Essay on Economic Globalization
During the past few years globalization has emerged as a prevailing world issue often describing new advances in diverse fields from technology to capital. In anthropology, the central aspects of globalization are subject to much debate. In this paper, I will argue that globalization is best established through the increased integration of economic and political relations across the world, although this can be described as an awkward and uneven process due to the limits of global mobility, connections, and the discontinuous nature of the time - space compression in which globalization occurs. First, I will outline some of the various anthropological definitions of globalization from both previous social scientists and recent anthropologists. Second, I will analyze the uneven and awkward processes of globalization and examine the relationship of anthropology and the study of globalization. Lastly, throughout this paper I will demonstrate my argument by analyzing the ethnographical contributions of Steven Gregory's The Devil behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic and Linda Green's Notes on Mayan Youth and Rural Industrialization in Guatemala (2007, 2008).
Globalization is an extremely broad phenomenon that can be described in a multitude of definitions. Most commonly, globalization is associated with the interconnectedness of the international and local world. For example, Jonanthan Xavier Inda and Renato Rosaldo describe globalization in “a world full of movement and mixture, contact and linkages, and persistent cultural interaction and exchange” (2008:4). However, they also suggest that while movement and connections are vital characteristics of globalization, disconnection and exclusion also shape globalization (Inda and Rosaldo 2008:30). Global flows of economic and social structures are not fluid and constant; they have the power to exclude and immobilize as well as enhance movement and include certain beings. During the 1960s, the term `global village' was used by Marshall McLuhan a Canadian media scientist, who demonstrated how advances in media technology have created a whole new world of porous boundaries that allow geographically separated people to connect (Willmott 1998). It seems that technology such as the television and the internet has bridged the gaps between cultures and has united communities around the world. Although the term `global village' can be recognized as a dimension of globalization, some anthropologists believe it is too simplistic a term. Anthropologist T.H Erikson identifies common assumptions about the nature of globalization, which includes associating globalization with homogeneity and economic imperialism. Globalization does not mean that the world is becoming one, but rather Erikson defines the experience of globalization as “increased trade and transnational economic activity, faster and denser communication networks, increased tensions between (and within) cultural groups due to intensified mutual exposure” (2007:5). Contrary to popular belief, he also emphasizes that globalization is not a threat to local cultures, does not oppose human rights and most importantly, it is not a new phenomenon (2007:5). Throughout history, people have always been involved in economic trade and have exchanged not only goods and services but ideas and cultures too. But the knowledge of a shared world consciousness was not experienced as acutely as it is being felt today. David Harvey suggests that globalization involves the “shrinking of space and the shortening of time” (Inda and Rosaldo 2008:8). Because of the process of `time-space compression' that has occurred over the last few decades, large scale economic, social and political practices have greatly intensified in their processing around the world, in a way that renders distance and time obsolete. However, Harvey also points out that the time-space compression does not occur continuously or even gradually, it manifests in short and concentrated bursts (Inda and Rosaldo 2008:8). Furthermore, the discontinuity of the time-space compression process is vital to our understanding of globalization as an uneven and awkward process.
The representation of globalization through the flow of political and economic values can be seen in Linda Green's Notes on Mayan Youth and Rural Industrialization in Guatemala (2008). The discontinuities, unevenness and the process of time - space compression involving globalization are also exemplified in this case study. Green analyzes the lives of Mayan youth workers in rural maquilas or assembly factories and their daily connections to the effects of globalization in Guatemala. She points out that “gross inequalities between the Mayan Indians and non-Indian elites, and the exploitation of indigenous labour, are facets of a globalization process that could be traced back to the colonial period” (Green 2008:104). It was only during the last few decades of the 20th century that Mayan Indians increasingly became affected on a national, community and household level by the neoliberal structural adjustment of their economy. The economic changes in Guatemala can be recognized as an example of time - space compression. David Harvey particularly noted that the reorganization of time and space was first prompted by the introduction of factories orientated on assembly production which are flexible enough to speed up the process of production and consumption (Inda and Rosaldo 2008:9). The shrinking of space and the shortening of time occur in such a discontinuous way that it allows for certain inequalities to be produced, especially in economic values. Green states that Guatemala went under three waves of modernization, in which the integration of neoliberal economic policies recreated and redefined gender and power relations both in the workplace and in the household. (Green 2008:105). For example, Mayan elite in particular benefitted through privatization and commodity based trade while for the first time poor agricultural families increasingly became dependent on cash just to meet their daily essential needs. While proponents of capitalism would insist that globalization offered women `liberation' in the workplace, in reality women increasingly participated in the economy due to poverty not liberation (Green 2008:103). Since the traditional distribution of labour among men and women was destabilized, men began to reiterate their roles as heads of the household through increased violence and exploitation towards women. Similarly, the growing dominance of modern western values through enhanced telecommunications and international travel have left Mayan youth in a web of contradictions which further distances them from their own culture (Green 2008:116). However, this form of globalization creates new forms of identity based on exclusion to preserve a sense of continuity in an erratic and discontinuous system.
