Globalisation

• A subsidy is a benefit given to an idividual or business to provide financial support and encouragement. You can give direct payments of actual funds or indirect payments which have no monetary value for instance price reductions. Advantages include preventing long-term decline of industries and greater economic efficiency.
• Advantages of trade blocs: markets for firms grow and firms in a particular product can prosper in a tariff-free zone. Markets increase in demand which raises volume of manufacturing but lowering costs per unit. This means that products are sold more cheaply.
• Detroit Michigan: car manufacturers moved to Japan resulting in crime, unemployment, depopulation, dereliction.

  • City lost 1/4 of population
  • Declared bankrupt in 2013
  • Debts of £18.5 billion
  • Murder rate, 45 in 100,000
  • 1/3 live below US government poverty line
  • Spiral of decline resulted in low levels of income - low spending - low revenue - money unable to invest so area is unattractive so no employment.
• Deindustrialisation UK:

  • Manufactering companies made 36% of the economies output, now it’s 13%
  • Viyella - clothing fabric- was sold around the world, colours such as red was sold in 50,000 yards per shipment. They employed 25,000 employees in the UK. But they could compete with other companies using cheap labour so moved offshore.
• Deindustrialisation - Middlesbrough:

  • 1980s - 20,000 left since 1990
  • 2008 - global recession worsened the decline
  • 2015 Redcar steelworks closed
  • Unemployment is twice national average
• Global shift-environmental challenge:

  CHINA :

  • 60% of groundwater is poor quality
  • 36% of forests are facing preassure from urban expansion
  • Yellow + South china have the most degraded marine life
  • Jan 2013 - ‘Airpocalypse’ measured at PM2.5. AQI was 775. An AQI above 300 is considered hazardous.
• Cultural Imperialism: promoting a larger, dominant nation by forcing change in a smaller nation
• •Cultural levelling: cultures become increasingly similar which can erode traditional cultural practices and beliefs and creating an overall dominant culture. It promotes uniformity over diversity
• •Ethnocentrism: process of making false assumptions about another culture instead of learning and respecting them.
• Papua New Guinea tribes:

  •Colonised by British and Germany who exploited a workforce in the tribes.

  •Education was westernised and western religions increased popularity as they were taught

  .•Villagers were forced into labour work when a copper mine was discovered in 1964. This brought conflicts to the area as the community's population were angered due to the devaluation of their own culture.
• CASE STUDY – Paralympics:

  •1960- first Paralympics open to all disabled people was held in Rome.

  •In 1988, they were held after the Olympics in the same facilities.

  •It has changed people’s perspective on disabled people and raised awareness.

  •Enhances societal change through highlighting the ongoing inequalities faced by people with disabilities. It reminds people that sport at the highest level should be accessible to everyone.

  •159 nations now take part.
• ADVANTAGES of cultural diffusion:

  •Cultural diffusion has led to awareness of opportunities for disadvantaged groups such as the Paralympics.

  •Enrichment of cultures by spreading positive social change. Technological innovations have diffused from one culture to another improving peoples lives in other cultures.

  •Understanding of cultures. The media and internet provides instant communication thus providing cross-cultural exchange of ideas and values. It promotes linguistic awareness of other cultures.
• The EU is one of the world's largest trading blocs, set up in the 1950s to increase economic growth and interdependence.
• The EU reached 28 members before the UK left in 2020 due to Brexit.
• The EU has a population of 512 million and the euro adopted by 19 members.
• Schengen area countries have removed barrier controls.
• The EU has policies such as the Common Agricultural policy to assist regions within member countries with a GDP of less than 75% of the EU average.
• The advantages of the EU include increased socio-economic integration by allowing free movement of people.
• 13 million people have citizenship from one EU country to another.
• The single currency makes trade quicker and more efficient in the EU.
• Disadvantages of trade blocs

  •LIC’s may find it hard to access large markets as they can’t afford high tariffs.

  •Barriers are still common outside of the bloc reducing other countries access to trading.
• Advantages of trade blocs:

  •Provide members to greater access of the markets by reducing barriers.

  •Easier to develop goods because larger volumes can be produced without paying tariffs.

  •Made of wealthy countries which leads to increase sales and investments.
• History – China is a communist country, so the state control the means of production for the population. In the 1960s, China was governed by Mao Zedong where millions of people died of famine under his leadership. When he died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping.

  Xiaoping starting the ‘open door policy’ and set up 4 SEZ’s.
• SEZ’s (special economic zones) are areas that contain more liberalised business policies and trade laws.

  China set up 4 SEZ’s in the country and in 30 years, 300 million people left rural areas to move to cities. 120 million around the Pearl Delta River.
• SEZ’s have the aim of attracting capital and business from external Chinese communities. In 2013 China overtook the USA as the biggest world’s trading nation. However, it was not sustained.
• When a firm becomes a TNC, they open operations in another country creating international connections and spreading globalisation.
• +TNC’s are encouraged by trade blocs, lack of international barriers and changing governmental policies.
• Firms become TNC’s in order to gain maximum profits as TNC’s reduce cost when move operation or branch to countries with lower wage rates.
• Offshoring – when a company moves part of its operation to another country. This can be to reduce cost, lower tax rates and less environmental regulations.
• Outsourcing – a firm contracts an outside supplier to obtain goods or services. It is more flexible than offshoring as the TNC can shift supplier quickly. Although it means less control over your produce.
• Glocalization – where a TNC sell altered and adapted products in a different area in order to appeal to other cultures.
• In 2012, around 15 million now subscribe to M-Pesa and there are more than 30,000 agents. It is now easier and safer to send money home and fees are much lower than wire-transfers or postal services. People in rural communities are much less likely to go hungry
• M-Pesa Kenya (2002) – A lot of people don’t have banks nearby. For instance, in Senegal only 8% of the population have a bank account. In Uganda, its 11%.
• E-banking is now used in towns and cities to make payments for bills and school fees. In rural areas, farmers can use mobiles to check market prices before selling produce. Allows migrants to transmit remittances back to their home countries.
• Measured TEU (20 foot equivalent units) in 2018 was estimated at 785 million.
• The containerisation market is growing at around 4% each year.
• Singapore, with a population of 5.4 million, moved 34 million 20-foot containers in 2017.
• Over 130,000 containers pass through each year at the port of Singapore.
• The largest ports in the world are Shanghai, Singapore, and Shenzhen.
• In 1965, 1.7 tonnes per hour was transported, whereas in 1970, 30 tonnes per hour was transported.