CMS2010 Manufacturing Culture: Culture as Global Industries

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CMS2010 Manufacturing Culture Culture as Global
Industries

• Semester 2, 2005
• Week 2

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Overview of the module

• Map various aspects which have enabled the
  globalisation of the economy
• Develop some idea of the shape of the global
  economy in terms of the location of the rich and
  poor within this economy
• Explain the role of communication and information
  in the globalisation of the economy

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The Global Economy

• When did globalism start?
• Anthony Giddens (contemporary sociologist) says
  globalism is an integral feature of modern
  capitalism.
• Modern capitalism began in Europe around the 15th
  century. - It had a global outlook.
• International trade
• International labour
• Offshore sites of raw materials (growth of
  empires)
• Empire building

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Pieterse and Hybridisation

• Last week we read Pieterses views on the origins
  and nature of globalisation
• Pieterse argues that Giddens view is flawed
  because it is centred on western modernisation,
  which only began to be influential on a global
  scale since 1800s, and doesnt account for
  globalising tendencies prior to the 1800s and
  those not involving westernisation
• We will come back to Pieterses views again next
  week when we discuss cultural aspects of
  globalisation

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So whats new?

• Modern communication technologies
• International marketing
• Fast transport
• Global languages
• Internationalisation of credit.
• Removal of barriers to free trade and
  international recruiting of labour
• the fall of communism in Europe. Some say money
  spent on cold war is now going into consumer
  goods and trade.
• Not all these factors are new but they have
  enabled a greater level of global capitalist
  integration than ever before.
• We no longer speak of first, second and third
  world economies. They are all part of global
  markets.

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Transnational Corporations

• By acquiring earth-spanning technologies, by
  developing products that can be produced anywhere
  and sold everywhere, by spreading credit around
  the world, and by connecting global channels of
  communication that can penetrate any village or
  neighbourhood, these institutions transnational
  corporations which we tend to think of as
  economic rather than political, private rather
  than public, are becoming the world empires of
  the 21st century. (Barnet and Cavanagh, 1995,
  Global Dreams p.14)

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From the video Borderless World

• Kenichi Ohmaes 5 stages in the process of a
  companys globalisation
• Have a strong product to export, using local
  dealers distributors.
• Set up marketing and sales support companies in
  the local market country.
• Relocate the production base to the local market
  country (develop a global mentality where
  decisions are shared between centre and local
  company).

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From the video Borderless World

• 4. Move more aspects of the company to the local
  market country eg R D, financing, engineering
  other corporate functions (complete
  insiderisation phase).
• 5. True globalisation phase where some core
  functions such as global branding are returned to
  the centre to develop a strong global brand and
  global identity.

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Reorganising the Trading Blocs - breaking down
trade barriers?

• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• US/Australian Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
• European Union
• New world order in trade - the removal of old
  barriers such as tariffs and traditional trading
  blocks.
• Re-establish the dominance of previously dominant
  countries such as US, Japan, and the wealthier
  countries of Western Europe.

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Internationalisation of credit through the
financial sector.

• Deregulation of the banking and finance sector in
  many countries throughout the world
• some strategic re-regulation by national
  governments
• rapidly increasing competition
• the removal of intermediaries (such as national
  governments)
• product innovation
• new communication technologies

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According to Smith and Walter in Global Banking
(1997, p.15)

• Telecommunications provides an ease of access to
  information that once separated banks from
  their clients, pushing much of todays business
  into trading markets in which advice and service
  are less valuable than the latest quotation
  posted by securities and foreign exchange
  traders.

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The removal of barriers to international
recruiting of labour - An international division
of labour.

• Shift away from manual labour in rich countries
  of Europe, US, Japan towards poorer countries
  where labour is cheaper.
• Improvements in transport and telecommunications
  has made this easier.
• Loosening of labour laws, the weakening of trade
  unions, industry restructuring which removes
  traditional obligations and weakens relationships
  between worker and employer.

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Modern Communication Technologies.

• Not only tools of modern globalisation of
  capitalist economy, but also an increasing
  proportion of the products of global capital.
• The locus of power has shifted from Global
  Industrial Economy to the Global Information
  Economy.
• Timeliness is important so there is a close link
  relationship between modern communication
  technologies, transnational companies and the
  economic process of globalisation.

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Work to be completed for next weeks Tutorial

• Read Du Gay, pp. 32 47 together with the Du Gay
  readings C (pp56 59), D (p.60) and E (pp.616)
  you should do activity 4 (p.38)
• Selected Readings 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3