Introduction to A level Globalisation

1. Introduction to Globalisation

2. Starter
• How far has the water in this bottle travelled?
• What are the impacts of that journey?
• Is this globalisation gone mad
In 2012, official Adidas reports
showed that they were operating over
1,000 overseas factories with vast
majority of them located in Turkey,
India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, and
Indonesia.
Where are North Face jackets made?
The parent company of The North
Face, VF Corporation, owns over 30
manufacturing facilities in countries
including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh,
Cambodia, India, and many more.

3. FIJI WATER
• The firm claims to be the “the first major beverage brand to give a
carbon negative commitment”, meaning that buying its product is
actually good for the planet.
• However, the firm takes fresh water from the island of Viti Levu (part of
Fiji) and ships it thousands of miles to the UK.
• Any ideas how they could claim to be carbon negative when the water
has to take this epic journey?

4. How?
• The firm planned to plant four square miles of trees per
year to offset the footprint of its cargo, however they have
planted less than half of that number so far - with no
indication of when the rest might be planted.

5. Some Positives and Negatives
Perceived Positives
• Hyper-globalisers applaud the fact
that millions of people have
escaped dollar-a-day poverty since
the 1970s.
• They celebrate the ways cultures
are mixing and, at the local scale,
often becoming more diverse.
Perceived Negatives
• A world in which people have greater
freedom to migrate across political
borders – as it the case for European
Union members – is not to everyone’s
taste.
• There are fears too that Transnational
Corporations (TNCs) are responsible
for a growing trend towards cultural
homogeneity (uniformity) on a global
scale.
• As a result, many people are sceptical
about the merits of globalisation.

6. What are your pros and cons of Globalisation?

7. Globalisation is a long-standing Process
• It is the latest chapter in a long story about how people and places have
been connected on our planet.
• Globalisation is not a new concept
• Past examples include:
• Trade
• Colonialism
Columbus and his men traded bells, tin whistles and other
trinkets with the native people when they arrived in the
Americas, in return for large amounts of more valuable
produce such as vanilla pods and tobacco
The East India
Company ran
from 1600 –
1874 trading
around the
world

8. Examples of Old Globalisation
• The Silk Road
Dates from the beginning of the Han dynasty
in China (207 BCE–220 CE)
• The Spice Trade
• Dates back to the medieval periods

9. Definitions of Globalisation
• There is no accepted definition of globalisation
• ‘The growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through
increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services,
freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread diffusion of
technology’ (IMF).
• What are the key elements of this definition
• ‘The growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide through
increasing volume and variety of cross-border transactions in goods and
services, freer international capital flows, and more rapid and widespread
diffusion of technology’
Create your own definition for the meaning of globalisation.
A good definition of globalisation for geography would take into account the fact that it is a
multi-strand process incorporating social, economic, cultural, political and environmental
aspects.

10. Globalisation comes in different forms
• Political
• Economic
• Cultural
• Social
• Draw a table and try to come up with examples for each
one
• E.G. Social globalisation - migration

11. Length, Depth and Speed of
Global Connection
• Lengthening of connections
– between people and places with products sourced from further
away such as UK to Fiji
• Deepening of connections
– between people and places which now penetrates all aspects of
our lives. Consider the food you eat:
• Write down your 3 favourite foods
• Faster Speed of connections
– with people able to talk to one another in real time, using
technologies such as skype or travel quickly between countries
using jet aircraft
• Think of the furthest place you have been and how long it took
to get there

12. Economic
Growth of TNCs and cross border exchanges of goods and
services
ICT growth allows for more spatial divisions of labour and
increased global business
Internet allows for growth of online business like Amazon
Social
International Migration has created family networks across
borders multi-ethnic cities
Global Improvements in Education and Healthcare – increased
life expectancy and literacy rates (Though this isn’t uniform)
Social Interconnectivity – growth in use of mobile technology,
internet and email
Political
Growth of trade blocs like EU and ASEAN allows TNCs to merge
and buy companies in neighbouring countries with reduced
tariffs and helps markets to grow
Global concerns such as free trade and credit crunch as well as
global responses to Natural disasters such as Boxing Day
tsunami
Word Bank, IMF and WTO work to harmonise national economies
Cultural
•Successful western cultural traits have come to dominate such
as Americanisation
•Globalisation has mixed and merged cultures to create global
influences
•Circulation of ideas and information has accelerated with social
media and 24 hr news channels
Types of
Globalisation

13. Given the definitions we have seen, consider the length, depth
and speed of the connection that the following people have
with the rest of the world…
These women live on a floating island made of reeds on Lake
Titicaca in Peru. They adhere mostly to the traditional
lifestyle of their ancestors, but they allow visits from tourists
who take their photographs and buy their crafts.
This couple own a farm in Arizona. Terry is American and
Ramona is Mexican. They work hard, running their business
and neither have ever needed a passport because they do not
have time for holidays.
Michal is Polish and sang Poland’s entry for the Eurovision
song contest in 2016. He lives the life of a modern hippy –
travelling around with his guitar and sharing his music and
zest for life with the world.

14. Flows
• Consider the importance of the following flows between
countries
• Commodities
• Capital
• Migrants
• Tourists
• Information
• Can you give any specific examples of these?

