The social dimension of
globalization
DIR
Course: International Organisations, Autumn
2004
8th lecture
Ole Busck, dep. of Planning and Development
Karl Polanyi: ”The Great Transformation”
(1944)
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Explored the socially disruptive and polarizing tendencies in
world economy in the 20’s driven by a ’self-regulating’
market, ”the result of coercive power in the service of an
utopian idea.
Out of a breakdown in liberal economic structures the
phenomena of depression, fascism, unemployment and
resurgent nationalism were produced resulting in a
negation of economic globalization, leading to world war
A ’double movement’ traceable: market expansion entailing
social dislocation & a sharp political reaction, i.e. society’s
demands on the state to counteract the disastrous effects
of the market
The substance of globalization – its primary
actors
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The global political economy, primarily
embodied by TNCs (responsible of two thirds of world
trade)
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States, although with dotted-line borders,
and the interstate system still play a role
Macroregions: EU, NAFTA, APEC etc.
Subregional patterns; Asia’s ’Growth Triangle’, the
Alpine Diamond etc.
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Microregions:
’Global cities’
Civil societies
Lombardy, Quebec, Shenzen
The dynamics of globalization
the division of
labour/organisation of production globally
(labour creates value)
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Starting point:
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Focus:
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Causal factors:
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Facilitated through:
How societies adjust to and try to
influence changes in this organisation and
its manifestations
’Hypercompetition’, in practice & ideology
Structural changes in competition &
production. New meaning of time & space
Technological development
Characteristics of the present
”accelerated” type of globalization
(arguing against Hirst):
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1. Strongly increased FDI in developing countries
- 40% of total inflows in developing countries in 1993
2. Global capital flows at $ 1.5 trillion a day, from
- debt payments
- cross border mergers and acquisitions
- tourism
- foreign exchange transactions ($ 900 billion per day)
3. The volume of world trade grows at twice the rate of world output
4. The changing global division of labour. From Fordism to a flexible
work force
5. The flows of remittances and their significance in the economy and
social structuring of developing countries (50% of foreign income in
Pakistan, 70% in El Salvador)
The division of labour
Theories of international division of labour
IDL, International Division of Labour-theory of the classical
political economists:
The value-creating advantages from specialisation of work
and coordinated production spread out internationally and
enhanced through trade
NIDL, New International Division of Labour-theory of 70s:
Transfer of manufacturing from advanced capitalist to
developing countries through fragmentation of production in
management, R&D etc., kept in the heartland and lowskilled jobs abroad (ex: apparal, consumer-electronics)
Sweat shop workers, Indonesia
ZigZag, Ibis
GDLP, The Global division of Labour and
Power.
”What is new about the contemporary period is:
1.
2.
3.
The manner and extent to which domestic political
economies are penetrated by global phenomena
Varied regional divisions of labour are emerging tethered
in different ways to global structures, each one engaged
in unequal transactions with world centers of productiuon
& finance
Within each region subglobal hierarchies have formed,
with poles of economic growth, managerial and
technological centers and security systems
The global middle class
”The globalised rich”
80 %
affluent
North
20 % of w.
population
South
80 % of
World pop.:
(Z. Baumann)
20 %
marginalised
20 %
rich
Share of
ressource
use:
80 %
20 %
80 %
poor
”The localised poor”
World Watch 2003-report: ”Global consumer class of 1.7 billion,
while 2.8 billion live in absolute poverty”
Chinese economic zone
Characteristics of states in GDLP
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States not sidelined, but scope for state autonomy reduced
Primarily:”accomodation of domestic policies to pressures
generated by transnational capital”
State-leaders held responsible to market forces, including
debt payments, SAPs, credit rating agencies and US
forreign policy”
”Courtesan” states – servicing foreign and national capital,
open to regional solutions, coercive towards internal
resisting actors
”Inherent disjuncture” between globalization and
international institutions – as these were designed to
cordinate a system of nation-states in which each state was
sovereign over its own domestic economy
Democratization?
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Identifying different historical and cultural forms of
democracy – from Anglo-Saxon polyarchy to “guided
democracy” Mittelman concentrates on the challenge to
democracy as an ideology of domination from the
mobilisation of social resistance movements, inclined to
“participatory democracy” – cf. ecological resistance
movement
Civil society and its institutions and organisations become
increasingly important as the state and social order
disintegrates – and the environmental scars accelerate.
Imported from the Western political culture, but now a key
feature in resistance politics.
Central aspects of GDLP:
Migration
”Seeking to escape a marginalized existence and
repression, population transfers within a stratified division
of labour reflect a hierarchy among regions, countries and
different rates of industrialization.”
- 100 mill. workers staying outside their own country (-93)
- trade unions’ historical international weakness
- remittances by far surpassing int. aid
- 30% of Africa’s skilled workforce in EU (1987)
- Pressure from and conflicts over immigrants in USA & EU
(the walls)
The global division of labour expresses itself as a
“distinctive territorial division of labour”
Global commodity chains
”Networks of labour and production
processes whose end result is a finished
commodity”
In business studies ’global value chains’ is
the hottest theme
Underpinning and connecting the global
social and ecological distribution conflicts
as well as reinforcing the power of TNCs
(UN commission on TNCs?)
Cultural networks
(GDLP also linked to ethnicity), e.g.:
the Chinese transnational division of labour in S.E.-Asia
outside China (40 mill. person worth 250 bill. $)
Chinese minorities globally linked to homebound ideoligies,
traditions and capital
Chinese banks and stakes actually upholding US- economy!
Guangdong province – Hongkong – global capital
Cultural networks ’lubricate’ the flows and chains of labour
and capital globally and regionally as well as heighten
tensions
Goodman,
Washington Post
Conclusions: