States and globalisation

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What is a Nation State?

  • Nation = Common people: - shared language, religion, culture, values etc
  • State = Political and geo-politically defined area.
  • nation state assumes coincidence of people and territory.

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Treaty Of Westphalia (1684)

  • brought to a close the 30 years of war
  • Established key principles:
  • - the government of each country is unequivocally soverign within its territorial jurisdiction.
  • - the states defining feature is that it 'successfully clasim the monopoly on the legitimate use of force within a terrirot' (Weber 1919) 
  • countries shall not interfere in each others domestic affair (Brown 1992)
  • formal equality between states (Boucher, 1998) 
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What is the State?

  • is an institutional nexus performing legally constituted functions such as:
  • - leadership, the government, cabinet
  • - maintenance of order: judiciary, police, military, intelligence
  • - management of external relations
  • - Fiance: taxation, maintenance or currency
  • education
  • transport infrastucture. 
  • (fultcher and school 2011) 
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The State and Social Science:

  • Giddens describes the state as "the container" of society.
  • from a social scientific viewpoint the state provides the explanatory framework:
  • - education
  • - family life
  • - work
  • - politics
  • -economy
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Globalisation: what is it?

  • 'comples of interrelated processes, which have in common the idea that relationships and organisation have increasingly spead across the world, bringing about a growing awareness of the world as whole' (Fultcher and scott: 2011) 
  • 'Implies first and foremost a stretching of social and economic activities across frontiers...' (Held et al 1999) 
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Dimensions of globalisation:

  • Economic
  • Cultural
  • Political
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Characteristics of Neoliberalism:

  • ideology pursued from the late 1970s
  • belief in the power of the market to most effciently allocated resources and to encourage economic development
  • the privatisation of state-owned enterpises
  • deregulation of the economy - particularly labour markets
  • the cutting of state expenditure on social welfare provisions
  • an ideological attack upon notions of collectivism and support for the values of economic individualism.
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Characteristics of Neoliberalism:

  • ideology pursued from the late 1970s
  • belief in the power of the market to most effciently allocated resources and to encourage economic development
  • the privatisation of state-owned enterpises
  • deregulation of the economy - particularly labour markets
  • the cutting of state expenditure on social welfare provisions
  • an ideological attack upon notions of collectivism and support for the values of economic individualism.
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Neoliberalism & International trade:

  • From the 1970s a significant expansion of international trade.
  • development of global product markets.
  • extension of Free trade agreements E.G NAFTA
  • An expansion in cross-national acquisitions and mergers and foreign direct investment (FDI)
  • globalisaton or internationalisation of business significantly enables the development and use of new technologies, particularly in the area of information transfer and communications
  • development of global arrangements for the facilitation of international trade - world band, IMF
  • 80% of world trade is attributable to TNCs. 
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Multinational corporations (MNC) and TNC :

  • in 2 or more countries
  • maximise comparative advantage between countries
  • Geographical flexibility
  • Financial, component and operational flows between segments of the TNC greater than the flows within a particular country
  • Effects at a global level
  • in 2005: 42 of the worlds largest economie were corporations, 58 were countries (Steger: 2009)
  • 1. a significant expansion of internation trade
  • 2. the development of global products
  • 3. extension of Free trade agreements and establishment of free trade areas, such as the north American free trade agreemnt. the Eu is most developed and insititutionalised trading bloc in the world.
  • 4. expansion in the number of joint vantures, cross-national acquisition and mergers and foreign direct investment
  • 5. globalisation of business has been significantly enabled the development of new technologies, in information transfer and communications.
  • Development of global arrangement for the facilitation of internation trade, World band, Imf.
  • 80% of world trade is attributed to TNCs and all FDI is from TNCs
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Where do goods come from?

  • Commodity chains (global supply chains) 
  • economic networks linking girms, countries and industries.
  • they span producers, distributers and consumers of goods, increasing on a global scale.
  • With development in communication and transport technology companies are able to source and produce their goods. 
  • compenents in parts of the world where material and labour are cheaper and there is less regulation.
  • Shipping is both global industry and a cheap and highly efficient means of transport.
  • a global product come from all over the world.
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Dimensions of globalisation cont.

  • 'globalisation is political, technological and cultural as well as economic. it has been influenced above all by developments in systems of communication, dating back only to the late 1960s' (Giddens 2002) 
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Dimensions of globalisation cont.

  • 'globalisation is political, technological and cultural as well as economic. it has been influenced above all by developments in systems of communication, dating back only to the late 1960s' (Giddens 2002) 
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Socio-cultural globalisation:

  • internationally recognised brands.
  • Homogenisation of shops, services and goods.
  • the internet and growth of cable and satellite media: makes sharing of info including, music, videos, films, tv, ads and news available to anyone with access
  • telecommunications makes communication possible globally and cheaply.
  • globalisation of language
  • movement of people
  • changes of work
  • creates common reference points, share values, understanding - but also could destroy local culture and lead to conflict.
  • Facebook twitter etc used to organise conflict such as london street riots. 
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Socio-cultural globalisation:

  • internationally recognised brands.
  • Homogenisation of shops, services and goods.
  • the internet and growth of cable and satellite media: makes sharing of info including, music, videos, films, tv, ads and news available to anyone with access
  • telecommunications makes communication possible globally and cheaply.
  • globalisation of language
  • movement of people
  • changes of work
  • creates common reference points, share values, understanding - but also could destroy local culture and lead to conflict.
  • Facebook twitter etc used to organise conflict such as london street riots. 
  • Another example: 
  • Facebook/twitter key to arab spring uprising: report:
  • nearly 9 in 10 Egyptians and Tunisians surveyed in march said they were using FB to organise protestes or spread awareness about them.
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Time space compression:

  • space is destroyed through time via technology.
  • technology has cultural, social and political effects on a global levels.
  • flows of people, flows of images, conversations, news and details.
  • power is reconfigured. 
  • (Harvey: 1989) 
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Time space compression:

  • space is destroyed through time via technology.
  • technology has cultural, social and political effects on a global levels.
  • flows of people, flows of images, conversations, news and details.
  • power is reconfigured. 
  • (Harvey: 1989) 
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Political Globalisation:

  • in the face of new technologies, like the internet, and free flow of communication (24hour communication) and money, states are argued to have less control, if any.
  • with the emergence of supra national organisation like the EU, states cannot control the movement of peoples across their borders or social life with them.
  • with the rise of TNCs and non governmental organisation NSM, World bank, states can have little control overtheir economies/ currencies: 
  • TNC move money to other places where taxes are cheaper or have none and also have cheaper labour in other countries causing problems for the state and government.
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States as Containers?

  • the challenge of globalisation raises imprtant questions about what states can do. 
  • - states as containers are cracked or porous? 
  • relevance of the state as relevant explanatory framework for social science. 
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Role of States:

  • Hyperglobalisers argue that states are increasingly irrelevant and have little control over issues such as: 
  • - movement of money
  • - flow of information
  • - movement of people
  • - spread of pollutants
  • - security
  • Globalisation Sceptics argue that government can:
  • - make thier economie more or less atractive to business
  • - still have reponsibilitry for such things as: 
  • -- taxation
  • --education
  • -- infrastructure
  • -- welfare state
  • -- security
  • -- population movement? 
  • and its national government that negotiate and agree to sign up to and decide how to implemnt international agreements.  (Held and Mcgrew: 2002) 
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Social science in an era of globalisation:

  • depends which arguments convince you?
  • is the relevant framework for studying social processes a cosmopolitan (oe global) framework of is it the national?
  • middle way: need to attend both local and global processes and interrelationship between the twon.
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