Global Interactions at the Local Level
Defining Glocalization
Distinguish between the terms globalization and glocalization.
Glocalisation
The adaptation of a global product for a local market place. The word comes from an amalgamation of the words globalisation and localisation.
Globalisation
The spread of economic, cultural and social ideas across the world.
Adoption of Globalization
Examine the reasons why the level and rate of adoption varies from place to place.
Positive of Globalization
Negative of Globalization
Local Responses to Globalization
Discuss civil society responses to globalization; the adoption, adaption or rejection of globalized goods, services and cultural traits.
ThaiCraft Fair
Evaluate the relative costs and benefits of local commercial production to the producer, the consumer and the local economy, compared with the costs and benefits of globalized productions.
Distinguish between the terms globalization and glocalization.
Glocalisation
The adaptation of a global product for a local market place. The word comes from an amalgamation of the words globalisation and localisation.
Globalisation
The spread of economic, cultural and social ideas across the world.
Adoption of Globalization
Examine the reasons why the level and rate of adoption varies from place to place.
Positive of Globalization
- Increase choice of products
- Reduced shortages as products can be imported
- Possibly reduced price of products as countries can specialize in products that they have a competitive advantage in
- Increased multiculturalism (different foods, languages, music, dance, etc.)
- Increased trading links and improved relations between countries reducing conflict because of interdependence.
- Improved levels of technology as the latest products are shared
- Increased levels of education and skills as people are trained or educated by foreign companies and institutions
- Increased spread of democracy and human rights (greater quality between different groups and nationalities)
- Improved medical care as advances in medicine can be shared
Negative of Globalization
- An increase in the number of clone towns (homogenization of urban landscapes)
- A loss of local companies
- Global companies may actually become monopolies reducing choice or increasing prices
- Workers and/or resources may be exploited by TNCs or foreign countries
- Cultural dilution (homogenization). Loss of individual culture e.g. language and food to be replaced by a more international culture (Westernization)
- Possible racial tensions between migrant groups
- Changes in diet e.g. more fast food leading to obesity
- Economic leakage (profits disappear overseas to TNC headquarters)
- Increased dependency of TNCs and foreign countries
- Increased risk of economic problems due to global recessions
- Possible environmental damage caused to poorer regions and nations
- National sovereignty removed by global institutions like the IMF, WTO and EU
Local Responses to Globalization
Discuss civil society responses to globalization; the adoption, adaption or rejection of globalized goods, services and cultural traits.
ThaiCraft Fair
- ThaiCraft began in 1975 as Hilltribe Sales at the International Church of Bangkok.
- These volunteer-run events at International School Bangkok's former downtown campus operated until 1992.
- In August of that year the ThaiCraft Association became an independent development organization, for the first year only, small start-up administration grants were received from Dutch (ICCO) and British (ODA/Oxfam) funding agencies.
- By retaining a small share of sales revenue, ThaiCraft soon became and has remained a financially self-sufficient organization.
- ThaiCraft Forms a Limited Company to Expand and Develop the Market
- ThaiCraft's export sales grew following a substantial devaluation of the Thai Baht, caused by the Asian financial crisis of 1997/8. In response, ThaiCraft restructured in 2000/1 to create a new limited company, ThaiCraft Fair Trade Company Limited, to expand both export and domestic sales opportunities.
- The company employs local staff and utilizes new informational technology for more efficient, improved customer service.
- ThaiCraft endeavors to continue strong growth by offering competitive prices for unusual, quality products.
