Part 3

Space

Globalization, the Regional, National, and Local

3.1 Thinking Globalization• Definition: “Globalization is a comprehensive term for the emergence of a

global society in which economic, political, environmental, and cultural events in one part of the world quickly come to have significance for people, communities, businesses, and governments in other parts of the world as the result of advances in communication, transportation, and information technologies.

• Thus, Globalization has social and spatial meanings:

• Social: “Since the nineties, globalization, has replaced ‘postmodernism’ as a master term used to name, interpret and direct the social and technological transformations of the contemporary era.”

• Spatial: – Globalization has created a new “borderless world” where “planetary

distance is being overcome, freed from the tyranny of distance.”– “History changed society while geography provided the ground upon

which history worked. Geography has been transformed,” which has been called “the stretching of social relations over space.”

A Brief History of Globalization• Globalization is “regarded as the outcome of a history of Western expansionism,

which began in 1492 when major European powers drew the rest of the world into their economic and/or political spheres.”

• European countries were looking for new places to conquer and new routs for trade. This enabled the discovery of new lands and the beginning of colonialism.

• Before and continually after then trade and the shipment of goods and people were free flowing between different regions of the world.

• Even then goods from the then heart of the world, Asia, were exported to Europe and that introduced part of Asia's culture to the European people and many were then adopted by the people of Europe. Ex. Spices that changed European cuisine forever.

• By the 19th century expansion was “driven not just by military power but by a set of communication technologies (such as) the railway, refrigeration, steam shipping and the telegraph,” which made the flow of information faster than ever before.

• These new technologies were bringing nations together especially western nations. New international regulations and organizations were established to help organize and monitor the increasing trade and finance between nations. Ex. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), The World Trade Organization (WTO) and The World Bank.

• The result of this “free trade” that came with globalization was “remarkable growth in trade and output between Europe, Japan and the USA.” This of course meant financial growth and the expansion of local markets.

• “Immigration from poor to rich nations boomed, feeding funds and cultural changes back into undeveloped regions.”

• Western regime’s method of conquest and welfarism was replaced by entrepreneurism as a way of thought. The transformation was as a result of economic, technological, political and cultural factors.

• Among the most important effects of globalization on nations of the world is the spread of industrialization under the ideology of development

• “Nation states pursued policies that would encourage foreign investment and trade, deregulating their economies, offering tax breaks and so on” to get more financial investors into their markets.

• “Relatively underdeveloped countries were positioned as attractive sources for labor and attractive options for investment.”

• The following effects also resulted from globalization– Privatization of state enterprises– Offshore manufacturing- goods were made in another country then

shipped back to be sold locally. Unemployment grew because jobs were being outsourced to other countries because it is cheaper there.

– Women’s participation in the workforce increased and that made the job market more competitive and added to the rise of unemployment.

– Some companies franchised their brand and organizational expertise across nations

• The development of new communications technologies such as the internet is continually changing trade and financial investment.

• “Fast, cheap, transnational air travel underpinned a vast extension of global business exchange, as well as positioning tourism as a key global industry.”

Global Sameness• “The process of globalization lead to a global uniformity” or sameness.

– “The shrinking of the world” leads to “sameness. “The sense that national and local differences are being erased as import/export grows and brands are globalized.”

– “Allows people to imagine the world as a planet they share with others.”– Ex. Shopping in one city like Singapore is like shopping in Vancouver or

Berlin.

• Thus, “globalism is capitalism, and capitalism is a mode of production that swallows up all the alternative modes of production and radically constrains the lives of those who live inside it.”

• As a result of this global sameness, differences between cultures and peoples are decreasing. “How can one tell if the world contains less local differences now than it once did, since these differences are based in experiences?” And if these experiences are the same there is not much to compare.

Global Justice• The “anti-globalization movement” also called “global Justice movement” is a

movement comprised of people from many parts of the world who come “together to protest:

– Job losses in industries under attack from foreign competition – Child labor– The rights of indigenous peoples– Environmental degradation– And what was often called the cultural imperialism of a US-dominated

global media.”

• “Actions in one place have consequences elsewhere. Hence massive over-consumption in first-world countries shapes economies and environments around the world.”

Globalization and Culture• Cultural outcomes of Globalization:1- Products are developed by companies for various regional or national markets

while tweaking marketing to take account of local differences. Ex. fast food restaurants in the far east give rice with their meals as an alternative to fires.

2- Globalization of cultural production restructures cultural industries. Ex. Some TV shows are shot in locations outside the US because it is cheaper, then sent back to the US for the rest of the process.

3- “Globalization increases the importance of national cultural and media policies and fuels debates between cultural trade deregulators and those who want to protect local industries and cultural formations.” Ex. Many nations are worried about loosing their culture because of the impact of US TV and film exports.

