Four Traditions of Geography Essay Example for Free

Four Traditions of Geography Essay Four Tradition of Geography The Four Traditions of Geography has many different assumptions and aspects of geography; aspects ranging from basic mapping and geometry, to the impact on nature of humans and the processes of the earth itself. Geographers can study and explain their research by selecting a certain tradition that leads to many different fields of geography. â€Å"There are four traditions whose identification provides an alternative to the competing monistic definitions that have been a geographer’s lot† (Pattison 1964). The following discussion treats the traditions in this order: (1) a spatial tradition, (2) an area studies tradition, (3) a man-land tradition and (4) an earth science tradition† (Pattison 1964). Pattison is exploring all the categories of geography and he is explaining how these different traditions can uncover the meanings of different studies of geography. â€Å"Going further one can uncover the meanings of â€Å"systematic geography,† â€Å"regional geography,† â€Å"urban geography,† â€Å"industrial geography,† etc. † (Pattison 1964). Spatial tradition is an area of concentration that relies on geometry and movement. It also is the study of mapping as seen in the ancient Greece recordings of such, and it also deals with the GIS system. GIS is any system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that are linked to a location. It explores the central place theory and how it is used in geography. Central place theory is the geography theory that seeks to explain the number, size and location of human settlements in an urban system. Area Studies, just like the spatial tradition it has roots from many, many years ago. The Greek philosopher, Strabo, wrote an encyclopedia about geographical knowledge. â€Å"He is Strabo, celebrated for his Geography which is a massive production addressed to the statesmen of Augustan Rome and intended to sum up and regularize knowledge not of the location of places and associated cartographic facts, as in the somewhat later case of Ptolemy, but of the nature of places, their character and their differentiation† (Pattison 1964). The area-studies tradition was tended to be excluded from early American professional geography. Today, it is beset by certain champions of the spatial tradition who would have one believe that somehow the area studies way of organizing knowledge is only a subdepartment of spatialism† (Pattison 1964). It concentrates on the descriptions of regions in order to differentiate them from other regions and areas. Being able to understand geography in these terms can reveal the deepest knowledge of the world’s environment. The Man-Land tradition describes the human impact in nature and also the impact of nature on humans, and it also defines the nature disasters our world takes on. Social Darwinism simply grabbed a theory from the biosciences and applied it to social happenings without the lengthy process of trial and error for social data which led to environmentalism. Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the environment. Man-Land gives us the basic perception on the environment and what is happening to it. The earth science tradition, embraces the study of the earth, the waters of the earth, and the atmosphere surrounding the earth and the association between the earth and the sun† (Pattison 1964). On two different hands of the topic, it is being used and then it is not being used. â€Å"On one hand, it is not always elected as the best tradition as it has been decreasing in use from past decades, while on the other one knows that college departments rely substantially, for justification of their role in general education, upon curricular content springing directly from this tradition† (Pattison 1964). It also acknowledges the human impact on the planet but mainly focuses on the planet itself and its physical processes. Geology, mineralogy, paleontology, glaciology, and meteorology all have rooted out of these studies. From reading â€Å"Four Traditions of Geography† and â€Å"In Search of Synthesis,† Area Studies tradition is my personal preference on this matter. Gober talks about the many different specialties that lie in between human and physical geography, and I grasped that I am more of a physical, on-hands doing person. With human geography you study societies as a whole and I am more interested in urbanization of the earth and how we can use the land we have in a fashion that is basically perfect. I am interested in the different regions because I am really fascinated in real estate and I figure I would learn a whole lot about the physical aspect of geography. I feel that I could really excel in real estate with this kind of learning. The Four Traditions of Geography has different definitions and aspects of geography. With the information given, people are given the opportunity to understand what geography is all about and be able to break geography down and select a certain practice from the very selective topic. â€Å"It is hoped that through a widened willingness to conceive of and discuss the field in terms of these traditions, geography will be better able to secure the inner unity and outer intelligibility† (Pattison 1964). William D. Pattison, The Four Traditions of Geography, (1964).

