What is globalization

1
What is globalization?

• Our lives more global in character and
  orientation
• Distance
• Communications
• Corporations
• Is this good or bad for development?
• The billion dollar question ?

2
Is Globalization New?

• Operating for a number of years
• Started with the age of exploration
• 1492 is a convenient date in this story
• We have discussed before how Columbus travel
  itself is related to mercantile capitalism
• What is new then?
• The scale of globalization

3
Another perspective

• Globalization has three perspectives
• Economic
• Borderless economic operations
• Political
• Erosion of the powers of states
• Cultural
• The westernization or americanization of the
  world

4
Is distance shrinking?

• Yes and no
• Yes because of transport and communications
• No because of the impact of transport and
  technology on relative distance

5
Globalization and Homogenization

• Does globalization always lead to a sameness
  all over the world?
• The Americanization?
• Not necessarily
• The case of chicken tikka masala
• This view sees globalization promoting openness,
  plurality,
• But the impact on development?
• Depends on if the country/city is in the loop
• Cause of more inequality?

6
The geography of industrialization

• The developed countries rapidly
  deindustrialized
• Resulting in geographies such as the rust belt
  in the US
• Some of the developing countries rapidly
  increased their manufacturing base
• The growth of East and Southeast Asia

7
Post-Fordism

• The mass production process referred to as
  Fordism
• Now manufacturing characterized by flexible
  production
• Production processes not as rigid as it was in
  the Fordist assembly lines
• Production quickly responds to retailers and
  customers

8
Services and the American cities

• Urban growth and importance driven by producer
  services
• Knowledge-based
• E.g., legal, financial, managerial services
• Information technology links these jobs together
• Producer services increasingly concentrated in a
  few American cities
• Such as law or management consulting

9
The growth of TNCs

• Transnational corporations operate across
  boundaries
• Growth in the globalized economy increasingly
  related to areas where TNCs are located
• Good or bad?
• Can it lead to spatial polarization
• Is spatial polarization itself good or bad?
• AAAAAAAhhhhhh ?

10
Spatial Inequality

• Two options for countries with high spatial
  inequality
• Allow major urban areas to adopt innovations
• Regardless of whether previous innovations have
  spread to the rest of the country
• Delay further innovations until the rest of the
  country has experienced changes
• The economic growth versus equity tradeoff

11
Impact on Cities

• Emergence of the world city
• The range and strength of economic power
• A disproportionate share of worlds business
• Decisions made on allocation of resources
• The head office
• Problems thanks to economic decline
• The rust belt is a classic example

12
Urbanization and Industrialization

• US cities grew as manufacturing grew
• Manufacturing jobs attracted
• Migrants from rural areas, and
• Immigrants from other countries
• These jobs had a multiplier effect that created
  non-manufacturing jobs as well
• Cities that prospered had absolute location
  advantages
• Location of raw materials, port,

13
New International Division of Labor?

• Division of capitalist world economy into
  specialized roles in different locations?
• Locations at various scales
• International, national, regional, local

14
World Cities are centers of

• National and international tourism
• Trade and foreign investment
• Banking, insurance, and financial services
• National and international political power
• Advanced professional services
• Culture, arts, and entertainment

15
City 1
16
City 2
17
City 3
18
City 4
19

• Or this one from The Telegraph
• Palm Meadows in Bangalore

20
Modernism

• Based on a belief in preeminence of scientific
  rationality and the inevitability of human
  progress
• Functional, boxy skyscrapers in the CBD,
  high-rise apartment towers placed throughout the
  city, followed by (tract) houses in the suburbs

21
Postmodernism

• Rejects the worldview that there are universal
  models for how the world functions or should
  function
• Celebrates diversity and denies that any
  perspective, style, or subgroup has a monopoly on
  truth or beauty
• Postmodern architecture emphasizes style,
  aesthetics, decoration, context, and historic
  preservationform as well as function

22
Urban underclass

• Characterized by higher levels of
•                                            
  i.      Poverty
•                                                   
             ii.      Joblessness
•                                                   
            iii.      Crime
•                                                   
           iv.      Drugs
•                                                   
             v.      Single mothers
•                                                   
           vi.      Welfare dependency
• Highly concentrated in inner city
• Predominantly composed of ethnic minorities.
  (White poor far outnumber nonwhite poor, but
  white poor are not as geographically concentrated)

23
Gentrification

•                i. Rehabbing of housing in older,
  architecturally significant, once fashionable
  urban neighborhoods
•               ii. Stimulated by
•       1. revitalization of downtowns
• 2. opportunity to make large real estate
  profit
• 3. road congestion
•              iii. Gentrifiers are mainly
•       1. upwardly mobile professionals
•      2. young
•       3. white
•    4. childless
•               iv. Negative side effect is
  displacement of previous residents who cannot
  afford higher real estate taxes.

