Globalization

What is Globalization?

Global industrialism or globalization is a process of forging international political, economic, religious, and socio-cultural interconnections KFC Kuwait

7-11 Beijing

• Trade – goods and services.– You can buy a TV from China, car from Japan, clothes from Indonesia or Italy.– You can hire someone from India to write software or answer your telephone

• Capital – money, investment– You can put your savings into a bank in Zurich.– You can buy stock in SONY, a Japanese company

• People – immigrants, refugees, tourists– Immigrants come to Calgary from Asia, Africa, S. America, Europe– You can easily travel to Europe, Asia, S. America

• Communication– You can easily call or email people around the world

• Culture (art, music, cuisine)– You can hear music from Brazil, South Africa, India– Nearby restaurants: Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, Indian

• Ideas

What kinds of things cross international borders?

Marginal Product Revenue Theory Equilibrium is achieved

where supply and demand meet in a competitive market.

The business world does not like equilibrium because it limits profits.

The more unique the offering the more the company can charge in excess of their costs.

Call Center India

Marginal Product Revenue Theory The Result: business will always seek

new markets and new products to offer.

Obsidian Trade in the Neolithic

(6000-3000 BC)

When did Globalization begin?

Economic globalization is as old as history, a reflection of the human drive to seek new horizons.

The Silk Road: a series of trade routes 8,000 km long connecting China, Asia Minor and The Mediterranean. Parts were opened up about 5000 BC. Connections between China and Europe established with Alexander the Great c. 330 BC

Marco Polo 1271-1295

The first era of globalization (in the sense that it encompassed the globe) began during the 19th century with the rapid growth of international trade between the European imperial powers

It was Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus’s occupation

This process was severely interrupted from World War I through the depression of the 1930s and World War II until it restarted again, but slowly, in the 1950s.

The pace has picked up in recent decades, thanks to several driving forces: 1. improvements in information

technology

2. Trade liberalization

3. capital flows

4. Cheap travel

5. Less rigorous immigration policies

6. Marketing

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Cost of a 3-Minute Telephone Call, Cost of a 3-Minute Telephone Call, New York to LondonNew York to London

(Constant 1990, U.S. $)(Constant 1990, U.S. $)

The Global VillageWe live in a world in which all regions are in contact with one another through the mass media, instantaneous communication, intercontinental travel, and highly integrated economic and political networks.

And it is changing cultures

Mobile phone tower Tanzania

a banner the protestors carried in front of the IMF building in Washington April 2000 read: "worldwide coalition against globalization".

Is Globalization Good or Bad?

McDonald’s has become a symbol of globalization

Globalization’s impact has, generally, been viewed pessimistically

For large parts of Africa, about 200 million people live, on less than $1 a day.

Is Globalization the cause or the cure?

(Photo: STR / AFP-Getty Images

Cons Increased environmental damage increased poverty, inequality, injustice erosion of traditional culture Corporations are motivated by profit and have little concern for people economic globalization developments feed into ethnic, religious, and factional tensions that lead to wars and help breed terrorism Terrorists now globally interconnected and empowered with knowledge, create a whole new category of warfare based, in part, on the disruption of the interconnections which are both created by and necessary for globalizationCorporations shape political policy of countries e.g. over fishing

increases economic prosperity and opportunity higher degrees of political and economic freedom in the form of democracy Improved standard of living – reduction in poverty Improved gender relations Increased life-span

Pros

Poverty: Enhanced or Diminished? Child Labor: Increased or Reduced? Women: Harmed of Helped? Democracy at Bay? Culture Imperiled or Enriched? Wages and Labor Standards at Stake? Environment in Peril? Corporations: Predatory or Beneficial?