Preserve the Oak Ridges Moraine :: essays research papers

The Oak Ridges Moraine is one of the last natural areas in southern Ontario which we can preserve for future generations. The Moraine has many natural resources that our city will need for the future. It also is has over nine hundred species of animals, many of which are rare or endangered. Lastly, there are numerous of other places to build homes on without harming twelve thousand years of history. Ruining the beautiful Oak Ridges Moraine would be a mistake because it provides many natural resources, it is home to many animals, and there are other places to build besides the Moraine. The Oak Ridges Moraine provides many natural resources, and it is crucial to preserve them, because they play such an important role in our country. Water, is a perfect example of a resource that we definitely cannot afford to waste, and the Oak Ridges Moraine is a direct source of drinking water for more than a quarter of a million people. Another resource we need to keep is trees, even thought there are a lot of trees in northern Canada, transporting them will take a lot of time and money. The moraine also forms headwaters for 4 major rivers, like the Don Rouge Humber, and Credit Rivers. We need to preserve natural resources, like water, trees, and headwaters in the Oak Ridges Moraine because they are vital to our everyday living. Within the moraine there are countless species of animals that will soon be displaces from their habitant. Many of the creatures are endangered or rare, for example the West Virginia White Butterfly, Jefferson Salamander, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Ginseng, and the Hooded warbler. Putting these animals in zoos, or special buildings is not the answer, because they will not have the surroundings that they are used to in the wild. Also, by building roads in the Moraine, there will be a bigger chance that these animals are run over, or hit by the incoming cars. In conclusion, we should preserve the Oak Ridges Moraine and its animals because they are endangered they can?t live in zoos, and may be killed by the urban environment. Even thought the Oak Ridges Moraine is a very tempting place to build, but the city of Toronto has countless of other places to build homes. One area that Toronto can build on is the Major Mackenzie and Keele area, that land will be put to good use, because we are expanding the city, and preserving the Moraine. Preserve the Oak Ridges Moraine :: essays research papers The Oak Ridges Moraine is one of the last natural areas in southern Ontario which we can preserve for future generations. The Moraine has many natural resources that our city will need for the future. It also is has over nine hundred species of animals, many of which are rare or endangered. Lastly, there are numerous of other places to build homes on without harming twelve thousand years of history. Ruining the beautiful Oak Ridges Moraine would be a mistake because it provides many natural resources, it is home to many animals, and there are other places to build besides the Moraine. The Oak Ridges Moraine provides many natural resources, and it is crucial to preserve them, because they play such an important role in our country. Water, is a perfect example of a resource that we definitely cannot afford to waste, and the Oak Ridges Moraine is a direct source of drinking water for more than a quarter of a million people. Another resource we need to keep is trees, even thought there are a lot of trees in northern Canada, transporting them will take a lot of time and money. The moraine also forms headwaters for 4 major rivers, like the Don Rouge Humber, and Credit Rivers. We need to preserve natural resources, like water, trees, and headwaters in the Oak Ridges Moraine because they are vital to our everyday living. Within the moraine there are countless species of animals that will soon be displaces from their habitant. Many of the creatures are endangered or rare, for example the West Virginia White Butterfly, Jefferson Salamander, Red-shouldered Hawk, American Ginseng, and the Hooded warbler. Putting these animals in zoos, or special buildings is not the answer, because they will not have the surroundings that they are used to in the wild. Also, by building roads in the Moraine, there will be a bigger chance that these animals are run over, or hit by the incoming cars. In conclusion, we should preserve the Oak Ridges Moraine and its animals because they are endangered they can?t live in zoos, and may be killed by the urban environment. Even thought the Oak Ridges Moraine is a very tempting place to build, but the city of Toronto has countless of other places to build homes. One area that Toronto can build on is the Major Mackenzie and Keele area, that land will be put to good use, because we are expanding the city, and preserving the Moraine.

