Globalization and Inequality Notes

Globalization

  • Interconnectedness of cultures through global economic systems.
  • Resources produced in countries far from the industries/markets.
  • Goods shipped between countries during production.
  • Trade of ideas, art, products across cultural borders.

Intercultural Trade

  • Trade between distant cultures has existed for thousands of years.
  • Silk Road Trade (130BC – 1500CE):
    • Goods Traveling West: Spices, silk, jade, porcelain, tea, etc.
    • Goods Traveling East: Textiles, horses, glassware, etc.
  • Cities in North Africa and West Asia were trade and cultural contact points.
  • Trade connected African, European, and Asian cultures, leading to cultural diffusion.

From Trade to Imperialism to Colonialism

  • Imperialism: Nation States gaining control of resources through military conquest.
  • Colonialism: Culturally transforming a region to match the colonizer's norms and needs.
    • Populations displaced to support colonial rule.
    • Shift from local to colonial needs.
  • British Transformation of India: Example of colonialism.
    • Famine caused by reduced food production and import bans.
    • Rubber Plantations were introduced to India by the British in the 19th century.
    • Rule by those least threatening to colonizers; ethnic minorities and large landowners gained power if they didn't rebel.
  • Colonialism still creates economic inequality in Africa today.
    • Example: 100 million deaths in 40 years and lowered life expectancy.
  • Populations controlled by outside powers, but cultures largely intact.

The Process of Colonialism Over Time

  • In the West, colonialism is often associated with the past.
  • Reasons to care about European Colonialism:
    • They were very successful.
    • Only a few countries outside of Europe were never colonized.
    • Many people alive today lived under colonial rule (e.g., Jamaica gained independence in 1964, Kenya in 1963).
  • Global inequalities today closely match colonial relationships.
    • Former colonial powers hold most of the global wealth, while former colonies are often the poorest.

How do we talk about Modern Global Inequality?: 3 Approaches

  • First World Countries: Democratic industrial economies.
  • Second World Countries: Communist industrial economies.
  • Third World Countries: Countries without much locally-owned industry.
  • Criticism: Conflates politics and economics and assumes that economic health was determined solely by each country’s decisions.
  • Wallerstein’s World Systems: Core, Semiperiphery, Periphery.
    • Core Countries: Own production and profit the most in international trade.
    • Semiperiphery
    • Periphery: Resources.
    • Criticized for acting as though corporations and countries are the same thing.
  • Global North: High GDP, mostly north of the Equator.
  • Global South: Low GDP, mostly south of the Equator.
  • Focuses on GDP as the sole indicator of Economic Health.

Modern Neocolonialism: Cause or Solution to Inequality?

  • Three Global Financial Institutions:
    • World Trade Organization (originally GATT): Negotiates treaties on trade and resolves trade disputes.
    • World Bank: Provides high-risk, large loans to grow GDP.
    • International Monetary Fund: Provides small-scale development fund and regulates currency.
  • Breton Woods Conference in New Hampshire post-WWII: West seeks to promote global economic growth and interdependence.
  • Dependency Theory: Control of other states through debt, wealth, and technology.
  • Issue: Europe can't become the 3rd World if the 3rd world doesn't exist.
  • Are countries dependent on the Western World really free?

The Power Of Debt

  • Devaluation of Currency
  • Limits placed on social services.
    • Reduce healthcare, education, etc. costs to stimulate growth in GDP.
  • Reduce dependency on imports and grow local industry alternatives.
  • 2021: Percentage of GDP used to service international debt in Africa.
  • Problem 1: Paying back the debt itself.
    • Defaulting on debt to World Bank of IMF often prevents access to future capital.
  • Problem 2: Living with Loan Conditionality.
    • Structural Adjustment Programs
      • Lenders of Last Resort
      • Privatization of industry
      • Allow market competition to innovate production and lower the price of goods.

The Economic Development Movement

  • Developed Economies.
  • Developing Economies.
  • Low GDP is associated with less access to goods, health care, democratic rule, education, etc.
  • GDP creates wealth and wealth leads to a higher standard of living.
  • What promotes economic growth?
    • Neoliberalism (Free Market Capitalism)
    • Lowers Trade Barriers
    • People get cheapest access to desirable goods.
    • Increased Competition
      • Goods become cheaper to produce.
    • Promotes Exports
      • Every country finds its economic niche.
  • Global Push Back
    • Policies are driven by Western norms for the benefit of Western countries.
    • Unfettered growth isn’t possible with finite resources.
    • Policies promote anti-democratic values in some states.
    • "Rising Tide Lifts all Boats"
      • Economic growth (increased sale of goods and services) improves the lives of everyone.
    • Economic interdependence leads to peace
    • Poorest countries often compete to produce the least valuable goods.
    • The wealthiest tend to create policies that support themselves.
    • Climate change, pollution, etc.

Anthropology and Economic Development Plans

  • Canada attempted to provide Inuit wage labor through government jobs.
  • Underdifferentiation
    • Often, the same economic recommendations are made to all cultures.
  • Overinnovation
    • Rarely do plans deeply consider the impact of a culture’s norms on economic change.
    • Created enormous reciprocity burdens on individuals that had those jobs.
  • Some anthropologists work with or oversee economic development agencies.
  • Culture Fit: Do plans match the expectations, desires and realities of the communities they are applied to?
  • Pig Domestication
    • Some groups object to consuming pigs.
    • Pig domestication can lead to unsustainable population growth.
      • Relatives are drawn to the community increasing resource burdens.
    • Pig domestication can lead to health problems.
      • Pigs produce a lot of waste and house parasites.

