glob key words

• Global systems


  The economic, social and political structures created when human beings interact across national borders at planetary and world-region scales. Flows of capital, people, goods, services and ideas link together people, places and environments.
• Causality


  The relationship between cause and effect. Everything has a cause or causes. For example, migration is triggered by push and pull factors, along with the technology that facilitates movement.
• Interdependence


  Relations of mutual dependence between humans and/or non-human things. For example, states may become dependent on one another's human and physical resources as a result of trade and migration flows.
• Time-Space Compression


  Heightened connectivity changes our perception of time, distance and potential barriers to the movement of people, goods, money and information. As travel and communications times fall due to new inventions, different places approach each other in space-time: they feel closer together than in the past.
• Interconnectivity


  All of the varied economic, social, political, cultural and environmental linkages between people, places and environments that make up global systems.
• Supranational


  A geographic scale that transcends national boundaries. Supranational organisations and agreements may have power that surpass or increase the influence of national governments.
• Development


  Human development generally means a society's economic progress accompanied by improving quality of life. A country's level of development is shown first by economic indicators of average national wealth and/or income, but it encompasses social and political criteria also.
• Inequality


  The social and economic (income and/or wealth) disparities that exist both between and within different societies or groups of people. Inequalities at global, national and local scales can be decreased or increased by flows of trade, investment and migration.
• Globalism


  The belief that global systems should be encouraged to keep growing. Opponents of globalisation reject globalism as an ideology.
• Nationalism


  An umbrella term for a spectrum of new populist political movements which reject the globalist philosophy or significant aspects of it. Typically, new nationalist movements in developed countries demand that the interests of their own country must be more clearly put first, ahead of global issues or rules.
• Deglobalisation


  The idea that the world may be experiencing decreased economic integration of countries and reduced cross-border movement of goods, services and capital. Non-economic dimensions of deglobalisation include weakened global governance and increased opposition to the cultural exchanges brought by global migration, media and social networking.
• Hyperconnected


  A state which exists when the connections in a system have increased to the point where the linkages between system elements (people and places) have become numerous and dense.
• Shrinking-world effect


  Heightened connectivity changes our conception of time, distance and potential barriers to the migration of people, goods, money and information. Distant places feel closer than in the past. As a result, the definition of what constitutes a 'near' or 'far' place changes in line with shifting perceptions of spatial relations.
• Spatial division of labour

  The common practice among TNCs of moving low-skilled work abroad (or 'offshore') to places where labour costs are low. Important skilled management jobs are retained at the TNC's headquarters in its country of origin.
• Remittances


  Money that migrants send home to their families via formal or informal channels.
• Intermodal containers


  Large-capacity storage units that can be transported long distances using multiple types of transport, such as shipping and rail, without the freight being taken out of the container.
• Containerisation


  The practice of transporting merchandise in large containers.
• Artificial intelligence (AI)


  Forms of intelligence and learning shown by computers, ranging from speech recognition to complex problem solving. Many kinds of employment are believed to be threatened by near-future advances in AI capabilities.
• FANGS


  An acronym for four hugely profitable technology TNCs: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.
• The 'Internet of things'

  The new age of smart devices is sometimes called the 'internet of things'. Computers have evolved into laptops, tablets and smart handheld devices-small networked computers are increasingly integrated seamlessly into cars and even fridges.
• Bretton Woods Institutions


  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These two important organisations were founded at the Bretton Woods conference in the USA at the end of the Second World War to help rebuild and guide the world economy.
• Neo-colonialism


  A term originally used to characterise the indirect actions by which developed countries exercise a degree of control over the development of their former colonies (more recently, it has become widely used to describe some of China's overseas actions too). Neo-colonial control can be achieved through varied means, including conditions attached to aid and loans, cultural influence and military or economic support (either overt or covert) for particular political groups or movements within a developing country.
• Intergovernmental organisations [IGOS]


  Composed of different states or their representatives, these supranational organisations and agreements are established by a treaty that acts as a charter following a ratification process.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

  A financial investment made by a TNC or other international player (such as a government-controlled sovereign wealth fund) into a state's economy.
• Free-market (trade) liberalisation


  The removal or reduction of restrictions or barriers on the free exchange of goods between nations. These barriers include tariffs and quotas.
• Structural adjustment programmes [SAP]


  Since the 1980s, the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) has provided lending (to developing and emerging nations) but with strict conditions attached. In reality, this has meant many borrowing countries have been required to privatise public services.
• South-south global flows


  In the context of global flows, this refers to movements of people, capital or trade from one part of the global south (Asia, Africa, Latin America) to another. For example, Chinese investment in Sudan.
• Transnational Corporations (TNC)


  Businesses whose operations are spread across the world, opening in many nations recognisable global brands that bring cultural change to the places where products are consumed as both makers and sellers of goods and services. Many of the largest are instantly.
• Capitalism


  An economic and political way of organising human activity which is characterised by the private ownership of money, assets and businesses for the purpose of generating privately owned profit. Over time, capitalism has expanded across national boundaries, giving rise to global capitalism.
• Tariffs


  The taxes that are paid when importing or exporting goods and services between countries.
• Sovereign wealth funds


  These are the global-scale 'piggy banks' which some states rely on to build global influence and diversify their income sources (they are mostly associated with Middle-Eastern nations, particularly those rich in oil).
• Trade Bloc


  A group of countries who are all signatories to a common agreement which reduces or eliminates import tariffs (taxes) and other trade barriers. Some trade bloc agreements additionally establish a common external tariff, thereby creating a customs union. Most trade bloc agreements involve a group of neighbouring states from a particular world region.
• Friction of distance


  A key geographical concept concerning the impediment to movement that occurs because people and places are spatially separated. The greater the separation, the greater is the friction of distance, meaning it's harder for things to flow to far places than to near places.
• Comparative advantage


  The principle that countries should specialise in producing and exporting only the goods or services that they can produce at a lower relative cost than other countries.
• Economy of scale


  The principle whereby the greater the output of a company or factory, the lower the average cost of producing each unit of production. This is because fixed costs such as ground rent, costs of advanced machinery or transport are then spread more thinly.
• Sovereignty


  The ability of a place and its people to self-govern without any outside interference.
• Emerging economies


  Countries that have begun to experience higher rates of economic growth, often due to rapid factory expansion and industrialisation. Emerging economies correspond broadly with the World Bank's 'middle-income' group of countries and include China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria and South Africa.
• Global middle class


  Globally, the middle class is defined as people with discretionary income they can spend on consumer goods. Some organisations define the global middle class as people with an annual income of over US$10,000.
• Global governance


  The term of 'governance' suggests broader notions of steering or piloting rather than the direct form of control associated with government. 'Global governance' therefore describes the steering rules, norms, codes and regulations used to regulate human activity at an international level. At this scale, regulation and laws can be tough to enforce, however.
• Neoliberalism


  A management philosophy for economies and societies which takes the view that government interference should be kept to a minimum and that problems are best left to the free market to solve.