What Really Makes Factories Flexible

Introduction: In this literature, â€Å"What really makes factories flexible? † the writer brought out the topic for factory flexibility, which defines as a production  facility  organized  to  respond to customer orders quickly in order to provide  a  full  and varied range  of  operations  or  services, across many  product lines with very short  changeover times and may introduce new products of similar range fairly easy. For example, most modern  automobile plants  are designed as  flexible  factories to build various models. Having acknowledged the importance of flexibility, how would manufacturing managers in a broad array of industries find pathways to improve the process? What are the difficulties of defining flexibility of a plant and how do they measure flexibility in terms of plant productivity? What measurements are needed to show improvement of the process? The author performed a research in a study of sixty-one factories in North America that manufacture fine paper to find out the answer. Define the problem: Unlike most other industries in which different plants make different products, the paper industry's products are more comparable across plants since paper are produced by very similar process. There are a few characteristics for the paper industries to be the right candidate. In paper industry, the qualities of products by grades are straightforward numbers which can be able to be measured by the author. These numbers enabled the author to develop both the range of paper a plant could produce and how much time it needed for a plant to switch from making one kind of paper to making another. By using these numbers the author was be able to define the operational flexibility for manufacturing plants needed to measure and find the ways to improve the processes. Defining the problem is the first thing needed by each manager. â€Å"What is flexibility? † Managers are having hard times to define as the term may mean very different for different people. At plant level, it is about the ability to change over or adapt new system, however, specifying and characterizing this ability is not an easy task. As one manager may talk about the flexibility to produce the types of production from up and down depending on what the market needs; another manager may talks about the flexibility to change over from making one type of paper to another with less time and money. In the author's point of view, flexibility should be emphasized in determining by its competitive environment. The measurement of flexibility can be based on a) product range in different things as a plant can have the ability to produce a small number of products that are very different from one another b) mobility for a plant to change over from making one product to another and c) uniformity of performance as a flexible plant can perform comparably well to make any product within a specified range. Once managers have defined the different kinds of flexibility they are trying to develop, another set of issues had come up as how to measure the flexibility and improvement of flexibility. Also it is often unclear in which general features of a plant must be changed in order to make its operations flexible. The depth and wisdom of experience managers have to be carefully assessing their strategies to define what kind of flexibility they are looking for before embarking on a flexibility program, or otherwise the results can be disastrous. Implication and analysis to select best alternatives: By collecting production data, the author was able to measure the breadth of paper grades that each plant was capable of producing and the changeover time that each plant required to switch between grades. There were additional measurements of flexibility such as workforce by length of service, the level of computer integration (CIM), the change and break frequency, etc. Each plant may emphasize in a whole range of factors from different quality and types of flexibility based on the managers, so end up there are large differences across plants. One major issue covered in this literature is that the degree of computer integration (CIM) does not really help on plant flexibility by increasing range of products produced or improving change over time even though large money was invested in it. Managers often have difficulty justifying CIM projects on the basis of cost savings or quality improvements therefore justify them on basis of improved flexibility CIM will provide. In this case, only the engineers or a few trained employees understand how the system works; most of the plant operators are not trained to operate which create problems. Operators instead decide to perform manual-change over, which in a surprising findings the best manual change system operate much faster than computer. This result shows the serious problem from operators as they have no interest to adapt the change to operate CIM. It hit hard on the managers with thoughts being reluctant that they are doing something right, but actually they are wrong. Implement decision to change the system: For successful manager to figure out the issues of CIM before implementing it in a plant, they should consider building up skills for their operators. As the author denoted, â€Å"Plants become more flexible when managers stress to workers the importance of flexibility. For example, a plant that wants to excel at customizing products will