IS221_Winter2024_Week ONE

Week ONE Lecture Dr Nazanin Shahrokni, 2024nazanin_shahrokni@sfu.ca

WORKERS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The Spatial and Temporal Dimensions(Speeding it Up, Stretching it Out)

Course Structure

The Global-Local Continuum

Introduction

Indian migrant workers during lockdownThe life of a T-Shirt

On the Agenda

The Multiple Face(t)s of Globalisation

Let's review the syllabus quickly!

Course @ A Glance

Different Scales of Analyses

Actors, Discourses, and Practices

The Primary Node in the Global Economic Network

The Global City

Change Projects

Flowsof People

Flowsof Ideas

Flowsof Capital

Globalisation

Actors and Components of Global Governance

A Story of Swollen Feet: The Physical Toll of Walking Home During Lockdown (Ipsita Chakravarty, Scroll.in 14 June 2020)

My feet are cut and scabbed,” said 17-year-old Baliram Kumar, who had walked from Bangalore over 25 days. “I had shoes but what good are shoes after a while? I am so tired. My whole body is aching.”

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32-year-old Dasharath Yadav reckons he walked 12 hours soon after a nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus was declared. There was no food on the way & by the end he was limping. But it was a race against time. The state border between Gujarat & Rajasthan was going to close.

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Global Governance Institutions

Whose interests are protected? Why and how?

Global City

The strategic geographic location of globalisation & a primary node in the global economic network

Uneven Development

The uneven spatial distribution of economic activity & wealth

Let's think about other instances of the global in your local settings.Sipping your morning tea/coffee? Think about the global flows of capital and of labour Glued to your iPhones? Think about the toiling of millions along the assembly lines run by FoxconnGive me other examples and reflect on global flows of ideologies, of technologies of power, of forms of governanceThe Personal is Global & the Global is Personal

The Life of a T-Shirt

The Life of a T-Shirt

Zoom In/Zoom Out

Collective Action

RIGHTS

The Collapse

HEALTH

Working Conditions

JOB

Living Conditions

HOME

Need a Coffee Break?!

RESULTING IN THE INCREASING INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF THE WORLD ECONOMICALLY, CULTURALLY & POLITICALLY

Political

Economic

Social

Globalisation

Cultural

the flow of capital, & goods, money, culture, ideas & people between countries

• Speeding it Up
• Stretching it Out

Exploitation of the local labour force, leakage of profits back to the country of origin, …

Analysing Globalisation

Employment opportunities, infrastructure development, financial support, economic growth, ...

Implications

Global flows of:People (ethnoscape)Capital (financescape)Ideas & images (mediascape & ideoscape)...

FEATURES

Devleopment of trading blocs & intenraitonal trade agreementsTech improvements in transport & communications...

Driving Factors

Other concepts that are/were commonly used:- Third World Countries- Underdeveloped --> Developing Countries.

The use of the phrase “Global South” marks a shift from a focus on development or cultural difference toward an emphasis on geopolitical power relations.

"An intersectional analysis of globalization entails far more than recognizing the importance of gender; race and other social categories of difference, it requires substantial rethinking of how to conceptualize, study, and act in relation to globalization.

THE IMPLICATIONS

THE PROCESS

The Gender & Race of GLOBALISATION

Questions? Comments?Ideas?Share them!