
goods from China than anywhere in the world.
- In 2013, 80% of global trade was linked to TNCs.
Economic groupings
- NAFTA
- North American Free Trade Agreement
- Allows Mexico, Canada and the USA to trade freely with each other without massive import and
export restrictions.
- Came into place in 1994.
- Negotiated under President Bush and implemented under President Clinton.
- Eliminated most tariffs.
- Estimated to have increased economic growth by 0.5% a year.
- Links 450 million people.
- Member economies generate $20.8 trillion.
- Trade increased to $1.14 trillion in 2015.
- Manufacturers created 800,000 jobs in the first 4 years.
- Increased exports led to nearly 5 million new U.S. jobs.
- Many US manufacturing companies let go of workers due to it being difficult for some
companies in the same industry to compete.
- 500,000 to 750,000 jobs were lost mainly in the manufacturing industries in California, New
York, Michigan and Texas.
- Companies in the automotive, textile, computer and electrical appliance industries moved to
Mexico because labour was cheap, and NAFTA enabled them to freely import their goods back
into the U.S.
- Migration of jobs led to the decrease of wages.
- 65% of companies threatened to move to Mexico, which meant that the remaining U.S. workers
could not bargain for increased wages.
- Between 1993 and 1995, 50% of all companies in the industries that were moving to Mexico
used the threat of closing the factory. By 1999, that rate had grown to 65%.
- Many companies that moved to Mexico exploited their workers.
Interdependence and unequal flows of people
- Uganda
- Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa that lies within the Nile basin.
- It is green and fertile, and has plenty of resources such as copper and cobalt.
- Nearly ⅓ of the 35 million population live below the national poverty line.
- Life expectancy is 59 years.
- Poverty is greatest in rural areas, particularly where the majority of the population are
subsistence farmers.
- When Uganda was part of the British Empire, the British East Africa Company strongly
influenced the country’s exports. Low-valued primary products such as the cash crops of coffee,
tea and cotton were exported around the Empire and they continue to dominate Ugandan
exports.
- Fish is one of the country’s most profitable exports, but trade is unsustainable. Overfishing and
the predatory Nile Perch (introduced by the British) have resulted in stocks of indigenous fish
being reduced to extinction.
, - The installation of fixed cables in Uganda is costly, but cheap wireless technology now means
that telephones and internet access is possible even in remote areas.
- The ‘Village Phone’ model offers loans to people wishing to start a mobile phone business. It
allows the purchase of a mobile phone, a car battery to charge it, and a booster antenna that
can pick up signals from 25 km away.
The internet and single-product economies
- China
- Has the largest number of internet users in the world - 650 million in 2015, nearly 25% of the
world total.
- China controls the internet at source and uses it to influence geopolitical events and its citizens.
- The ‘Great Firewall’ is a system of online censorship started in the late 1990s. It works by
blocking access to foreign websites, filtering keywords and bandwidth throttling.
- The ‘Golden Shield’ is a system of domestic surveillance set up in 1998 by the Ministry of Public
Security.
- Alibaba.com is a highly successful, Chinese e-commerce company. Its web portals have helped
boost the success of China’s manufacturing sector by connecting exporters to businesses in
over 190 countries worldwide. It has grown to become a leading facilitator of international trade.
- Nigeria
- Has proven oil reserves of around 36 billion barrels and natural gas reserves of over 2800
billion cubic meters.
- Oil and gas accounts for more than 80% of its national income.
- The focus on oil has resulted in a dramatic decline in the traditional industries of agriculture and
manufacturing.
- Rural-urban migration has increased, resulting in increased levels of rural poverty and
overcrowding in cities such as Lagos and Abuja.
- Global giants have been criticised for not respecting the local environment and indigenous local
people. For example, oil spills are commonplace in the Niger Delta and land rights of local
people are reported to have been abused.
- The high income that is usually generated from oil results in the Nigerian currency being
significantly overvalued, making imported consumer goods cheap. However this results in
domestically manufactured goods being too expensive and unable to be exported → process
known as Dutch disease.
- Deindustrialisation drives more people into the oil and gas industries.
- A greater emphasis on exports of oil and gas makes Nigeria less internationally competitive in
manufactured goods and increases its reliance on foreign imports.
International trade
- The Umbrella City
- There are over 5000 models of umbrella available on Amazon today.
- Around 70% of the world’s umbrellas are made in China. At the centre is Songxia, in the city of
Shaoxing.
- Around half a billion umbrellas are made here annually in more than 1200 factories - a single
worker makes 300 umbrellas a day.
- Specialization – all kinds of umbrellas are manufactured, from traditional rain umbrellas to golf,
mini, children’s, wedding, parasol and fashion umbrellas.
- Access to domestic and international markets – good road networks connect Songxia to the
large population centres of Hangzhou city (70km) and Shanghai (260km), and also Ningbo Port
(80km), from where umbrellas are exported.
Global shift
- The car industry: MG Rover, Longbridge
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