Transcript Document

Latin American Graduate School in Industrial
Development and SME Policies
Guatemala, 17th - 22th July
Universidad Rafael Landivar
Globalisation: What, When, How, Why?
David Bailey
Birmingham Business School
Globalisation …
What? … When? … How? … Why?
The ‘globalisation’ debate
What is it? … and why is it happening?
What are the impacts of globalisation?
Is globalisation working? … are there
alternatives?
The Global Economy
The Globalisation Debate
• Globalisation has been a buzzword for a number of
years now
– It was first used in a significant sense in 1983 by Theodore
Levitt, to refer to ‘the globalisation of markets’ …
– But it was not until the mid 1990s that we began to see the term
used more widely …
– And by the end of the 1990s there had been a dramatic
‘explosion’ in the use of the word
– But …
“in spite of a deluge of publications on the subject, our analyses
of globalisation tend to remain conceptually inexact, empirically
thin, historically and culturally illiterate, normatively shallow and
politically naïve.” (Scholte, 2000)
So What is Globalisation?
• What does the word ‘globalisation’ mean to you?
• There is general agreement that ‘something’
fundamental is happening … the world has been, and
continues to be, undergoing profound changes in the
way in which it is structured/organised
• However, the nature of these changes is strongly
contested
– There is very little agreement on what, exactly, globalisation is,
and what it implies …
Categories of Globalisation?
• An Economist
– “a dynamic process of growing liberty and world integration in the
markets for labour, goods, services, technology and capital.” (De la
Dehesa, 2000)
• A Sociologist
– “the compression of the world and the intensification of the
consciousness of the world as a whole.” (Waters, 2000)
• A Geographer
– “a reterritorialisation of both socioeconomic and political-institutional
spaces that unfolds simultaneously upon multiple, superimposed,
geographical scales.” (Brenner, 1999)
• A Politician
– “Nations act in their own self interest. But … our self-interest and our
mutual interests are today inextricably woven together. This is the
politics of globalisation.” (Tony Blair, 2nd October 2001)
A Complex, Multifaceted Phenomenon
• ‘Globalisation’ cannot be confined to one discipline
– “globalisation has been a prominent topic among geographers
and sociologists as well as economists and political scientists,
and is studied within every paradigm…” (Radice, 2000)
• It is also characterised by “opposing tendencies”
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Universalisation versus Particularisation
Homogenisation versus Differentiation
Integration versus Fragmentation
Globalisation ALONGSIDE Regionalisation … etc.
GLOCALISATION?
A Contested Phenomenon
• There are two extreme perspectives on globalisation
• The hyperglobalists see globalisation as the new
economic, political, social, cultural order in which we live,
where our lives are dominated by global forces …
– Their view is essentially of a borderless world
– One where transnational firms dominate, and cultural differences
are seen simply as variations in consumer preferences
– “The nation state is just about through as an economic unit”
(Kindleberger, in 1969)
– More recently these views are associated with commentators
such as Ohmae, Friedman, Reich and Giddens
– A new “turbocharged” era of globalisation (Friedman, 2000)
A Contested Phenomenon
• The sceptics argue that the nation state remains highly
significant, as we live in an international world
– Internationalism is built around nationalism (Bucharin, in 1918)
– So how ‘new’ is ‘globalisation’?
– What might be called “progressive nationalism” is associated
with commentators such as Hirst and Thompson, Ruigrok and
van Tulder, and Radice
• The ground for most debate around ‘globalisation’,
however, is found somewhere between these two
polarised views …
Middle Ground … ?
• While the world economy has arguably been as ‘open’ at
other times in history, there is something qualitatively
different about current ‘globalisation’
– Deep integration has replaced shallow integration
– This is impacting in different ways on the economic, political,
social, cultural and natural environments
• However, while such ‘globalising forces’ clearly exist, we
have not reached an ‘end-state’ in which local and
national factors cease to be significant
– Moreover, we can’t predict that we will reach this state, as
globalisation involves a complex set of intermittant, uneven
processes that are inherently unpredictable
Characteristics of Globalisation
•
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New, more integrated, global markets
New global (and local) actors
New rules and norms
Associated with these characteristics, we can identify
three key components to ‘globalisation’
1. Changing territory
2. Changing technologies
3. Spread of market capitalism
1. Changing Territory
• Scholte (2000) argues that globalisation is a new and
distinctive phenomenon only when seen in terms of
‘deterritorialisation’
– Social geography is no longer entirely territorial
– Territory still matters, but it no longer constitutes the whole of our
geography
– While production used to be organised within national
boundaries, for example, this is no longer the case
• Space is shrinking, and borders are becoming less
significant
2. Changing Technologies
• Changing spatial relations are intimately associated with
changes in transport, information, and communication
technologies
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Faster and cheaper air, sea, rail travel
Cheaper and better phone connections
Fax
Mobile phones
Internet and other electronic communications
Etc.
