PROJECT: THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOUR CLOSET
The goal of this assignment is to introduce you to geography within the context of your day-to-day activities. You'll be analyzing the ways in which you interact with others around the world, based on what you wear, and explaining how those interactions came about within the context of the themes we have discussed in class.
Clothing is one of the most common (and conspicuous) markers of cultural identity. But the clothing industry is also of tremendous economic importance to workers around the world. As a consumer, you are the final link in a commodity chainthat may include cotton farmers in Africa, chemical factories in New Jersey, designers in Italy, and sweatshop workers in Vietnam. In this assignment, you'll look at the second half of that commodity chain, from where the clothing is produced to where it is consumed (purchased), and figure out the geography of that commodity chain.
Step 1: Identify all of the clothing you would wear in a normal week. Either go through your closet and pick seven outfits that you'd wear in a typical week, or just keep track when you get dressed each morning for seven days. For each top (7) and bottom (7) (don't worry about socks or underwear), write down the type of clothing, the country where it was made, and the name of the manufacturer or designer.
Step 2: Complete the table included in this assignment. Feel free to adjust the table to your needs. For each item of clothing, you'll need to find out the country where the manufacturer is headquartered in addition to where the garment was manufactured (made). Then for each country, you'll need three pieces of information: population, GDP (gross domestic product) per capita (or GNP if GDP is unavailable), and HDI (human development index). You can get this information from online sources such as the United Nations (https://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/) or the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/). Keep track of your data sources and list them at the end of your report, including the URLs and titles of any web pages you consult. You may find that several countries are repeated in a portion of your table. This is typical; simply repeat your statistics for the same country if it appears on multiple rows.
STEP 3: Map out your findings. You may use the blank world map attached or a map of your choosing (there is another world map in the Blank maps folder on Learn), construct a thematic map that illustrates 1) countries that contain company headquarters and 2) countries that contain manufacturing sites for your clothing. Use point, line, or area symbols as appropriate, as well as any combination of color, size, and/or shape to indicate different features on your map. Remember to include a key. Make sure the map symbols that you choose are meaningful and easy for the reader to follow. You can find sample maps in the Projects folder on Learn.
STEP 4:Create a flow diagram showing a hypothesized commodity chain for one of your items, starting with the source of the raw materials that went in to the components of your item, manufacture, distribution, consumption, and disposal. In your essay, you will use this diagram to contextualize yourself into the global economy.
STEP 5:Answer the following essay questions in 1-2 total pages, based on your table and map. Your paper should have 1" margins all the way around, with double-spaced Times New Roman or similar font. You only need your name at the top of your paper, do not waste space by double-spacing the identifying info of your paper. Use the series of questions to guide your essay, the key to this assignment is thinking about this process and what it means, DO NOT simply provide short answers to the guide questions in each essay, you need to provide clear explanations about WHY this pattern exist and WHAT it means in the context of the themes of World Systems Theory, Sustainability, and Globalization we have discussed in class.
Keep track of your data sources and list them at the end of your report, including the URLs and titles of any web pages you consult for either researching your companies or the stats for the individual countries.
1. Describe the spatial patterns you see on your map. Are the headquarters and production facilities located in the same countries? If not, why not? What benefits and/or disadvantages do companies garner from this pattern? Consider the political, economic, cultural, social, and environmental aspects of globalization or the specific context of the country.Be specific.
2. What do you see in terms of the statistics that I asked you to collect between the countries where the headquarters are located as compared to the stats for the countries where the production/manufacturing sites are found? Explain what these statistics suggest about the impact of your consumerism on the economies, the people and the environments both here in the US economy and in the countries where your items are produced? In other words, how are you impacted by and impacting the places you are connected to through your commodity chain? What opportunities and/or constraints do you have as a result of this pattern of production? What are some of the positive and negative aspects of your individual consumer choices?