The document discusses the rise of globalization and changing strategies for development since the Cold War. A global production system has emerged where nations specialize in serving as export platforms in a "world factory" or "world farm" model. This has led to the formation of a global labor force characterized by casualization and low wages, predominantly employing women in developing countries. The ideal of national development has shifted to one where nations serve the world economy through their role in regional and global supply chains.

1. SOC 222
Globalizing Developments
PhD Fatma Altınbaş Sarıgül

2. The Development Project
Reconstructs a World Market
□ Cold War Rise of U.S.-centered world
economy
□ Military and economic largesse secured informal
empire
□ Freedom of enterprise
□ U.S. Dollar as international currency
□ U.S. Federal Reserve System led central banks in
regulating international monetary system
□ Military and financial aid assisted Third World
national development targets
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

3. Shift from Development to
Globalization Project
□ “Economic nationalism” an ideal, not a
guarantee
□ Some domestic production converted to exports
□ Deepening integration of production
relations across (not within) nation states:
□ Growing gap between First and Third World living
standards
□ Differentiation among states within the Third
World (i.e.: NICs)
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

4. Export-oriented
Industrialization (EOI) and NICs
□ EOI relocated manufacturing of consumer goods,
machinery, and computers to the Third World
□ 1960-1979: Third World manufacturing exports increased in
share of world trade from 6 to 10%
□ Widespread EOI signaled a significant change in strategies of
industrialization, organized by transnational corporation
investments.
□ For First World firms, EOI became a means of relocating the
manufacturing of consumer goods, and then machinery and
computers.
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

5. The World Factory
□ NICs’ strategy of EOI sparked “World
Factory” phenomenon
□ Spread of manufacturing export platforms
□ Definition: “World” products produced in
steps distributed among geographically
dispersed sites like an assembly line at
single/multiple sites
□ Aided by the technologies of the “information
age”
□ Transnational Corporations (TNCs) try to
reduce production costs to be more
globally competitive
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

6. The Global Production
System
□ Japanese relocated production in East Asia
□ Mexican Border Industrialization Program (BIP)
□ Implemented by Mexican government in 1965
□ Foreign-owned labor-intensive assembly plants
(maquiladoras) produce garments, electronics,
toys
□ Government grants concessions to firms
□Wages at fraction of U.S. rates
□Minimal taxes and import duties
□Avoid strict environmental laws
□ Severe environmental contamination and health
hazards/chronic illnesses
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

7. Strategic Role of Information
Technologies
□ Semiconductors: the integrated computer
chip - Key to new information technologies
(IT)
□ Accelerates globalization of economic
relations and proliferation of export-
processing zones (EPZs)
□ Electronic production dispersed to global export
platforms
□ Electronic products enable global dispersion and
coordination of production/circulation in other
industries
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

8. Export Processing Zones
□ Specialized manufacturing export areas
□ Minimal customs controls
□ Usually exempt from labor laws and domestic taxes
□ By 2006: 3,500 EPZs in 130 countries employed 66 million
workers (40 million in China)
□ Favor export markets over domestic market
development
□ Global corporations profit from lower wages
□ Third World governments gain investment and foreign
currency
□ Serve as enclaves
□ Physically separate
□ Receive imported materials and components
□ Deny workers civil rights and working conditions
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

9. Women in EPZs
□ Women regarded as best suited for “natural
patience,” “manual dexterity,” “small hands”
□ 1980s: 80-90% of workers were women, ages 16-25
□ EPZs “defeminize” if they upgrade beyond simple
assembly
□ Super-exploitation, forced overtime
□ Frequent turnover and retirement from failing
eyesight
□ EPZs contribute little to host economies
□ Dead-end jobs; foreign currency via export taxes
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

10. New International Division of
Labor (NIDL)
□ Relocation of deskilled tasks to low-wage regions
□ Creation of global labor force caused by
□ Depeasantization
□(But depeasantization doesn’t create global
labor force alone)
□1950-1997: World’s rural population decreased
by 25%, creating “planet of slums” in cities
□ Simplification and de-skilling of 1st
World
manufacturing work
□ Relocation of routine tasks as low-cost jobs
□ NIDL results in bifurcation of global labor force
□ Skilled labor in First World, unskilled labor in Third
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

