GGR112 Final Exam

Definition of Globalization for this Course (2)

1. The development of an increasingly integrated global economy based off four dimensions:

   1. Economic: Intensification of global market links and capital flows across borders

   2. Political: Transformation of state sovereignty and the rise of intergovernmental organizations.

   3. Cultural: Transnational flows of meaning, symbols, and hybridization of identities.

   4. Ecological: Global environmental impact, climate change, and resource depletion across borders

2. Globalization is geographic. It reorganizes space, reshapes power, and transforms how people experience place and movement.

What is Manfred Steger’s take on Market Globalism and Globalization?

HE DEFINES: globalization as an ongoing (not end-state) set of social processes that transform our present social condition into one of globality.

Globality is a social condition characterized by the existence of global economic, political, cultural, and environmental interconnections and flows that make many of the currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant

HIS ARGUMENTS:

1. Globalization is about creating (new), expanding (eg. shopping chains) and stretching forms of human contact that overcome traditional political, economic, cultural, and geographical boundaries

2. Intensification of global consciousness (people perceive a global community / identity)

3. Destabilizing the “national imaginary” → people are deepining their connection with the local and the distant

HE REJECTS: Market Globalism

• Market Globalism makes globalization an inevitable, natural-force to justify neoliberal policy and depoliticize what is, in fact, a contested social process.

Steger, M. B. (2003). Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

KEY WORDS: Social process, globality (social condition), contested social process

What is scale and how does it fit in the concept of geopolitics?

• The geographic level at which processes and phenomena operate — from the body and household to the local, regional, national, and global.

• Scales are socially produced and politically contested, not simply given units of analysis; geographers ask how and why certain processes are scaled as they are.

Jonas, 2025

Real World Examples of Globalization (Historical, modern, readings):

1. Historical Examples:

   1. Silk Road: Linking China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean

   2. Indian Ocean Trade: Connecting East Africa, Arabia, and India through seasonal monsoon winds

   3. Early Empires: Integration of vast territories under common law and commerce

2. Modern Examples:

   1. Logistics Revolution

   2. Internet as Connector

   3. Global Supply Chains

   4. Universal Brands

3. Reading Examples:

   • Steger: Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden Speech October 7

     • Chain of global interdependencies for bin Laden’s message to be broadcasted: Eastern Afghanistan mountains (hiding base) → capital city of Kabul where the videotape was dropped at a Qatar-based TV company → satellite dishes allow broadcasts to be watched in different continents → deal signed with CNN for greater global reach → leaked tape allowed anyone on the internet to watch it

     • Al Qaeda himself despite being against modernity still uses the tools of globalization: clothing reflects hybridization (mixing of different cultures with an expensive sports watch, traditional Arab clothing, military jacket), his gun was most likely imported by the Russian Mafia and manufactured in China

How does David Harvey contribute to globalization?

HE ARGUES “: Rise of capitalism makes life accelerate which ANNIHILATES space through TIME

1. CAPITAL: Capitalism turnover: seeks to reduce time between investment and profit, accelerating production cycles → reduces regulation, “race to the bottom," concentration of wealth

2. SPACE: Technological speed: innovations shrink physical distance and allow people to work remotely → distance is no longer able to separate people like it used to

3. PEOPLE: Social experience: proximity to global world feels closer, faster and more immediate also known as the “global village” → experience of place, distance, and belonging is altered creating opportunity and disorientation

IMPACT: Time-Space compression creates fragmentation, defensive localism by attaching themselves to place due to disorientation, and a turn to tradition as a reaction to speed and anxiety of global change

Harvey, D. (1990). Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 80(3), 418–434.

KEYWORDS: Time-space compression, capital turnover, global village

How does Doreen Massey contribute to Globalization?

SHE DEFINES: “Place” as unique “meeting places” of social relations and global flows. Places are not “containers” defined by boundaries with fixed identities.

