Changing Global Relationships

Question 1

Definition of culture.

Answer 1

The values and customs of a particular country as expressed in the music, food, interests, dress, language, religion and sports of that country.

Question 2

Definition of developed country.

Answer 2

A rich country of the world where most people enjoy a high standard of living.

Question 3

Definition of developing country.

Answer 3

A poor country of the world where many people have a low standard of living

Question 4

Definition of export.

Answer 4

A good or service sent from one country to another.

Question 5

Definition of globalisation.

Answer 5

A process caused by advances in technology, which involves the web of interrelationships that have formed between countries, companies, people, resources, cultures and money.

Question 6

Definition of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Answer 6

A measure of the total value of all the goods and services produced in a country over a year, also referred to as Gross National Income (GNI)

Question 7

Definition of import.

Answer 7

A good or service received by one country from another.

Question 8

Definition of international trade.

Answer 8

The movement of goods and services between countries.

Question 9

Definition of nation-state.

Answer 9

A term that is sometimes used to describe a country.

Question 10

Definition of quota.

Answer 10

A trade restriction on the amount of a good that can be imported into a country.

Question 11

Definition of subsidiary.

Answer 11

A foreign office or factory of a transnational corporation, usually located in a country outside the country where the company’s head office is located.

Question 12

Definition of subsidy.

Answer 12

Payment to a producer of a good by the government to assist the producer in making their product.

Question 13

Definition of sweatshop.

Answer 13

A factory unit where the products of transnational corporation are produced with poor working conditions.

Question 14

Definition of tariff.

Answer 14

A tax put on an imported good by the government of the country that the good is imported into.

Question 15

Definition of trade.

Answer 15

The movement of goods and services from one country to another.

Question 16

Definition of transnational corporation (TNC)

Answer 16

A large company that has a head office in one country and subsidiary offices in other countries.

Question 17

What is globalisation doing to the world?

Answer 17

It is making the world feel much smaller than it really is.

Question 18

What does the term “global village” mean?

Answer 18

The term ‘global village’ is used to describe the way technology can enable the global population of nearly seven billion people to communicate as if they were in a small village.

Question 19

What are the most important factors that have brought about globalisation?

Answer 19

• improvements in transport that allow quicker trade and travel between countries
• advances in communications technology
• advances in computer technology
• growth of very large companies or transnational corporations (TNCs)
• changes to the organisations that control trade between countries

Question 20

What questions do TNCs ask when they work out how they will operate at a global level?

Answer 20

• Where is the cheapest labour located?
• Where are the facilities to produce our products in the most cost-effective way?
• Which country offers the best tax deal?
• Which country has the friendliest government?
• Where is the cheapest land or electricity available?
• Where will we sell our product?

Question 21

What are some examples of the human rights violations from sweatshops?

Answer 21

• Paying less than minimum wages to workers
• Employing child labour in the factories
• Incorrect payment or failure to pay for overtime worked
• Harassment of workers by management
• Poor environmental, safety and health conditions in the workplace

Question 22

Who are the United Nations and what do they do?

Answer 22

The United Nations was established at the end of the Second World War. It has become a promoter of globalisation, arguing that individual states have a dual role with responsibilities to both their own citizens and to the world.

Question 23

Who are the International Monetary Fund and what do they do?

Answer 23

Established after the Second World War in 1946, the International Monetary Fund now has 182 member countries. It aims to promote international cooperation on finance, encourage proper systems for exchanging money between countries and provide temporary assistance for countries with high debts.

Question 24

What are the World Bank and what do they do?

Answer 24

Established in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference, the World Bank provides loans to poor countries for development projects. These include projects such as water and sanitation facilities, natural resource management, and education and health improvements.

Question 25

Who are the World Trade Organisation and what do they do?

Answer 25

The World Trade Organisation was established in 1995 to administer the rules of international trade agreed to by its 123 member countries. These rules have been ratified by the parliaments of all members. The WTO aims to promote the growth of world trade by the lowering of barriers to trade such as tariffs and import quotas.

Question 26

What is a tariff?

Answer 26

A tariff is a tax on an imported good. Governments impose tariffs so that their local businesses can compete with cheaper imports.

Question 27

What is a quota?

Answer 27

A quota is a limit on the number of items imported into a country.

Question 28

What is a subsidy?

Answer 28

To keep farmers producing their products governments pay them money. This is called a subsidy. This brings their costs down and lets them sell their products on the world market at a cheaper price.

Question 29

Chapter introduction: The Globalisation Process

Answer 29

The world has always had a total surface area of about 509 600 000 square kilometres. It is not the physical size of the globe that has become smaller, but the speed by which we can communicate and move between places.

Question 30

Chapter introduction: Advances in communications technology

Answer 30

Advances in the way people communicate between countries range from the satellite network that now covers the entire globe to the fibre optic cable network that links continents under the sea. These networks provide fast, reliable and cheap communications between countries.

Question 31

Chapter introduction: Motorola–a telecommunications giant

Answer 31

Motorola is an example of a modern transnational corporation (TNC). Two brothers started the company with a product designed to run a household radio. It was the first company to develop the mobile phone and today it is recognised worldwide as a global telecommunications giant.

