Search

Begin New Search Topic Globalization

831. Competency Based Regional Growth Strategies: Creating Value in a Digital Global Age

Author:
John Zysman, Niels Christian Nielsen, Dan Breznitz, and Derek Wong
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
Abstract:
The policy objective for governments is classic and enduring: sustain the growth of employment and productivity to assure expanding real incomes of the citizens. Success requires that “under free and fair market conditions, the community (firms and populace) can produce goods and services that meet the test of international markets while simultaneously expanding the real income of its citizens.” Yet, the logic of competition and value creation in global markets has evolved. Consequently, old strategies of simply supporting the competitiveness of particular national flag firms or chasing smokestacks are clearly obsolete, but merely investing in R or education is not sufficient, and doing nothing is a formula for decline. Regions have to conceive new strategies to find distinctive advantages to support employment and productive activity. Those strategies will need to target competencies, not particular firms or specific sectors. Our argument begins by considering the basic shifts in global markets that are altering the logic of value creation for firms; it then considers how these market shifts alter the policy choices for places and makes competency domains a necessary foundation of policy analysis.
Topic:
Globalization, International Political Economy, and Science and Technology

832. Next-Generation Media: The Global Shift

Author:
Richard P. Adler
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
A decade ago the Internet was still a novelty. Only a minority of Americans went online regularly, and the rate of global penetration was even smaller. Today the Internet is so pervasive that we often take its presence for granted, thinking of it as “old news.” It has become part of the daily life of a majority of Americans who rely on it as an almost indispensable tool for both business and personal life: a vital communications link, an important source of news and political information, a convenient channel for distributing digital content of all types (including software, music, photos, and videos), and a robust marketplace for electronic commerce (e-commerce).
Topic:
Civil Society, Globalization, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
America

833. Don't blame globalisation for the squeezing of the middle class

Author:
Ángel Ubide
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
Globalisation is being blamed for the squeezing of the middle class and protectionism is being offered as a solution. We argue in this paper that the increase in inequality is a long-term trend resulting from a variety of factors, including the decline in manufacturing, the reduction in the progressivity of taxation and the steady increase in asset prices, and that globalisation has only had a marginal impact on it. Protectionism will not reverse any of these trends. We discuss some policy options aimed at cushioning this increase in inequality and argue that they will likely result in expanding fiscal deficits and pressure on central banks to test the limits of growth.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, Economics, and Globalization

834. Le Sangh Parivar et la diaspora hindoue en Occident : Royaume-Uni, États-Unis et Canada

Author:
Ingrid Therwath and Christophe Jaffrelot
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
« Long-distance nationalism », an expression coined by Benedict Anderson, is often used in reference to transnational political activities. But the dynamics of this expatriate nationalism tend to be neglected. Mere nostalgia or even spontaneous mobilisations are evoked to explain this phenomenon. They, however, fail to explain the mechanism that lies behind « long-distance nationalism ». This paper wishes to highlight, through the example of the Hindu nationalist movements, the implication of political entrepreneurs in the country of origin and the instrumental dimension of « long-distance nationalism ». The Sangh Parivar, a network of nationalist Hindu organisations, was indeed replicated among the Hindu diaspora and its structure was litterally exported by a centralised body located in India itself. Of course, the spread of the Sangh Parivar and of its Hindutva ideology abroad was greatly facilitated by local policies like multiculturalism and by the rise of racism in the countries of emigration. A comparison of Hindu nationalist outlets in the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada brings to light the two main factors in instilling « long-distance nationalism » : a favorable local context for ethnic mobilisation among migrants on the one hand, and a centralised organisation in the country of origin on the other hand. Eventually, the engineering of long-distance Hindu nationalism from India questions the changing nature of nationalism in a globalised world.
Topic:
Globalization, Nationalism, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, America, Canada, India, East Asia, and Asia

835. Energy Sovereignty and Security

Author:
Greg Austin and Danila Bochkarev
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EastWest Institute
Abstract:
Energy security has re-surfaced as a headline issue in the policy councils of Europe and the Americas in a way not seen since the 1970s. On the one hand, some leaders believe that there is a new energy rivalry with ominous geopolitical overtones, and they look at Russia and China with suspicion in this regard. On the other hand, at a more commercial level, there has been rising uncertainty about oil supply and demand, because of political instability in the Persian Gulf and rampant consumption in the major industrial countries and emerging economies. Price volatility, long a feature of the oil market, reached levels not seen for some years, leading to fresh concerns about 'peak oil'.
Topic:
Development, Energy Policy, Globalization, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Russia, China, America, and Europe

