Key Economic and Industrial Terms Defined
Key Economic and Industrial Terms
Skilled Labor
A group of workers in any particular economic activity for defined stages of production of such activity.
Raw Materials
Substances for processing, manufacturing, or products. They may be natural or the product of another activity.
Machining
The processes of capital investment for the replacement of human labor by a series of machines to increase productivity and reduce production costs.
Media
May be for transport or information.
- Information: Directly transmitting visual or auditory messages.
- Transport: Means of moving passengers or goods.
Means of Production
Objects used in production that constitute its material condition.
Minifundia
A farm or agricultural parcel that, due to its small size, is not economically profitable.
Monoculture
Cultivation of a single species in an agricultural plant (e.g., vine, fruit, wheat).
Agrarian Landscape
The visual result of the agrarian structure at a particular historical moment. It expresses a particular organization of space, derived from the relationship between a farming community and the environment in which it operates.
Industrial Landscape
Results from the transformation of the landscape by industrial activities. Types include:
- Black landscapes: Many large factories, smokestacks, blast furnaces, roads, and mines. Heavy industry activities develop here.
- Dock landscapes: Commercial ports of big cities with large docks, freight and tanker ships, depots, warehouses, and factories for heavy industry (refineries, shipyards, etc.).
- Industrial sites: Urban industrial landscapes located in areas planned by the authorities on the outskirts of cities and along main roads.
- Business parks: Scientific and technological parks where very modern firms with avant-garde architecture are located, surrounded by extensive parkland. They develop high-tech activities and research.
Urban Landscape
A landscape densely occupied by buildings of different heights and varied streets, in which activities related to secondary economic sectors and services are carried out.
Plot of Culture
A technical unit of agricultural labor and the elementary division of agricultural land. It is occupied by a single kind of crop.
Biological Stop
The situation of workers engaged in fishing who temporarily lose their jobs because of the need for the recovery of fishing grounds.
Technology Park
Conditioned land where companies focus on tech sectors in which research tasks play an important role.
Audience
In economic terms, it is the negative difference between income and expenditure recorded by a public administration over a period of time.
Offshoring
The shifting of some production or manufacturing lines to other territories beyond a country’s borders.
Currency
The currency of a country, viewed in relation to other currencies. It is also used to designate all payments made in foreign currency.
Alternative/Renewable Energy
Energy sources that have continuous regeneration and are inexhaustible, although they may experience fluctuations in intensity. Types include solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal, and biomass.