Permacrisis, polycrisis and globalization Flashcards
(20 cards)
What are the two metaphors we can use to understand what a crisis is?
A tunnel and a crossroads
What is the relationship between crisis and normalcy?
Crisis refers to a rupture of previous normalcy. But if the crisis is long it may become a new normalcy.
Understanding the crisis as a turning point means…
That the world after a crisis is different from the world before
If we take the tunnel as a metaphor for the crisis, what is the peculiarity of the tunnel?
That it has multiple exits. It is also a crossroads and a bifurcation with several possibilities.
Which was the European country where after the 2008 crisis, instead of bailing out the banks, the bankers were put on trial and sent to prison?
Iceland
What does “permacrisis” mean?
1)that since 2008 there has been a chain of crises (New crises followed the previous ones before they were over)
2)that the crisis is a permanent state that worsens or softens at certain times
What metaphor can we use to understand permacrisis?
A storm in the ocean.
There is a permanent state of waves. Sometimes a stronger wave comes (which would be a new “crisis”) but when it goes away, we do not enter a calm sea but we are still in a stormy sea.
What does “polycrisis” mean?
A causal entanglement and interrelation of diferent crises
Why is it so difficult to manage the polycrisis?
Crises are interrelated and solving one sometimes means worsening another.
What are the most important interrelated crisis?
Economic and financial crisis
Social Crisis
Political Crisis
Care Crisis
Environmental and Climate Crisis
What does Saskia Sassen mean by the concept of “expulsions”?
Social inequality is so great that the traditional categories
(unemployment, poverty, marginalisation…) are not sufficient to explain it
What is a political crisis?
A divorce between political representatives and
those they represent (the citizens):
What do we mean by the concept of care crisis?
That in our social model it is not clear how care work is organized and how it can be made compatible with paid work and personal life.
What is globalization?
The historical stage of capitalism that began to take shape in the 1980s with the advent of neoliberal policies and reached its peak in the 1990s.
In globalization many social relations
have been commodified (more and more areas of social life are met through the market).
What is a multinational corporation?
A company that, starting from a national base, operates in more than one country.
Which of the world’s major multinationals best symbolises global capitalism?
It is difficult to say. In general, the most important companies are high tech. Amazon is sometimes considered to be the best symbol of today’s capitalism.
The transfer of production and other areas of social life (waste…) to another country is called
Offshoring
What does Arlie Hochschild mean by global care chains?
That women from poor countries migrate to richer countries to work as caregivers while other women care for their children in their home country
Has the current crisis brought about the end of offshoring?
No.
But it coexists with two new trends:
1) Reshoring: in some quite selective cases there is a return to manufacturing products in northern countries 2) Nearshoring: production is moved from far away countries to closer and more stable ones (e.g. from China to Morocco)