Globalization Issues

Global Feminization of the Workforce Globalization of the last two decades has led to increasing participation of women in the workforce

Woman working in textile Mill Slovakia

Reasonsdeclining male participation labour deregulation need for non-skilled temporary/part time workersRising divorce rates Lower fertility ratesInfant formula Periodic economic downturns Rising cost of livingGlobalization – lower wages

Growing importance of women’s contribution to household economy

Eroded male authority - have gained more negotiating power in the household

women less dependent on men’s wages leads to greater freedom

women redefine their domestic role and challenge the myth of male breadwinner

but adds a burden to women’s household roles

Impact on Women’s Status

If they work but are still dependent on the primary male wage earner they may be seen as supplementary wage earners Most women seen this way in workplace where they are confined to poorly paid unstable jobs fish processing plant Morocco

Cultures in Contact Cultural diffusion –the spreading of a cultural trait from one

society to another, may not involve contact Acculturation – cultural diffusion where a subordinate culture

adopts many of the cultural traits of the more powerful culture due to continuous contact

Cultural imperialism – active promotion of one’s cultural system over another

Cultural hybridization – the blending of global and local forces to form a new culture

Cultural homogenization – the obliteration of individual cultural differences to form one uniform global culture

Cultural nationalism (ethnonationalism) – the process of protecting and defending a certain cultural system against dilution or offensive cultural expression while at the same time actively promoting the indigenous culture

Globalization: the paradoxcreates economic conditions attractive to many peoples seeking a better life

contributes to undermining of local cultures and to the breakdown of local societies

Dennis Okelo, left, saved enough money to open a village grocery store in Uganda after farming cotton and selling it to Dunavant Enterprises.

The cultural homogenization thesis holds that Western domination of global mass culture threatens to wash away distinct national cultures.

The hybridization thesis focuses on how local culture shapes globalizaing forces to produce new versions of the local culture to retain a cultural identity.

There are two main theses concerning the relation between globalization and culture:

Global Culture: Homogenization Technology (Internet, TV, cell phones etc.) is sweeping

away cultural boundaries creating the possibility and even the likelihood of a global culture.

Global entertainment companies shape the perceptions, values, and dreams of people, everywhere.

This spread of values, norms, and culture tends to promote Western ideals of capitalism and consumerism. Resulting in the disappearance of local cultures, traditions, and identities replaced by a single commodity/ single identity world – the Westernization of culture

Ladies only line Saudi Arabia

Coca-colonization: Coke, McDonald’s, Levi’s, MTV, Disney, computer games, American (or American style) TV shows, look-alike shopping malls with look-alike goods

the meaning of good, appropriate, success changes

Asymmetry in Power Relations and Flows

Banana Republicanization Move from the dominant to the weaker

like to teach the world to singBig Bird does China

Israel

India

Globalism - a euphemism for western cultural imperialism?

Russia

Japan

Global Culture as a Source of Universality

Globalization is assumed to erase differences among human societies and create a universal culture in which particular characteristics of national and local cultures are no longer relevant.

Beijing

Culture becomes more homogeneous - Not in the sense that all cultures are incorporated equally, but biased towards American culture and those presented in English

On the main street of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, © Dick Waghorne

250 million Chinese have learned English as a second language

Incorporation of all national cultures into the global capitalist economic system is creating a universal culture of capitalism.

Penetration of multinational companies into national cultures creates not only a uniform process of production and its associated forms of deregulation, but uniformity of consumer tastes, choices and habits.

Global Capitalist Monoculture

Tokyo

Standardization The overwhelming dominance of multinational companies in the production of cultural goods creates a “convergence effect”.

From clothes to food to music to film and television to architecture, we encounter similar styles, brands and tastes anywhere in the world.

Will local cultures inevitably fall victim to this global consumer culture?

Will English eradicate all other languages?

Will consumer values overwhelm peoples’ sense of community and social solidarity? Will a common culture lead the way to greater shared values and political unity?

Or will cultures select elements to incorporate Korea

Shortcomings of “Globalization as a Source of Universality argument”

It reduces culture to material goods and consumption patterns

It underestimates the persistence of national and other local cultures

It assumes the dominance of global forces It fails to understand the complex relationship between

global and local forces. Globalization and its associated cultural forms are

constantly reinterpreted and reproduced in the process, finally giving way to new hybrid social, economic and cultural forms.

A 2005 UNESCO report showed that cultural exchange is becoming mutual. In 2002, China was the third largest exporter of cultural goods, after the UK and US. Between 1994 and 2002, both North America's and the European Union's shares of cultural exports declined, while Asia's cultural exports grew to surpass North America.

