Republic of the Philippines

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Santa Maria Bulacan Campus

Course Subject: The Contemporary World

Lesson 4: A world of Regions

- Global Divides: The North and the South
- Asian Regionalism

Overview:

Regions is a large size of territories and countries that encompasses many palaces, all or
most of which share a set of attributes of places that make up a different region. A world region
is dynamic or changing because of two-way process of people’s activities changing their
environment and people being affected by environment, and created by people responding to the
opportunities and constraints presented by their environment.

Lesson Objectives:
After successful completion of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. differentiate the Global from the Third World;

2. analyze how a new conception of global relations emerged from the experiences of North
and South;
3. identify the factors leading to a greater integration of an Asian region; and
4. analyze how different Asian states confront the challenges of globalization and
regionalization.

Course Materials:

There are two power of Geography, these are Geography Matters and Geographic Study.
Geography Matters is the global differences in cultures, resources, capital, spatial organizations
and territoriality. Geographic Study discussed the appreciation of the variety of the world’s people
and places; understand the relationship between the world’s communities; and help with regional,
national and global development.
The different geography study is consisting of Physical geography, human geography
and regional geography. Physical Geography examines how natural forces shape the earth.
Human Geography is study of how human interaction modifies the environment and the spatial
organization of human activity. Regional Geography combines both physical and human
approaches and the holistic examination of territories.
 Setting the World Boundaries: World Regions

1. Regional Approach
It is geographer’s classification of individual places or areal units.

Classification of Regionalization

1. Logical division
2. Grouping
3. Homogeneity
Formal regions: high degree of homogeneity
Functional regions: characterized by functional organization of human occupancy.

Four World’ Model

1. First World- Refers to the so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries roughly, a
bloc of countries aligns with the united states after world war II, with more or less
common political and economic interest: North America, Western Europe, Japan, and
Australia.
2. Third World - Despite ever evolving definitions, the concept of 3rd world serves to identify
countries that suffer from high infant mortality, low economic development, high levels of
poverty, low utilization of natural resources, and heavy dependence on industrialized
nations. These are the developing and technologically less advanced nations of Asia,
Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.
The 3rd World Nations tends to have economies dependent on the developed countries
and are generally characterized as poor with unstable governments and having high rates
of population growth, illiteracy, and disease. A key factor is the lack of a middle class- with
impoverished millions in a vast lower economic class and a very small elite upper class
controlling the country’s wealth and resources. Most third world nations also have a large
foreign debt.

Global Divides

The global digital divide describes global disparities, primarily between developed
and developing countries, in regards to access to computing and information resources
such as the internet and the opportunities derived from such access.

Two Main section of unites States (North and South)

The two sides of the debate over slavery were divided between the two main
sections of the unites states; the north and south. Many northerners viewed slavery as
evil and wrong and some were involved in the abolitionist movement. The north did not
obey fugitive slave laws because they said they were cruel and in humane.
 Global North and Global South

The global south is made up of Africa, Latin America, and developing Asia
including the middle east. The global south “lacks appropriate technology, it has no
political stability, the economies are disarticulated, and their foreign exchange earnings
depend on primary products exports.”
The concept of a gap between the global north and global south in terms of
development and wealth. In 1980s, the Brandt line was developed as a way of showing
the how the world was geographically split into relatively richer and poorer nations.

North and South Gap

The term used to describe the economic gap between the rich northern
countries of the world and the south poorer countries of the world.