24
Edge cities

• Shopping malls
• High-tech light manufacturing
• Corporate headquarters
• White-collar firms
• Entertainment and hotel complexes
• Airport complexes
• Frequently located at intersections of major
  freeways
• Refocusing of commuting on suburb-to-suburb and
  city-to-suburb "reverse commuting"

25
Postmodernism and the City

• A good way of studying the recent shifts in
  cities is through the concepts of modernism and
  postmodernism. These two concepts can be
  utilized in a few complex ways such as
• a particular cultural style
• a method of analysis
• a era in history.
• Modernism has been described as a broad cultural
  and philosophical movement that emerged during
  the Renaissance period and came to its full
  potential in the late 19th and early 20th
  centuries.
• This movement lead to the eventual emergence of
  social engineering, which is the notion that
  society can be improved by rational comprehensive
  planning and the application of scientific
  principles. It was these planning applications
  that created the philosophy behind comprehensive
  urban renewal such as Slum clearance and traffic
  management schemes that took place in cities
  during the 1960s.

26
Linguistic Turn

• Modernism was also undermined by the linguistic
  turn which was the forerunner to the cultural
  turn.
• Meanings of words are derived not directly from
  the world to which they refer, but to common sets
  of understandings between people.
• An example of this would be traffic lights. The
  colour red has no intrinsic meaning in itself but
  it is important in distinguishing the difference
  between red (stop) and green (go).

27
Postmodernist Theories

• Postmodernists argue that theories or knowledge
  claims are bound up with power, in other words
  they represent an attempt to impose views on
  others. Postmodernism argues that there is not
  just one superior way of analyzing the world
• A key feature of postmodernism is the recognition
  of the diversity of groups in society. In the
  landscape of cities for example postmodernism is
  reflected in such things as architectural styles
  as opposed to the once rectangular styles of
  years gone past. Buildings are increasingly
  becoming more ironic by being less serious
  looking and expressing one thing by its opposite.
• At this point the validity of postmodernism is
  still in question.

28
Simulacra

• A controversial writer called Baudrillard argues
  that the postmodern culture is based upon images
  or copies of the real world which is known as
  Simulacra. They take on a life of their own but
  its difficult to distinguish from the reality
  that they imitate.
• Another feature of postmodern culture is
  advertising and mass media producing signs that
  have their own internal meanings and not those
  that are related to the external reality.
• This creates what is known as hyperreality. An
  environment which is dominated by hyperreality
  can be called hyperspace. Cities are very
  similar in there trends.
• The Disneyland theme parks are one of the most
  obvious examples of hyperreality because they
  produce a comfortable, sanitized, view of history
  as well providing the ideal city values such as
  patriotism, family values and free enterprise
  while at the same time excluding such violence,
  conflict and exploitations of people.

29
Disneyfication

• In a postmodern era the city is becoming a giant
  theme park where a variety of simulations present
  a highly distorted view of the world.
• Ageographia A feature of contemporary cities
  with buildings that have a shallow façade of
  culture which could be linked to disneyfication.
  The postmodern buildings represent consumption,
  greed, profit and little regard for the social
  consequences.
• In terms of consumer goods the industries have
  begun to flood the market with many different
  models and styles. For example, this can be seen
  with the family vehicle where consumers can now
  choose from trucks, SUVs, minivans, and compact
  cars etc.

30
The Los Angeles School

• Los Angeles has become the archetype of a post
  modern city
• LA does not display the industrial legacy of the
  classic industrial city
• The significance of the Central Business District
  (CBD) has been reduced, causing increased
  decentralization, and the formation of multiple
  nuclei model to arise

31
Fragmented Cities

• Fragmented cities have led to the concept of
  exololis, which is a city that has been turned
  inside-out
• This makes it very difficult for individuals to
  have a sense of belonging with a particular city

32
Kenocapitalism

• Kenocapitalism is a city structure model that
  contains elements of edge cities, spectacle,
  gated communities, and global command centers
• However, the placement of these elements within
  the city is completely random

33
Fortification of Cities

• This is becoming more common, especially in more
  affluent communities, where crime and violence
  are common occurrences
• Bunker architecture refers to urban areas with
  gates, barriers and walls, security guards, and
  surveillance equipment
• Davis describes this as scanscape, a means of
  excluding those who are deemed as undesirable

34
How Valid is LA as a General Model of Future
Urban Development?

• The Los Angeles School views the city as
  representative of future urban forms