GLOBALISATION - a key idea in modern Geography

The world is 'smaller' than it has ever been, and its 6.2 billion people (and counting..) are therefore more densely populated than ever before. That is the opening slant of a booklet called 'Making Globalisation work for the World's Poor', which is available from the DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. There are an increasing number of relevant resources becoming available as this theme gains momentum. A lot of sites are providing the alternative view on the activities of certain clothing and sportswear companies in LEDCs and NICs.

A definition of globalisation as provided by OXFAM:

"a process of rapid economic integration driven by the liberalisation of trade, investment and capital flows and by rapid technological change"

"It affects the clothes we wear, the music we listen too, the food we eat, the jobs we do and the environment we live in."

There was a debate on the BBC News TALKING POINT page in July 2001. This is still available in Archived form HERE. There are 27 pages of e-mail contributions from people which could be used as the basis of prompt quotes: statements which students could react and respond to. The basic title of this was 'GLOBALISATION: GOOD OR BAD ?' - this will prove useful if you are doing some of the lessons listed later on this page.

The good folk over at NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL in Norwich have produced an excellent GLOBAL LINKS section, which also has a range of ICT materials. It's called GLOBAL HOME, and has the tagline: " My Home, Your Home, Our Home"

"Before you finish eating your breakfast this morning, you've depended on half the world.... We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognise this basic fact."

Martin Luther King

Make sure that you use a Peters Projection map for all globalisation work, to get a true picture of the scale and location of the LEDCs.

There was a recent surge of interest in China on this front with the appointment of a new leader. The country is undergoing tremendous economic growth which probably makes it a better example of an NIC than South Korea or Japan, both of which are going through a period of economic decline. China makes about a quarter of all sports clothing and shoes for sale in the high street stores.

There are also signs that some Multinationals are undergoing pressure. GAP is described as 'ailing' in a recent article on the BBC news site, and McDonalds is reducing its number of UK outlets. There is a useful article for higher level students on the online magazine: SPIKED. It is by Alan Shipman, and is called Lo: No Go, in reference to Naomi Klein's book.

A useful introduction mentions the downfall of companies like LonRho, Enron and Union Carbide (remember Bhopal), and includes a particularly useful section:

"...Starbucks is turning into a sandwich chain - and courting decaffeinated consciences with fair-trade coffee...while McDonalds sees profits plunge and franchisees jump format

A 2003 series on the BBC WORLD SERVICE: called 'Beefburgers, Blockbusters and Blue Jeans'. It looks at the Americanisation of global culture. Nick Rankin explored the effect of McDonalds and other American icons and companies. Factories like the ones mentioned above are generally known as 'SWEATSHOPS'. A CODE OF CONDUCT has been suggested for such Sweatshops. This involves:

The ETHICAL TRADING INITIATIVE is an organisation which is an alliance of companies, NGOs and trade unions. This is a code for UK companies to try to stick to (most of which is very similar to the code above...)

Around Christmas time, children's thoughts turn to TOYS. Many toys are made in CHINA. In the past there have been tragedies, notably the 1993 fire at Zhili, in SW China, which killed 87 workers.

Apparently around 70% of the toys children play with each Christmas are made in China. To keep costs down, factory workers don't enjoy the same rights and working conditions as factory workers in the developed world. The INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF TOY INDUSTRIES is a useful stop-off. The toy industry is also very seasonal, with 50% of toys sold between October and December.

Each year there is a new CRAZE toy, which lots of children demand. This puts pressure on factories to meet inflated last-minute orders for specific toys (and also helps drive the counterfeit market...) Overtime is not likely to be paid...

In Sweden, all TV advertising is banned during the daytime - just think about how virtually all advertising on children's channels are for toys. My 2 year old could recognise Barbie within a second of the advertising starting.....I feel ashamed...

Another example is a local one for me. Start Rite shoes is based in Norwich, but the shoes are mainly made in India and Pakistan.

Recently set a homework to my Year 9 group to discover where their toys came from: here are the results -

China	Ireland	Indonesia	Japan	Australia
134	5	6	8	1
UK	Austria	Belgium	Hong Kong	USA
14	1	1	1	2
Thailand	India	Denmark	Czech Republic	Switzerland
2	1	2	2	1
Korea	Sweden	Netherlands	Sri Lanka	Malaysia
2	1	1	1	2
Romania	Taiwan	Germany	Philippines	Italy
1	1	1	1	1

An article in 'TheTimes' (2005) says that the EU has agreed to remove tariffs for clothing imported from Sri Lanka: the island state devastated by the recent tsunami, and also India and Indonesia. Thailand will also have a reduction on tariffs on its seafood industry.