SHE REFUTES:

1. “sameness” and “static” idea of “time-space compression” argued by Harvey is not true, intersectional means that people experience “time-space” compression uniquely in a dynamic, relational way

2. Social relations are the driving force of spatial experience rather than capital turnover

SHE ARGUES: Power Geometry of Mobility

1. Different social groups have very distinct relationships to global flows based on power hierarchies

   1. Who gets to initiate and control movement ?

      1. Elite mobility: People in charge of connections, setting speed, direction, global integration (eg. top executives, financiers, tech leaders)

      2. Displaced: Refugees and migrants that move as a consequence of global forces rather than free choice (eg. war refugees)

      3. Stationary: Left behind by capital flight, deindustrialization or political exclusion. Experiencing globalization as loss rather than opportunity. (eg. farmers who suffered from lack of agriculture investment in Nigeria)

What is classical geopolitics?

1. Ratzel: Imagines the “state as an organism”

   1. Survival of the fittest, social darwinsm meant states MUST grow and expand - “eat or be eaten”

      1. Africa (1885)

      2. British India (successful example of global hegemony for trade and navel positioning)

2. “Logic of Lebensraum” (Cont. of Ratzel)

   1. Nazi ideology that pushed Germany to secure agricultural and resource rich lands by annexing East Europe

3. Mackinder: Heartland Theory

   1. Heartland = Central Eurasia because the geography (mountains/ice) meant that it was invulnerable to sea power and railways = land power could facilitate trade

   2. World-Island: Europe + Asia + Africa that controls 7/8th of worlds resources

   3. Haushofer: Used Heartland theories to influence Hitler

IMPACT: Classical geopolitics was led by two movements: social Darwinism + imperialism/great power projection → became associated with fascism and people shifted away

Reading: Dodds et. al

What is Critical Geopolitics?

REFUTES:

1. Critical geopolitics challenges what seems obvious. Territorial boundaries are not fixed, state power is not stable, and hierarchies are historically produce by repeating narratives

2. Common geopolitical binaries like East vs West or Secure vs Dangerous simplify complex realities and often reinforce existing power hierarchies.→ process on how we categorized and assigned value to these actors rather than just using the labels

ARGUES:

1. Spatiality: move from territorial-based understandings of politics to more network-based and relational based

2. Subjectivity: go beyond state actors and a focus on the US to non-state actors and everyday life

Reading: Dodds et. al

What are the dimensions of global inequality?

1. wealth/income

2. climate

3. gender

4. regional

5. global finance

6. political

What do people claim the benefits of colonialism are? What were the true effects of colonialism?

1. Institutional and governance

   • Rule of law, national unification, social reforms

     1. Residential schools led to cultural erasure

     2. “Pacification” led to military force and destruction of villages

2. Infrastructure and technology

   • Transport networks, communication, economic integration

3. Health and education → Civilizing mission (social darwinism)

   • Modern schools (increased literacy)

     1. British India: Implementing English education to “reform” culture

     2. French West Africa: “Assimilation” policy to turn subjects into French citizens

   • Public health

Bruce Gilley argues colonial rule provided public goods more effectively than successor regimes (compartive / cost-benefit analysis). Connects to Friedrich Ratzel’s concept of social darwinism and “backwardness” of Indigenous Peoples

Rodney argues against capitalist imperialism and colonialism → under-developing Africa

What is the concept of terra nullius? Give real world examples.

