Introducing Globalization: Ties Tension and Uneven Integration

Preface:

  • “no globalization without representation”

    • economic forms of globalization provide workers etc voice in rule-making

  • global integration can be reversed/reorganized

Globalization:

  • term “globalization” used to pursue political goals (neoliberalism)

    • market countries to global interdependent economy to compete with global competition

    • interlink terms of pro-market and globalization

  • TINA - There Is No Alternative

    • pro-market policies

      • (ex. free trade, shrink gov, reduce inflation)

    • collapse of Soviet Union proved this

    • globalization natural and unstoppable

  • neoliberalism - free market, welfare-state policies

  • lowercase g “globalization” - heightened global interdependency

  • uppercase g “globalization” - politically charged term

  • need interdisciplinary approach to understand globalization

  • commodity chains - economic links lead from production/processing raw materials to manufacturing, assembly, packaging, final sale of product

    • products made and sold interglobally

  • Fordism - if workers paid enough to afford to buy products they made

    • workers behave and buy consumer lifestyle

    • wealthier nations look to lower-paid workers

  • governmentality - informal and social ways disciplined by market forces

Discourse:

  • make country competitive for living wages, greatest productivity

  • globalization inevitable, might as well reap benefits

  • Global Compact - proposal by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

    • globalization irreversible, not an option

    • must be harnessed

    • dependent on voluntary corporate compliance, proved failure

  • level playing field - globalization allows all countries be equal "flat”

    • (Thomas Friedman)

    • criticized for focusing on rich elites

    • fast world vs slow world

      • accepting globalization and its benifits vs closing off

      • blames poor marginalized countries for own misfortune, they are slow not globalization

  • globalization excuse ignore issues of late imperialism/global capitalism to continue to push pro-market agenda

  • poorer countries continually controlled by overseas nations

  • Structural adjustment - European states send IMF officials to integrate poor countries into market states

  • commodification more important than marginalization as result

Group 6:

  • countries can compete in global trade, have some stake in global market

    • have the potential to gain as much as any other country in theory

    • however overlooks the fact that some countries use resources and workers from smaller nations and benefit from that

  • Countries who benefit off globalization process spread this narrative to keep process going, blame smaller poorer countries for own misfortune and not be blamed for it

  • blames countries for misfortune for being “lazy” and not being competitive enough in global market

  • military is used to enforce the power imbalance by larger nations, showing that it is not globalization alone that is “leveling” or that it is “leveled” at all

  • shows dominance of global power over others