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Lecture notes 2024/2025 Globalising Worlds (MANBCU2029) $7.55   Add to cart

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Lecture notes 2024/2025 Globalising Worlds (MANBCU2029)

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Lecture notes (in English) of all the lectures of the Globalising Worlds course 24-25

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  • October 27, 2024
  • 36
  • 2024/2025
  • Class notes
  • Kaufmann
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Globalising Worlds – lectures
Lecture 1: Introduction

Globalisation is both leading to economic success and a source of evil
 Globalisation fix = thinking that globalizing more or less will change the world (and fix
all problems)
o It is not that simple
o Globalisation is just a process, it is not good or bad, it just is

Definition
 The term ‘globalisation’ is a descriptive category
o Geographical extension of social processes
o Intensification of worldwide social relations (Giddens)
 Is geography an outcome of globalisation (explanatory factor) or does geography
explain globalisation processes (explanandum)?
 Outcomes of globalisation are mediated through historically specific political,
economic and technological forces and social arrangements
o So, it is not just globalisation per se that does anything, but it is the local
factors (how is the political situation, what is the local history etc.)
 So, it depends, and that is why we need to study globalisation
 To study globalisation, local and historical contexts require profound study, as they
are constantly changing, and may be infinitely more complex than thought
o E.g. agency: people/organisations/companies have the agency to change
things, you do not have to just take it, you can show resistance

Globalisation is not only about the trade of material goods, but also socially constructed
 We give meaning to globalisation. It is not based on facts
 Politics and power of discursive mobilization effectively shape empirical events
 Globalisation = a set of mutually constitutive tendencies comprising both material
processes of transformation and counter movements, and contested
ideologies/discourses that operate across a variety of geographic scales
o Important: globalisation is a social construct, it is about power, and it is about
different geographic scales

Implications
 Globalisation is not inevitable (there does not need to be globalisation)
 There are conditions that make globalisation possible or that would impede
globalisation
o E.g. economic wall between China and USA
o More regionally produced products in the supermarket
 Globalisation is not dead, but it is fading -> glocalization is becoming the new mantra
o Glocalization is an in-between form: it is the recognition that the free market
has disadvantages (e.g. Europe not having access to masks in the pandemic
because global supply chains were disrupted, the stuck boat in the Suez Canal)
-> re-emphasis on local/regional supply chain
o Global idea of the free market is losing credibility, but still relevant

, o We are not only focusing on the cheapest way to produce, but for example
also on the safest and greenest way

Politics of naming
 Brandt line
o 1980s
o Divided the world in the Rich North and the Poor South
o Controversial
o The global South and North are not distinct but often interwoven
 Assumption that economic development is what we should strive for as a country, but
this is questionable
 We should stop referring to the developing world
o Even in the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
 The term ‘Global South’ is still commonly used, but this is associated with oppression
o Also, it puts countries like Costa Rica (very green) and Nigeria (very polluting
because of oil) and Syria (very conservative) and Uruguay (very progressive) in
the same place
 The term ‘majority world’ is sometimes used now instead of Global South, because
most people live in these countries, but they do not make the decisions
 Think carefully before you use terms and do not let it be an automatization. It can
lead to stereotyping and faulty policies

Lecture 2: Globalisation and governance

Globalisation
 Driving force behind social, political, cultural and economic changes
 Historical process replete with contradictions
 Long-term process (since people started to move around the globe)
 No predetermined direction, it is open ended. It is also not good or bad, it is just
there
 There are several global systems and convergences

We do not have a single society
 Many of our systems (e.g. economic) were created in colonism
 We have a very stratified (layered, power/wealth concentrated) world
o E.g. X is being banned in Brazil, now Elon Musk is fighting against the whole
country of Brazil: one individual is facing the institutions of a whole country
 North vs. South or first vs. third world are no longer out there, but nestled together
within all the world’s major cities
o E.g. elite in India is very rich, while India as a country is poor

