midterm

Question 1

hegemony

Answer 1

The ideas of those in power come to be seen as the norm; they are seen as universal, perceived to benefit everyone

Question 2

what is the traditional definition of development

Answer 2

 A rise in real income per person
 The process of raising the level of prosperity and material living in a society through increasing the productivity and efficiency of its economy
 Sustained increase in the economic standard of living of a country’s population

Question 3

What is Amartya Sen’s definition of development?

Answer 3

Development ≠ growth. It is positive and negative freedom (political and economic freedoms and freedoms from want and fear)

Question 4

What does Sen mean when he talks about freedom?

Answer 4

1) political and civil liberties
2) economic opportunities
4) transparency of governance
3) social opportunities
5) protective security (social safety net)

Question 5

T/F: growth is always correlated with life expectancy

Answer 5

False!

Question 6

What is political ecology?

Answer 6

Research that studies links between social and environmental processes with explicit consideration of power relations.

Question 7

What are the 4 theses of political ecology?

Answer 7

1. Degradation and marginalization. Indigeneous, sustainable production systems, when hooked up to markets, can intensify beyond sustainable limits.
2. Privatizing collective resources can cause conflict.
3. States and markets can often undermine local knowledge about sustainable production.
4. Changing environmental conditions lead to change in human subjectivities.
5. Environmental change creates opportunities for new environmentally based social movements.

Question 8

What is the eco-scarcity paradigm?

Answer 8

”limits to growth” paradigm – population growth is the primary cause of ecological crises

Question 9

What is the eco-modernization paradigm?

Answer 9

application of western technologies, and attaching market values to all resources can solve ecological crises.

Question 10

According to Vandana Shiva, how did industrialization change our view of resources?

Answer 10

he meaning of “resources” shifted with industrialization. Instead of being “lively, sacred, and held in common” we began to see them as dead and to think of them instrumentally as inputs for industrial projects. We responded to scarcity by seeking technological solutions.

The new Atlantis–> “desacralization” of nature: using nature as a tool

Question 11

What re the main arguments introduced in the Club of Rome?

Answer 11

1. If present growth trends continue, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached within 100 years.
2. It is possible to alter these trends and to establish a condition of economic and ecological stability.

Question 12

What is the Brundtland Commission Definition of Sustainability

Answer 12

• the capacity to endure

* The ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future

Question 13

what is a commodity?

Answer 13

something with both use value and exchange value

Question 14

What three things are fictitious commodities?

Answer 14

Labor, Land, and Money
We can sell these things, but land and labor are embedded in social life, have larger purpose and significance, and cannot fully be alienated or transferred.

Question 15

What is accumulation by dispossession

Answer 15

Beginning in the 1970s, “owners of capital”—industrialists and others—had lots of capital but nowhere to put it. There were very few places to invest to earn a profit. In response, many companies sought to “open up” arenas that were formerly off-limits to investment, either •because they didn’t formerly have market value or •because they were public or commonly held resources

Question 16

what is the difference between GDP and GNP?

Answer 16

GDP counts everything produced in a country even if produced by foreign-owned companies. GNP counts everything produced by a country’s nationals even if produced outside the borders. So as Ellwood points out, A Canadian factory in the US would be part of Canada’s GNP and US GDP.

Question 17

What is included in the HDI?

Answer 17

• Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity.
• Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary school enrollment.
• Standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita.

Question 18

What is a colony of settlement?

Answer 18

where the colonial power sent large numbers of migrants to the conquered nation where the settlers farm, mine or set up industry. [Exs: Spanish America, Australia, Canada, U.S., South Africa]

Question 19

What is a colony of rule?

Answer 19

where the colonial power put in place an administration to arrange for the extraction of resources and to organize local people to work on colonial projects, but where there were fewer migrants from the colonial power to the colony. [Exs: most of Africa]

Question 20

What were some ways that colonialism destroyed pre-colonial communities?

Answer 20

• Depopulation
• Siphoning of of labor for colonial projects
• Prohibiting local religious traditions
• Banning local kinship practices
• Imposing private property (over communal forms)
• Disrupting local customs governing food production and distribution
• Changing gender relations
• Shifting from regenerative production practices to treating “nature as raw material” (V. Shiva)

Question 21

What is mercantilism?

Answer 21

Government should maximize the benefits of trade through protectionism—setting tariffs in ways that maximize its own benefit

Question 22

What is dependency theory?

Answer 22

The idea that the colonial division of labor laid down a pattern of international relationships that privileged some nations and let others vulnerable, and that vulnerable nations need to take actions to remediate the situation. (for example, import substitution industrialization)

Question 23

What is import substitution industrialization?

Answer 23

A strategy to protect domestic industry though tariffs and other barriers. Designed to overcome the specializing effects of the colonial division of labor (ex: Brazilian cars)

Question 24

What is the development alliance?

Answer 24

an alliance of commercial farmers, industrialists, public employees merchants and industrial workers who benefited from rapid industrialization and urbanization.

Question 25

What is the Green Revolution?

Answer 25

A first world initiative to change the social and technological basis of third world agriculture. From mixed farming with a variety of different plants to monocrops with western technologies.

Question 26

What is an export processing zone?

Answer 26

Specialized zones established by states to attract foreign investment in export production, with concessions such as cheap labor, infrastructural subsidies, waiving of environmental rules, and tax breaks.

Question 27

What is a NIC?

Answer 27

Middle Income third world countries that industrialized rapidly beginning in the late 60’s

Question 28

What is a NAC?

Answer 28

Middle income third world countries pursuing agro-industrialization and agro-exporting

Question 29

Why did we unpeg the dollar from the gold standard?

Answer 29

as offshore currency reserves grew, investors had too much money which couldnt be cashed in for gold

Question 30

What was the “Volcker shock?”

Answer 30

Money in offshore banks grew with oil price spike in 1973; private bank lending to the developing world funded up to 70 percent of government operations in places like Mexico. People had to take out loans to start paying off their loans.. eek

Question 31

What was the farm debt crisis?

Answer 31

debt for farm land and equipment grew, and exports fell as a result of US grain embargo versus soviet union. Also high interest rates, high oil prices, and a strong dollar

Question 32

What was the WA consensus?

Answer 32

neoliberal policies promoted through Bretton Woods Institutions. Required structural Readjustment policies. WE can provide a social safety net to shelter ourselves from the ups and downs of global market competition… but others can’t

Question 33

GATS promotes privatization of what

Answer 33

public works like water, health services, prisons, etc. :/