need to develop the capabilities to carry out large range of jobs in the plant. Managers then need to determine what type of workforce or equipment (ex CIM) needs to enhance flexibility. After that managers need to figure out different ways to measure the type of flexibility sought and emphasize the importance of the measures to the employees. Trainings should be added in th e process to build up experienced workforce and eventually to see improvement in flexibility. For example, continuous learning problem such as operational excellence may help management team in different level to control and maintain a flexible manufacturing plant. Evaluate the outcome: By integrating the appropriate steps to a) defining the problem of flexibility, b) implication and analysis to select best alternatives and c) implement decision to change the system, the next step is to evaluate the outcome to see if there is any improvement or if not, further alterations will need to be made. Outcomes that need to be evaluated are not limited to employee training in different level. Employees training based on experience are critical for a manufacturing plant to increase flexibility. More experience workers are not willing to adapting the new systems such as CIM comparing to less experience workers who are more willing to change. Conclusion: A good manufacturing management team designs what is best way for its plant to run, and plants that are flexible in terms of mobility (in terms of change over time) and range (in terms of various productivity) tended to have a clear measures of what flexibility should be developed. Managers have to decide what benefits the plant, how the plant operate, what kind of flexibility they are looking for, select the right decision making tools such as CIM, training for the employees based on different levels of experience, analyzing the data and provide surveys for customers. Managers should provide people the support needed in order to achieve the goal for lower the cost, decreasing change over time, increasing throughput and eventually make more money. Manager should never put too much faith in depending on CIM to complete the tasks in ease. CIM provides critical advantages to improve factory flexibility only if it can be implemented in the right way to fit the system. CIM generally needs experienced operators to control so trainings are critical for employees in different level. CIM could only be one of the alternative tools for managers to use. The flexibility of a plant depends much more on people (manager, field-supervisors, engineers and operators) than on any technical factor (automation, CIM). Managers should never only embraced in CIM as the solution to the growing need to forge new capabilities, instead managers should put more faith in the day to day management of people. Extended Research: I read two other articles which were written within the last three years. It is obvious that both articles talk about how computer integration both software and hardware can help to improve process flow and flexibility of a plant. This is because a more mature CIM system has been established through studies from field experts and universities. In general, employees nowadays understand that continuous learning is the keys to maintain competitiveness in the job market. This doesn’t mean that managers’ job are easier to do, but flexibilities in all level from a plant, a team, or just individual are critical in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Reference: 1. Manufacturing Flexibility – Synchronizing the Shop Floor and Supply Chain by Aberdeen Group 2. Improving Plant Performance and Flexibility in Batch Process Manufacturing: With an Example from the Food and Beverage Industry by Filippo Focacci

What Drives Capital Flow In Business Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2032 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? This capital inflow is also very helpful when it comes to rectifying the savings and investment gap for the capital-scarce economies like that of India. The capital is a very crucial part of the economy as it brings in the modern technology which enhance the development in the financial sectors through the capital inflow . Capital inflow is also crucial for the Capital flows that can bring in an increase in the growth and productivity of those countries which can get enough skilled workers along with a good infrastructure .Capital flows can bring in the governments support to follow the macroeconomic policies . Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "What Drives Capital Flow In Business Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Capital inflow is also crucial for the Capital flows in two major ways: -Portfolio equity investment: This is one parameter where the buying company shares, which have been taken form the stock markets, will be taken without a good control. Portfolio debt investment, is primarily dealing with the covers bonds and long-term borrowing that come form banks and multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank. Here the Capital inflow , takes into consideration the forging long-term ties with firms among the foreign countries. 