Download Week 2 Monday - Université d`Ottawa

Globalization
CMN 2168
Florian Grandena, PhD.
Definitions

Globalization has different meanings and is
perceived in different ways: ‘for some,
globalization means freedom, while others see it
as prison. For some it means prosperity, while
for others it guarantees the poverty of the
developing world’ (2).
Definitions

-
Globalization changes meanings according
to the sphere of human activity one refers
to.
Economy
Culture
(Geo)-politics
Ecology
Terrorism etc.
Economy

Globalization is understood as the
economic interpendence of different
nations through international transactions
in goods and services, fast and
widespread diffusion of (new)
technologies etc.
Economy

Globalization is based on capitalist economy. To
a certain extent, capitalism has always
functioned as a world economy.

It is based on the Washington consensus (more
on this later…).

What has changed?

Some argue that there has been a rupture in
contemporary capitalist productions and global
relations of power.
Politics

Some theorists argue that the new
political order of globalization should be
seen in line with our historical
understanding of Empire as a universal
order that accepts no boundaries or limits
(see Empire by Michael Hardt and Antonio
Negri. Harvard, 2000).
Culture and globalization
Culture and globalization
Terrorism
Definitions


The idea of interdependency and
interaction between individuals and
corporations is central to globalization.
The implications of globalization are
economic, political and technological as
well as social and cultural.
Definitions

‘Globalization is the ‘name’ that is often
used to designate the power relations and
technologies that characterize, and have
helped into being, the contemporary
world’ (1).
Definitions

Globalization has a hegemonic role in
organizing and decoding the meaning of
the world (1).
(Hegemony: ‘the way states and state institutions work
to ‘win’ popular consent for their authority through a
variety of processes which disguises their position of
dominance’. Glossary p.217).
The politics of naming



There are different positions that seek to explain
and describe globalization.
Globalists or ‘liberals’ believe that globalization is
an important and overall positive development
(‘the effect of real structural changes in the past
few centuries’).
Liberals usually present globalization as an order
that is both natural and unavoidable.

Sceptics think that globalization is an
extension of ‘trends that developed in the
period of European colonial expansion,
peaked during the period 1870-1914, and
were interrupted by the two great wars
and the ‘cold war’ of the 20th century’ (7).
Globalization is more a matter of discourse
than reality.




For globalists and sceptics, the market economy
has a central place in globalization.
Some theorists add another category: the
‘moderately optimistic’.
For this group, the market economy is not as
important as for the sceptics and the liberals.
Also, the moderately optimistic agree ‘that there
are globalizing tendencies which can be
identified and measured, but that they are not
all-encompassing as the literature might imply:
and nor are they operating without resistance,
and without exceptions’ (8).
Resistance



Attac was founded in 1998 and its first concrete proposal
was the taxation of financial transactions in order to
create a development fund and to help curb stock
market speculation. This is what gave A T T A C its
name: the Association for the Taxation of Financial
Transactions to Aid Citizens.
Today, the Attac network is present in many countries
and is active on a wide range of issues: the WTO and
international financial institutions, debt, taxation of
financial transactions, tax havens, public services, water,
free-trade zones (Mediterranean, American, European
etc.).
In each country, the association has groups working on
various themes. All of these groups are involved in
national and international campaigns whose aim is to
propose concrete alternatives to neoliberal orthodoxy,
based on solidarity.
Resistance



The Fair Trade mouvement is a trading
partnership for which equity, respect and
transparency are central.
It aims at promoting and defending the rights of
‘small’ and independent producers and workers
(usually considered as victims of capitalism /
globalization).
It also aims at campaigning for better and fairer
rules and practices of conventional international
trade. Some of the issues it wants to address is
dumping, tariffs and subsidisation.



It aims at helping and promoting the production
of Fairtrade labelled and unlabelled goods.
Emphasis is put on exports from developing
countries to developed countries.
One of the aims of fair trade is to use some of
the resources made available by the capitalist
system: for example, it wants to permit small
producers to become stockholders in their own
organizations so that these producers can enjoy
both a better place on the global scene and
greater equity in international trade (in other
words, fair trade wants producers to become
competitive…)
Alter-globalization



ATTAC! and Fair trade are arguably examples of
alter-globalization movements.
Alter-globalization does not question the
existence of globalization but argues that mere
economic concerns should not be more
important than human rights, democracy, the
environment etc.
It seeks new and better uses to globalization.
(the term comes from the French ‘alter-mondialisation’).
Anti/alter-globalization resistance



Anti/alter-globalization protests took place in
Madrid 1994 during the celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and the World Bank (WB).
In 1999, in Seattle, protesters provoked major
disruption during the World Trade Organization
meetings (the opening ceremonies were
cancelled).
During the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, massive
demonstrations took place. A young man was
killed during the confrontation between the
police and protesters.


To what extent global warming, the exploitation
of workers etc. are results of ‘globalization, or
the set of processes, values, technologies and
politics associated with it?’ (9).
Liberals would argue that not enough
globalization is responsible for the world’s
miseries and misfortunes. In other words,
globalization itself is perceived to be the answer
to these problems.


In contrast, protesters focus on some
transnational corporations’ specific practices
(IMF, WB).
Protesters also define globalization ‘as the
various ways in which American hegemony has
imposed itself upon the world; or point to the
ways in which the IMF and the WB , operating
de facto arms of American free-trade policies,
have effectively undermined of developping
nations’ (9).
‘Davos chaos’.
The annual World Economic
Forum took place in Davos
(Switzerland) in January 2006.
‘Growth is madness’.