Lecture Notes Global 1 PDF

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David Moak, Fall 2019...

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Lecture 1 What is globalization? What is global studies? Examples from current events… The Revolution in Hong Kong (2019) - Prompted by the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-extra dition-bill-rocking-hong-kong/2019/06/11/12a7907c-8c26-11e9-b6f4-033356502dce_stor y.html - They see this bill as eroding their autonomy and their liberties - Rapidly produced calls for the resignation of Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong - Demands expand to include universal suffrage for elections to local political institutions and impartial investigation into police brutality - Until 1997, Hong Kong was a british colony - Certain level of autonomy * image: protestors waving the american flag and hanging the british colonial flag (and they were singing the song from les mis about the french revolution) - cultural process going on in the revolution, a conscious invoking (and appropriating) of western tradition, associated with liberties and autonomies Election of Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil in 2019 - Pursues politics of deforestation and land conversion - Unprecedented wildfires devastate the Amazon Rainforest starting in June and July - The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s largest carbon dioxide “sink,” absorbing more than 20% of global production - Means that it absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, a massive amount (20%) of new greenhouse production - International pressure and mobilization in the face of this catastrophe (G7 Summit in France, where Greta Thunburg spoke) - These fires are a GLOBAL ISSUE, the timing (having it be right before the G7 Summit) was insane - Emmanuel Macron says the Amazon is a world RESOURCE (should be protected as one) - This sounds imperialist to the Brazilian government because the Amazon is part of their sovereignty (aka this angered Bolsonaro) - Led to tension that made the free trade agreement that brazil is the primary member of be tabled (which is bad) - Climate change is bringing things of national sovereignty and world relations into the lime light and causing tension Iranian/Yemeni attack on Saudi Arabvian oil fields in September of 2019 - Iran and saudi Arabia, two regional powers, two oil-rich countries, with complex connections to the “Western World” - Iran is mostly Shia Muslim, SA is mostly Sunni Muslim

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The two powers are fighting a proxy war in Yemen, with an eye toward putting pressure on the USA (in many different ways) - USA withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2018; Jamal Khashoggi assassinated in Saudi Consulate in Turkey in 2018 - The civil war in Yemen is a way to exercise pressure on the US, by saying look at this you need us, we are here to help (we are a country that you can rely on in this region) // on the other hand Iran is saying hey America we can be big and bad too, we are a sovereign nation and we aren’t to be trifled with (aka negotiation has to happen) How do these events elucidate the concept of globalization? - Globalization refers to the processes by which the world has become an increasingly interconnected place - Manfred Steger (U of Hawaii) “Globalization can best be described as the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and world-space.” / “a complex and uneven dynamic linking the local, nation, and regional to the global.” - Globalization has to take into account all of these factors and bring them together on multiple different scales. - Globallity: “A social condition characterized by tight global economic, political, cultural, and environmental interconnection and flows that make most of the currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant.” - Global imaginary: “people’s growing consciousness of thickening globality.” - Globalization: “A set of social processes that transform our present social condition of conventional nationality into one of globality.” - Global Studies is the interdisciplinary field dedicated to examining those processes, past and present, along with how people in different times/different places furthered them, resisted them, and came to understand them. Lecture 2 How do these events elucidate the concept of globalization? This course will focus on three areas of increasing interconnectedness: History, Culture, Ideology -

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But what is history? - History is a story we tell ourselves about ourselves - who we are, how we came to be, where we are headed… - This definition can be derived from the word’s etymology (origin). Take, for example, the French language, from which the English word is derived. In French, histoire means both story and history - there is no linguistic distinction - This etymology does not mean that history is fiction - far from it! Rather, it is a narrative rooted in evidence, whose truthfulness….. But what is culture? - Anthropologists (most notable, Clifford Geertz) have played a central role in developing the modern, scholarly definition of this term

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Clifford Geertz defined culture as “an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men (people) communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life” (1973). - We shape the past through the writing of history, and the past shapes us through the culture we inherit - this is a “feedback loop.” - But what is ideology? - Etymology: Ideology derives from the French word idéologie, which, in its modern sense, was coined by Napoleon Bonaparte, who ridiculed a group of intellectuals that claimed to have created a “science of ideas.” - Today, it means mostly: “Abstract speculation; impractical or visionary theorizing” OR “A systematic scheme of ideas, usually relating to politics, economics, or society and forming the basis of action or policy; a set of beliefs governing conduct.” - Ideology as a particular kind of cultural system that claims to possess an internal coherence and special relationship to truth and that profoundly shapes the way people think/behave (e.g., nationalism, democracy, communism, etc). *Further Areas of increasing interconnectedness, which will be addressed in passing: economics, technology, politics - Manfred Steger (U of Hawaii) “One of the reasons why globalization remains a contested concept is because there exists no academic consensus on what kinds of social processes should be prioritized.” - Scholars’ collective mistake lies in their dogmatic attempts to reduce such a complex phenomenon as globalization to one or two domains that correspond to their own expertise. Surely, a central task for the new field of global studies must be to devise better ways for gauging the relative importance of each dimension without losing sight of the interdependent whole.”