1.1 Aim of the research: The basic aim of this research is the MA and related parameters understanding which has been done by the study of concepts and factors effecting of MA in the countries like the Indian economy. This has been done in the best possible way so as to relate the concept of MA to employment, inflation, GDP etc and see its effect on the Indian industry for the same. 1.2 Research objective The researcher is trying to work on the aspect of MA and related factor of the economy like employment, inflation, GDP etc in India. The main objectives of the research are given below: Study of the Indian economy and its growth at present FDI growth in India and that of other economies of the world Study of the parameters like employment ,inflation, GDP etc which effect the MA Role of government in the growth of MA The advantages and disadvantages of MA increase in a country like India Effect of MA in the economies of countries like India 1.3 Hypothesis: The major two hypothesis that we are assessing here are that : Deep Financial markets in the acquisition countries are positively associated with cross border Mergers Acquisitions. The difference among the Developed to Developed and Developed to Developing MA flows. 3. LITERATURE REVIEW How to get capital inflow:   When we take into consideration a well-developed and also the extensively surveyed empirical research of Caves 1996; Markusen 1995 which explains the reason of the multinational corporations which are brought up in the overseas in contrast to the export directly or other forms of collaborations like the license of their product or technology. Thus it has been seen as the most persuasive way of explaining given by Holger Gà ¶rg and David Greenaway who stress on the coexistence of proprietary knowledge and also the role of market failures for protecting that knowledge. Here it is understood that the firm internalizes some of its transactions for the protection of the brand, technology, and also that of its marketing advantages(Wang, Jian-Ye, and Magnus Blomstrà ¶m. 1992) . Here the main motives are based on the existence of a type of firm-specific asset, which could be some kind of technological advantage, which could also entail the innovative management along with the organizational processes and also the new production methods and technologies. Here the most important point then is the choice of a particular location, and its advantages as it is to the local economy by these firms in the same industry. Here the most important point then is the potential transmission channels which will play host economy and have similar characteristics which bring in benefits from spillovers . (Wang, Jian-Ye, and Magnus Blomstrà ¶m. 1992). FDI in china and India: Foreign direct investment in India could would be possible in many a ways. One way could be the parent companies bringing in the equity capital which can be done by purchasing shares of the foreign companies. Another way could be reinvesting the affiliates earnings. Yet another might be the short- or long-term lending which might happen among the parents company and the affiliates(David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark T. Shanley 1996).. Thus when one has to name a company as a multinational e nterprise to be in the category of FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT data, the parent company will have to have a minimum equity stake in the company of about the range of 10 percent in the affiliate. (Levine, R., N. Loayza, and T. Beck. 2000) When we talk of making the foreign affiliates this would include the new production facilities which can also be addressed as Greenfield investments which entail the acquiring and control in the present entities by cross-border mergers or acquisitions(David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark T. Shanley 1996).. Recent years have seen a marked shift toward international mergers and acquisitions. One of them that is that of HP and Compaq have also been covered in the case study in the research. Thus in the case of the developing nations, the equity investments take place as per the percentage of gross national income seen in the present and past years.. Here one more parameter that is Debt flows, of the countries like India have increased since 2002 from zero as seen in the first two years. Also FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT with respect to the GDP has increased so as to becomes the largest source of capital which comes form the developed nations to developing ones like Indian . (Levine, R., N. Loayza, and T. Beck. 2000) Diagram 1 Shown in the chart 1 above is the growing FDI of India since the past 10 years. In the year 1990 to 2005, many a developing economies like that of India and like countries saw a vast FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT inflows which increased form about 18 % to 36%.. Also with this the geographical composition in the structuring of the FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT took a turnover in the past 40 yrs.. Here it can be noticed that Latin Americas share in the FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT fell with a huge margin of 52 percent as it was in the 1970s to 33 percent in 1990s.If we talk of the continent of Asia, its share of inflows increased from 25 % to 60 % in that same time period. (Levine, R., N. Loayza, and T. Beck. 200 0) Privilege given to countries like China and India in terms of FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT shows that there is a shift on the higher side of the source of development finance. Thus the capital inflows make an effect on the economy of the receiving countries and their economic performance which will entail their trade, savings, stability, investment along with their growth. FDI in developing Nations: Korea is another country which has shown tremendous progress in its FDI. In the Republic of Korea the FDI got raised from $5.2 billion in 1998 to $10.2 billion in 2000. This country that is Republic of Korea has done well in the field of FDI where it is ahead of many developing in the ASEAN arena.It but could not leave behind in progress countries like Hong Kong (China) and China. According to FDI figures the Korean economy, has made a good performance.. It but still is lagging behind form Malaysia, Thailand, China, Hong Kong (China), and Singapore .Most of the FDI is due to the currency devaluation which brought in a good business environment.