JOHN LOCKE (17th century philosopher) argued that land only becomes the property of those who cultivate and "effectively use" it in a European manner, providing a philosophical justification to claim uncultivated lands → allowed colonial seizure of land

Real world examples:

1. Australia “mabo precedent” landmark case to recognize pre-colonial occupation of land

2. Canada “doctrine of discovery” → religious authority given to Europeans to seize and invade non-Christian lands

Definition of Empire vs Colonization

Empire: State of being, central power exercising sovereignty and political control over distant territory

• eg. Roman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire

Colonialism: Practice, actual creation of settlements, admin/government presence and exploitation of those territories

• eg. British rule in India, French colonialism in African nations

Competing Frameworks for Colony and Empire

FINLEY argues that a true colony requires people to actually MAKE the colony their new land (AKA settler colonization) whereas empire is just rule without settlement

• South Africa, Kenya and South Rhodesia had large British populations

• Uganda, Congo, Senegal (French, Portuguese, Belgian or German) were NOT colonies, British India, French Indochina → they were components of EMPIRE

KUMAR states that colonies and colonization come in many forms, but trying to separate them from “empire” is not correct because colonies are a PART of empire and only exist as a PRODUCT of IMPERIALISM

How does Kumar contribute to Imperialism ?

The exercise of power — economic, political, or military — over distant territories and peoples, which may or may not involve direct colonial occupation.

Kumar argues imperialism is the broader structure within which colonialism operates, and that imperial power can continue even after formal decolonization.

Movements of Imperialism (Water vs Land)

Mahan: national greatness was linked to maritime control, having greater access to ports was important for steam navies cuz they required on ports to restock ozn coal → led to greater trade

MODERN DAY WATER IMPERIALISM:

• Strategic chokepoints that is about denial → Suez Canal (lifeline to India), Strait of Hormuz (trade route that countries in the Middle East uise to get resources / food / water)

Mackinder: national greatness tied to heartland due to railroad revolution → fueled Britiain-Russia rivalry over Central Asia called the “Great Game”

Why expansion in classical geopolitics? What did this lead to?

MYINT and SMITH: “Vent for Surplus:” Countries will have a surplus of resources / land that don’t have demand domestically, so foreign trade allows these commodities to have revived value in different global markets

RODNEY: Capitalist imperialism driven by industrial revolution where the West needed more NATURAL resources to fuel their manufacturing

IMPACT:

1. Scramble for China → Foreign powers exploited the weakening Qing Dynasty to establish "spheres of influence,” “Open Door Policy” proposed by US in 1899 to keep trade

2. Scramble for Africa → Berlin Conference (1884-85) formalized colonization as a collaborative division between European nations, must demonstrate “effective occupation” to claim sovereignty

   • Walter Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

How did Rodney’s Work contribute to Colonization?

He ARGUES: Africa did not "fail" to develop; it was actively underdeveloped through the extraction of its wealth to build Europe

1. “Development”

   • Colonialism as a system that only took and never gave back, only developed for resource extraction

     • eg. Railroads connected mines to the coast for export, not for internal trade.

2. Extractivism

   • Forcing raw material exports stopped African societies from developing local industrial capacity.

   • Economies were forced into single-crop/resource reliance for European benefit, creating fragile national structures.

     • Liberia: Enforced dependency on rubber.

3. Slavery and Human-rights Violations

   • Slavery was a “direct block” to development by removing young, inventive people, the "human agents" of progress

   • Opposing black / Indigenous leadership through violent acts of force

How did colonies affect emigration / migration of people?

Colonies served as a "safety valve" to export:

• The urban poor and unemployed

• Political "troublesome" citizens and dissidents

• Convicted criminals (Penal colonies like Australia)

• Religious and social minorities seeking "Terra Nova."

How did James C. Scott’s theory contribute to colonization?

Resistance is known as violent revolutionary movements:

1. Haitian revolution: successful armed revolt to change the French-Senegal government by enslaved Africans → led to Haiti’s “Double Debt” in 1825

   • Haiti needed to pay 150M gold francs to compensate slave owners for “lost property”

   • When Haiti couldn’t pay it, predatory loans from French banks pushed Haiti into more debt

   • IMPACT: Caused chronic underinvestment in social infrastructure for over a century

2. Mau Mau uprising: unsuccessful armed conflict in the British Colony of Kenya between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) and the British colonial authorities

His theory of “Infrapolitics” ARGUES

• Resistance doesn’t have to be a revolution - it is quiet, daily and invisible

  • Foot-dragging (slowing down production)

  • Theft and poaching

  • False compliance

James C. Scott: Domination and the Arts of Resistance

How did Aimé Césaire’s work contribute to colonization?