Jackie Chan 1993

Global Culture? Identity has intense

emotional ties Cultural attachment is

bound in tradition Mass marketing & pop

culture is no threat! No common pool of

memories No common global way of

thinking Blurs boundaries

Thailand

Enaotai Island, West PNG

globalization + localization

Glocalization

(1) efficiency: ”fast”, method of production scientifically proven

(2) predictability: ”a world of no surprise” – standard menu, taste, décor, service

(3) calculability: quantity rather than quality

(4) Control: standardized employees, non-human technology

McDonaldization“ the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant”

(1) Standardization: food, interior design, layout etc.

(2) Initially presented itself as uncompromising American food- no Chinese name at first- transliteration later- no Chinese food

(3) Standard of cleanliness: clean washrooms in restaurants

(4) Customer discipline: line up for food(5) Idea of a regular meal: (a) exotic to

ordinary; (b) snacks versus meals [customers: middle-class, like exotic American culture all ages, all social classes, look for a simple meal]

McDonald’s /Hong Kong

Local?(1) Resistance of McDonald’s? Involve in community

activities – hard to attack(2) Local choice of food: fish burger and plain

hamburgers rather than Big Mac as favorite, other local favorites e.g. shogan burger, chicken wings …

(3) Consumer discipline: service w/ a smile, busing own tables, hovering, napkin wars

(4) Fast food restaurant? US: customers stay no more than 20 minutes on average; HK: study room for high school students, gathering place for senior people

300 million indigenous people

about half of the countries in the world have an indigenous population who do not Have the right to self determination

indigenous peoples are generally a demographic minority

Native Americans 1.5% of Canadian populationAustralian aborigines less than 2% of the populationUSA native Americans about .5%Sweden less than .1%

Populations

Globalization and Bands• Fourth world societies• Violent changes

– Ethnocide– Genocide

• Ethnographic examples:– Ju/’hoansi in Namibia and Botswana– Mbuti Pygmies– Siriono of Bolivia (500)

Globalization and Tribes• North American horticulturists

– Effects of contact– Forced relocation

• Manifest Destiny• Trail of Tears

• South American horticulturists– Yanomamö

• Pastoralists– Bedouins– Qashqa’i pastoralists

Iran

The Yanomami, had little contact with the rest of Brazil until the arrival of the first garimpciros (gold miners) in the 1970s. By 1987 an estimated 80,000 miners had flocked to the area, polluting rivers and spreading malaria. Decimated by disease, the number of Yanomamis living in Brazil (many also live in Venezuela) fell from 20,000 to about 8,000 in just 20 years. In Aug 1993 23 Yanomami Indians were massacred by goldminers.. The dead included men, women and children who were decapitated with machetes

In the words of Yanomami representative "What we do not want are the mining companies, which destroy the forest, and the garimpciros, who bring so many diseases. These whites must respect our Yanomami land. The garimpciros bring guns, alcohol, prostitution, and destroy nature wherever they go. The machines spill oil into the rivers and kill the life existing in them and the people and animals who depend on them. For us, this is not progress."

Chiefdoms, Resistance, Preservation• Chiefdoms

– Hawaiian Islands• Resistance

– Native Americans– Melanesia and New Guinea– Hawaiian Religion

• Preservation

Land contains their history and sense of identity and it ensures their economic viability as an independent people land is often the seat of indigenous peoples spirituality and has a sacred quality generally absent from Western thinking

Ayers Rock/ Uluru, the world's largest monolith and an Aboriginal sacred site located in the Kata Tjuta National Park, which is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.

Relation to Land

land is often revered and respected and its inalienability is reflected in indigenous philosophy land is seen as a living entity which can neither be claimed for oneself or subjugated unlike Westerners who see land as something that can be controlled, subdivided, and owned.

