Geography 6000

The Economic Geography of North Carolina

Spring 2005

 

Instructor:                            Dr. Bill Graves

Office:                                   McEniry 430

Email:                                    bgraves@uncc.edu (best way to reach me)

Phone:                                   (704) 687-3266      

Office Hours:                       Any time the door is open

 

Course Materials:

 


·         No comprehensive source of information exists for the course, so I will distribute copies of the readings the week before each class. the one book we will rely on more than any other is Orr, D. Stuart, A. eds. (2000) The North Carolina Atlas. University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill (also see the updates to the Atlas on http://ncatlasrevisited.org/). (Its not required that you purchase it)

 

Description:

The North Carolina economy has experienced dramatic change, in a relatively short period of time its economy has transitioned from one of the most impoverished in the nation to one of the wealthiest. The purpose of this course is to understand the forces behind this transition. While this is a course in regional geography the changes experienced by the North Carolina economy are not unique to the state, in this sense the lessons of North Carolina’s economic change are applicable in other geographic contexts. While the geography of the modern local economy is the foremost concern of the class, significant time will be spent discussing the economic history of the state in order to develop an evolutionary perspective on current conditions. The ultimate goal of the course is to develop a foundation of knowledge that can be used to understand the economic future of North Carolina.

 

Grading:               

Class participation:  10 points

Since the course is intended to be taught in a seminar format (I will not have organized lectures) it is imperative that you come to class prepared to discuss the readings. The course participation grade will reflect the amount of your participation in class room discussions throughout the semester. 

 

Research Portfolio:  50 points

The research portfolio will consist of five small research projects that you will conduct independently. Probable topics are:

o        The economic impact of gold mining

o        The current and historic location forces in the furniture industry

o        Measuring the extent of Spursopolis in North Carolina

o        The future of banking in Charlotte

o        Job creation and the creative class in Asheville

 

The projects should include collection of relevant data, the presentation of the data in a table or map, an analysis of the data, a discussion of the broader meaning of your findings and a list of citations (including data sources). I think this can be effectively accomplished in two to three pages of text (not including tables). The individual research topics will be due throughout the semester, I will comment on each and return them to you un-graded (five points will be deducted for each project that is not turned in). At the end of the semester you will select the three revised research projects that you feel represent your best work and write an introduction to the three projects. The introduction should discuss how the three projects are related to each other  and are illustrative of the economic transformation of the state. You should also discuss what the results of the projects suggest about the future economic geography of the state.

 

 

Final Exam:  40 points

 

The final exam will be essay format. It is intended to verify your understanding of the broad themes of the course (and how these themes can be applied elsewhere) rather than the minutia of the semester. The final exam will be given on Tuesday, May 10th at 6pm.  

 

 

Course Policies:

 

All students are required to be familiar with, and adhere to, the University Regulation of Student Conduct and the UNC-Charlotte CODE OF STUDENT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY (p. 375-378 of the 1999-2001 UNC-Charlotte course catalog). Failure to abide by the code could result in failure of this course. These policies can also be found on the University web site at:

http://www.uncc.edu/policystate/ps_105.html

 

GEOG 6000 Course Outline (Everything subject to change!)

 

Week 1 (1/11): Introductory stuff: The nature of regional geography

 

Week 2 (1/18): The inconvenient geography of the state (physical geography)

 

Week 3 (1/25): Settlement history and the colonial era -- the natural resource economy

 

Week 4 (2/1): Independence, Agriculture (the yeoman farmer and the modern farmer). (project 1 due)

 

Week 5 (2/8): The dawn of industrialization, railroads, the Big Three

 

Week 6 (2/15): Labor Politics and Power (movie night) (project 2 due)

 

Week 7 (2/22): Urban rural balance – Prewar urban geographies

 

Week 8 (3/1): Deindustrialization (project 3 due)

 

Week 9 (3/15): The rise of the Post-Industrial South

·         William Graves, (2001) “Charlotte’s Role as a Financial Center: Looking Beyond Bank Assets.” Southeastern Geographer, Vol. 41 (2): 230-245.

 

Week 12 (3/22): The post-industrial city (project 5 due)

 

Week 13 (3/29): Research and knowledge / Innovation

 

Week 10 (4/12): Un-earners / Recreation / The creative class – the post-industrial economic force? (project 4 due)

 

 

Week 11 (4/19): Global Linkages / migration

 

 

 

 

 

Week 14 (4/26): The Future:

 

 

Week 15 (5/3): Portfolio’s due

 

Final Exam Period (5/10): 6-9pm