Concepts of globalisation
 Widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnectedness
 Accelerating interdependence
 Possibility of action at a distance
 Time-space compression
 Things that happen locally affect the global and the other way around

,  To understand globalisation as distinct spatial attributes and the way these unfold
over time
 Continuum local-global

Stretching social relations in space
 Social, political and economic activities across frontiers, regions and continents
 E.g. common agricultural policy of the EU spreads to the whole continent of Europe
 Transregional interconnectedness, sometimes people feel more connected to a
gaming pal on the other side of the world than their own neighbours

Intensification and speeding up (time)
 Connections across frontiers are not occasional or random
 Intensification of our dependence on each other
 Regularized and detectable intensification, or growing magnitude of
interconnectedness
 Patterns of interactions and flows of trade, investment, finance, migration, culture
increase
 New systems of transport and communication, the infrastructures allow for more
speed and intensification

Things have more impact
 Things from the local impact the global
 Boundaries between the domestic and the global get blurred
 4 dimensions of impact:
o Decisional impact:
 About how future decisions are made and who has the power to
make them
 Degree to which the relative costs and benefits of the policy choices
confronting governments, corportation, collectivities and households
are influenced by global forces and conditions
 Sensitivity and vulnerability
 Constrained or facilitated
 High/low impact
 E.g. not putting your money in Rabobank because they invest in child
labour
 E.g. buying a certain brand of coffee based on if it is fair-trade
o Institutional impact:
 Focuses on how policies affect the workings of organizations or
institutions, changing their operations or effectiveness
 Reconfiguration of agenda of decision-making itself
 Availability of choices
 Agenda of choices which governments, households and cooperations
confront are set by global conditions
 Ways in which organizational and collective agenda reflect the
effective choices or range or choices
 All decisions are taken in a broader context, e.g. rules etc.

,  E.g. if you are the director of the ECB, you cannot just say “we lower
the interest rate” without thinking of rules/laws/risk of going bankrupt
 If you want to drink coffee at the university, you are relying on the
institutional decision of them having the same goal of fair-trade coffee
o Distributive impact:
 Examines how policies or actions distribute resources or opportunities
among different groups, emphasizing fairness or inequality
 Distribution of power and wealth within and between countries
 Ways in which globalisation shapes the configuration of social forces
(groups, classes, collectives) within societes and across them (e.g.
workers)
o Structural impact:
 Concerns deep, systemic changes in the fundamental organization of
society, the economy, or political systems
 Globalisation conditions patterns of domestic, social, economic and
political organization and behaviour inscribed within the institutions
and everyday function of societies (e.g. the spread of Western
conceptions of the modern state and capitalist markets)
 Short and long-term
o Example of carbon tax:
 Let’s say a country introduces a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. This new policy will impact various aspects differently.
 Decisional impact: After the carbon tax is implemented, future
decisions about environmental policies may be increasingly made by
specialized climate bodies, rather than the general government,
changing the decision-making landscape.
 Institutional impact: The Ministry of Environment might need to hire
more staff, set up new departments, or develop software to track
emissions and ensure companies comply with the tax, changing how
these institutions operate.
 Distributive impact: Wealthy individuals or businesses may be able to
afford cleaner technologies to avoid the tax, while lower-income
families might struggle with higher fuel costs, highlighting unequal
distribution of the tax burden.
 Structural impact: The energy sector might shift from coal and oil to
wind, solar, and electric vehicles as the tax makes carbon-heavy
industries less profitable, representing a structural transformation of
the economy.

Held 1999 sum-up
 4 aspects of globalisation: extensity (stretching), intensity, velocity and impact
o Account of globalisation exame thoroughly these four elements as the spatio-
temporal dimensions of globalisation
o Extensity = the geographical reach of global connections
 How far do global networks, relationships and interactions stretch
across the world?
 E.g. trade routes, internet connectivity, multinational corporations

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