The Changing Global Context

1
The Changing Global Context

• Professor Emily Skop
• eskop_at_uccs.edu

2
The Changing Global Context

• This session, we will discuss
• Spatial Integration and the Global Political
  Economy
• Twelve Components of Globalization

3
The Changing Global Context
We are in fact bound up with and implicated
in the lives of all sorts of people living in all
sorts of different places. -Clive Barnes
4
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Our reality is no longer isolation but
  interaction.
• With interaction comes increasing spatial
  integration and complexity.
• With complexity, comes the need for understanding.

5
Spatial Integration and theGlobal Political
Economy

• Innovations in transportation and communications
  technology are making it possible to transport
  people, goods, and information over ever-greater
  distances in less and less time making the world
  seem smaller and smaller.

6
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Spatial integration is a function of connectivity
  (that is, of being linked within a system of
  interaction and exchange).

7
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Connectivity
• Places linked by transportation and
  communications technologies are connected . . .
• . . . and form spatial networks

8
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• The greater the level of interaction between
  places, the greater the level of spatial
  integration.

9
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• The Gravity Model
• We can estimate the spatial interaction between
  two regions by the amount of absolute distance
  between them.

Nor is individual behavior or motivations
considered. The freedom to choose ones behavior
is given no space.
Noticeably absent is any reference to the
historical linkages and current connectivity
between places.
10
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Not all countries and regions are as thoroughly
  inter-connected.
• Some contain more detailed and extensive
  transportation and communication networks and, as
  a result, have more interaction between places
  within them.

Absolute distance is not the only determining
factor! Relative distance is also important!
11
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Regions and countries with many in-accessible and
  poorly connected places are less spatially
  integrated.

12
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Poorly connected places are less spatially
  integrated.

13
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• The history of the world can be
  characterized by the growth of social and
  technological networks which integrate more and
  more places (and people) across ever-larger areas.

14
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• Over time, these networks have become
  increasingly refined (integrating countries and
  regions and intensifying interaction within them)
  . . .

15
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy

• . . . and they have become increasingly extensive
  (integrating distant places and even entire
  networks within an ever larger global political
  economic system)

16
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy
This process of spatial integration is
increasingly referred to as
Globalization
17
Spatial Integration and the Global Political
Economy
Globalization refers to the increasing political,
economic, and cultural interconnectedness of
different places around the world. Globalization
also refers to the global circulation of goods,
services, and capital but also of information,
ideas and people. --World Bank, 2004
18
Twelve Components of Globalization

• Global Hierarchy of Countries
• Capitalist Economic System
• Political Interconnectedness
• Gulfs Between Rich and Poor
• Displacement of Traditional Systems of Culture
• McDonaldization
• Cultural Hybridization
• Rise of Mega-Cities
• Internationalization and Feminization of
  Migration
• Differences Between Birth and Death Rates
• Local Resistance/Ethnic Nationalism
• Environmental Transnationalism

19
Globalization Component 1
Globalization has resulted in the emergence of
a global hierarchy of countries based on
political economic power as well as cultural
influence.
20
1 The Global Hierarchy
Core areas dominate trade, have diversified and
highly productive economies, the best
technologies, and are powerful politically and
militarily (industrialized, market-oriented).
Dominated, less diversified and productive areas
occupy the periphery. (poor, ex-colonial nations)
In between, are the areas of the
semi-periphery. (partially industrialized,
exploited and exploiters)
21
Globalization Component 2

• Globalization has resulted in the spread and
  dominance of a capitalist economic system.

• Free Trade
• Flexible Labor
• Reduced Role of State
• Active Individualism

22
2 The Capitalist Economic System

• This capitalist economic system is dominated by
  transnational corporations (TNCs) who maintain
  direct control of their product development,
  marketing, and brand management, whilst
  outsourcing production so they can operate at the
  global scale.

There are at least 60,000 TNCs employing many
millions of workers.
23
Globalization has resulted in political
interconnectedness through colonialism, warfare,
treaty organizations, and supranational
institutions.
Globalization Component 3
24
3 Political Interconnectedness
25
Globalization Component 4
Socioeconomic gulfs exist between as well as
within countries and regions.
26
4 Gulfs Between Rich and Poor
Widening Gaps between core and periphery.
27
4 Gulfs Between Rich and Poor
Widening Gaps withinCore and Periphery
28
4 Gulfs Between Rich and Poor
Widening Gaps withinCore and Periphery
29
Globalization Component 5

• Socio-political and economic influences from the
  core displaces traditional systems of culture in
  the periphery.

30
5 Displacement of Traditional Culture Systems
Globalization has meant the breakdown of folk
cultures and traditional ways of life around the
world and the increasing emergence of one world
culture.
For instance, while previously there were
hundreds of different languages spoken in the
world, today more than half of the worlds
population speaks just ten languages.
31
Globalization Component 6

• McDonaldization as new ideas, innovations,
  attitudes, and styles move from one place to
  another, places become more and more alike.

32
6 McDonaldization
33
Globalization Component 7

• Globalization has resulted in the upsurge of
  cultural hybridization.
• This process involves the spreading, mixing and
  blending of styles.

34
7 Cultural Hybridization
Immigrants from India celebrating Ganeshatsav in
the U.S.
35
Globalization has resulted in the rise of
mega-cities in core, semi-periphery, and
periphery.
Globalization Component 8
36
Globalization Component 8 Mega-Cities
By 2030, more than 60 percent of the worlds
population will reside in urban areas.
37
Globalization Component 9

• Globalization has resulted in accelerated rates
  of international migration, especially by women.

38
9 Internationalization/Feminization of Migration
39
Globalization Component 10
Birth and death rates significantly differ
between the core and the periphery.
40
Globalization Component 10 Birth/Death Rates
41
Globalization has resulted in widespread, local
resistance/ethnic nationalism against extra-local
and global domination.
Globalization Component 11
42
Ethnic nationalism is seen as a way for local
ethnic groups to react to the impersonal aspects
of globalization.
11 Local Resistance/Ethnic Nationalism
43
Globalization has resulted in the recognition
that environmental issues are transnational.
Globalization Component 12
44
12 Environmental Transnationalism
45
Twelve Components of Globalization

• Global Hierarchy of Countries
• Capitalist Economic System
• Political Interconnectedness
• Gulfs Between Rich and Poor
• Displacement of Traditional Systems of Culture
• McDonaldization
• Cultural Hybridization
• Rise of Mega-Cities
• Internationalization and Feminization of
  Migration
• Differences Between Birth and Death Rates
• Local Resistance/Ethnic Nationalism
• Environmental Transnationalism

46
Global Gapminder

• Go to http//tools.google.com/gapminder
• A. Select the chart where
• 1) the x-axis income per capita
• 2) the y-axis economic growth,
• B. Press the Play button.
• C. Answer these questions
• How does the core generally compare to the
  periphery on these important indicators?
• How have these indicators generally changed
  through time?
• D. Select one example country for each type in
  the global hierarchy (core, semi-periphery,
  periphery).
• E. Press the Play button.
• F. Answer these questions
• How have these indicators specifically changed
  through time (take note of key indicators in
  1970, 1980, 1990, 2000) for each of the selected
  countries?