3.1 Globalisation: long-standing process & accelerating Flashcards
Globalisation
The process of increasing interconnectivity between countries and the world’s economic, social, cultural and political systems.
Economic globalisation
Growth of TNCs - have global brand image & presence.
Spreading of investment around the world
Rapid growth in world trade.
Online purchasing e.g. Amazon
Cultural globalisation
Glocalisation and hybridisation
Social globalisation
International immigration created extensive family networks that cross national borders
Social interconnectivity e.g. emails, internet, phones
Global improvements in healthcare and education - rising world life expectancy & literacy rates
Demographic: increasing migration and tourism makes populations more fluid and mixed
Political globalisation
Growth of trading blocs (EU, NAFTA), allows TNCs to merge, and have reduced trade restrictions/tariffs to help markets grow. Global concerns e.g. free trade, credit crunch and global response to natural disasters e.g. 2011 Tohoku tsunami Spreading ideologies Global organisations (World Bank, IMF and WTO, UN)
Globalisation features
Lengthening of connections between people and places.
Widening of connections: links to new places. Products sourced further away than ever before.
Faster speed of connections e.g. Skype or jet aircraft
farther away.
Deepening of connections: number and type of connections increase, and volume of flows grows.
Transnational Corporations
Businesses whose operations are spread across the world, operating in many nations as both makers and sellers of goods and services. Many of the largest are instantly recognisable ‘global brands’ that bring cultural change to the places where products are consumed.
Globalisation increasing flows of…
What does the combined effect of these flows do?
Combined effect making places more interconnected
Tourism
Capital - (money) flows daily through world’s stock markets. Range of businesses buy and sell money in different currencies to make profit.
Commodities - valuable raw materials such as fossil fuels, food and minerals have always been traded between nations.
Flows of manufactured goods have multiplied in size in recent years, fuelled by low production costs in lower-waged economies e.g. China, Bangladesh, Vietnam.
Information - internet brings real-time communication between distant places. E-commerce * social networks.
Migrants - permanent movement of people faces most obstacles i.e. border control, immigration laws.
goods and services (including commodities)
products and commodities, that can be bought, and are often made or grown in other countries
capital
flows of money between people, banks, businesses and governments
people (including migrants and tourists)
information
e.g. data transferred between businesses and people, often using the internet
Political and economic decisions that reverse globalisation
During WW1 and WW2
Many countries responded to the Great Depression by increasing protectionism
During decolonisation in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s many newly independent countries reacted against the perceived exploitative nature of the international trade system by seeking self sufficiency through import substitution.
Examples of increasing globalisation
In the 1960s people holidayed in the UK or Spain - now holidaying in Dubai or Florida not too exotic
1960s: clothes made in UK - now: China, Vietnam, Bangladesh
1960s: curry and pasta considered exotic - now: eat food from all over the world
Even recently isolated places like Sub-Saharan Africa are becoming increasingly connected through trade and tourism
In the developed world, food, goods, media, music, friends and places visited are increasingly global
Negatives of globalisation
Not all happy with people having greater freedom to migrate across borders e.g. in EU nations.
TNCs causing cultural homogeneity (uniformity) on a global scale
Interdependency
Globalisation increases interdependence meaning success of one place depends on the success of other places.
Two places becoming over-reliant on financial/political connections with one other.
Economic problems in one country can quickly spread to its trading partner and quickly affect people in distant places.
Consequences of transport and technological developments
Developments in transport technology have been encouraged by growth in trade - the exchange of goods and services between people and companies, which is increasingly cross-border between countries rather than just within a country. Transporting goods and people around the world has become cheaper over time.
Technological developments in transport and communication in the 19th century promoted globalisation and led to the development of TNCs.
Important innovations in transport
1800s Steam Power - steam ships moved goods/armies along trade routes into Asia & Africa
1800s Railway networks expanding globally
1960s jet aircraft (Boeing 747)
1950s container shipping
Intermodal containers
Large-capacity storage units which can be transported long distances using multiple types of transport e.g shipping & rail w/o freight being taken about of the container.