Founder of “Négritude” movement that ARGUED for

• Self-affirmation of black people by challenging the idea that European culture was the universal standard for "civilization”

• “black peoples” needed to have their own [political] organizations, “made for them, made by them, and adapted to ends that they alone [could] determine”

Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

Characterize the Decolonization Period

• WW2 fatigue

  • Economic costs + changing mode of influence

• International law + human rights

• Nationalist movements

  • Organized local leadership and pan-African/pan-Asian movements intensified demands for self-determination.

How did Fanon’s work contribute to decolonization?

He ARGUED:

• Colonialism is violence in its natural state

  • Institutionalized racial segregation where systemic violence and legal frameworks maintained colonial hierarchies and suppressed the majority population.

IMPACT: Since colonialism was created through violence, it could only be dismantled in the same violence way

Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

How did Anibal Quijano contribute to decolonization?

He ARGUES that formal independence does not erase the colonial structures of power:

• Racial hierarchies

• Eurocentrism

• Market control

  • MECH: Debt Imperialism in the form of “Structural Adjustment Programs” that served imperial capital interests

    • eg. Ghana( 1980s-90s): Supported by Canadian aid and IMF agreements, the country implemented widespread reforms to cut public sector spending and boost agricultural exports.

  • MECH: Corporate entrenchment for resource-rich nations

    • Eg. France (Charles de Gaulle) took the lead by making access to independence conditional on the signing of ‘cooperation agreements’, which were a means of guaranteeing its sovereignty in areas such as foreign trade, strategic raw materials, diplomacy, military bases, monetary management in its former colonies

How does Wallerstein contribute to the concept of capitalism?

Forwards concept of capitalist world-economy

1. Capitalist world-economy must occur on the “world” scale

   • Interest: Endless accumulation of capital

   • Capitalists need a large market (minisystems are too small) and a multiplicity of states to avoid states hostile to their interests in favor of states friendly to their interests

2. Profitability is tied to degree of monopolization

   • Quasi-monopolies is when one firm has strong power held through government support such as patents, trade restrictions, subsidies, tax breaks, etc., to make the firm stronger and profitable → core/strong states

   • IMPACT: Special relationship between economic producers and political powers

How does Wallerstein contribute to the concept of global inequality?

Instead of examining a country’s economy in isolation, Wallerstein believes that a country’s economy develops within a larger world-economy which leads to world-systems theory

His idea of world-systems theory ARGUES

• The world economy is hierarchical and unequal, with national economies sorted into three zones based on their role in the global division of labour:

  • Core

    • Well-organized state structure that can help develop quasi-monopolies in the global market

  • Peripheral

    • Unequal exchange: a systematic transfer of value from the poorer regions to the richer ones

      • Pushed to sell its goods cheaply while buying expensive manufactured products from the core

  • Semi-Peripheral

    • A semi-peripheral state acts like a periphery toward the core while behaving like a core toward the periphery

    • Major concern is to keep themselves from slipping into the periphery and to do what they can to advance themselves toward the core

How does Campling and Colas’ work contribute to capitalism?

Campling and Colas ARGUE

• Sea is an active and contested site of capital accumulation rather than a lawless and neutral space

  • MECH: Exclusive economic zones

    • Area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources

  • MECH: Flags of convenience

    • Allow shipowners register ships under a foreign country in order to evade labour protections and taxes

    • eg. America shipowners registering their fleets under Panama to serve alcohol under Prohibition but continuing to do so even after Prohibition

  • MECH: Multilateral counter-piracy initiatives

    • Block access through some of the key maritime chokepoints in the global economy

    • Turned parts of the ocean-space into a space for new multilateral forms of governance

Campling, L., & Colas, A. (2018). Capitalism and the Sea.

