GLOBALISTATION

• Globalisation


  The process of the economies of all the countries in the world becoming more interconnected and interdependent (relying on each other)
• Telecommunications


  • Improvements in telephone technology and the growth of the internet have created opportunities for companies to increase trade
  • The online company Amazon could not have existed in the 1980s, as the internet as we know it did not exist
• Banking


  • International banks are becoming more and more interconnected
  • Since 1994, it has been possible to pay for goods and services online and have the money transferred immediately
  • This has increased the speed at which business can work, and has increased trade
  • With this has come an increase in the production and delivery of consumer goods
• Transport


  • There are now more, bigger and faster ships, trucks, trains and airplanes than ever before
  • Airports and seaports are bigger, and there are more of them
  • This has allowed larger amounts of goods to be transported very quickly
  • The use of standardised 20- and 40-foot metal shipping containers has increased the speed at which ships can be loaded and unloaded
• Improvements in telecommunications, banking and transport


  Have caused globalisation
• Tesco in the UK imports lettuces from Spain every morning by airplane
• The speed of travel and the amount of lettuce that can be transported makes it economical to fly to the UK
• Urbanisation


  The growth in the population of towns and cities
• New types of city due to globalisation

  • Millionaire cities (population over 1 million)
  • Megacities (population over 10 million)
  • World cities (important globally)
• World cities


  • Centres of global finance, banking and commerce
  • Many multinational companies (MNCs) have headquarters there
• Patterns of settlement since the 1950s

  • Counter-urbanisation (people move out of cities to the countryside)
  • Re-urbanisation (movement of people back into city centres)
  • Gentrification (urban renewal process)
  • Regeneration (refurbishing and redesigning old housing estates)
• Urbanisation in developing countries

  • Grows at a faster rate
  • Modern cheap manufacturing is attracted there by the cheap labour supply
  • More unplanned development leading to the massive expansion of shanty towns (slums)
  • Lack of services such as water and sewerage
  • Greater social and economic inequalities, with wealthy people living in the city centre and poorer people living on the outskirts
• Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) has a population of over 15 million people and is one of the largest urban areas in the world
• Kolkata is a densely populated city, with 24,000 people per km² (compared to 3,677 people per km² in Dublin)
• In poorer parts of Kolkata, there are up to 150,000 people per km²
• Kolkata's poor are least able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by globalisation
• Many moved from rural areas into Kolkata (rural-urban migration) in the hope of making a better life in the city
• They usually do not have the education to take advantage of better-paying jobs
• Average wages in Kolkata are €70 per month, of which 74% is spent on food (in Ireland, on average, 15% of people's income is spent on food)
• Multinational company (MNC)


  A company with headquarters in one country and factories or offices in other countries
• Advantages of MNCs


  • Provide employment and incomes to workers in developing countries
  • Help create additional employment in companies that supply them in developing countries
  • Pay taxes to developing countries, which governments can use on services and infrastructure
  • Encourage improvements in education as people realise they can access better-paid employment if they are educated
• Disadvantages of MNCs


  • The poorest people do not see the benefits of improved services
  • Many MNC jobs are low-skilled, and are the first to be lost in a recession
  • Wages are often low, the working day is long, working conditions are poor and employees are often not allowed to form trade unions
  • MNCs have no loyalty to the developing countries in which they are located and can move easily when tax breaks and incentives are better elsewhere
• In April 2013, a clothing factory at Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,000 people and injuring 2,500
• The factory was staffed mostly by women and the building was deemed unsafe the day before the collapse
• Western clothing retailers were asked to justify the manufacture of their clothing in substandard buildings like Rana Plaza
• The collapse put a spotlight on the working conditions of people in Bangladesh and other developing countries working for MNCs
• The Constitution of Tanzania outlaws gender-based discrimination, but in practice gender inequality still exists
• The minimum legal age for marriage in Tanzania is 15 years for women, and the law also allows for girls as young as 14 years to be married
• Eighty per cent of women in Tanzania are dependent on subsistence farming, but only 27 per cent own their land
• Traditional practices continue to restrict women's access to loans and credit in Tanzania