Spatial division of labour
TNCs moving low-skilled work abroad/’offshore’ to places with low labour costs. Important skilled management jobs are retained at the TNC’s HQs in its country of origin. Transport has been essential in allowing TNCs to establish a spatial division of labour on a global scale.
Time-space compression
Heightened connectivity changing our conception of time, distance and potential barriers to the migration of people, goods, money and information.
Shrinking world effect
Distant places feeling closer and taking less time to reach due to technology
Examples of transport
1700s, the fastest transport was a three-masted frigate (HMS Dolphin) which took two years to navigate the globe.
1930s, propeller aircraft (the Lockhead Vega) took 8 days.
1990s jet aircraft (Concorde) took 31 hours.
Ways technology is used by different players which contribute to globalisation
Economic globalisation
ICT allows managers of distant offices to keep in touch easily. Helped TNCs expand into new territories to make/sell products
Social globalisation
Maintaining long-distance social relationships through ICT supports migration. Keep strong link with family left behind
Cultural globalisation
Cultural traits: language/music adopted or imitated and hybridised faster (PSY Gangnam style)
Political globalisation
Social networks used to raise awareness about political issues and to fight for change on a global scale.
Environmental charities e.g. Greenpeace can spread their message online (social media). Or spread terror globally.
Impact of ICT (Information Communication Technology) developments
Reduced communication costs and increased global communication flows, since the late 20th century.
Little changed between the adoption of the electric telegraph and the growth of the landline telephone after 1900, but developments have been very rapid since 1990.
Many activities are now done without any personal interaction - banking (electronic apps), booking hotels (online) and increasingly shopping.
Mobile Phones
Become common since their invention in the mid-1990s, even in many developing countries.
With smart phones, smart tablets and smart watches in the 2000s extended they information flows to locations beyond landline networks.
Reduced mobile phone costs expanded usage from an expensive business tool to an ubiquitous consumer product.
Used even in countries with a lack of communications infrastructure. By 2015, 70% of people in Africa owned a mobile phone.
Economic banking
Rise of mobile phones means they can be used for economic banking, revolutionising life for individuals and businesses. In Kenya:
The equivalent of one third of the country’s GDP is sent through the M-Pesa system annually. This is a mobile phone service that allows credit to be directly transferred between phone users.
People in towns and cities use mobiles to make payments for utility bills and school fees.
In rural areas, fishermen and farmers use mobiles to check market prices before selling produce.
Women in rural areas can secure micro-loans, using their M-Pesa bills as proof they have a good credit record.
Electronic banking extends capital flows beyond the physical banking network
In-store barcode recording automatically orders a replacement from a distant supplier, reducing warehouse and wasted transport costs. .
E-banking allows migrants to transmit remittances of money back to their home countries.
It has been a huge benefit to businesses, since they can:
Keep in touch with all parts of their production, supply and sales network, locally and globally.
Transfer money and investments instantly.
Instantly analyse data on sales, employees and orders from anywhere within their business.
Fibre-optic cables
Land-based and sub-sea fibre optic cables in the 2000s increased the speed and volume of data transmission through cyberspace, and allow instant, global communications.
More than 1 million kilometres of flexible undersea cables carry the world’s data.
Global positioning systems (GPS) use continuously broadcasting satellites as beacons to triangulate information.
Delivery vehicles can continuously locate and transmit their position whilst satellite navigation (SATNAV) systems reduce costs from vehicles getting lost.
Satellite-based television has meant that popular channels are available worldwide, in many languages.
Electronic banking extends capital flows beyond the physical banking network
Social Networks
Social networks and Skype allow people to communicate instantly and without charge (with an internet connection). In 2014, 5 billion Facebook ‘likes’ were registered each day.
The development of social media (Facebook 2006, Instagram 2010, WhatsApp 2010) enabled much cheaper communication between friends and family than landline telephone.
This has led to space-time compression, where the cost (time or money) of communicating over distance has fallen rapidly, so people can communicate regardless of distance.
Since 2003 Skype has allowed cheap, direct, face-to-face communication, allowing migrants to maintain stronger bonds with their distant family.
Emerging economies
Countries that have begun to experience high rates of economic growth, usually due to factory expansion and industrialisation.
aka newly industrialised countries
Includes the BRICs group.