While globalization has been referred to global flow and interconnectedness, it has also been described as an uneven and awkward process. First, there has been an increase in the creation of inequalities among political and economic contexts which form the basis of the notion `friction'. Anthropologist Anna Tsing employs the term friction to describe “the awkward, unequal, unstable and creative qualities of interconnection across difference” (2004:4). The new inequalities that have been produced by globalization lead to the transformation and exchange of cultures which operate under the dynamics of friction. For example, contemporary globalization has been driven primarily by market capitalism. Financial organizations such as the World Bank put pressure on third world countries in complying with `western' ideals of neoliberal capitalist policies. The universal concepts surrounding capitalism involve freedom, the unrestricted flow of capital, labour and ideologies which promise wealth, increased resources and enhanced social systems. However, the benefits of neoliberal globalization have not been distributed equally around the world. This has lead to the exclusion and increased vulnerability of specific populations such as the marginally poor, women and children especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. Hence, friction is responsible for the mobility of universal ideals but at the same time friction allows the unequal distribution of these universalities, preventing people from the same experience (Tsing 2004:9). Similarly, Arjun Appadurai uses the term disjuncture to analyze the complexity of the cultural, political and economic flows around the globe (2008:51). Appadurai also highlights the underlying contradictions and unevenness of globalization opposite McLuhan's idea of a `global village' (2008:48). Aside from the apparent homogenization of the world, there is also a heterogeneous nature to global flows. For example, when multinational corporations outsource workers in developing countries without providing universal health and safety rights then the distribution of labour becomes deeply disjunctive (Eriksen 2007:9). Conditions such as meagre wages for extremely long hours, hazardous workplaces and lack of human resources create a divide between the rich and poor where the underprivileged are increasingly exploited and marginalized. In order to address the issues of these excluded populations, the study of anthropology is crucial in highlighting the struggles and aspirations of the marginalized. Through ethnographic research, context is made extremely important in determining the characteristics of globalization. Anthropologists tell the other side of the story disregarding the dominant positive aspects by exploring the “limits of global movement and connectivity” (Inda and Rosaldo 2008:35). Therefore globalization does not progress unilaterally; instead it is greatly characterized by an essentially fragmented process.
The disjuncture and friction in the political and economic spheres of globalization are best exemplified in Steven Gregory's The Devil behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic (2007). The ethnography analyzes the beaches in Boca Chica which have become symbolic spaces representing the political and economic effects of globalization. In 2000 - 2001, the Dominican Republic experienced the same structural readjustment policies as Guatemala that allowed neoliberal economic reforms such as free trade zones, privatization and financial liberalization (Gregory 2007:27). The dominance of multinational corporations and international trade indicate the unimportance of the nation state because they seem to transgress borders. Yet it is the nation state that ultimately mediates global flows. Gregory argues that capitalism creates “a field of antagonism and conflict that is indissolubly economic, political, and symbolic and in which the state remains analytically central” (Gregory 2007:35). It is through the economic relations, laws and regulations that the local people of Dominican Republic experience globalization. Even though the tourism industry attracts foreigners from all countries around the world, most of these international visitors are from developed western countries. The differences of economic status between the tourists and the locals of Boca Chica are enhanced on the beaches. The politics of exclusion enforced by the state and police prompt the creation of the informal market, an economy which exists outside of state labour regulations. The informal market thrives because there are limited employment opportunities under the unregulated capitalist economy. The livelihoods of people were becoming extremely difficult and in order to support their families some individuals became members of the black market. For example, Gregory states the case of Yamily Rodriguez, who resorted to work as an unlicensed masseuse and manicurist at the beach after her father was laid off from his job at Ingenio Boca Chica (Gregory 2007:30). However, the people of Boca Chica are not just mere subjects of hegemonic forces; they also utilize agency in their everyday dealings with globalization and its effects. The tígueres (hustlers) in Boca Chica are notorious for their active participation in the informal economy and are labelled as social delinquents by mainstream society. Gregory states, “For some, tígueres are as much admired as they are feared for their ability to manipulate, if not subvert, a social system stacked against the poor and the powerless” (Gregory 2007:42). Tígueres are aware of the cultural stereotypes that they provoke and actually inverse them for their own benefits. Thus, by highlighting the inequalities created in the division of labour and the role of the state in accommodating the disjunctures, Gregory recognizes globalization through economic and political relations.
In conclusion, the term globalization is an extremely broad term that invokes multiple interpretations of changes taking place in the world today. Globalization has commonly been associated with notions of interconnectedness, mobility and homogeneity. However, anthropologists such as Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renato Rosaldo argue that these ideas are just part of the real definition of globalization. Disconnection, immobility and exclusion create awkwardness and unevenness in the experience of globalization. In this essay, I have argued that contemporary globalization is mainly expressed through the global flow of labour and ideas in economic and political spheres. As David Harvey suggested the notion of time-space compression, the discontinuity and the limits of global mobility contributes to characterize globalization as an uneven and awkward process instead of the metaphorical well oiled machine analogy. Also, the role of anthropology is primarily to provide a holistic view of globalization including both risks and benefits. It is extremely important to contextualize the changes because the main characteristics of globalization have always been occurring throughout history. Anthropologists recognize that globalization is not a new phenomenon; recent new developments that have shortened time and compressed space must be put into the context of long history. Anthropology should also provide a voice to the vulnerable excluded communities due to the inequalities created by the dimensions of globalization as exemplified through the ethnographical works of Steven Gregory and Linda Green.