Globalization - Causes, Trajectories, and Consequences (the focus of Lecture 2) Does globalization differ from internationalization? How? How does globalization differ from other terms we use to describe the interconnected world? - Internationalists according to Giles Gunn (2018) - “Those who believe that the world is organized around institutions and practices that are principally, though not necessarily exclusively, geopolitical.” - “Those who assume that the world, or at least world order, is organized around, and driven by, territorially bounded states that are sovereign within their own realm and seek to govern themselves through processes of law-making and structures of law enforcement.” - Giles Gunn attributes this system of state governance and international relations to the Peace of Westphalia (Ended the Thirty Year War/European Wars of Religion, 1618-1648), BUT… Genesis of State Governance and Permanent Institutions Committed to International Relations

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It would be more accurate to say that these phenomena emerged from the French Revolution (1789-1815), the world wars that it produced, and the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) that brought it to a close - Before the French Revolution, states were not sovereign, kings and queens were sovereign. When they died, for example, treaties had to be renegotiated because they were only valid for the duration of the monarch’s reign alone. This system of governance is called “dynastic rule.” - Kings and queens, moreover, did not possess absolute sovereignty (which only exists as an ideal abstract model). They shared power with religious institutions, independent courts, regional bodies, and separate legal regimes inherited from feudalism. - The people kings and queens ruled over were not citizens, who together constituted a nation, and who lived under universally-applicable public law; they were subjects, whose status was determined by a caste system and the private law, or “privilege,” that went along with it. - After the french revolution, even within those territories still ruled by kings and queens, states become sovereign, as evidenced by the fact that treaties no longer needed to be renegotiated upon the death of a reigning monarch. - Again, even within those territories still ruled by kings and queens, there were concerted efforts to subordinate/destroy sites of competing sovereignty (like religious institutions, independent courts, regional bodies, and separate legal regimes) in the name of rationalization and bureaucratic modernization. - Subjecthood, caste systems, and private law began to break down in the face of concepts like citizenship and equality before universally-applicable public law. The people collectively started to be considered a nation (defined in terms of history, politics, ethnicity, and much more), and they were strongly identified with the state and its sovereignty. Thus was born the concept of the “nation-state.” - The advent of state sovereignty, citizenship, and public law produced a revolution in international relations, which for the first time could really be called international relations, since negotiations and treaties were undertaken in the name of states/nation-states. - The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), which was tasked with reconstructing Europe after more than 20 years of war, represented the first time in European history that permanent, multilateral treaties were signed and permanent international institutions created (a series of regularly recurring “congresses”), whose purposes was to insure the honoring of agreements and thus peace/stability. - The Congress of Vienna, its successes, and its failures helped inspire the creation of the League of Nations following World War 1 (1914-1918). - Charles Kingsley Webster, member of the British Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), wrote a book about the CoV. He justified his decision to do so in the following terms, “we thus stand on the threshold of a new Congress without any adequate account of the only assembly which can furnish even a shadowy precedent for the great task that lies before the statesmen and peoples of the world.” - This narrative seems Eurocentric, right? That Eurocentrism is largely due to the fact that the nation-state system, was exported throughout the world by European powers during the Age of Imperialism (which reached its height in the 19th/20th centuries). How Globalization Differs...

According to Giles Gunn (2018), those who emphasize the distinct nature of globalization: - “Believe instead that the world is organized around institutions and practices that at least at times either transcend such factors [geopolitics] or strongly, sometimes even definitively, shape their articulation.” - Geopolitics is not the sole driving force of how the world is organized, geopolitics is shaped by other factors that can be driving forces themselves. - “Concede the existence of the state-based system of international order but also insist that there is much that goes on above and below as well as within nation-states that sometimes controls, but in any case influences, the kind of power they command and the way they seek to deploy that power.” - What is meant by “above,” “below,” and “within” nation-states? Are these distinctions helpful? **Globalizing influences, wherever they originate, transcend nation-states and international institutions, and in the process they cross traditional boundaries defined in terms of politics, history, culture, religion, geography, and so much more. - Some commonly cited globalizing influences - “Multinational corporations” (amazon, toyota, royal dutch shell) - “Informal economic empires” (like that associated with american capitalism) - “Religious fundamentalisms” (christin, muslim, hindu) - “Non-governmental organizations” (human rights watch, doctors without borders, the international red cross) - “Civic movements/pressure groups” (children’s rights, reproductive justice, environmental justice) An example of environmental globalization from current events - Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old swedish girl, helped found the school climate strike movement in 2018, mobilizing young people across the world to put pressure on their governments - The movement has assumed greater proportions recently, as Greta Thunberg has spent the past month in the US, working with young people to raise awareness of the dangers associated with climate change ahead of the U.N. Climate Action Summit in September 2019 (G7 Summit in NYC) - Globalizing grassroots youth movement trying to illicit policy changes in governments worldwide Schools of thought regarding globalization - David Held (1999) - “Although the popular rhetoric of globalization may capture aspects of the contemporary worldview, there is a burgeoning academic debate as to whether globalization, as an analytical construct, delivers any added value in the search for a coherent understanding of the historical forces which, at the dawn of the new millennium, are shaping the socio-political realities of everyday life.” - “There is no substantial disagreement as to how globalization is best conceptualized, how one should think about its causal dynamics, and how one should characterize its structured … Who are hyperglobalizers? What do they believe? - David Held: “They privilege an economic logic - they argue that economic globalization is bringing about a denationalization of economic through the establishment of transnational

