1. Introductory Video

2. Key Definitions

3. Broad Ideas

4. Globalisation: Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

5. Globalisation: Exploitation

5.1 Labour

5.2 Environment

6. Globalisation: Sports

7. Globalisation: Food

8. Globalisation: Cultural Imperialism

9. Globalisation: Technology

10. Globalisation: Terrorism

11. Broad Conclusion

12. Essay Questions

13. Extended Reading Package

1. What are some of the broad topics revolving around the term “Globalisation”?

2. What are some of the evidences on how globalisation has transformed the way we live and how humans interact? What have caused such changes?

>> Mouse over the screen to play video

Global City; Shrinking

world

Trade: Imports and Exports

We now live in a transient world where spatial differences and political boundaries no longer limit our interactions.

Through product and process innovation (management and organization changes; Production processes can also be enhanced to increase output per unit input and achieve greater productive efficiency)

Annex (Source: Wikipedia)

Global city: City which is an important node in the global economic system.

Largely created, facilitated, and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.

World city: Cities that control a disproportionate amount of global business.

Megacity: Metropolitan area with a total population in excess of ten million people. A megacity can be a single metropolitan area or two or more metropolitan areas that converge. Outsourcing & Factor Mobility (such as

labours)

Source:

Source:

New

Source:

*** EU and OPEC ***Trade Bloc, aka “Regional Trade Agreements

(RTAs)”

Refer to Extended Reading Package Article: “What factors have contributed to globalisation in recent years?”

Factor Mobility

Shrinking World:

Descriptive phenomenon where countries around the world are becoming rapidly and increasingly interconnected and interdependent.

Marketing

GLOBALISATIONGLOBALISATION

Over-exploitation

Commercialisation

Bio-fuel

Environment Degradation

Foreign Direct Investments

Knowledge diffusion

Centrifugal G

rowth

Food safety

Capital-Intensive

Profit-Making

Global Demands

Land scarcityHunger

Population Growth

Global Competition

Mar

ketin

gG

lobal Outreach

Fran

chis

e

First-Mover Advantage

Politics

Paradigm shift

Food Security

Bio-engineering

BiotechnologyTrade

Agreements

Transportation

CommunicationSecurity

Sovereignty

Comparative Advantage

Inequality

Poverty

GLOBALISATIONGLOBALISATION

Over-exploitation

Commercialisation

Inequality

Bio-fuel

Environment Degradation

Foreign Direct Investments

Knowledge diffusion

Centrifugal G

rowth

Food safety

Capital-Intensive

Profit-Making

Global Demands

Land scarcityHunger

Population Growth

Global Competition

Mar

ketin

gG

lobal Outreach

Fran

chis

e

First-Mover Advantage

Poverty

Politics

Paradigm shift

Food Security

Bio-engineering

BiotechnologyTrade

Agreements

Transportation

Security

Sovereignty

Comparative Advantage

Communication

Centrifugal G

rowth

GLOBALISATIONGLOBALISATION

Over-exploitation

Commercialisation

Inequality

Bio-fuel

Environment Degradation

Foreign Direct Investments

Knowledge diffusion

Food safety

Capital-Intensive

Profit-Making

Global Demands

Land scarcityHunger

Population Growth

Global Competition

Mar

ketin

gG

lobal Outreach

Fran

chis

e

First-Mover Advantage

Poverty

Politics

Paradigm shift

Food Security

Bio-engineering

BiotechnologyTrade

Agreements

Transportation

SecuritySovereignty

Profit-Making

Comparative Advantage

Communication

Outsourcing:

“Delegating (part of) activities to an outside contractor.”

– Source: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The act of contracting out a business process to third parties, or obtaining (goods, services or labours) from an outside supplier through contracture agreements.

