3.1 globalisation: past and present

Question 1

A ) what is globalisation

Answer 1

the widening and deepening of global connections, interdependence and flows.

(the process of increasing interconnectivity between countries)

Question 2

A ) types of globalisation

Answer 2

economic: growth of TNCs, spreading of investment, rapid growth in world trade (due to developments such as containerisation!!)

cultural: unifying and diversifying: people becoming increasingly similar, many characteristics (food, clothes etc.) ‘western’ in origin

political: spreading ideologies, dominance of western democracies and values

environmental: eg the acknowledgment that global warming is a global threat requiring a global solution

demographic: increasing migration and tourism making populations more fluid and mixed

Question 3

A ) widening and deepening of connections: what does it mean?

Answer 3

widening: links to new, often far away places
deepening: number and type of connections increase, volume of flows grow

Question 4

B ) what is a ‘shrinking world’ ?

Answer 4

the concept that the world is becoming metaphorically smaller due to developments in technologies and transport making populations more connected (reducing time it takes to trade and communicate)

• time- space compression is an effect of the shrinking world: far away places are now accessible, the friction of distance has been reduced

1700s: fastest transport= HMS Dolphin, took two years to navigate the globe
1930s: propellor aircraft took 8 days
1990s: jet aircraft took 31 hours

Question 5

B ) improvements in transport communication

Answer 5

c19th: development of the railway, telegraph and steam ship

c20th: jet aircraft and containerisation!!!

Question 6

B ) 19th century

Answer 6

faster steam trains replaced horse- drawn and canal transport.
1830s: public railways in Liverpool and Manchester,
electric telegraph= first long distance instant communication, trans atlantic telegraph table

Question 7

B ) 20th century

Answer 7

JET AIRCRAFT

1960s: introduction of Boeing 747 jumbo jet lowered cost of international air travel allowing travel to be more accessible to the middle classes. travel time for passengers is shortened to hours rather than days!

CONTAINERISATION

dramatically sped up goods trade: loading is more efficient due to standardised boxes that are quickly transferable, bigger ships can carry more

cheaper: economy of scale- reduced transport costs, process is mechanised- reduced labour costs, fewer losses from theft

SO EFFICIENT THAT costs of moving an iPhone/ TV from China to the UK is less than a pound!

trade and transport is so much faster and accessible now, increasing interconnectivity and contributing to the shrinking world

Question 8

C ) rapid development in ICT and mobile development

Answer 8

c21st globalisation is dominated by the flow of electronic communication and data transfer due to the very rapid developments in technology (reducing communication costs and increasing global communication flows)

introduction of:
- mobile phones
- internet
- social networks
- economic banking
- fibre optic cables
have contributed to this!!

Question 9

C ) mobile phones

Answer 9

• reduced costs expanded usage from expensive business tool to an ubiquitous consumer product:
  80% of the world have mobile subscriptions connecting them to other people but also to information: the amount of influence our phones have over us, promotion of western ideas, we receive more information than ever before which in turn speeds up globalisation
• extended information flows to locations beyond landline networks (TECHNICAL LEAPFROGGING) and can improve livelihoods in developing countries: by 2015, 70% of people in Africa owned a mobile phone! (use of mobile phones spawns a wealth of micro- enterprises: provides work such as selling airtime on the streets and repairing/ refurbishing handsets)

Question 10

C ) internet and social networks

Answer 10

internet
- now common and accessible: close to 50% of worlds popn uses internet

social networks
- the development of social media has now taken over!!!! in 2021 there were 845 million facebook users (this would make it the 3rd largest country in the world)

• number of texts sent and received every day exceeds number of people there are in the world
• Skype ( 2003 ) allows people to cheaply, communicate face- to- face in an instant maintaining stronger bonds between distant relations

Question 11

C ) electronic banking

Answer 11

extends capital flows beyond the physical banking network

Kenya mini C/S

• M- Pesa operated by central bank of Kenya: equivilant of 1/3 of the country’s GDP is sent through its system annually!!!!
• migrants can pay remittances via online banking back home
• fishermen and farmers use mobiles to check market price before selling produce
• huge benefit to businesses as they can: keep in touch with all parts of their production, supply and
  sales network; transfer money instantly and analyse data instantly too

Question 12

C ) fibre optic cables

Answer 12

• land and sub sea cables in the 2000s: increased speed and volume of data transmission through cyberspace and slow instant, global communications

more than 1 MILLION KM of undersea cables carry the worlds data!!