836. Gendering Globalization: Imperial Domesticity and Identity in Northern Pakistan

Author:
Nancy Cook
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
In this paper I contribute to the feminist project of developing gendered analyses of globalization by providing a micro-level study of the effects of intersecting gender, racial, and class relations on global processes of cultural imperialism in contemporary northern Pakistan. More specifically, I examine the mutually constitutive link between the structuring of Western women development workers' domestic spaces and identities in Gilgit and imperial processes, what I will call imperial domesticity. Women's gendered rituals of domesticity and strategies of servant management are the key facets of imperial domesticity highlighted in the paper.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, and Globalization
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Asia

837. The Politics of Form and Alternative Autonomies: Indigenous Women, Subsistence Economies and the Gift Paradigm

Author:
Rauna Kuokkanen
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
Many indigenous rights advocates around the world have emphasized over and over again the paramount importance of collective autonomy as a precondition for the long-term survival of Indigenous peoples as distinctive collectivities. Despite the fears and concerns of nation-states, for a great majority of Indigenous people this kind of autonomy — autonomy as a people — does not imply secession or independent statehood but "appropriate forms of association with surrounding states that would safeguard their distinctive identities and special relationships to their territories" (Lâm 2000, 135). Indigenous peoples' struggle for self-determination, therefore, is also a struggle to exist as a collective in the future, which implies being able to decide about and have control over that future as a people. In short, there is a difference between struggles for autonomy and separatist movements. Nira Yuval-Davis suggests.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Gender Issues, and Globalization

838. Call centers and the new jobs of the 21st Century

Author:
Jordy Micheli Thirión
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
Call centers emerging industry is a dynamic sector in global economy and accounts worldwide jobs in millions. This article shows the tayloristic characteristics of labor process, geographical expansion trends of telemarket firms and concentration job in young people as well as the weakness of the labor relations in the industry. The conclusion is that structure of contemporary postindustrial capitalism constitutes a framework for call centers industry growth. That structure is characterized by: a need for managing the information and communication flows in a competitive way within several firms and organizations; the remarkable innovation wave in digital technology sectors and structural unemployment among young people, bachelors or graduates. In the context of an expanding tertiary economy, call centers become a pattern for managing work and creating jobs in 21st Century.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Science and Technology

839. The role of freight transport in economic development: An analysis of the interaction between global value chains and their associated transport chains

Author:
Poul Ove Pedersen
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is first to discuss the paradox that freight transport, which so clearly is an important prerequisite for the processes of regional development and economic internationalisation and globalisation, since the 1970s has almost vanished from mainstream economic geography and development studies, and is most often hardly mentioned in studies of international industrial development and global commodity or value chains. Secondly, the paper discusses the consequences of leaving freight transport out of the value chain analyses and argues that it has had serious consequences for economic development especially in the peripheral parts of the world, not least in Africa, and for our understanding of rural poverty.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa

840. The changing context for small farms and implications for their future

Author:
Peter Hazell
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
The majority of farms in the developing world are small (less than 2 hectares) and they are home to the majority of the rural poor. Their future will have an important bearing on whether poverty and hunger can be halved by 2015. However, small farms are seriously challenged today in ways that make their future precarious. Globalization and rising per capita incomes in many countries are changing the nature and composition of demand for agricultural products. At the same time, marketing chains are changing and are becoming more integrated and more demanding of quality and food safety. This is creating new opportunities for higher value production for farmers who can compete and link to these markets, but for many other small farms the risk is that they will simply be left behind. In developing countries, small farmers also face unfair competition from rich country farmers in many of their export and domestic markets, and they no longer have adequate support in terms of basic services and farm inputs. And the spread of HIV/AIDS is further eroding the number of productive farm family workers, and leaving many children as orphans with limited knowledge about how to farm. Left to themselves, these forces will curtail opportunities for small farms, overly favor large farms, and lead to a premature and rapid exit of many small farms. If most small farmers are to have a viable future, then there is need for a concerted effort by governments, NGOs and the private sector to create a more equitable and enabling economic environment for their development. This must include assistance in forming effective marketing organizations, targeted agricultural research and extension, revamping financial systems to meet small farm credit need s, improved risk management policies, better education and training for nonfarm jobs and where all else fails, targeted safety net programs. These interventions are possible and could unleash significant benefits in the form of pro-poor agricultural growth. For many countries, the alternative is a dramatic increase in rural poverty and waves of migrants to urban areas that could overwhelm available job opportunities, urban infrastructure and support services.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Globalization, and Third World