networks of production, trade and finance. In this borderless economy, national govts are regulated to little more than transmission belts for global capital or simple intermediate institutions sandwiched between increasingly powerful local, regional, and global mechanisms of governance.” - There is a transnational class allegiance built on the attachment to neoliberal economics. - Minimal regulation, free trade, free capital flow… neoliberal economics - #1 goal: profit - Hyperglobalizers believe that those who are marginalized, the worldwide diffusion of the consumerist ideology imposes a new sense of identity, displacing traditional cultures and ways of life. - The global spread of liberal democracy further reinforces the sense of an emerging global civilization defined by universal standards of economic and political organization. - Economy -> politics -> culture Who are sceptics? What do they believe? - David Held: “They rely on a wholly economistic conception of globalization... - They don’t see an integrated global market, such integration as it is is less significant that integration we have seen in the past. Capital flow, investment and exchange was better in the past. “Globalization has been blown out of proportion.” - Internationalism has not been accompanied by an erosion of N-S inequalities but by the growing economic marginalization of many 3rd world states - Inequality contributes to the advance of fundamentalism and aggressive nationalism - Economy/politics -> culture - Ex. Trade war between the U.S. and China Lecture 3 Who are transformationalists? What do they believe? - David Held: “at the dawn of a new millennium, globalization is a central driving force behind the rapid social, political and economic changes that are reshaping modern societies and world order.” - Globalization is conceived as a contingent historical process replete with contradictions. At issue is a dynamic and open-ended conception of where globalization might be leading and the kind of world order which it might prefigure. - Make no claims about the future trajectory of globalization nor seek to evaluate the present in relation to some single, fixed ideal-type “globalized world” whether a global market or a global civilization - Globalization is associated with new patterns of global stratification in which some states, societies and communities are becoming increasingly enmeshed in the global order while others are becoming increasingly marginalized. A new configuration of global power relations is held to be crystallising as the N-S division rapidly gives way to a new international division of labor… N and S, first world and third world, are no longer ‘out there’ but nestled together within all the world’s major cities - Globalization is associated with an unbundling of the relationship between sovereignty, territoriality and state power

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The form and functions of the state are having to adopt as governments seek coherent strategies of engaging with a globalizing world [neoliberal, developmental, catalytic…] rather than globalization bringing about the end of the state it has encouraged a spectrum of adjustment strategies and a more activist state. - Ex. the slums of a modern world Reflect: which school of thought seems correct to you? What evidence can you provide? - Does your answer change depending on what your prioritize? - How can we, as scholars of globalization, avoid the situation described in the ancient bhuddist parable of the blind scholars and their encounter with the elephant? - The blind scholars did not know what the elephant looked like, so they resolved to obtain a mental picture, and thus the knowledge they desired, by touching the animal. One touched the tusk, the other touched the leg, and the last the tail. Then, rather than agreeing that the elephant could be likened to each thing at once and create a holistic picture of the animal as a whole, they argued about the picture of the elephant (each likening the elephant as a whole to the small part that they touched). Barrie Axford (2000) Believes He Has The Answer! - He takes a multidimensional approach that does not privilege any one domain as providing the key to or essential dynamics of globalization, but addresses the complex and contradictory interplay between economic, political and cultural forces, and between local agents and global forces in making the world one place. - The dynamic and labile quality of globalization can only be studied by adopting an approach…… missed the rest - What would such a theoretical approach or abstract methodology look like in practice? Is it possible to achieve? Decentering/Recentering the Historical Gaze Viewing the World from Different Perspectives? - World map from 1154 on the screen (developed by Al-Idrisi) - An arab cartographer, who lived at the court of a Christian Sicilian King - Orientation of the map - south is at the top, north is at the bottom, at the center is the arabian peninsula, where the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are located - World map from 1402 “Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Ji Do” - Map of integrated lands and regions of historical countries and capitals - Developed by Yi Hoe and Kwon Kun (korean cartographers) - Orientation of the map - north is top/south is bottom, center is modern day mainland China - World map from 1569 developed by Gerardus Mercator (flemish cartographer) - “A new and augmented description of Earth corrected for the use of sailors” - Orientation of the map - north is top/south is bottom, center of the map are atlantic ocean trade routes - Defined in relationship to Europe itself - Maps have a very real cultural and historical perspective The world from a non-european perspective? - What lessons can we learn from maps?

Gaze as literal act of seeing/ordering space OR as metaphor for seeing/ordering other kinds of information - Our gaze or the perspective fr...