Compulsory Reading Article: Globalisation shakes the world (BBC)

Extended Reading Package:

•Globalisation and outsourcing: confronting new human resource challenges in India’s business process outsourcing industry

By Sarosh Kuruvilla and Aruna Ranganathan for Industrial Relations Journal

•Global Services Outsourcing (Pg 7 – 26)

By Ronan McIvor, Cambridge University Press

•Global outsourcing and its impacts on organisations: problems and issues

How has BPO give rise to economic superpowers leaching and over-exploiting labour and sucking the last bit of resources out from the resource-rich and

relatively less developed nations where factor prices remain comparatively low?

The Globalisation of Nike

1.How far is the success story of Nike a microcosm of the rapid expansions of MNCs worldwide?

2.What are some of the problems highlighted in the video surrounding this rapid expansion as a result of globalisation?

Take note of the definitions of useful key terms highlighted in the video.>> Mouse over the screen to play video

Compulsory Reading Articles

1.Bangladesh Pollution, Told in Colors and Smells (NYTimes)

2.What is the impact of globalisation on the environment (Economic Globalisation Origins and consequences, OECD)

There’re ample examples of MNCs mistreating cheap labours and over-exploiting natural resources through unethical

practices, but it is important to relate back to how globalisation has been a driver of such phenomena.

Extended Reading Package:

•H&M: How ethical are your clothes?

By Lucy Siegle for The Observer

•Land of Wandering Souls - Globalization: Between Fairness and Exploitation

By Richard Behar

•Globalization and Child Labor: The Cause Can Also be a Cure

By Susan Ariel Aaronson, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

•The Push & Pull of Globalization How the Global Economy Makes Migrant Workers Vulnerable to Exploitation

By Neha Misra, Solidarity Center Senior Program Officer, Africa

Spectrum overview on food market (Perspective: Globalisation and its impact on different components)

Subsistence Growth Domestic Consumption RISING Global Demands due to exponential rate of population growth Over-exploitation of in less-developed, resource-rich nations? [Economy] ; Shorter fallow period Environment degradation over time?

Globalisation and its effect on: • Bilateral and Multi-lateral trade agreements

[Global economy / Politics]• Mode (method) and efficiency of

transportation• Widespread of knowledge on process

innovation (food storage & preservation) [Technology / Communication]

• Marketing strategies [Global economy]

• Food security• Mass Production: Implications on

Food safety (Increasing the concern in modern world)

• Variety and choices• Changing tastes & preferences;

Adopted different consumption habits Cultural shift

http://hybrid.nanobioart.com/sites/default/files/u192/Beef%20Production.JPG

The Globalization of “Fast Food”. Behind the Brand: McDonald’sBiggest fast food chain in the world, with 32,000 outlets in 117 countriesOne of the world’s biggest coffee retailersProvides employment to a staggering 1.7 million people, and in the first three months of 2011 alone it made $1.2bn in profits“Golden arches’ shine”

The production of much of the raw products which go into McDonald’s meals, from burger patties to sauces, is subcontracted to different suppliers, making it impossible to assess the company in terms of a single golden standard.

All of UK’s burgers: Germany’s Esca Food Solutions, which claims to maintain rigorous standards at its abattoirs and production plants, and which works closely with 16,000 independent farmers in the UK and Ireland to maintain high standards.

Fish used in Filet-O-Fish and Fish Finger meals in Europe: Sustainable fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. Fries: McCain’s, the world’s biggest potato supplier, and McDonald’s claims that the vast majority are produced in the UK, again by independent farmers.

Bread for buns and muffins: Single unnamed supplier based in Heywood, Manchester, and Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Chicken eggs as well as meat in Chicken McNuggets and similar meals: From two suppliers, Sun Valley in the UK and Moy Park in Northern Ireland, who are in turn owned by the controversial American firm, Cargill, and Brazil’s Marfrig.

Up to 90 per cent of the meat it uses in the UK is sourced from Cargill and Marfrag facilities in Thailand and Brazil.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-globalization-of-fast-food-behind-the-brand-mcdonald-s/25309

Globalisation on FOOD

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BC9MSTaCUAEhlXM.png:large

BURGERNOMICS (aka “BIG MAC INDEX”)

http://media.economist.com/images/20090124/CIN727.gifhttp://wildammo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/bigmac1.jpghttp://cdn.foodbeast.com.s3.amazonaws.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/big-mac-index-jumpie.jpg

The fact that Big Mac can be used as a global economic tool for measuring the degree of over-valuation or under-valuation of a nation’s currency has indirectly highlighted how penetrative fast food culture has become worldwide.