11. New International Division of
Labor (NIDL)
□ Decentralization of industrial production from the
First World to the Third World.
□ The conditions for this movement were defined as
endless supplies of cheap Third World labor, the
new technical possibility of separating and
relocating deskilled manufacturing tasks offshore,
and the rise of transport and informational
technologies to allow coordination of global
production systems.
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

12. From NIDL to Global Labor Force
□ Rise of global subcontracting transformed
tidy NIDL bifurcation into “bifurcation
everywhere”
□ East Asian NICs “upgraded” to specialize in more
skilled, more male labor (e.g., semiconductors)
□ Spread of global and regional sourcing
□ Global subcontracting threatens organized labor
in Global North
□ New bifurcation: separation between stable,
well-paid work and casual, low-cost labor
□ No specific geography
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

13. Unprotected Labor
□ Global subcontracting system
eliminates and/or weakens regulation
of work conditions
□ 20 million bonded laborers worldwide
□ 80 million children under 14 working in
hazardous conditions
□ Often 14-hour days
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

14. Rise in Post-Industrial Work
□ 1970-1994: Manufacturing jobs fell in U.S,
Britain, France, Germany (many “low-tech”)
□ 50% of clothing market in U.S. is cheap imports
from Asia and Latin America
□ In 1990’s, footwear worker in Indonesia earned
$1.03 per day vs. $6.95 per hour in U.S.
□ Post-industrial work partially fills the gap
□ Example: retail, health care, security, finance,
restaurants
□ Migrant labor, temporary, part-time employment,
and multiple jobs are common
□ Manufacturing labor lost organizational and
numerical power
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

15. Global Sourcing
□ Strategy used by TNCs and host
governments to improve market position
and secure predictable supplies of inputs
□ Substitute flexible for standardized mass
production
□ Using smaller and less specialized labor
forces
□ Flexible production allows segmentation
of consumer markets, based on social
class incomes
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

16. Agricultural Globalization: The
World Farm
□ Shift from agriculture as domestic industry to
agriculture as world industry
□ First green revolution: A public initiative
geared to national markets
□ Second green revolution: A private initiative
geared to global markets
□ Specialized high-input agriculture for high-value
markets, food processing and agro-chemical
firms
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

17. The Second Green Revolution
□ Globalization of markets for high-value off-season
fruits and vegetables
□ “Cool chains” keep products (fruits and vegetables)
chilled in transit
□ Coordinate to get produce year-round from different
climatic zones
□ Subcontract with smallholders for specialty crops and
export-processing
□ An increasingly feminized industry
□ Women produce most food consumed worldwide
□ Women’s lack of land rights and security erodes control of
food production
□ Destabilizing small farming means they must work in
agribusiness and adds to their workdays©SAGE Publications, 2011.

18. New Agricultural Countries
(NACs)
□ Export agro-industrialization promoted by
governments
□ Produce nontraditional exports: high-value foods
(animal protein products, fruits and vegetables)
or low-value feed grains
□ Thailand is a model NAC- Asia’s supermarket
□ Agro-industry grew as food processing firms
contracted rural smallholders
□ A base for regional and global export production
□ NACs serve global rather than national
markets
©SAGE Publications, 2011.

19. Summary
□ A global production system has emerged
□ Specialization in world economy is new criterion for
development
□ NICs and NACs increasingly serve as export platforms for TNCs
as “world factory” and “world farm” proliferate
□ Formation of global labor force
□ Labor casualization
□ Unravel social compact with First World labor
□ Cycle Third World labor into sweatshops
□ Women predominate in low-skill, low-pay jobs
□ “Defeminization” as labor organizes, wages rise or upgrading takes
place
□ Displaced ideal of national market replication for a global labor
hierarchy and regional divisions of labor
□ Debt crisis laid the foundations for the globalization project
©SAGE Publications, 2011.