• These have facilitated emerging ‘global’ economic,
social, cultural and political relationships
3. Spread of Market Capitalism
• The process of ‘globalisation’ that we see around us
cannot be separated from the capitalist context in which
it has emerged
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Liberalisation of markets
Privatisation and the reduction of the role of governments
The role of the IMF and World Bank in these processes
The increasing significance of transnational corporations
New ‘global’ division of labour and ‘global’ production chains
• The current form of globalisation is heavily influenced by
this context … see Friedman (2000) and Stiglitz (2002)
– ‘Washington consensus’ globalisation
So What Is Globalisation?
• It is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, incorporating
changes in economic, political, cultural, social
relationships.
• In particular, globalisation refers to the changes in these
relationships as new technologies combine with the
dominant capitalist context in reducing the significance of
territory
• As markets and production chains become ‘global’, there
are clearly economic, political, cultural and social
implications for different actors …
What are the implications of ‘globalisation’ for business?
Friedman’s Nine Questions …
•
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How fast is your company?
Is your company harvesting its knowledge?
How much does your company weigh?
Does your company dare to be open on the outside?
Does your company dare to be open on the inside?
Does the management ‘get it’? And can you change the
management if they don’t ‘get it’?
• Is your company willing to shoot its wounded and suckle
the survivors?
• How good is your company at making friends?
• How good is your company’s brand?
Some Implications for Business
• Businesses need to recognise that increasingly they are operating in
global market places
– This presents both threats and opportunities
– The Birmingham Business School, for example
• Perhaps most crucially, businesses need to understand that
globlisation is inextricably linked with the creation and distribution of
knowledge and information
– Success means staying one step ahead
• There is also a need to recognise and respond to some of the
‘opposing tendencies’
– For example, regionalisation and localisation are important
counterforces to global markets
– Global businesses able to respond to local markets
– Or local businesses able to project themselves globally?
The significance of Firm ‘Clusters’
• Globalisation does not remove a fundamental
characteristic of economic activity: it tends to be
geographically localised to some degree
– Dynamic ‘clusters’ of firms can give significant advantages to
both small and large businesses in competing in a global
economy
– Generalised clusters versus specific clusters
– Traded and Untraded interdependencies
• It is interesting that local ‘clusters’ of firms have become
influential as ‘globalisation’ has gathered pace
– See, for example, the work of Porter
This has implications both for firms and societies
Implications for Societies
• Many of the implications of globalisation that we have
identified for firms can also be applied to societies more
generally
– Freidman’s nine questions apply to countries as well as
companies
– This is not surprising, given that societies are built around
institutions, including firms
– All institutions will be influenced by processes of globalisation in
some way
• There are economic, social, cultural, political implications
for countries and regions as the world becomes more
deeply inter-connected
– Again, threats and opportunities
Is Globalisation Working?
• Many people would say a strong ‘no’
– There is a large ‘anti-globalisation movement’
– Protests, for example, in Seattle, London, Davos, Genoa etc..
– This ‘movement’ incorporates many diverse groups, with
different agendas
– But they are linked by a belief that ‘globalisation’ is threatening
certain things: culture, economics, environment etc.
• In many ways, this is an extension of concern with
inequalities and tensions created by capitalism …
– ‘globalisation’ takes capitalism to a more extreme, more visible
stage
– It highlights the inequalities that are inherent in capitalism
– ‘Globalisation’ a new paradigm of capitalist economic
development?
Are There Alternatives?
• Given these concerns, and given your own concerns, do
you think there are alternatives to ‘globalisation’?
• Is ‘globalisation’ irreversible?
• Would it be desirable to reverse it in any case?
• My view is that we could try to reverse or stifle such
trends … re-implement borders etc., but that this is not
the way forward
– The problems, and the frustrations, are not with ‘increasing and
deepening global relationships’ per se, but with the current form
of capitalism?
– We must ask, therefore, if there are alternative forms of
globalisation?
Elite Globalisation
• Current ‘Washington consensus’ globalisation might be
characterised as elite (Sugden and Wilson, 2003)
– It is based around powerful transnational firms, where decisionmaking is concentrated
– This is despite the language of freedom and democracy that are
often used when talking about ‘globalisation’ (e.g. Freidman)
If after sufficient terror, intimidation, destruction of popular
organisations and so on, you can ensure that power stays in
the hands of the right power groups, the ones linked up to US
corporations and banking institutions and the others who
basically run this society, then that is democracy and
everybody is happy and we praise ourselves for our glory
[Chomsky, 2003]
Democratic Globalisation?
• A question, then, is whether it is possible to alter
globalisation so that it becomes more ‘democratic’
• This would imply fundamental concern with governance
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Governance of firms
Governance of governments
Governance of localities
Governance of international institutions
• It is possible that such a step would address many of the
concerns of the ‘anti-globalisation movement’ …
– Indeed, business cannot afford to ignore these concerns
– Increasing concern with ‘ethical business’ and ‘good governance’
Summary
• Today we have seen that globalisation is a complex
phenomenon!
– It is multi-faceted and highly contested
– There is some middle ground however, which sees something
fundamental happening to the economic, social, political and
cultural relationships around which the world is organised
– These changes are influences particularly by changing
geography, changing technology, and the capitalist context
– In turn there are implications for business, and for societies,
around the world
– But questions remain as to how ‘globalisation’ can best be
harnessed as a positive force, how we can make it work better
– The globalisation debate today centres on these questions