Globalisation Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is economic globalisation?
It refers to the increasing international interdependence of society, culture, politics, and especially the economy, characterised by growing flows of trade, FDI, finance, and information.
How is globalisation shaped by local conditions?
Globalising processes are contingent and interact with locally specific circumstances, meaning they do not produce identical effects everywhere (Dicken, 2003).
What are key institutional drivers of globalisation?
Organisations like the IMF, World Bank, OECD, GATT/WTO and policies reducing trade barriers (e.g. tariff reductions from 40% in the 1940s to 2% in 2015).
What are key technological drivers of globalisation?
Reduced transport costs (containerisation, air freight) and advancements in ICT that facilitate faster, cheaper communication and trade.
Why do countries engage in international trade?
Due to differences in availability, price, and quality of goods, enabling countries to specialise based on comparative advantage and access better or cheaper products.
How does global trade encourage innovation?
It promotes competition, diffusion of technology, and the transfer of knowledge, which drives both incremental and radical innovation.
What do ‘hyper-globalists’ believe about globalisation?
They argue globalisation is creating a borderless world, diminishing the importance of nation-states and fostering growth and equality through market forces.
What is the sceptical view of globalisation?
Critics argue it increases inequality, benefits a few, and reinforces historical patterns of exploitation- neocolonialism; some challenge whether current globalisation is truly new or natural.
How does David Harvey explain globalisation?
He views it as capitalism’s ‘spatial fix’ — a means of resolving crises by expanding geographically and exploiting new areas, especially in the Global South.
What is Doreen Massey’s contribution to globalisation theory?
She emphasised spatial divisions of labour, showing how global economic activities link developed and developing regions in complex ways.
What is Wallerstein’s World-Systems Theory?
A model dividing the world into core, semi-periphery, and periphery, each playing different roles in the global division of labour.
How has the geography of globalisation changed?
The global division of labour has become more fragmented and complex, with rising industrial production in newly industrialising countries like China and South Korea.
What is an incremental innovation?
A small improvement to an existing product or process, often resulting from ‘learning by doing’ (e.g., digital cameras replacing manual ones).
What is a radical innovation?
A breakthrough that fundamentally changes existing technologies or practices (e.g., the internet).
How did Fordism revolutionise production?
By introducing the moving assembly line, reducing car production time dramatically and lowering costs, enabling mass production.
Why doesn’t transport innovation benefit all places equally?
Investments are highly concentrated in major cities, pulling them closer together in time/cost terms and leaving peripheral areas behind.
What has been the impact of communication technologies like the internet?
They significantly reduced time and cost of information transfer, but access remains geographically unequal.
What does Richard Florida mean by ‘The World Is Spiky’?
Innovation and knowledge production are highly concentrated in a few global regions, not evenly distributed across the world.
Why do firms go international?
To escape limits in home markets (push factors) and seek new resources, markets, and advantages abroad (pull factors), known as a ‘spatial fix’.
What is a Multinational Enterprise (MNE)?
A firm with headquarters in one country but operations in multiple countries, producing goods or delivering services globally.
What role does Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) play in globalisation?
FDI allows MNEs to enter foreign markets and integrate into global value chains, acting as a link between mobile capital and fixed regions.
How did Southeast Asia use FDI for growth?
Through state-led industrial policies that targeted long-term transformation from labour-intensive to high-tech industries, supported by infrastructure and R&D investment.
What is ‘deglobalisation’?
A potential reversal of globalisation trends due to protectionism, geopolitics, nearshoring, and regionalism — sometimes called ‘slowbalisation’.
