What is Globalization?:

  • The process by which the world increasingly becomes one market, dominated by electronic culture
  • Scope and scale is changing - happening much faster
  • Examples: Colonialism, Language, Agriculture, Sweatshops
  • Neoliberalism: minimal government interference

The Global Economy:

  • International market replacing nation-state as main focus of economic activity
  • Reorganization of investment, production, and trade
  • Increase in scale and power of transnational corporations
  • Liberalization of government economic policies
  • Unequal distribution of benefits

o Ex: privatization of water (Bolivia)

  • Rural-to-urban migration of unskilled workers (urbanization)

Cultural Minorities:

  • Members of ethnic or cultural groups who have become minorities in their native lands, due to:

o Migrations of other peoples into their territories

  • Ex: Aboriginals in Canada, Dubai, etc

OR

o Historical configurations of a nation-state made up of diverse groups

  • Ex: Yugoslavia (broke up into separate countries),

Migration:

  • Voluntary migrant:

o Temporary:

■ Students

  • Work permits

o Permanent:

  • Immigrants
  • Even work permits for example is not always voluntary - need to make money for families (India, etc)
  • Migration is not always by choice (leave because they have to leave)
  • Refugees:

o War

o Civil strife

o Asylum seekers

  • Immigration in Canada

o Before 1961: 90% Europe, 6% Other, 4% Asia

o 1991-2001: 59% Asia, 20% Europe, 21% Other

o Origin in foreign born population of Canada: 21% Other, 37% Asia, 42% Europe

  • In between voluntary migrants and refugees, there are floating populations
  • Floating populations: China - large groups of people, mostly unskilled workers, that become part of China's manufacturing company

Ethnogenesis (birth of a culture) and Ethnic Identity:

  • Formation and reformation of ethnic groups
  • Ethnic labels
  • Politicization of ethnic identity
  • Tribalization: the process of identification with ones tribal origins
  • Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality
  • Definition for ethnicity:

o

Proper name

o

Myth of common ancestry

o

Shared historical memories

o

Elements of common culture

o

Link with a homeland

o

Sense of solidarity

 

MOVIE: Call Centers:

  • Globalization
  • Western culture taking over (culturally, economically, linguistically)
  • Asking the people change who they are a bit (people receiving the call)
  • Indian's mimic Americans with their accents at call centers
  • Changing identities for other people
  • Americans want to talk to other Americans

Transnationalism:

  • Processes by which immigrants maintain social, economic, religious, and political ties to both their immigrant communities and their communities back home
  • Trans = cross
  • Also knowledge that is passes back and forth between nations

Nationalism and Pluralism:

  • Nationalism: allegiance to the nation as a symbolic identity

o 18th-20th centuries

o Nation=contested

o Anderson imagined communities

o Nations divide based on religion, ethic groups, language, culture, boundaries, folklore

  • Artificial idea - ex: Canada does not have just one of any of those (many religions, many languages, etc)

o Do we feel a strong tie to Canada, or would we pick up and leave if given the chance?

o Ethnic cleansing: when we want people who don't belong in Canada to leave

  • Ethnic groups as structural features in states
  • Tensions between ethnic differences and national identity - state strategies
  • Decolonization and ethnic pluralism

o Ex: Aboriginal decolonization, India (pre-British 1947) - get rid of the colony and make a nation

  • Difficult with so many different cultures, languages, religions o Decolonization results in violence

Islamization:

  • The process of imposing the Islamic religion and associated cultural values within a nation to foster cultural uniformity
  • Also Christianization, Indianization, etc (different parts of the world) to foster cultural uniformity
  • Indonesia: 4th largest nation, largest Muslim nation, send Javanese people to colonize the rest of the country (spreading the ideas of Islam)

Reactions Against Pluralism:

  • Pluralism: two or more states coexist and come together
  • Anti-immigration

o Changes groups

o Mostly against Asians and women (especially Asian women)

  • Xenophobia

o Fear of outsiders/difference

o Leads to anti-immigration laws and institutionalized discrimination

  • Discrimination

Globalization and Cultural Identities:

  • Global culture of consumerism

o Consuming other cultures

o Ex: Western corporations consuming other cultures (McDonalds)

o Ex: Westerner's consuming Shakira (half Lebanese and half Columbian)

  • Global identity based on social class

o Ex: University students sharing social class based on age (not based on gender, ethnicity, race, etc)

  • Influence of mass media
  • Global spread of English

Cultural Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in a Global World:

  • Indigenous peoples: comparatively homogeneous peoples or small-scale societies who share the same culture and are “native” to their territory, or have occupied it for a long time

United States and Canada:

  • History:

o Colonization of Aboriginal peoples and their lands

o Federal jurisdiction over Aboriginal communities

  • Very different in US (kill them) vs. Canada (make treaties)
  • Converting nature into culture
  • Converting chaos into order
  • Conversions are often violent (physically and mentally)

o Historical policies of assimilation

  • Issues today:

o Self-government and limited sovereignty

o Land claims and resource rights

Oka Crisis - 1992:

  • Sacred burial ground for Aboriginals and Oka people wanted to create a golf course on the land
  • Aboriginals became violent protecting their cemetery/land
  • Canadian forces vs. Mohawk rebels
  • Golf course cancelled
  • The idea of developing policies of indigenous rights issues and land claims came from this for the Aboriginals

Mexico and Indigenismo:

  • Inconsistent government policies toward indigenous peoples
  • 1993 Constitution - Idigenismo
  • Development of resources and ignoring of indigenous rights
  • Led to the Zapatista movement

o Small part of Mexico fought back

o Music was used to get the message of the Zapatista movement across in Mexico

Brazil and the “Indian Problem”:

  • Indigenous communities mostly in isolated regions in the Amazon

o Wavering government protection of indigenous lands and rights

o Operation Amazonia - opened up the rainforest for development

o Yanomami at risk - extinction, changing, and losing their culture o “Urban Indians” - ex: Indian coming to New York (short clip)

Costs of Economic Development in Ecuador and Bolivia:

  • Majority population of indigenous peoples
  • Movements to oppose resource extraction and development of indigenous territories
  • Oil drilling and pipelines
  • Coalitions with environmental groups

Developments in Africa:

  • Complex delineation of “indigenous” and “tribal” peoples
  • Sudan and the Dinka

o Control of water

  • Kenya and Tanzania

o Maasai and Barabaig lands

  • Nigeria and the Ogoni

o Oil drilling and bioprospecting

Legal Rights and International Recognition:

  • Coalitions to protect lands and cultural rights
  • UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples

o Indigenous people do have rights and need to be recognized

  • International law and claims to land, resources, and cultural heritage
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