What does David Harvey contribute to Neoliberalism? How does it connect to inequality?

Harvey DEFINES neoliberalism as:

• Not simply an economic theory but a political project serving class power, relying on coercion as much as consent

• A political-economic project centered on market deregulation, privatization of public services, and the reduction of state social spending.

Inequality: Neoliberalism concentrates wealth among elites and prioritize corporate incentives over civilian quality of life

He ARGUES: “Creative Destruction”

• Neoliberalism periodically destroys existing arrangements — industries, urban landscapes, livelihoods - to create new opportunities for capitalism.

  • Eg. Deindustrialization and urban redevelopment are classic examples.

Inequality: Those who don’t have power to resist capitalist incentives are at the will of those who do hold power

What does Edward Said contribute to Orientalism?

He DEFINES orientalism as:

• Orient is a “semi-mythical construct” imposed on a set of countries east of Europe. While the term has been used to describe countries in East and South Asia, Said mainly focuses on how it’s used to portray the Middle East.

  • 1) Ignorance of Truth / Stereotyping

    • Arab/Islamic people described as lazy, suspicious, gullible, mysterious or untruthful while the West is strong, progressive and rational

    • Impact: Polarizing descriptions justify imperial stereotypes increasing Islamaphobia esp. after 9/11

  • 2) Rough categorization

    • Orientalism conflate a vast and diverse array of landscapes, peoples and cultures into a single, unchanging unit

      • Doesn’t care to distinguish between Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq

  • 3) ‘Frozen Civilization’

    • Orientalism consider that orient is stationary that is different from western which is developing rapidly

    • Impact: Justify imperial interventions and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

What does el malik contribute to orientalism?

Said’s “Orientalism” was published during the rise of neoliberalism

El Malik argues that Said’s work can be understood as a critique of the knowledge practices that depoliticize neoliberal politics

• PROBLEM: Casual forgetting

  • Refers to an overlooking of otherwise visible workings of power to depoliticize spaces / systems

IMPACT of CAUSAL FORGETTING:

• Flatten complexity to support a binary understanding (East vs West) that makes multiplicity impossible

• Obscure its own inner processes to exhibit stability and regularity

  • Eg. Orientalism claims to “help” the “backwardness” of other countries

  • Eg. Neoliberalism claims to restore class power and wealth to those who need it

• SOLUTION: Active remembering

  • Move away from explaining the “hidden truth” of oppression, rather we should move towards situating discourse itself, its patterns and its manifestations, as the object of study

What does Le Billon contribute to Political Ecology?

Scarce resource wars hypothesis: people or nations will fight each other to secure access to the resources necessary for their survival: the more scarce the resource, the more bitter the fight !

Abundant resource wars argument: primary commodities are easily and heavily taxable, and are therefore attractive to both the ruling elites and their competitors thereby increasing the risk of greed-driven conflicts, while providing armed groups with the ‘loot’ necessary to purchase military equipment

Le Billon REFUTES

• Natural resources do not simply cause war but are entangled with conflict through political and economic structures

HE ARGUES for the POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WAR to explain the relationship between resources and armed conflicts beyond scare/abundant resource theories:

• 1) Distortionary effects of dependence

  • MECH: Resource rents provide political leaders with a classic means for staying in power eliminating the need for broad-based taxation

  • IMPACT: Financing a repressive security apparatus, rewarding a close circle of supporters → wealth gap between the ruling and the ruled leads to uprisings = violence used to enforce rule and suppress opposers

• 2) Conflictuality of natural resources political economies

  • MECH: Transformation of nature into tradable commodities is a deeply political process; involving the definition of property rights, the organisation of labour, and the allocation of profits → high levels of conflict

• 3) Spatial distribution and lootability of resources

  • MECH: Natural resources / industries are often easily accessible to governments and rebels alike with minimal bureaucratic infrastructure

  • IMPACT: Lootable → prompting rebel groups in particular to establish permanent strongholds wherever resources and transport routes are located

What does Mahdavy and Beblawi contribute to political ecology?