Transnational and Multinational Corporations

  • Transnational corporations have no central location.
  • Multinational corporations have headquarters with expansion in multiple nations.
  • They have power to manipulate national policies.
  • Privatization and Global Inequality
    • Too much pressure for living wages or adequate health standards.
    • Race to the Bottom: The poorest countries compete to keep wages and regulations low.
  • Business Country 1 Country 2
    • Capital Flight
    • Company invests in multiple countries
  • On one hand, businesses might be more flexible than states in adapting to cultural difference.
    • Glocalization: Culturally relevant products may sell better.
  • But it isn’t always great for native businesses
    • The Closing of Jamaican McDonalds

Global Inequality in Movement

  • Vagabonds: Move through force or necessity and seen as an economic drain.
    • Factors forcing one to leave (warfare, poverty, etc.)
  • Tourists: Tend to travel voluntarily and be perceived as a net benefit to the economies they interact with.
    • Factors that draw individuals to a new place like jobs or the presence of previous transplants (Chain Migration).
  • Perpetuating inequality
    • Brain Drain: Those with skills and resources are drawn elsewhere.
  • Internally Displaced Persons: Individuals that are forced to relocate within their country
  • Refugees: Individuals that are forced to relocate to another country
  • Who is/should be benefitting?
    • Remittances: Many depend on money made by family members outside of their borders.
  • Does a person have a right to a homeland?
    • Right of Return: Though guaranteed by the UN, many migrants are not allowed or able to go back to their homeland.
  • Issues with increased global migration

Is Global Tourism a Path to Development?

  • Ecotourism, cultural tourism, etc.
  • Example: Cultural Heritage Tourism
    • Pros: Use unique cultural sites to attract revenue.
    • Cons: Success is often dependent on those from the richest countries.
    • Instability: Economic downturns, bad press, etc. can crash revenue very quickly.
    • Overtourism: Popular sites often degrade and experience increased maintenance costs.
  • There is only one Taj Mahal so you need to go there to see it.
  • Claim: Investing capital in historically relevant areas protects those areas and creates value from culture.
  • People who see it need to eat, a place to stay, souvenirs, etc.
  • Changes to Accommodate Tourists: Tourists want familiar meals, living spaces and modes of travel.

Inequality and Technology

  • Can private enterprise solve this problem?
  • Global Digital Divide
    • Digital Natives: Individuals that grow up using and developing skills with technology.
    • Digital Immigrants: Individuals forced to learn technology once they join the workforce, school, etc.
  • This divide becomes even more exaggerated by the Generational Digital Divide
  • Internet Café: Bridge the gap only for those that have the money to access them and the skills to use them.
  • Generational conflict over cell phones, electricity, etc.
  • Best solution: Get technology in the hands of kids.

The Globalization of Norms

  • Dinesh D’Souza’s “Two Cheers for Colonialism”
    • Colonialism provided him access to technology, English and ideas about democracy.
  • Cultural Intellectual Property Rights
  • Globalizing some norms may offer international protections for marginalized populations.
    • “Are Human Rights Universal?”
    • Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar
  • But seldom are the transmission of norms equivalent.
  • Cultural Appropriation
    • Exposure to foreign technology, ideas, etc. can benefit cultures
    • Taking ownership of and solely profiting from another culture's ideas.
    • Should the Hopi be able to claim ownership of their unique traditions like the creation of Katsina dolls?

The Inequality of Global Climate Degradation

  • Air and water currents move pollutants across borders.
  • But, pollution is not a localized phenomenon
  • World Bank: Pollution is linked to 9 million deaths a year.
    • 7 million due to air pollution - 99% of the world breaths air that falls below WHO standards for clean air.
  • Environmental disasters can have huge impacts on communities that had nothing to do with them.
  • Since 1958, there have been almost 10,000 oil spills in Southern Nigeria
    • Soil fertility & fish yields have plummeted
    • Ogoni people have faced violence for environmental activism and huge health declines.
  • And yet, many in the developing world feel its unfair to burden them with clean technology.
    • Ecoimperialism
    • Expensive clean energy technologies place emerging economies at a huge global disadvantage.
    • “You got wealthy by mining, logging and polluting, why can’t we?”

Alternatives to the Current Economic System

  • Microfinance: Small loans targeted at specific local needs is another alternative.
    • The Grameen Bank and Microcredit Loans (Bangladesh)
    • A woman needs a small loan to start a business
    • She joins with other women all of whom guarantee they will pay back the loan
    • Each of the recipients cover one another when they can’t pay
    • Loan repayment is higher than private banks and recipients return repeatedly
    • Some recipients have been ostracized when they can’t pay back loans.
    • Usually in groups of 5-10
  • It is not without its criticisms
    • Microcredit often has strings attached.
      • Religious conversion, cultural change, etc.
    • Businesses fail, money has to be spent on emergencies, etc.
  • We can’t stop globalization, but maybe we make it work better.

The Balancing Act of Economic Development

  • Promotion of Cultural Relativism
    • Take into account the varying tastes and values that societies have.
  • Rejection of Essentialism
    • Let communities to drive their own change.
  • Three Goals:
    • Maintaining Cultural Diversity and Independence
    • Reducing Harm and Improving Standard of Living
    • Each culture has its own notion of what development might look like.
    • We shouldn't preserve other cultures for our own benefit.
    • Increased Equity
      • Spread the benefits of economic development more evenly within and between cultures.