15. Remittance flows - Skills
• Draw a table to show the
source region, host country
and value for each
remittance flow.

16. Flows of People
• Have a go
• This complex flow diagram
shows global migration
flows
• Try to work out
• Which people migrate to
North America
• Which people migrant to
southern Europe
• Where do most S. Asia
people do?

17. • Write down:
• The reasons you feel globalisation is good
• The reasons you feel globalisation is bad

18. Compare Facebook connectivity in
Africa with that in Europe. (3)
Explain some of the factors that may
contribute to the different levels of
connectivity between areas (4)

19. The Development of Globalisation

20. How globalisation works
• Imagine a British tourist, wearing a t-shirt made in
Guatemala, scrolling through the menu list on her
American-designed smartphone (which was made in
China). She selects the music of a Canadian singer,
sends photos home to the UK, while relaxing in a
hardwood chair imported from Bali. Her meal arrives – its
an Indian dish, served on the veranda of a Cuban hotel,
managed by a Spanish leisure chain.
• Now write a short paragraph of your own, like this
one, including as many global examples as possible.
• Aim for 8+ examples.

21. So lets look at this more deeply
• Identify the factors accelerating globalisation.
• Understand the role of communications and transport in
time-space compression.

22. Definitions quiz
• At GCSE and in life there are words you may or may not
have done but have a go at defining these:
1. World Bank
2. containerisation
3. flow
4. outsourcing
5. tariff
6. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)
7. economic liberalisation
8. interdependence

23. Answers
World Bank
• An international financial institution that
provides loans to countries of the world for
capital projects.
containerisation
• The development of standardised metal
containers for cargo, which can be
transferred between train, lorry and ship
carriers.
flow
• The movement people, money, resources,
goods and services, etc. between places.
outsourcing
• TNCs contract another country to produce
goods and services they need rather than
do it themselves.
tariff
• The taxes that are paid when importing or exporting
goods and services between countries.
FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)
• A financial injection made by a TNC into a nation’s
economy, either to build new facilities (factories or
shops) or to acquire, or merge with, an existing firm
already based there.
economic liberalisation
• The lessening of government regulations and
restrictions in an economy with the goal of expanding
the role of private and foreign investment.
Interdependence
• If two places become over reliant on financial/political
connections with one another, they have become
interdependent.
Give yourself 1 mark for getting the idea of it right or 2 marks for
getting it right

24. Transport and Trade in the 19th and 20th
Centuries
• Developments in transport and trade went hand-in-hand during the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries.
• While transport improvements have allowed the value of trade to increase, it is
also the case that major trading powers such at the USA, seek to maintain their
competitive edge through continued transport innovation. This feedback loop is
the result.
A feedback loop is
when the output (Transport)of
a system are routed back as
inputs (trade) as part of a
chain of cause-and-effect that
forms a circuit or loop. The
system can then be said to
feed back into itself.

25. Transport Innovations
• As transport developments occur, TNCs prosper too. In
the 1900s, large manufacturing companies, such as
Ford and General Motors, were able to export products
more widely.
• Over time, increased connectivity between countries
allowed multiple sites of production to be established, both
to reduce transport costs and to take advantage of cheap
sites of production where wages were lower.
• Can you think of examples of these?

26. What are the benefits of Ford having multiple production plants?

27. Why do you think that the world is ‘shrinking’?

28. Time-Space Compression – ‘It’s a
small world’
• Heightened connectivity has changed
our concept of time, as distance and
potential barriers to the migration of
people, goods, money and information
have changed
• This perpetual change is called time-
space compression.
• As travel times fall due to new
inventions, different places approach
each other in ‘space-time’: they begin to
feel closer together than in the past. This
is also called the shrinking world.
• It was took three weeks to get from
London to New York, this now can take
less than 8 hours

29. This brilliant isochrone world map created by Rome2Rio shows how long it takes
to get from London to anywhere in the world in 2016.

30. • It was based on a 1914 map by cartographer and geographer John George Bartholomew. The most
noticeable difference is how much less time it takes to get anywhere in 2016 vs 1914.
• In 1914, the quickest journeys could be completed within 5 days, whereas in 2016 the slowest
journeys take just over 1.5 days.

31. How do we communicate?
How has this sped up in recent years?

32. So what else has accelerated Globalisation?
• Surely not just an increase in telecommunications

33. Main reasons for an acceleration in
Globalisation
TNC’s Shifting production to LEDC’s creating global connections
and networks
Communications Internet, telecommunications improvements have reduced
communication costs.
Consumers Global consumers have increased demand over the world for
different products and services
The Media Helped to connect the world and increase ‘similar’ thinking
about what people ‘should’ want.
Transport Increase in containerisation , cheap air fares have
revolutionised transport
What are the main
reasons you can think
of for an increase in
globalisation?
Can you explain
these reasons?

34. To Finish
• What do you think is meant by the term containerisation
• Why do you feel that in todays world containers are used
• How do you feel they have accelerated globalisation

35. In a Nutshell
• Globalisation involves widening and deepening global connections,
interdependence and flows (commodities, capital, information, migrants
and tourists).
• Developments in transport and trade in the 19th century (railways,
telegraph, steam-ships) accelerated in the 20th century (jet aircraft,
containerisation), contributing to a ‘shrinking world’.
• The 21st century has been dominated by rapid development in ICT and
mobile communication (mobile phones, internet, social networking,
electronic banking, fibre optics), lowering communication costs and
contributing to time-space compression.

36. Assess the main factors that have accelerated
globalisation (12)