Chapter 16

Winning and Losing: Where You Live Really

Matters

Review• Concepts to Review

– Globalization; geographical inequalities, historical variations, technological change

• Key Words– Development, underdevelopment,

‘archipelagos’, poverty, location

Global Impacts• Globalization as archipelago

– A person’s place of birth or residence determines their range of life chances– These are unevenly distributed across the globe– The global economy as an archipelago: economic activities as variably

interconnected ‘islands’.

• Development and underdevelopment– Development and underdevelopment are two sides of the same coin– At global scale, developed countries are clear winners:

• ‘the 20 per cent of the world’s population living in the highest-income countries have well over 80 per cent of world income, trade, investment and communications technology. The 20 per cent … in the poorest countries have around 1 per cent.’

– Not everyone in the developed world is a winner

• Changes in developed and developing economies– Significant shifts in developed economies:

• Move from manufacturing to service economy• Rising participation of women in the workforce• The two shifts are related; women’s presence greater in service jobs

– Age composition of the population

• Links between developed and developing economies– Competition of cheaper manufactured goods from developing countries influences

manufacturing in developed world– Does this lead to deindustrialization and unemployment in developed world?– Higher education may not insulate workers from pressures of global economy

Income Distribution• Income and poverty

– Income is key to material well-being• Is not an end in itself but a means to freedom• Poverty as ‘unfreedom’

– Is the poverty gap getting bigger? See Figure 16.4

• Uneven income distribution– Uneven income distributions have geographical manifestation– Differences reflect different histories and social policies– Inequality also exists on smaller scales, and on non-geographic

scales

• Income: winners and losers– Discuss and explain the Gini coefficient and other measures of

income distribution– Who is identified as a winner depends on the criteria used to

identify them– Emergence of transnational capitalist class

Employment and Labour• Employment

– Where will the jobs come from?– For most people employment is the most important

source of income– However there are not enough jobs to meet the growing

demand– Total global labour force rose by 17 per cent between 1995

and 2005– Projected growth to 2025, only 1 per cent will be in high-

income countries

• Unemployment– The end of work is nigh?– Unemployment is always a selective process– Women and young people are most vulnerable to

unemployment.– Uneven trends are not due to a single set of causes– Unemployment in older industrialized countries is cyclical,

driven by recession

Geographical Trends• Urban living

• Technology transfer and TNCs

• Manufacturing versus agriculture

• Migration– Number of international migrants is 3 per cent of total global population:

• Lower than in nineteenth century when they were 10 per cent • But in absolute terms, there are more migrants than ever• Majority are migrant workers

– Benefits for sending country: reduces pressure on labour markets and produces remittances

– Negative consequences: • Migrants are often youngest and most active members of population• They don’t often get vocational training or bring with them initiative or employment

when they return• Reinforces the conditions that created migration in the first place

– Benefits for host countries: balances out the ageing of the population– Negative consequences: xenophobia, fears of loss of jobs