Across the Continent: "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way"

Frances F. Palmer, 1868

Buffalo Hunt under the White Wolf Skin: An Indian Strategem on the Level Prairies After George Catlin,

undated

This spiritual rapport with the land is at odds with the prevailing materialist notions of Western society natural resources that are left untouched by indigenous peoples are often considered wasted and are exploitedeconomic activities which do not extract the greatest commercial benefits are judged inefficient and primitiveTerra nullius (no man’s land)As a consequence the way of life of indigenous peoples, is threatened by this attitude of cultural superiority and materialism.The struggle in the last two decades has centred on land and their culture.

less access to medical care since live mostly in rural areas more likely to be unemployed than the majority paid less than comparable workers and generally in lower paid manual jobs governments in most countries with an indigenous population, have created special agencies for their welfare more often than not these bodies serve as mechanisms of control over indigenous minorities and thereby compound the discrimination talking place elsewhere

Situation of Indigenous Peoples

1990, the Supreme Court held that Oregon could deny unemployment compensation to two Native Americans dismissed from their jobs for using peyote as part of tribal religious rituals under the state’s narcotics laws

receive less opportunities for schooling basic education is often hampered by an absence of any lingua franca --- in Brazil 120 different languages education is usually in the dominant language locations means that education is inaccessible, especially if nomadic

where formal education is available it is often antagonistic to the traditions of indigenous people

It does not impart indigenous culture and few efforts are made to accommodate to the needs of indigenous communities

education is often seen as a means of gaining control of indigenous peoples and subverting their culture

Missionaries, teachers and governments have recognized that the way to civilise their indigenous communities was to take hold of the children before their parents could teach them the tribal way of life.

Indigenous cultures often thought to be inferior and needed to be bred out of them

Assimilation or partial assimilation of indigenous peoples has led to despair at the loss of traditional social cohesion

This, coupled with disillusion over limited opportunities offered by the wider economy has created serious problems among indigenous communities

violent and accidental deaths and high suicide rates

alcoholism and prostitution

The Issues1. Self-determination

tied in with all aspects of life - political, economic, social, and cultural-how people choose to live seeking to assert their political voice along with their economic, cultural and social perpetuation and development the most problematic topic

Questions the legitimacy of the settler regimes

the establishment of Nunavut may be an indicator of change April 1 1999

for medicines developed from plants and traditional medical practices of indigenous peoples

Until recently in many cases little or no compensation has been given to the tribe which had preserved and actually discovered the medicine.

2. Intellectual property rights

In late 2000, the World Intellectual Property Organization established the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore to address both policy and practical links between the Intellectual Property systemand the concerns of practitioners andcustodians of traditional knowledge.

3. Control over the exploitation of natural resources located on the traditional indigenous lands.

At present these resources are usually claimed by the settler society

which gets any fees or profits from exploitation with little regard to the needs or desires of the indigenous peoples

The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona provides electrical power to customers in Arizona, Necada and California.The ownership is:U.S.Bureau of Reclamation 24.3%SRP 21.7% LA Dept. of Water & Power 21.2% Arizona Public Service Company 14.0%,Nevada Power 11.3%Tucson Electric Power 7.5%

4. Preservation of cultural traditions and languages

a high priority for many indigenous peoples since Language is the most efficient means of transmitting a culture and identity is most closely associated with language Most majority societies have been extremely reluctant to allow the use of indigenous languages in formal governmental activities.

Trinidad Pacaya Inuma, one of the remaining 150 fluent speakers of Iquito (Peru).

languages spoken by a minority of people in the nation are often held in low esteem, causing its speakers to avoid using it or passing it on to their children

Whale Hunting Among the Makah Place: Neah Bay, on the Olympic

Peninsula in Washington State May 17, 1999- 1st Gray Whale

Killed in 75 years by Indigenous Whale Hunters

Media Coverage Explosion Debates upon two recurrent

Themes: Indigenous Rights and Environmental Impacts of Whaling

Makah Whale Hunter Curtis (1915)

Makah buthcer a whale (c. 1905-10) Washington State Historical Soc.