- To generate a fair income for village artisans
- To help keep alive the diverse craft traditions in Thailand
- To promote and practice the principles of Fair Trade
- Our mission is to be a leading Fair Trade Company that
- Provides sustainable market access and development for Thai artisans
- Gives a better solution for modern customers of handmade products
- Increases producer skills in production and business management
- Creates self-reliance for village artisan groups
- Prevents the need for charity by offering a commercial opportunity
- Over 60 artisan groups of various sizes and operational structures, of diverse backgrounds and cultures and from all regions of Thailand. They create thousands of fine hand-crafted products, including jewelry, clothing, fabrics, spa products, household items, basketry, decorations, stationery, musical instruments, learning games and more
- Some groups focus on, or include, people with special needs. Some others face social, political or environmental difficulties. The rest include village cooperatives, slum projects, and small community workshops
- All partners know about and are expected to follow Fair Trade practices and keep to internationally recognized standards of working behavior and responsibility
- Researching and accessing appropriate markets for village crafts in Thailand and overseas
- Selecting and presenting a wide range of attractive, high quality handmade products that are good value to the customer
- Organizing pleasant and informative retail shopping experiences through frequent “ThaiCraft Fair” events, mainly in and around Bangkok
- Providing an export wholesale marketing service that enables customers overseas to order and receive products of high quality in an efficient and timely manner
- Supplying information and materials to “tell the story” that lies behind the crafts and those who create them
- Preventing the need for charity by offering sustainable commercial opportunities to our producer partners
- Discerning shoppers who appreciate handmade quality and beauty of products that are both useful and decorative
- Those who like to know the origin of a product--who made it, how, where, with what materials, whether it's organic
- Those who have a concern for society and wish to know who benefits from a purchase
- Those who prefer assurance that the impact of their purchases will not harm the environment
- Arrange practical training and advice in product design and development as well as in sound business management and practices
- Monitor and, when necessary, take active steps to ensure the understanding and adherence of Fair Trade practices throughout producer partners and within our own organization. These include, good working conditions, health and safety, no enforced child labor and care for the environment
- Provide networking opportunities (e.g. seminars and workshops) among groups locally and nationwide and supply information about international product and market trends
- Listen and respond to the needs of artisan groups, wherever possible, involving them in our planning, our activities and appraisals
Evaluate the relative costs and benefits of local commercial production to the producer, the consumer and the local economy, compared with the costs and benefits of globalized productions.
Alternatives
Describe the role of civil societies in raising awareness of local and global environmental, social and cultural issues.
Any organization or movement that works in the area between the household, the private sector and the state to negotiate matters of public concern.
Civil societies include non-government organizations (NGOs), community groups, trade unions, academic institutions and faith-based organizations.
Examine the role of civil societies in supporting local economic activity and strengthening local cultural values.
Discuss the position held by anti-globalization groups.
World Social Forum
Case Study – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Describe the role of civil societies in raising awareness of local and global environmental, social and cultural issues.
Any organization or movement that works in the area between the household, the private sector and the state to negotiate matters of public concern.
Civil societies include non-government organizations (NGOs), community groups, trade unions, academic institutions and faith-based organizations.
Examine the role of civil societies in supporting local economic activity and strengthening local cultural values.
Discuss the position held by anti-globalization groups.
World Social Forum
- First held in 2001 in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil
- Motivation was to constitute a counter-event to the World Economic Forum
- Slogan of WSF is “Another World is Possible”
- Open forum for discussion so that organizations can come together and make plans for the future
- "Alter-globalization" instead of "anti-globalization" and fight for a free market
- It has a strong voice in the global scene
- The larger it gets the harder to make decisions
- Lack of African representation
- NGO try to speak for countries instead of countries representing themselves
- Evaluate the quality of life of a contemporary non-globalized society.
Case Study – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
- Most isolated country
- Citizens don't know what's going on outside and no one knows what's going on inside
- Less than 20% of land is good for arable farming
- Millions have perished from famine
- Division between the north and south was imposed in 1945 by the Allied powers that liberated the country from 35 years of cruel Japanese rule
- In 1950, it was almost erased by a wave of North Korean troops that swept down the peninsula under the command of Kim Il Sung, a Soviet-backed ruler who outlasted the Soviet Union itself
- The 38th parallel, separating north and south, is Korea's most important dividing line
- On land, the dividing line is painstakingly demarcated and heavily fortified. At sea, the border is both physically and legally indistinct, determined by disputes, incursions and abductions.
