2006 had 237 SEZs approved, with a further
306 applications pending (see http://sezindia.
nic.in/). rj
free trade area (FTA) A group ofnation-
statesthat agrees to practice freetrade(no
tariffs or other restrictions) amongst them-
selves, while retaining trade barriers with
non-members. Unlike a customs union, trade
relations with non-members may differ for
each state. Many link contiguous nations into
a supranational regional bloc, but there are
also non-contiguous FTAs. More than half of
the some 200 FTAs began after 1990. Rules
of origin, defining what counts as production
within a member nation-state, determine
whichcommoditiesare subject to free trade.
For proponents, FTAs catalyse global free
trade; opponents see such ‘Preferential’
Trade Areas as detrimental. The two largest
are within the globalnorth, NAFTA and the
EU, and enhance North–South trade barriers,
but many south–South and North–South
FTAs exist (the latter usually initiated from
the North). es
friction of distance The frictional or inhibit-
ing effect of distance on the volume of inter-
action between places (includingmigration,
tourist flows, the movement of goods and the
spread of ideas anddiseases: cf.diffusion):
empirical regularities in interaction patterns
consistent with the effect are characterized
bydistance decay. The effect is generated
by the combined impact of the time and cost
involved in overcoming distance, which varies
according to the available transport and com-
munications infrastructure. The frictions
of distance are reduced with technological
improvements in that infrastructure – though
not necessarily to the same extent everywhere
(cf. timespace compression; timespace
convergence;time__space expansion). rj
Suggested reading
Taylor (1971).
friends-and-neighbours effect A form of
contextual effectidentified inelectoral
geographywhereby voters favour local candi-
dates (even if this means abandoning their
traditional party preferences) because either
they know the candidate personally or/and
they believe that her/his election will promote
local interests. The concept was developed in
Key’s (1949) analyses of intra-party voting in
the US South and generalized by Cox (1969)
and others. Candidates who are successful
through this strategy may reward their con-
stituents by winning public expenditure for
the area (cf.neighbourhood effect;pork
barrel). rjfrontier A frontier marks a limit. It has been
used in two main ways. In the first case, it
refers to the limits of astate. The frontier of
a state is its border with another state. In
modern times, this frontier is thought of as a
line, since the sovereignty of a state is
asserted as continuous up to its edges. In
medievaleurope, however, feudal monarchs
understood that their authority waned towards
the periphery of their lands: theseregions
were termed ‘marches’ and the marcher lords
had significant autonomy (seefeudalism).
The emergence of the modern atlas showing
countries in different colours with distinct bor-
ders represents (and in part produces) a world
very different from the early modern period
and conformable with the presumptions of
modernnation-states(Black, 1997).
Modern state frontiers are often contentious
too, and a whole branch ofgeographydevel-
oped on the pretension that borders could be
settled scientifically (Curzon, 1888; Holdich,
1916). These scholars paid attention to the
distribution of ethnic groups, and to the exist-
ence of regions that were difficult to settle
or cross. An efficient border would clearly
separate different sorts of people by a line
that was in an isolated region, presenting a
significant challenge to transgressors. In fact,
these borders reflected the geopolitical inter-
ests of global superpowers (seegeopolitics),
and the first major international attempts
at comprehensive border-setting served the
colonial interests of European powers in
Africa (at the Berlin Conference in 1884–5)
and of the major global powers with regard to
Eastern and Central Europe (at the Paris Peace
Conference in 1919). The peoples of Africa
and of Eastern and Centraleuropewere not
consulted.
The second sense of frontier is as a line
between settled and unsettled lands, cultivated
and uncultivated. This is equally contentious.
It almost always, in fact, separates one society
from another and yet is presented as the sep-
aration of society from emptiness (cf.terra
nullius). The most famous of these frontiers
is that about which Frederick Jackson Turner
developed hisfrontier thesis. The settle-
ment of North America by Europeans expelled
native peoples from their lands. The
Europeans persuaded themselves that only
sedentary cultivation was truecivilizationGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_F Final Proof page 264 31.3.2009 1:20pmFREE TRADE AREA (FTA)