Globalisation: Key Words Flashcards
Section A, Unit 3
Global Systems
The global scale economic, social and political structures that are created when human beings interact with one another across national borders at planetary and world-region scales. Flows of capital, people, goods, services and ides link together people, places and environments.
Causality
The relationship between cause and effect; everything has a cause or causes. For example, migration is triggered by push and pull factors, along with the technology that facilitates this movement.
Interdependence
Relations of mutual development between humans and/or non-human things. For example, states may become dependent on one another’s human and physical resources as a result of trade and migration flows.
Time-Space Compression
Heightened connectivity changes our perception of time, distance and potential barriers to the movement of people, goods, money and information. As travel and communications times fall due to new inventions, different places approach each other in ‘space-time’: they feel closer than in the past.
Interconnectivity
All of the varied economic, social, political, cultural and environmental linkages between people, places and environments that make up global systems.
Supranational
A geographical scale that transcends national boundaries, Supranational organisations and agreements may have power that surpass or increase the influence of national governments.
Development
Human development generally refers to a society’s economic progress accompanied by improving quality of life. A country’s level of development is shown first by economic indictors of average national wealth and/or income, but it encompasses social and political criteria also.
Inequality
The social and economic disparities that exist both between and within different societies or groups of people. Inequalities at global, national and local scales can be decreased or increased by flows of trade, investment and migration. Inequality in a society may increase when everyone’s incomes are rising because of the disproportionality large gains made by the wealthiest individual and elite social groups.
Globalism
The belief that global systems should be encouraged to keep growing. Opponents of globalisation reject globalism as an ideology.
Nationalism
An umbrella term for a spectrum of new ‘populist’ political movements which reject the ‘globalist’ philosophy or significant aspects of it. Typically, new nationalist movements in developed countries demand that the interests of their own must be more clearly put first, ahead of global issues or rules. State governments may respond with trade or migration barriers.
Deglobalisation
The idea that the world may be experiencing decreased economic integration of countries and reduced cross-border movement of goods, services and capital. Non-economic dimensions of globalisation include weakened global governance and increased opposition to the cultural exchanges brought by global migration, media and social networking. Deglobalisation is associated with a global-scale economic slowdown due to problems with the existing system itself and new political movements that aim to stop or slow different global flows.
Hyperconnected
A state which exists when the connections in a system have increased to the point where linkages between system elements (people and places) have become numerous and dense.
‘Shrinking World’ Effect
Heightened connectivity changes our conception of time, distance and potential barriers to the migration of people, goods, money and information. Distant places feel closer than in the past. As a result, the definition of what constitutes a ‘near’ or ‘far’ place changes in line with shifting perceptions of spatial reality.
Spatial Division of Labour
The common practice among TNCs of moving low-skilled work abroad (or ‘offshore’) to places where labour costs are low. Important skilled management jobs are often retained at the TNC’s headquarters in its country of origin.
Remittances
Money that migrants send home to their families via formal or informal channels.
Intermodal Containers
Intermodal containers are large-capacity storage units that can be transported long distances using multiple types of transport, such as shipping and rail, without the freight being taken out of the container.
Containerisation
The practice of transporting merchandise in large containers.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Forms of intelligence and learning shown by computers, ranging from speech recognition to complex problem solving. Many kids of employment are believed to be threatened b near-future advances in AI capabilities.
FANGs
An acronym for four hugely profitable technology TNCs: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.
The ‘Internet of Things’
The new age of smart devices is sometimes called the ‘Internet of things’. Computers have evolved into laptops, tablets and smart handheld devices - small networked computers are increasingly integrated seamlessly into cars and even fridges.
Bretton Woods Institutions
The International Momentary Fund and the World Bank were founded at the Bretten Woods conference in the US at the end of the Second World War to help rebuild and guide the world economy. The general Agreements on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) was set up soon afterwards and later became the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Neo-Colonialism
A term used to originally characterise the indirect actions by which developed countries exercise a degree of control over the development of their former colones (and more recently, it has become more widely used to describe some of China’s overseas actions too). Neo-colonial control can be achieved through varied means, including conditions attached to aids and loans, cultural influence and military a or economic support (either overt or covert) for particular political groups or movements within a developing country.
Intergovernmental Organisation (IGOs)
Composed of different states or their representatives, these supranational organisations and agreements are stablished by a treaty that acts as a charter following a ratification process.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
A financial investment made by a TNC or other international player (such as a government-controlled sovereign wealth fund) into a state’s economy.
Free-Market (Trade) Liberalisation
The removal or reduction of restrictions or barriers (including tariffs and quotas) on the free exchange of goods between nations.
Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs)
Since the 1980s, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) has provided lending to developing and emerging countries, but with strict conditions attached. In reality, this has meant many borrowing countries have been required to privatise public services.
South-South Global Flows
In the context of global flows, this refers to the movement of people, capital, goods and information from one part of the global south (Asia, Africa, Latin America) to another, such as Chinese investment in Sudan.
Transnational Corporations (TNCs)
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 about cultural change to the places where products are consumed.
Capitalism
An economic and political way of organising human activity which is characterised by the private ownership of money, assets and businesses for the purpose of generating privately owned profit. Overtime, capitalism has expanded across national boundaries, giving rise to global capitalism.
Tariffs
The taxes that are paid when importing or exporting goods and services between countries.
Sovereign Wealth Funds
These are the global scale ‘piggy banks’ which some states rely on to build global influence and diversify their income sources (they’re mostly associated with Middle-Eastern nations, particularly those rich in oil).
Trade Bloc
A group of countries who are all signatories to common agreement which reduces or eliminates import tariffs and other trade barriers. Some trade blocs additionally establish a common external tariff, thereby creating a customs union. Most trade bloc agreements involve a group of neighbouring states from a particular world region.