Other variants of the Big Mac Index have been created using other representative items such as Starbucks, IKEA, and iPod.

* Does not take into account rate of inflation (sustained increased in General Price Level in a country for ≥ 2 consecutive quarters).

X ∆ R: Value of one’s domestic currency in relation to another country’s country, i.e. Purchasing Power of one’s currency, or the value of goods per unit of one’s currency can buy in foreign economies.

<< Click for Extended Reading Package here >>

The neck-breaking rate of globalisation in our twenty-first century world is indeed an unprecedented one. Food producers and suppliers no longer confine themselves to serving the domestic consumers. Instead, they prance into the global arena, venture on what seems like greener pastures to them and reach out to please taste buds of millions worldwide.

Noteworthy successes in global marketing and product branding are easily observable in Singapore, which has been repeatedly crowned to be one of the most globalised countries in the world, according to surveys by KOF Index of Globalisation (see next slide). From rapidly expanding fast-food and cafés franchises, restaurant chains serving international delicacies, to an influx of foreign agricultural products in our local supermarkets after trade agreements have been endorsed, impact of globalisation on food is closely tagged to our daily lives, and this worldwide phenomenon should never be under-valued. It is slowly but surely altering the way the world population consume, and the way we live.

Measurement tool of the “Shrinking World”

phenomenon

• Globalisation has enabled the global sales of films, TV and media products

• People all around the world are now feeding on Western, and increasingly Korean and Japanese, media for entertainment and information purposes.

• Our diet for foreign media outputs have bestowed these media exporting countries with the soft power to dictate global issues.

• Unified world culture that consists of watered-down versions of regional cultural trends.

• Proponents argue that this only affects things like consumer goods and the media, while critics worry that it weakens traditional culture.”

Consider the global reach of companies such as Disney, News Corporation and Time Warner. Their products can be seen globally facilitated by satellite and the Internet.

Does globalisation cause an increasing danger of local cultures becoming

eroded and replaced with a single ‘standard’ culture?

Cultural Homogenisation

Cultural Imperialism:

Process at which one country dominates other countries’ media consumption and consequently dominates their values and ideologies.

- Cultural homogenisation from the economic-political perspective

USA dominates world media with 85% global film market and 68% of the TV market.

Is the American values and ideologies subtly imposed upon the rest of the world through media texts and videos?

Reception Theory:

Argument that audiences are not passive observers. They are capable of discernment and attaching their own meanings to media texts.

Audience responses to global media are highly differentiated depending on which country they are viewed in.

Compulsory Reading Article:

Does globalization mean we will become one culture? (By Mark Pagel for BBC)

Internet has been the great equalizer

Whether you are a university professor with a high speed Internet connection or a poor kid in Asia with access to an Internet café, you have the same basic access to research information. The Internet puts an enormous amount of information at our fingertips. Essentially, all of the information on the Internet is available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. It is a tool that connects people worldwide.

Advancements in technology have made it far easier and quicker for communication to take place between remote locations, it has therefore shattered spatial limitations.

The implications of this advancement, which accelerated rapidly from the industrial revolution and continued throughout the previous century, can be seen everywhere in today’s society.

For example, messengers on horseback became replaced by postal vans, which in turn we may see completely replaced by email, each being faster and more convenient than their respective predecessors. The rapidity with which information can now be moved around the globe has to be a primary concern when considering globalisation, which is the phenomenon of social, technological, economic and political homogenisation, hybridisation and/or interconnection occurring on a global scale.

Uprising of social media, new media, pop culture … …

Question to ponder: 1.How far is technology a game-changer in the politics of globalisation?2.Is technology often (mis)used as a vehicle to demonstrate one’s ideologies, garner global supports and propel one’s career?

