Global Systems & Global Governance

• Globalisation


  The process of becoming more globally connected. The movement of people, knowledge, ideas, goods and money across national borders, theoretically leading to a ‘borderless world’.
• Economic Globalisation

  • TNCs trade products internationally and use international outsourcing and offshoring to lower costs
  • Industries move to developing countries to lower costs, brining economic growth there
  • trade blocs create economic integration between states and promote development
  • Global transactions
• Political Globalisation

  • Govs form connections t create trade blocs and trade deals
  • Western democracies - Westernisation
  • Deregulation allows markets to grow with an international reach
  • International organisation harmonise e.g. UN
• Cultural Globalisation

  • Media sources (TV) allow a recognition and understanding of other cultures
  • International travel lets people experience cultures
  • Greater awareness and understanding of world events due to education and news sources
  • Westernisation - e.g. Starbucks in Asia
• Social Globalisation

  • International immigration is creating multicultural societies where people share and adopt cultures (e.g. cultural food shops)
  • Social networking
  • Global NGOs - doing good worldwide
• Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs)


  Put laws and regulations in place that affects what we can do to our environment - Montreal Protocol (1987) - which called for drastic reductions in production of CFCs internationally
• Flows of Globalisation:

  • Capital
  • Labour
  • Products
  • Services
  • Information
• Flows of Capital

  1. Core Regions - wealthier, developed countries that have power
  2. Periphery Regions - less wealthy, developing/less developed countries that have less power
  3. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) - an international corporation that aims to ‘foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty around the world
  4. The World Bank - a group of global institutions that give out loans for development or relief
• Flows of Labour

  • Economic migrants - people who have voluntarily moved for reasons of work and improved quality of life
  • Refugees - people who have been forced to leave their homes due to fleeing conflict, political or religious persecution
  • Asylum Seeker - people who have left their country and seeking asylum in another. Waiting to be granted residency and become a refugee
• International labour flows are flows from one country to another country. Today, 3-4% of the world’s population are international migrants.
• The majority of international migration is migration to a high income country. 14.1% of high income country populations are made up of international migrants, whereas only 1.6% of low income country populations are made up of international migrants.
• Asia

  In 201, 63m people moved to a different area of Asia - largest flow in the world (South Asia to West Asia). 5m people migrated from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain. This movement is usually for better job prospects.
• Europe

  in 2017, 41m people move to a different area of Europe. Germany holds the largest amount of European migrants from Eastern Europe - Poland, Romania and Czech Republic.
• Africa


  19m people moved within Africa. Movement is usually between neighbouring countries as it is costly and the majority are low income countries. South Africa has the largest migrant population of 4000 and is also the wealthiest (alongside Nigeria) of African countries (GDP).
• Flow of Products

  • International movement of products facilitated by the reduction in costs of trading

  1. Transaction
  2. Tariffs
  3. Transport and time
• Containerisation


  Moving goods around quickly
• Flow of Services

  • High level - niche
  • Services to businesses - investment & advertising
  • Low level - tertiary industry
  • Services to consumers - banking & travel
• Conglomerate


  Group of companies that all report to one parent company
• Flow of Labour

  • Allow people to move around the world

  However Japan is an anomaly - they don’t want migrant workers
• Flow of Capital

  • Remittance payments

  Loses capital for the ‘host’ country
• Flow of Information

  • Social media
• Global Branding and Marketing

  A brand will market a product but will vary it to suit different regions

  E.g. Halal McDonald’s
• Brazil

  Russia

  India

  China

  South Africa
• Malaysia

  Indonesia

  Nigeria

  Turkey
• Diaspora


  Group of people from your culture
• Leakage


  Loss of profits - being sent back to TNCs
• Protectionism


  A policy, restriction on goods/services to protect workers and the economy
• Core-Periphery Model


  Core = HICs - goods

  Semi = NEEs - resources

  Periphery = LICs - resources
• Global Shift


  Believes the core has shifted to the East - China, Japan and India
• Asian Tiger Economies


  Booming economies in South-East Asia, growing on a rapid scale e.g. Singapore, South Korea

  • Usually export led
  • Sophisticated financial and trading hubs
• Case Study: Slazenger Tennis Balls

  • product of materials from at least 10 countries
  • account for 1/5 of the £165m annual turnover
  • the Philippines is now the focal point of production
• Factors Affecting Globalisation

  • Migration
  • Communication
  • TNCs
  • Travel
  • Trade
  • Capital/investment
• Financial Systems 


  Transferring money is a process that happens inter/nationally

  • sell shares and stocks of global corporations: borrow, lend, invest in countries = relationship

  Bank = Financial system = Global process
• Financial Technology

  • Communicate globally
  • Bank globally
• Transporting Goods

  • Easy travel
  • More connections
  • Containerisation
• Transportation of People

  • Budget airlines - more destinations
  • High speed rail - HS2, Japanese bullet-train
  • Deregulation of travel markets
  • Nationalised airlines - BA
• Security

  • Cybersecurity
  • People moving, borders, airports
• Communication Technology

  • Smartphones
  • Satellite
• Management and Information Systems

  Ways companies manage flows: labour, products, services, information and capital - through:

  • EOS
  • Global supply chains
  • Outsourcing - ability to communicate
  • Offshoring
• Flow of Services

  • High level services
  • Low level services