Globalisation Flashcards
What is globalisation?
Increased union of economies, people and places around the world through the movement of goods, services and capital across borders.
4 factors that could make a country ‘switched off’:
-Physical geography e.g. due to mountains or landlocked
-Political decisions e.g. North Korea’s dictatorship, South Sudan conflict
-Environmental resilience e.g. countries that are vulnerable to climate change, may limit their ability to trade cash crops
Political decisions making a nation ‘switched off’:
(North Korea)
North Korea has limited communication with other countries (such as internet cabling so people aren’t exposed to information from overseas)
People also unable to move abroad or benefit from most cheap goods that could be imported from elsewhere
Physical geography making a region ‘switched off’:
(Sahel Region)
Group of countries including Mali and Niger are switched off due to its dry weather
Water scarcity makes it almost impossible to sell crops for income
Landlocked region also means that there’s struggle to export and import goods
Time-space compression explained
Set of processes which reduces the distance of places measured in travel time, effectively making such places grow ‘closer’
What is WTO and its purpose?
World trade organisation: To ensure trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.
Encourages no quotas or tariffs
WTO disadvantage case study (Guatemala):
In 1980, 75% of cotton was exported
WTO policies on tariffs made it difficult for Guatemala to export finished clothes so they exported raw cotton instead
Competition from other countries ended production completely in 2005, workforce now used to produce cheap T-shirts for exports
Case study on EU and ASEAN negotiating trade deals (Vietnam):
In 2015 the largest deal took place in Vietnam, removing quotas for items traded within EU countries and Vietnam
Increased EU exports including machinery, vehicles, etc to the fast developing market of Vietnam
Increased Vietnam exports including clothing, seafood, rice, etc to EU nations
IMF and its purpose:
International monetary fund: Like the world bank (which can focus on natural disasters), it lends money for development purposes.
Also stabilises currencies in order to maintain economic growth.
Difference between offshoring and outsourcing:
Offshoring is a TNC moving branches of its company overseas.
Outsourcing is using a third party vendor, local companies overseas.
Case study on TNCs taking advantage of economic liberalisation (Walmart):
Most manufacturing for Walmart is done in places where costs are lower, e.g. electronic goods are made in China and clothing is made in India.
Walmart has also purchased retail companies in other countries (e.g. Lider in Chile).
When did the global economy shift to Asia?
In 1950s when low tech products started to be manufactured in countries including South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong
Positive Global shift effects on China:
800 million people lifted out of poverty between 1980 and 2022.
Rise in middle class meaning that they can have higher disposable income, benefitting businesses.
Improvements to infrastructure, 82 airports being built since 2000 and development of the world’s longest highway network
Negative effects on global shift to China:
Air pollution is frequently above healthy levels in some Chinese cities.
In 2008 about 33% of Yellow River was considered so polluted with chemicals that it was unfit to be used for drinking water
Industrialization leading to to increased loss of farmland, over 3 million hectares of farmland (size of Belgium) has been polluted with heavy metals
Over exploitation of resources, not enough resources to keep up with demand so lots if imports for example oil coming from Venezuela and Amazonian rainforest being cleared and converted to soy fields, all for China’s consumption
Loss of biodiversity
Why India has become an attraction to outsourcing?
.Large companies can set up call centres at lower costs
.India has the second largest English speaking population in the world
.India has large youthful population, with lots of graduates, 9% of all 25 year olds had a degree in 2011, many of which have IT and engineering degrees
.Call centre work often pays three times more than the national average income, very attractive to locals
Negative effects of global shift to India:
Lots of rural-to-urban migration has led to rapid urbanisation. Puts pressure on urban infrastructure, shanty town are built illegally.
Rural to urban migration has created one of the largest slums in the world, Dharavi in Mumbai
What 2 issues do developed nations face from the global shift?
-High levels of unemployment
-Derelict land and contamination
What has happened to Rust belt city Detroit?
Following the decline of car industry in 1970s, 30% of buildings in the city became vacant. In 2020 around 27% was still vacant
Area within developed nation worsened by global shift (Leicester, UK)
In 1970s overseas competition from Asia ended manufacturing in textile industry of Leicester
Increase in derelict land, much of these areas were being contaminated with chemical waste (from dyes)
Deprivation linked to areas that were previously used for industry, e.g. 8.1% of Charnwood are unemployed
Sun-Belt city case study (Sydney)
-Sunny and warm climate alongside high income jobs have attracted high skilled workers
-Sydney has a young workforce, median age of 36 and its residents have the world’s second highest purchasing power
-40 of the 43 foreign bank companies operating in Australia have regional headquarters in Sydney, it’s the leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region
Cultural erosion in Papua New Guinea:
There were originally thousands of cultural groups but colonialism done by the British and German has broken up the native tribal system
Missionaries aimed to bring tribes together under a new set of religious laws, suppressing a lot of different traditions, for example there was the enforcement of nuclear families (father, mother and children) rather than others like sex-segregated houses
Retaining cultural identity:
(First Nation in Canada)
First Nations are the original population of Canada
Methods to maintain cultural identity include:
.100 cultural education centres funded by Canadian government
.Festivals and other meetings to preserve tradition
.Fort McKay in Alberta negotiated a 20 km exclusion from its Moose lake reserve lands to any oil sand extraction site
Global culture helping to bring equality (Paralympics)
Increased media coverage has helped to draw attention to the games and inspire more people to take part.
2020 games had highest number of parasports and athletes to date (more than 4400 participants compared to just over 3000 in 1998)
Global culture having a negative impact
(Asia’s changing diet)
Asian diets traditionally consist of high levels of vegetables and fish and low levels of red meat
Spread of western culture has increased consumption of sugar and red meats, has led to increase in obesity (in 1990 0.9% of South East Asia were obese, compared to 4.3% in 2015)
There is also increased carbon emissions as the land that was used for crop farming is being converted to land used for cattle ranching, doing this as demand for red meat grows
Transition towns:
Different methods used to prevent globalisation processes from damaging the environment
Aim to:
-Meet local needs through local production, where possible, (e.g. purchasing from local growers)
-Reduce waste, pollution and increased recycling
In 2012 the Bristol Pound was introduced to encourage people to spend in local businesses in Bristol.
Difficult to do in big cities like London where some services (e.g. transport) are
coordinated centrally