Question 32

Chapter introduction: Computers and the World Wide Web

Answer 32

After the radio was invented in 1895 it took 40 years for the audience in the United States to reach 50 million. After personal computers were first generally available in 1981 it took only 15 years to develop an audience of 50 million. After the Internet was introduced to the general public in 1995, it took just four years before 50 million Americans were regularly online. We accept technology quickly into today’s society.

Question 33

Chapter introduction: Transport technology and globalisation

Answer 33

Advances in transport technology have changed the way people view travel and the distance between countries. As a result there has been a huge rise in the movement of people, goods and services over the globe. There are more goods traded now than ever before. This has been an important part of the process of globalisation.

Question 34

Chapter introduction: Transnational corporations and globalisation

Answer 34

The technological advances in communications and transport have made it is easier to move goods, people, information and money around the world. These advances have encouraged the growth of very large companies called ‘transnational corporations’ or TNCs, which have become a major force in the globalisation process.

Question 35

Chapter introduction: The globalisation of sport

Answer 35

Globalisation has changed how sport is viewed and played. Sports stars have become global identities as sport is broadcast live around the world. With the rise of the global audience, the opportunity to promote different sports at a global level has arisen. Transnational corporations (TNCs) benefit from this growth in sports popularity through broadcasting rights and the manufacture of sporting clothes and equipment.

Question 36

Chapter introduction: The sweatshop side of globalisation

Answer 36

TNCs often use the cheap labour available in developing countries to produce sports equipment, shoes and sports clothing. The factories where these goods are produced have become known as sweatshops due to the poor working facilities and low wages paid to the workers.

Question 37

Chapter introduction: Cultural impacts of globalisation

Answer 37

The globalisation of culture is a force that influences us all. Some people argue that globalisation is moving the world towards one giant global culture where music, entertainment, foods and even language are the same. This is because many cultural aspects are easily exported due to the globalisation process. Transnational corporations (TNCs) are largely responsible for this movement towards one global culture. While it is easy to see how and where these cultural influences enter a country, the changes they make to the culture of the country are harder to identify because they happen slowly.

Question 38

Chapter introduction: Globalisation–winners and losers

Answer 38

Conditions for people across the world are unequal— the gap between rich and poor countries in the world gets wider each year. Globalisation is singled out as one of the main causes of this global inequality.

Question 39

Changing global relationships: introduction page

Answer 39

The world today seems to be getting smaller due to advances in technology. These changes have caused some countries to have wealth and power while others lack the basic necessities of life. Large companies have grown to be so big that they can be more powerful than many nations. Geographers investigate these changing global relationships to manage the impacts they have and help create more equality between people and nations.

Question 40

What are the changes caused by the globalisation of sport?

Answer 40

Globalisation has given sport the opportunity to attract a global audience. Sporting events such as the Tour de France cycling race and sporting competitions like American national basketball (NBA) are broadcast worldwide, raising the popularity of the sport at a global level.

The growth in popularity of a sport then attracts money. This happens in two ways.
• TNCs buy the broadcast rights to sporting events, which then provides income for the sporting organisations that run the sport, for example the International Olympic Committee (IOC) or Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIF A). This income is used to develop the sport further at a global level.
• Global sporting superstars are paid to wear clothing and use equipment that TNCs then market to fans. The sports items are produced in factories in developing countries. The profits made by the TNCs are used to further fund their involvement in sport through activities such as sponsorship.

The globalisation of sport has also meant that athletes are recruited for teams from all around the world. Players move not only between teams in one competition, but also between countries, drawn by lucrative contracts to play professional sport.

Question 41

What does the term McDonaldisation refer to?

Answer 41

‘McDonaldisation’ is a term first used in 1996 by US sociologist George Ritzer. It describes how North American TNCs are extending their influence into many countries of the world. Some of the big brand names in fast food besides McDonald’s include KFC, Subway, Burger King, and coffee shops such as Starbucks and Gloria Jean’s. These stores are located around the globe and have an increasing presence in Australia.

Question 42

How has entertainment and culture spread through globalisation?

Answer 42

The spread of television, movies and music across the world has meant that entertainment interests across countries have also come together in what is known as pop culture. Powerful global media organisations spread pop culture. Companies such as AOL/Time Warner, Walt Disney and Sony now control most of the films, television shows, televised sports events and magazines that we consume. They market their product across the world and export the values of the country they are located in with the entertainment they distribute.

Popular entertainment companies such as Disney have a tremendous global reach in terms of their audience. Once Disneyland was unique to California, but as tourism and the influence of Disney has spread, the empire has expanded and Disneylands have been opened around the globe.

Question 43

Revise the information on Globalisation–winners and losers: Why is the gap growing?

Answer 43

Trade practices are one of the causes of this growing inequality. The broad pattern of world trade is that the poorer countries export raw materials or agricultural crops while the rich countries export these and a range of expensive manufactured items.

The other feature of world trade is that it is not all fair. Rich countries protect their local industry through a number of different methods, including tariffs, quotas and subsidies. They spend up to US$1 billion a day on