Globalisation

Question 1

Defining Globalisation

Answer 1

• The fact we all increasingly live in one world, so that individuals, groups and nations become ever more interdependent
• Cohen and Kennedy: ‘increasing interconnectedness and interdependency of the world’s nations and their people into a single global, economic, political and global system’
  ↳ the way things flow: economic, different sectors etc
  ↳ New levels of communication; movement of people
  ↳ Increased diversity
• Giddens: Globalisation has been occurring over a very long period of human history, but the sheer pace and inter airy of it has increased in the last 40 years or so
• Cochrane, Pain and Steven: Globalisation ‘involves the emergence of a global, economic and cultural system which is incorporating the people of the world into one society

Question 2

Globalisation and the link to increasing digital communications technologies

Answer 2

• Giddens: recent developments in communications technologies underpin many of the transformations associated with globalisation
  ↳ Move from telephonic communication to cable and satellite digital communication has resulted in increasing information flows
  ↳ resulted in ’time-space compression’; as we are able to communicate with people in faraway places more quickly, the world feels ‘compressed’ (smaller) unlike when we had to physically visit people to communicate with them in the past (it felt much larger)

Question 3

Cultural Globalisation

Answer 3

• Chapman et al: ‘The rapid movement of ideas, attitudes, meanings, values and cultural products across national borders’
  ↳ There is now a global and common mono-culture - transmitted and reinforced by the internet, popular with entertainment transnational marketing of particular brand and international tourism

Key Features of Cultural Globalisation:

• Migration: growing numbers of people within countries across borders, locking for better employment opportunities and better lifestyles
• Globalisation of Food: Ritzer - Mcdonaldisation
• Globalisation of Sport: International sporting events that take place eg the World Cup, The Olympics and F1
• Converging Global Consumption Patterns: where middle-income counties (eg China and Thailand) are ‘catching up’ to countries with higher income levels
• Global Village/Global Consciousness: individuals and families are now more directly plugged into news from the outside world
  ↳ Giddens: people have a more ‘global outlook’ and increasingly identify with a global audience
  ↳ Criticisms: could also interpret the existence of fundamentalist terrorism and the international terrorist threat as a consequence of globalisation
• Giddens: Detraditionalisation - where day to say life becomes less and less informed by tradition for the sake of tradition
  ↳ Tradition gives stability and the ability to construct a self-identity against a stable background
  ↳ Local cultures and traditions are closed to new cultures and ideas, so traditional ways of acting come to be questioned
• Ulrich Beck: Global Risks/Global Risk Consciousness - emerges due to shared global problems which threaten people in multiple countries
  ↳ Eg threat of terrorism, international nuclear war, the threat of global pandemics
  ↳ Advances in technology = new changes

Question 4

Economic Globalisation

Answer 4

• The global expansion of international capitalism, free markets and the increase in international trade
  ↳ accelerated since the 1950s and even ex-communist countries are now part of the global capitalist economy
  ↳ Britain imports around 60% of its food
• Trade (exchanging of goods between countries) is particularly import
• TNCs are important: the biggest TNCs have annual revenues greater than the economic output of middle income countries
  ↳ eg Apple generates more income than Finland every year
  ↳ eg Shell generates revenue several times that of the poorer countries they extract from
• Global economy is Post-Industrial: and therefore increasingly ‘weightless’
  ↳ Quah: products are much more likely to be information based/electronic such as films or information services rather than physical goods such as food, clothing or cars
• Electronic economy underpins globalisation: Banks, corporations, fund managers and individuals are able to shift huge funds across borders instantly
  ↳ Transfers of vast amounts of capital can trigger economic crisis
• Neoliberals (eg Friedman): rapid intensification of international trade and investment results in an increasing global free trade and market economy, reducing the power of nation states
  ↳ positive process as they argue it extends economic and social benefits to all parts of the world
  ↳ the international organisations of development such as the WTO, the World Bank and IMF plays an important role
  ↳ Global Pessimists: these economic benefits are only being seen by the more prosperous western developed and dominant countries
  ↳ Economic globalisation may be in decline
  ↳ Stewart: events such as the global banking crisis of 2008 have caused banks to being reluctant to lead trans nationally and increased geo-political tensions
• Emergence of ‘Global Commodity Chains’: eg manufacturing of Barbie
  ↳ 1) Saudi Arabia: oil is extracted & then refined into ethylene which is used to create the body
  ↳ 2) Taiwan: Chinese Petroleum Corporation buys the ethylene and sells it to Taiwan’s largest producer of PVC plastics which are used in the toys
  ↳ 3) PVC pellets are shipped to 4 factories but the most expensive part of their production is done in the USA - the plastic mould injection machines
  ↳ 4) Hair comes from Japan, her clothes come from China (made with Chinese Cotton - the only raw material)

Question 5

Political Globalisation

Answer 5

• Since 1945, more and more governments have become members of International Institutions, such as the UN and the EU through which they agree to stick to International guidelines on issues
• Growth of international and regional mechanisms of government such as the UN and EU - governments of Nation States are increasingly restricted by international directives and laws stemming from these international bodies
• International Non-Governmental Organisations such as OXFAM or Greenpeace operate in dozens of countries and members tend to have an international outlook
  ↳ TV reporting of natural disasters in developing countries result in people in wealthier countries donating money to assist with relief efforts
  ↳ Giddens - Cosmopolitanism: an emerging global identity