The Whale Debate

1. What were the Makah trying to protect by returning to whale hunting?

2. What were environmental groups who opposed the Makah whale hunting trying to protect?

3. Should the tradition of whaling should be continued?

5. Compensation for the theft of land and property by the settler societies.

The totem pole from Star House, Massett village. Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), Canada. Now at the Pitt Rivers

Museum, Oxford

Includes return of artefacts now in museums

also return of skeletons and the right to bury them according to tradition

9000-yr-old Kennewick Man found near Kennewick Washington July, 1996.

Under the Native Am. Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 5 Native American groups (the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama, Wannapum, Colville) claimed the remains as theirs, to be buried by traditional means.

Feb 2004 US Court of Appeals rejects claims

local indigenous peoples want development that address their needs, that are inclusive of their cultural values, that respect their collective identities, and that provide sustainable development for their

communities.

“Development with Identity”. Human development is first and foremost about

allowing people to lead the kind of life they choose—and providing them with the tools and opportunities to make those choices

The Kayapo

horticulturalists living in the rain forests of Eastern Brazil.Mid 1970s Terrence Turner discovered 700 of 800 of one group had died of disease. total pop: 4,000 A state organization controlled their trade and communication with the outside, and embezzled their cash from the nut crop The Kayapo felt dependent and in a situation over which they had no control

The politicization of culture

Missionaries provided medicine in exchange for the Kayapo's adopting western clothes, building their village along a street, and suppressing their ceremonials

Kayapo chief wearing a feather headdress which establishes his rank and smoking natural tobacco in a traditional ironwood pipe

The anthropologist proceeds as if what is being studied is 'a culture'. In the process, what people had hitherto experienced as an embedded way of life becomes objectified and verbalized - invented - as 'culture'. The Kayapo did not see it like that: it was just the way they did things They did not have a concept through which to objectify and label their everyday life as a 'culture'.

they needed such a concept to deal with their situation: to give them an identity and distinguish themselves as a 'culture' on a par with other indigenous people and vis-à-vis the dominant national society in an multi-ethnic state system.

A Kayapo chief wears the traditional botoque through his lower lip. The plate is made out of balsa wood, and is a sign of courage meant to frighten the enemy.

The Kayapo realized that what missionaries and state administrators used as justification for subordination and exploitation, another set of Westerners valued highly. 'Culture', which had seemed an impediment, now appeared as a resource to negotiate their co-existence with the dominant society

Young Kayapo girls painted with Jemipapo, a black paint which is made from Jemipapo fruit crushed and mixed with fish oil.

After a Disappearing World documentary was made, the Kayapo sought further documentaries so as to reach the sympathetic elements in the west.

In 1989 the Kayapó protested a government proposal to build hydroelectric dams along the Xingu River which would have flooded much of their territory When they arranged to meet the Brazilian government to oppose the dam, they choreographed themselves for the western media in order to gain support of the western audience and add pressure on the government. Their appeal aroused worldwide support and the project was shelved.

Gone were the shorts, T-shirts and haircuts that had appeased the missionaries; with men's bare chests, body ornament and long ritual dances, the Kayapo performed their 'culture' as a strategy in their increasingly confident opposition to the state. by the 1990s the Kayapo had obtained videos, radios, pharmacies, vehicles, drivers and mechanics, an aeroplane to patrol their land, and even their own missionaries.

Kayapo had learnt to objectify their everyday life as 'culture' (in the old sense) and use it as a resource in negotiations with government and international agencies. Kayapo politicians seem to have been fully aware of the constructedness of 'culture' They presented themselves as a homogeneous and bounded group

They defined 'culture' for themselves and used it to set the terms of their relations with the 'outside world'

In a history spanning forty years, missionaries, government officials, the Kayapo, anthropologists, international agencies and non government agencies had all competed for the power to define a key concept, 'culture'. Missionaries and government agencies initially had used the concept to define an entity that could be acted upon, producing disempowerment and dependency among the Kayapo.

Kayapo girls dancing during the Jemipapo ceremony. Note the girl at the lower center with the traditional Kayapo haircut.

The Kayapo strategy to wrest control of this concept from missionaries and government officials and turn it against them was part of a struggle not just for identity but for physical, economic and political survival.

Kayapo leaders have used ethnographic film to assert their own definition of their 'culture' and used the strategies others have used against them to challenge the processes that have marginalized them