Explains how resource wealth undermines political accountability.

Rentier State

• Government revenue comes primarily from payments from foreign corporations for resource access — not from taxing citizens.

  • IMPACT: No taxation → no representation pressure. The state distributes patronage without needing democratic consent

  • GLOBALIZATION + CAPITALISM CONNECTION: Rentier dynamics are not just a domestic story — they are produced by global commodity markets and the willingness of industrialised economies to deal with authoritarian governments as long as the oil flows.

Who did not fall prey to the “resource curse?”

Norway

• Enormous oil wealth. One of the world's most robust democracies and equitable economies. The Government Pension Fund channels oil revenue into long-term public savings rather than patronage.

Botswana

• Relatively well-managed diamond revenues since independence. Sustained investment in health and education.

IMPACT:

• Curse is not a natural property of resources → it’s deeply political

What does Michael Ross contribute to political ecology?

He ARGUES different resources produce different forms of conflict

1. Lootable

   • Extractable by individuals without capital investment or specialist knowledge. Easily transported, sold on informal markets. Low barrier to entry

   • eg. Sierra Leone and alluvial diamonds

   • eg. drug crops, alluvial gold

2. Unlootable

   • Require large infrastructure, technical expertise, and access to formal international markets. Cannot easily be captured by non-state actors.

     • eg. offshore oil, deep-shaft minerals

Explain the “Angry Inuk” using the Chain of Explanation

Angry Inuk: Documentary about “animal rights colonialism”

• Global political economy:

  • Transnational animal rights campaigns & EU import ban on seal hunting

• National economic policy:

  • Ottawa defended the commercial hunt but did little to differentiate Inuit subsistence rights within its regulatory and diplomatic responses.

• Regional land use:

  • Inuit hunters take bearded seals, ringed seals, and harp seals as part of a complex ecology tied to sea-ice conditions; this is not the factory-scale commercial hunt the animal rights campaigns depicted

• Local environmental condition:

  • In Clyde River, Igloolik, Pond Inlet, and other communities, the collapse of sealskin prices (from ~$20 CAD in the early 1980s to near-zero after the EU ban) removed a critical cash income source for families in communities where store-bought food costs 2–3 times southern Canadian prices.

  • Without sealskin revenue, hunters could not afford fuel, equipment repairs, and ammunition needed for country food hunts—creating a vicious cycle of reduced country food access and increased dependency on expensive imported food

How does the “Greed vs Grievance” debate sit in Political Ecology?

World Bank states that “greed” is the driving factor for conflict which is why rebel groups should be met with sanctions and military force

Human rights scholars state that “grievance” such as ethnic discrimination, state repression, economic marginalization, etc. is the driving factor for conflict

POLITICAL ECOLOGY ARGUES:

• There can be “greed” and “grievance” for different actors at all times

  • Not one or the other

• Structural analysis about the political economy and institutions are more important, not specific actor analysis

What does Nixon say about slow violence?

Conventional understandings of violence privilege the sudden, the spectacular, and the immediately visible — explosions, attacks, deaths that generate images and media attention

NIXON ARGUES:

• Slow violence which is a violence of delayed destruction that occurs

  • Gradually and out of sight (easy to ignore)

  • Distributed through time and space (hard to represent, difficult to attribute blame)

  • eg. toxic contamination, climate change, deforestation, and land degradation

IMPACT:

• Environmentalism of the poor are the principal casualties of slow violence

• Capitalism and neoliberalism spurs slow violence by prioritizing endless profit/growth above all

What does Sultana say about environmental suffering?

Sultana's framework for understanding how environmental harm is experienced unequally through intersecting axes of gender, class, race, and location. Her work on water insecurity in Bangladesh shows that women bear disproportionate burdens of environmental degradation.