North
➢ North America, Western Europe,
Australia, Japan (Known as first
world)
➢ Home for four the permanent
members of the United States
Security Council
➢ Richer and developed region
➢ 95 % has enough food and
shelter and functioning education
system as well
South
➢ Africa, Latin America and Asia
➢ Poor and developed region
➢ 5 % of the population has
enough food and shelter
➢ It serves as a source for raw
material for the North

North-South Divides Issues

Issue no I- Standard of living

Factors lead to low of standard of living
1. Lack of trade and aid
2. Single crop farming
3. Abundance of debt
4. Neo-colonialism
Issue no II- Distribution of income Around the World
1. Liberalization or market occurs, most south countries lost to the competition from the
north.
2. Encourage migration of people from south to north for having a more good income.
Issue no III- Economic Competition Worldwide
Factors determine the competitiveness of economy
1. Appropriate Infrastructure
2. Stable Macro Economic frame work
3. Well-functioning public and private institutions
 Asian Regionalism

In the early stages of Asia’s economic take off, regional integration proceeded slowly. East
Asian economies, in particular focused on exporting to developed country markets rather than
selling to each other. Initially, they specialized in sample, labor-intensive manufactures.
Now, though Asian economies are becoming closely intertwined not because the region’s
development strategy has changed but it remains predominantly nondiscriminatory and outward-
oriented. Interdependence is deepening because Asia’s economies have grown large and
prosperous enough to become important to each other, and because their patterns of production
increasingly depend on networks that span several Asian economies and involve wide-ranging
exchanges of parts and components among them.
Emerging Asian economies that had opened up their financial markets – Indonesia, the
republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand- were worst hit, but nearly all Asian
economies were eventually affected. Most then used the crisis as an opportunity to pursue wide-
ranging reforms in finance as well as in other areas of weakness that the crisis exposed. As Asia
emerged with a greater appreciation of its shared interest and the value of regional cooperation.
Since the crisis, Asia has become not only more integrated, but also more willing to pull together.

Growth and Integration in Asian Region

Asian regionalism is emerging against the backdrop remarkable half century of economic
development. In the four decades from 1956-1996, East Asian living standards – as measured
by real (inflation adjusted) output per person-rose at a rate faster than has ever been sustained
anywhere else.
Other Asian economies rank in the upper tiers of the world’s growth distribution. Over four
decades, living standards in the 16 integrating Asian economies analyzed in this study grew at an
average of 5.0% a year, while the world as a whole averaged only 1.9%. These extraordinary
results were achieved by economies that differed widely in size; incomes; endowments of natural,
human, and capital resources; specialization patterns; political organization; language; culture;
and history.

Watch:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1xBpBaBbrA
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KnIug8tOhU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQrY4xMfks

Read:

- Chapter 12 of Textbook: “Locating the Global South “by Lisandro E. Claudio

- Connell, Raewyn, 2007. “Dependency, Autonomy and Culture. In Southern Theory: The
Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, pp. 139-
163.
- https://www.slideshare.net/titserRex/a-world-of-regions-the-contemporary-world
- https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2015/09/28/04/53/spmds9703
Review:

- https://www.slideshare.net/titserRex/a-world-of-regions-the-contemporary-world
- https://www.slideshare.net/titserRex/a-world-of-regions-the-contemporary-world
-

Activities / Assessments:
1. What is meant by Global Divides?
2. Define “Global South.”
3. Why did the North and South Divided? Is Global North dependent on Global South? Why?
4. What is meant by Global North? When Did the North and South Divided?
5. What caused tension between the North and South?
6. What is the difference between regionalization and globalization?
7. What are the factors leading to a greater integration of Asian Region?
8. How Asian states confront the challenges of globalization and regionalization?
9. Give at least five (5) problems / crucial challenges brought by globalization in our
contemporary world.

Assignment:

Directions: Read carefully the paragraph below. After reading it, answer the following
questions which are all related to the selection you have just read.

The world is severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the Philippines, we are all
affected and our daily lives have changed since then. The Philippine Educational system has
changed a lot, from face to face learning to blended / distance learning and as declared by
President Rodrigo Duterte, he said “no face to face classes shall be conducted unless COVID-19
vaccine is discovered.”

Questions:

1. Are you in favor of the statement of President Rodrigo G. Duterte that “there is no face to
face classes shall be conducted unless COVID-19 vaccine is discovered”? Why?
2. If you were the Secretary of Education, what teaching-learning modality would you suggest
to continue educating Filipino learners amidst pandemic situation that we are into? Defend
your answer.