Global winners and losers

Air travel, tourism, global businesses and communication systems create global networks. 

Global networks allow trade, money, people and information to flow around the world. 

Global networks have helped to create places that are switched-on and places that are switched-off.

Most highly-connected countries, as well as important cities in poorer countries, e.g. Singapore.

As they're well connected trade, money, people and information flow easily between tehem and elsewhere - they're global hubs because global networks flow through them. 

People in switched-on countries are significant consumers and poducers of goods and services because they're well connected. 

Energy usage and the ecological footprint are large because of the high levels of production and consumption.

Worst connected countries, as well as some remote places in more wealthy countries. Mainly landlocked. Economy is based on agriculture, with little foreign influence.

Some money flows into switched-off places, often in the form of aid. May also grow crops to make money, but trade little and recieve very little for the crops. 

People in switched-off places aren't significant producers or consumers because they're not well connected to global networks and aren't a potential market for TNCs.

Energy usage and the ecological footprint are low. 

1. Interconnected places have a roughly equal exchange in the flow of trade, money, people or information.

2. One place is dependent on another if there is an unequal exchange in the flow of trade, money, people or information - more is coming in than is going out. 

The multiplier effect helps connected places grow in wealth - money spent in one place causes more money to be made in that place e.g more tourists means more hotels and resturants are needed, so more money is invested in the city and more local people are employed. They'll spend their earnings in the city, and so on.

The multiplier effect helps connected places grow in wealth - money spent in one place causes more money to be made in that place e.g more tourists means more hotels and resturants are needed, so more money is invested in the city and more local people are employed. They'll spend their earnings in the city, and so on.

Technologies like telecommunications, the internet and air travel create global networks, for example:

• Long-distance telecommunications begn when copper telegraph cables were laid across the Atlantic in 1866. Now there's a global phone network linking countries.
• The internet allows people in offices that are far apart to work together at the same time.
• Low-cost air travel means it's cheap and easy to travel long distances for work and holidays.

Global networks lead to a shrinking world - distances don't seem so far because places are very well connected.

CASE STUDY:

Easyjet is a budget airline that helps to connect many places by making it easier for more people to get to more places. It makes a pattern of connectivity, made up of all the places it flies to. The connections it forms can help make places switched-on.

For example, Tallin (capital of Estonia & ex-soviet state) has become more connected through easyjet. By setting up flights to and from other European countries the flow of people, info and money has increased, and it has become switched-on.

Saudi Arabia is an oil rich country in the Middle East that gets most of its wealth from the trade of oil - petrodollar wealth.

Saudi Arabia has coasts on two sides so oil can easily be shipped to other countries.

Saudi Arabia uses the money it makes from its comparative oil advantage to develop other parts of it's economy. This helps to increase its global connections and keep it switched-on.

China is a NIC with a huge population.

China can provide lots of cheap but relatively skilled labour

Chins's comparative advantage in human resources has allowed other parts of it's economy to grow because of the multiplier effect. This has helped to increase its connectivity and make it switched-on

Global losers are countries that remain switched-off from global networks. This can be because of difficult pysical conditions (e.g. landlocked countries) or poor leadership leading to political isolation (e.g. a corrupt government). For example:

• Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in south-east Africa that is cut off from global networks. It has been politically isolated because of accusations of corruption and poor leadership. This has lead to economic sanctions from the EU and USA, reducing the flow of trade. Also, many airlines refuse to fly to Zimbabwe, reducing it's connectivity further.

The consequences of being switched-off from global networkd mean global losers may be left further behind:

• Valuable resources may be wasted or left unused because there's no investment to help trade in them.
• Conflict, starvation and disease may make it less likely that global connectivity will improve.
• Switched-on countries are more likely to work together, helping them to progress faster. This means the gap between switched-on and switched-off plases gets wider.

Winners - some areas are in difficult physical locations, but are still switched-on, e.g. Las Vagad is a city in the Nevada desert (USA), but is a global hub for tourism (and money) because gambling is legal there.

Losers - some places are rich in natural resources but remain switched-off, e.g. Sierra Leone (West Africa) is rich in diamonds but hasn't been switched-on due to the civil war and government corruption.