Extended Reading Package:

•The Emerging Role of Social Media in Political and Regime Change

Globalisation (Terrorism)• Globalisation creates a situation where those that perpetrate terrorism

(be it a state or a non-state group) may be motivated by the inability to find success in the international commercial arena (or even success locally). This lack of success may create an inability to provide for oneself or one’s family, thus creating a need to place blame upon some external entity. Violence towards the entity may be one way that such states or individuals relieve that pent-up frustration.

Compulsory Reading Article:

Does globalization mean we will become one culture? (By Mark Pagel for BBC)

Compulsory Reading Article:

The Connection Between Globalisation and Terrorism

• Globalisation by itself, is a generic and vague term. It is therefore important for one to identify the scope of discussion.

• It is critical to differentiate the phenomena of globalisation from the outcomes of globalisation (eg. Environmental Degradation).

• Due to its nexus nature, the cause-effect fineline of globalisation may be blurred. (Eg: Improved multi-lateral relations between countries may be both a

cause and an effect of globalization). And so are the key issues pertaining to it.

• This is a shrinking world. Small is the new big.

“Globalisation has enhanced trade relations and transportation of commodities. In view of the soaring world demands for biofuels, corn and soybean producers are now turning away from selling their yields for consumption purposes.”

Economic (opportunity cost of food consumption) Environment (Fallow period; degradation; Renewable fuels) Food security

"To think that the world will one day become a global village is utter nonsense." What do you think?

(HCI Prelim 07)

Question Analysis:

•Global Village: Without political boundaries, everyone is friendly towards each other. Integrated.

•Utter Nonsense: Absolute. Rubbish. Won’t come true.

Possible Stands: a) It’s it not an utter nonsense and is absolutely possible.b) The world can one day become a Global Village, only if…c) Though it is possible, it is unlikely given…d) Yes, it is an utter nonsense, poisonous ideal spewed from the mouths of Fools.

"To think that the world will one day become a global village is utter nonsense." What do you think?

(HCI Prelim 07)

Possible Arguments:

i) Historical trends suggests the possibility of different countries and states united and becoming one after wars and conflicts(e.g. US & China’s history). Fortunately for us, we now have international conventions to reduce such perilous and tragic events, like the UN and International Court of Justice. This will facilitate the way towards a global integration

ii) Current trends and problems like environmental degradation, terrorism, are major roadblocks, feeding on globalisation itself, to prevent the world from becoming a global village.

iii) The development of technology and increasingly educated civilians, could solve our problems and help humanity reach a higher level of enlightenment. Then, earth can truly become a global village.

Sample Paragraph:

Based on empirical data, the spread of culture, religion, and technology, follows the flow of people. The introduction of exotic spices and tea leaves from Asia to Europe, the spread of Christianity and Buddhism across continents, and the increasing availability of technology and knowledge through Internet. Once this diffusion of reaches an equilibrium, culture across different locations of earth would be similar with slight variations. However, this is a highly ideological argument which is made unrealistic immediately when we see the worrying problems plaguing mankind. Global warming, depletion of resources, political strife...all of these are definitely capable of undermining the efforts of globalisation in creating a global village.

"To think that the world will one day become a global village is utter nonsense." What do you think?

(HCI Prelim 07)

1. How far do you agree that the costs of globalisation outweighs its benefits?

2. Economic oligopoly is the root cause of rising poverty and inequality around the world. Discuss.

3. Do you agree that globalisation is more of a curse than a blessing?

4. “Unity is diversity”. Can this ever be achieved?

5. Discuss the view that globalisation poses more challenges than opportunities.

6. Has globalisation brought about a more heterogeneous society or a more homogenous one?

• The impact of globalisation, free trade and technology on food and nutrition in the new millennium

By Philip McMichael, from Department of Rural Sociology, Cornell University

• Extract from United Nations Millennium Report

• Review of “The Incredible Shrinking World” (Fall 2005 Issue)

• What factors have contributed to globalisation in recent years?

By Maziar Homayounnejad, Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet

• Globalisation has a darker side – and it’s a challenge to us all

By Iain Martin for The Telegraph