Question 6

Hyper-Globalism/Global Optimism

Answer 6

• Globalisation is happening and that it is positive process characterised by economic growth, increasing prosperity and the spread of democracy
  ↳ Local cultures are being eroded primarily because of the expansion of international capitalism and the emergence of a homogeneous (alike) global culture
• Friedman: globalisation has occurred because of the global adoption of neoliberal economic policies
  ↳ ’Golden Straitjacket’: a set of neo-liberal economic set of principles that countries need to fit into if they are to achieve success in the global economy

Key Features of The Golden StraitJacket (Neoliberal Economic Policy)

• Deregulation: removing restrictions on businesses - in practice this means reducing tax on corporate profits or reducing the amount of ‘red tape’ or formal rules which companies have to follow (eg health and safety regulations)
• Fewer protection from workers and the environment: eg doing things like scrapping minimum wages and permanent contracts
  ↳ also means allowing companies the freedom to increasingly hire ‘flexible workers’ on short-term contracts
• Privatisation: selling to private companies industries that had been owned and run by the state
  ↳ Neoliberals: the state runs services less efficiently than the private sector
• Cutting Taxes: state relies on taxes, so if the gov cuts taxes then the state plays less of a role in the economy relative to the size of the private sector
  ↳ links to another core belief of neoliberalism which is that government should not interfere in the private lives of the individual

Supporting Ideas

• Ohmae (Radical Hyper-Globalist): TNCs hold the power as individuals have become global citizens through their consumption habits - they want to buy the best and cheapest products and any government who tried to prevent this happening would risk upsetting millions of potential voters
• New International Division of Labour: increase competition, raise standards, keep costs relatively low
• Llosa: argues a single global culture will prevent war and conflict

Question 7

Global Pessimist View

Answer 7

• Globalisation is a negative phenomenon because it is essentially a form of Western, mainly American Imperialism
• See globalisation in which Western institutions and ideas are imposed on the rest of the world
• Concerned about the concentration of the media in the hands of a few, powerful media corporations
  ↳ eg Disney, Microsoft and Sony have achieved near monopolistic control of newspapers, film, advertising and satellites
  ↳ Media moguls are able to influence business, international agencies and governments and consequently threaten democracy and freedom of expression
• Concerns that these Western forms of cultural imperialism that results in the marginalisation of local culture

Chang:

• Neoliberals paint a false picture of the benefits of economic globalisation
• Neoliberal policies make it easier for western companies to move into a poorer country, take over local businesses, extract natural resources, pay local people low wages and leave a trail of pollution behind due to fewer national regulations
• The World Bank, the IMF and the WTO are the ‘Unholy Alliance’: they exist to force developing countries down the free-trade road ↳ eg the IMF and World Bank will only lend money to developing countrieson the condition they adopt certain policies, relating to Free Trade eg (SAPs - Structural Adjustment Policies)

Seabrook
- Globalisation makes all other cultures local, and, by implication, inferior
↳ it implies a superior, civilised mode of living and promises that it is the sole pathway to universal prosperity and security which consequently diminishes and marginalises local cultures
- Globalisation sweeps aside the multiple meanings human societies and cultures have derived from their environments
- Integration into a single global economy is a ‘declaration of cultural war’

Three principle responses to globalisation

1) Fatalistic response: the world is simply powerless to resist globalisation
2) Reasserting local identity: may involve deliberately highlighting and celebrating local folklore and languages
↳ eg the French government has imposed a ‘culture tax’ on cinemas showing non-French films
↳ ’Commodification’: in which local populations package and sell aspects of their local traditional cultures
3) Emergence of violent resistance: mostly in the developing world, as some people interpret globalisation as an assault on their identity
↳ argues this is how we should understand terrorism

Question 8

Transformationalist and Postmodernist Theories of Globalisation

Answer 8

• The impact of globalisation has been exaggerated by globalists but it is foolish to reject the concept out of hand
• Globalisation should be understood as a complex set of interconnecting relationships
• Transformationalists: the flow of culture is not one way, from the west to the developing world; it is a two-way exchange in which Western culture is also influenced, changed and enriched by cultures in the developing world
• Robertson - ‘Glocalisation’: used to describe a product or service that is developed and distributed globally but is also adjusted to accommodate the user/consumer in a local market
• Hybridised Global Identity: many cultures coming together to form a global identity
• Global Communications Systems and Social Networks: can assist local cultures to rid themselves of repressive political systems such as dictatorships
  ↳ Kassim: the ‘Arab Spring’ movement succeeded in removing totalitarian dictators in Tunisa and Egypt and social network broke down a psychological barrier of fear by helping people connect and unite against repressive leaders
• Giddens - Detraditionalisation: where day to day life becomes less and less informed by tradition
• Beck - Global Risk Consciousness/Risk Society: developed and emerges due to shared global problems which threaten people in multiple countries eg climate change, terrorism, nuclear war, technological advances