Using maps and data to look at the geography of world development
Introduction
Development and inequality are important topics to geographers, policy makers and to international organisations such as the聽, the聽,听聽and the聽, amongst many others. Of course, the people for whom it matters most are those most affected - those who do not have the right to life, liberty and security of person that is enshrined in the聽.
Within the subject content for GCSE geography, and under the theme of global economic development issues, students are asked to study the demographic, socio-economic, technological and political development of a poorer country or newly emerging country within respect to the wider political, social and environmental context within which the country is placed. Within the AS and A level content, patterns of human development and life expectancy can be studied as part of the Global systems and global governance theme. The theme is well suited to using quantitative information - data - to explore what is happening across the world. Data can challenge our misconceptions. For example, if often surprises people to learn that economic inequalities聽between聽countries are falling (it鈥檚 inequality聽within聽countries that is becoming a source of growing concern): see聽聽on the World Bank blog site.
Data provide evidence, and evidence forms knowledge. As part of the聽Data Skills in Geography Project聽we have developed a number of online teaching resources that include a discussion about聽inequality in the UK聽and about the influential book聽. They also include a聽Short Introduction to Quantitative Geography聽in which we outline why working with real data is an important skill for geographers to learn.
This module makes use of the聽聽provided by the World Bank. The data tables can be viewed at聽, with graphical profiles for individual countries available at聽聽(select the country and then its data;聽聽is interesting).
An alternative and enjoyable way of viewing these and other data, as well as exploring changes over time, is through the聽, where you can view and download (for educational purposes) a film entitled聽, which is packed full of interesting facts and figures, and very creative ways of presenting the data.