On Sri Lanka, clothing accounts for more than half the economy, and employs 250 000 people. Many of these produce branded clothing for companies including Marks and Spencer, Triumph (underwear rather than motorbikes....), Nike and Victoria's Secret. The issue has been that Sri Lanka doesn't make the cloth, but stitches and assembles garments.

FASHION SITES

We focus on this as our main area of Globalisation: using some of the sites mentioned above, and also a video from the WORLD 2000 series on the purchase of expensive trainers by young people.

One particular focus is the manufacture of Jeans. This is the subject of books from the GEOG dot series, and also a series of other resources. The TES Teacher magazine for September 20th 2002 had some useful information, and I also use an article from the Guardian which looks at the various countries which are involved in the manufacture of the items. There is a 40 000 mile journey from the cotton fields to the high street shops.

The first issue is to do with the cotton which is used to make the denim fabric. This is a particularly thirsty crop, and with the ARAL SEA there is an example of environmental problem caused by the growing of cotton.

MAQUILADORAS are factories which are situated across the border into Mexico from the USA. Products can be made more cheaply here. MAQUILA SOLIDARITY is a useful site looking at issues surrounding the people who work in the factories, and the reason for them being there.

TNC's

We start out work on Globalisation by exploring GLOBAL BRANDS: those which would be recognisable in lots of different countries, and would be both produced and sold in many nations. A sample of these are seen below - students like visiting some of these websites, especially the ones with games. Why not do a quick worksheet with some of these brands and ask the students to identify them. Also have some new resources on COCA COLA kindly sent by Tony Cassidy from RADICAL GEOGRAPHY.

Many TNCs also attract groups who are opposed to their activities for whatever reason.

Farmers in the eastern Indian state of Chhattisgarh are apparently using COCA COLA as a cheap pesticide. When mixed with water and put on plants it apparently kills off some of the bugs.

Thanks to Tony Cassidy for sending me a good mini-lesson where COCA COLA is judged on the 'scales of justice'...

There are a large number of household brands which are produced by Nestle or subsidiary companies:

Nescafe, Gold Blend, Rowntree, After Eights, Quality Street, Sarsons seasonings, Perrier, Buxton, Findus, Buitoni, Crosse and Blackwell, Maggi, Branston pickle , Sun-Pat, Shredded Wheat, L'Oreal and Lancome cosmetics, Winalot, Felix and Choosy pet foods and many, more...

If you go to the site you can download materials, or send off for the STUDENT PACK. Get the address from the site. There are, of course, various 'other side to McDonalds' style sites. There are also issues with using educational resources that are branded with a company.

I received my STUDENT PACK recently. It's full of useful information, including information on the company's social responsibility policy. Worth a couple of stamps to send off for this. Hang on, why did I have to pay ?

As stated below, I did a survey of trainers during a non-uniform day, and also ask students to do an audit of 20 items of clothing to say whether they were from LEDC or MEDC countries in terms of their manufacturing. NIKE came out on top in the trainer survey.

This is something that could be done on your next uniform day - you maybe had one for Children in Need.

The UNBRAND the USA site has a good 'corporate' flag: a version of 'Old Glory' which replaces the stars with corporate logos such as Apple, McDonalds etc. This would make a good discussion image or starter image. Type in ADBUSTERS into a search to find sites with a similar agenda. (Remember the need for balance too....)

There is a tremendous imbalance between the spending power in different parts of the world. In Zimbabwe, many OAPs live on less than £1 a month! Ask your students to consider these questions (suggested at BUY NOTHING DAY)

This is a trans-national company which many people have never heard of even though their cupboards are stuffed with their products. They have now taken steps to increase their market in Brazil by an interesting strategy. They have set up a launderette in the favela of Heliopolis: a slum in Sao Paulo which is home to around 150 000 people.

The launderette is called the OMO LAVANDERIA COMMUNITARIA (Community Laundry), and local women can register for free 2-hour slots. Many of the women who use it bring OMO washing powder which they have bought themselves. The OMO brand costs more than other brands (people in the UK know it as PERSIL) By 2010, the market in LEDCs is likely to be larger than that in MEDCs - the customers need to be claimed now! Many of the local residents are keen to look their best.

The company has tried other methods too: in India, for example, they found that sales of bottles of shampoo at $2 were not selling, so re-packaged it into 2 cent sachets: they established what the customers could afford.

Information adapted from an article in the Business section of 'The Times' - 10/12/05

There are a lot of resources kindly produced by

(some of these are under the JUSBIZ site...)

And look out for FAIRTRADE products. New Fairtrade page by clicking the links.

GLBALISATION

FASHION SITES

TNC's