4- Imported culture is preferred over local culture because it is un-bias and does not remind people of any social injustice or political agenda. Ex. Young Indians living in London responded well to a Coke advertisement because it was not British nor Indian. British reminded them of racism in England towards Indians and Indian meant restrictions imposed upon them by their parents.

5- The increased flow between regions are intensifying the position of English as a world language.

6- “Global cities” have emerged as places that exercise cultural and economic power over government and regulations. These are centers of financial industries or culture or both. These cities “are key markets for advanced architecture and design. They are also trendsetters for urbanization, urban renewal, multiculturalism and heritage consciousness.” Ex. London, New York and Tokyo.

There are also “regional world cities” that are important regionally and not globally. Ex. Hong Kong, Mexico City, Sydney, Milan, Los Angeles, Paris, Toronto, etc.

7- “Immigration is enabled by the increased cultural contacts between nations: television shows, military bases, tourism, the presence of multinational corporations, all channel knowledge about rich countries to poor countries making immigration seem all the more possible and attractive.”

8- Increased the role of imagination in everyday life, which “allows people to consider migration, resist state violence, seek social redress and design new forms of civic association and collaboration.” It has opened people’s minds to other options to improve their lives.

3.2 The Regional, National and LocalRegional/ Regions

• Region: A large, usually continuous segment of a surface or space.

• “One effect of globalization which has real implications for culture is the way that increased global economic competition is dividing the world in new ways.” Mostly into “regions.”

• “These regions do not have fixed political borders. They exist as ideas or images or inspirations or alliances designed to promote regional economic activity or security.” Ex. Turkey is a part of two continents. It was once considered a part of the East. That image is changing and it is now being considered as part of both and is a candidate for the EU.

• Regionalism is a cultural phenomenon that gives regions their individual identity, to which companies wanting to invest in need to cater to. These companies must produce material that expresses and takes advantage of that region’s experiences and values. Ex. MTV has many channels and each one is catered towards the region it broadcasts to. MTV Asia...

National/Nations and Nationalism• Nation: “A large body of people (or race that share history, traditions and

culture, and are) associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own.

• Nationalism: “loyalty and devotion to a nation; a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or groups.”

• “Almost everyone is born a citizen of a particular nation-state. This does not mean that everyone lives in nation-states.” Ex. Refugee camps in Africa, the Gaza Strip and West Bank and Pakistan and Indonesia borders.

• “Imagined Community”: “Individuals who had never thought of themselves as members of a national community came to do so as readers of newspapers. Print media invited culturally and linguistically, disparate readers to imagine themselves as citizens of a single nation, all reading about the world at the same time.”

• During colonial times, national identities were seen as anti-colonial identities because it was something other than being a subject of the colonial power.

• “Nationalism is most powerful among communities that share a language, a tradition, a religion, and an ethnic identity.”

• There is a notion that nationalism turns to racism because of the nation’s inability to fulfill its citizens’ emotional needs. Because “one basis for nationalism is individual attachment to the economic benefits that the state provides.” If this, and other bases for nationalism, are not present than nationalism towards the state is weakened and maybe reversed.

Tourism• “ Certain nations market themselves as national cultures in order to attract

both tourists and business investment.” Ex. Thailand, Australia and the UK

• “The emergence of tourism during the eighteenth century focused on one particular sense-vision.” This is called the “tourist gaze.”

– Tourists, travelled - and still travel – primarily for visual pleasures which involve both the pleasures of recognition (seeing sites whose value and meaning are known in advance) and of the exotic (what they could not see at home).”

– “The tourist gaze, although pleasurable, is detached and superficial, missing the deeper meanings and experiences of the sites and lands that are toured.”

– Tourist sites mean something different to locals than they do to tourists.

• Tourism helps produce and maintain national and local cultures because those local cultures have to be taken care of and developed to attract tourists.

• Not all leisure travel is tourism. Ex. Going to a resort or to the beach

Patriotism and Cultural Nationalism• Patriotism: love for or devotion to one's country.

• Cultural Nationalism: loyalty and devotion to a culture rather than just a nation.

• “Nationalism is powerful where it is politically and economically most visible.” Ex. The Scottish and the English, who share a language, are politically unified, and share almost identical values and cultural references. Yet Scottish nationalism is strong and independent of that of the English.

• “Nationalism carries with it a democratic charge in that it gives status to all citizens merely by virtue of their belonging to the nation-state, and conversely democracy gives nationalism a charge by endowing each citizen with a share of sovereignty.”

• “American patriotism is not based on cultural or ethnic identities but instead on a commitment to democracy.”

• Nationalism needs to accept groups who belong to a nation separate from that of the state of which they are citizens. Ex. Indigenous people