How has time-space compression produced new uneven economic geographies of development? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Uploaded by kat_112 on Apr 10, 2013
Introduction
Time-space compression is the notion that assorted societies have lessened the friction of distance, and are now more in contact than ever before, thanks to advances in transportation and telecommunications (Leyshon 1995; Warf 2011; Mackinnon & Cumbers 2007). Although society has benefited positively in many aspects from time-space compression, it has also undoubtedly created new uneven economic geographies of development or the tendency for wealth, growth, and investment to become clustered in certain geographic locations over others (Coe, Kelly, & Yeung 2007; Mackinnon & Cumbers 2007). This essay will highlight how time-space compression has produced new uneven economic geographies of development by explaining how capitalism drives time-space compression, and the resulting uneven economic development consequences including technology and economic restructuring.
How Capitalism drives Time-Space Compression
To understand how time space compression has produced new uneven economic geographies of development it is key to look at capitalism principles, and how it practices in our modern society. Fundamentally and most importantly capitalism relies on the exploitation of someone, somewhere, to earn a profit, therefore it can be stated that unevenness in economic geographies is a necessity of capitalism (Coe, Kelly, & Yeung 2007; Mackinnon & Cumbers 2007). For example for global retailers to maximise profit, sweatshops are established in developing nations instead of developed nations, because less cost is spent on producing the product and more profit is gained because of lack of legal rights (child labour, poor working conditions, limited unions/or none, and poor wages) (Robbins 2010).
Harvey (1989) (quoted in Leyshon (1995) & Warf (2011)), suggests that this necessity for uneven development is created and continued by time-space compression. Harvey (1989) (quoted in Leyshon (1995) & Warf (2011)) states that it is the dynamics of capitalist production, namely capitalist’s endless quest to reduce turnover of capital and the search for new technologies and markets that generates geographical expansion or time-space compression. It is within Harvey’s (1989) explanation of why time-space compression happens ( quoted in Leyshon 1995 & Warf 2011)that one can begin to unravel how capitalism induced time-space compression has brought about new uneven economics of geographies, this is especially seen in capitalists need to be highly creative and innovative, in developing new technologies.
Time-space compression Technologies
The continuing capitalist search and survival for profits means that time-space compression technologies are being produced at a terrific speed. With the advent of the commercial jet liner and a communications...