Sectors of production, enterprise & increasing production
How does a country actually make the things its people need — the food on the table, the phone in your hand, the electricity in the wall? In this lesson we sort every job into three sectors of production — primary, secondary and tertiary — and see how the balance between them reveals a country's level of development. We meet enterprise and the enterprising people who bring land, labour and capital together and take the risk, and the different ways production can be organised, from a single market trader to a giant multinational and a state parastatal like NamPower. We explore the technology revolution reshaping how and where things are made, and finish by weighing up privatisation as a strategy for increasing production — both its promises and its dangers.
By the end you should be able to (NSSCO Development Studies 3.1):
- Describe and explain the sectors of production (primary, secondary and tertiary) and the relative percentage of the population employed in each in countries at different levels of development
- Describe and explain the importance of enterprise in production, and illustrate how production can be organised: as individuals (sole traders), cooperatives, companies, transnational/multinational companies and state organisations
- Explain the role played by the technology revolution in development and the new world economic order (micro-electronics, biotechnology, communications and information systems)
- Evaluate strategies for increasing production, especially the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (water and electricity supply, roads, telecommunications and other services)