( World Investment Report 2002) Viet Nam also is improving in foreign direct investment (FDI) with a figure of 5.8 billion USD in 2005.this is the highest in last eight years. Here the huge four billion USD is a result of the 771 recently licensed FDI projects .In 2005 Viet Nams foreign investors saw a whooping , revenue of , 20 billion US D . 4.   METHEDOLOGY  Here the methodology of the research is based on the gravity model as is relation to the factors of   GDP, Employment, Inflation (WPI), Industrial Production and Market Capitalization of stocks and FDI as major factors of capital inflow. 3.1Research Design Here this approach of the research design which will be based on the aim the FDI research will be crucial for the study. This will help the researcher to clearly define the aim of the research and then base the research design, on that basis as and when required. . Here I have taken up the research on a particular topic which is the MA and its effects on the Indian economy capital inflow which has been in many ways been important and needs the best and suitable methods for its analysis and progression. 3.2 Research Purpose Here one factor is very important. This parameter is the Time Horizon which is critical for the researcher for the knowledge of the right type of research which has to be done in a fixed time limit . . When we list the research ,it could be of primarily two types which pertain to the factor of time horizon studies .These are the cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. When we take the Cross-sectional it entails a situation of time ,at the same time the longitudinal study looks at the series of events in a long period of time. Survey: The strategy of survey has been resorted to study the different industries in India where capital inflow is coming from the MA. 3.3 Case Study: It has been seen and critically analyzed that case study of India and its economy was a vital part to be studied here. Robson (2002) explains the case study as a strategy for doing research which involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence. 3.4 Data collection : Here the relevance of and the importance of the factors like the primary and secondary data also becomes important form the different sources: 1. Primary Data : It has been seen and critically analyzed that the primary data was collected form the employees of various industries which have been giving crucial information for the further quantitative analysis of the factors of   GDP, Employment, Inflation (WPI), Industrial Production and Market Capitalization of stocks and FDI as major factors of capital inflow. 2. Secondary research: The secondary data has been taken form many a sources like journals internet and books. 3.5 Validity and Reliability: Validity is defined as the degree to which the researcher has measured what he has set out to measure. Here when we talk of the quantitative data one also has to see to it that its is the valid data. The regression analysis had to take factors which were relevant to the aim of the research for making this research a research with validity of the information . Here the relevance of and the importance of the factors like the reliability and validity of the research has been taken into account carefully. (Yin. R.K (2003) 3.6 Limitation of the research There is no major problems as such except for the fact that some of the Macro economic factors like employment etc. did not cover the whole period of study i.e. from 1990-91 to 2008 09. 6. CONCLUSION  When we talk of the distance between or the gap of the globe in terms of the rich and poor countries this would basically entail to the financial along with the physical assets that bring in the countrys wealth.. Many a countries with developed economies have a larger amount of the capital as compared to countries like India ,Pakistan etc. This is also because countries like Japan and Korea are economics which have more advanced technologies. Thus when we have to judge a country on the parameter of economic advancement the counties which are under developed are the ones who have to get more capital and thus enhance themselves technologically. Many a emerging economies which have tried to enhance the capital formation have been unsuccessful. This is also because the globalization, is today very much reliant on the foreign capital. When we talk of the capital flows of the developing economies it has increased from a whooping $104 billion to a huge $472 billion in 2005.The idea of enhancement through foreign capital is great as this is one way to get the enormous benefits for the developing nations like India.