- Internet Connectivity: currently ranked 224 in the world
- Cellphone Ownership: currently ranked 167 in the world
- North Korea's first Internet café opened in 2002 as a joint venture with a South Korean Internet company, Hoonnet.
- Ordinary North Koreans do not have access to the global Internet network, but are provided with a nationwide, public-use Intranet service called Kwangmyong, which features domestic news, an e-mail service, and censored information from foreign websites (mostly scientific).
- Juche: a political thesis formed by the former North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung which states that the Korean masses are the masters of the country's development
- 1950s - 1970s, elaborated the Juche Idea into a set of principles that the government uses to justify its policy decisions
- Among these are a strong military posture and reliance on Korean national resources
- Accused of being a form of political religion despite North Korea's formal commitment to state atheism
- First known reference to Juche as a North Korean ideology was a speech given by Kim Il Sung on December 28, 1955.
- Speech was given to promote a political purge similar to the earlier Yan'an Rectification Movement in China
- Turn towards a more Third World-orientated foreign policy fuelled by doubts in the benefit of close association with the Soviet Union, the development of Juche echoed that of zili gengsheng in China.
- 1990s - North Korean regime became increasingly nationalistic
- "Socialism without Socialism" - contains nationalism instead
- Stresses the importance of the Korean blood, soul and national traits, echoing earlier Korean nationalists
- No longer has any interest in applying Marxism–Leninism to the North Korean situation; indeed it is no longer useful for the country.
- North Koreans place primacy over ideology over materialism, retaining the vocabulary of family linage and nationalism and giving it primacy over class struggle, and supporting social distinction and hierarchy over classless society and egalitarianism
- Communism was seen as a tool to strengthen nationalist goals
- Myers states that Juche is merely a sham ideology developed to extol Kim Il Sung as a political thinker alongside Mao Zedong.
- The North Korean state's military-first policy, racism and xenophobia
- An extreme sense of race-based nationalism and incidents like the attempted lynching of Black Cuban diplomats and the forced abortions of North Korean women pregnant with ethnic Chinese children
- It is founded on the politics of the far right inherited from fascist imperial Japan during their colonial occupation of Korea, rather than the far left.
- Has his suits custom-tailored out of a Scabal cashmere and silk blends that costs $300 a yard (four yards are needed for his suits).
- Favored shoes made by Italian cobbler Moreschi. “In early 2000, high-ranking North Korean government officials heard a rumor that the Dear Leader wears only Moreschi shoes, so they scoured Moreschi stores whenever they went on overseas trips,”
- For his timepieces, he prefers Omega, which he also gave out to staff. Even his beverage tastes ran on the pricey side.
- According to one defector, Mr. Kim’s luxury appetite was so large that his personal expenses soaked up 20% of the nation’s budget.
- The North Korean famine, known as the Arduous March, was a famine in North Korea which began in the early 1990s and ended in the late 1990s.
- From a population of approximately 22 million, between 900,000 and 3.5 million people died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.
- North Korea's leadership is committing systematic and appalling human rights abuses against its own citizens on a scale unparalleled in the modern world
- Crimes against humanity strongly resemble those committed by the Nazis
- Evidence of torture, execution and arbitrary imprisonment, deliberate starvation, and an almost complete lack of free thought and belief
- Kim Jong-un has been warned that he could face trial at the international criminal court (ICC) for his personal culpability as head of state and leader of the military
- Vast network of secret prison camps (kwanliso), where thousands of North Koreans are believed to have died through starvation, execution à estimated that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners are still held
- North Korea uses food as a means of control over the population
- One in three children is chronically malnourished or stunted
- North Korea's government has appealed to the UN for emergency aid
- The North Korean economy grew by 1.1% in 2012
- Staple food production has increased in recent years, but the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program (WFP) warned that chronic malnutrition persists and 84% of households have borderline or poor food consumption
- The gradual disintegration of state control and people's growing awareness of the outside world (through illicitly consumed media or working overseas) has made the regime vulnerable
- Moving towards reform and denuclearization could see inter-Korean trade grow from around $2 billion a year to $11-16 billion by 2020