Week 5 Seminar Notes

Seminar Outline
1. HOUSEKEEPING (17.30-17.50)

- CRITICAL CASE STUDY &amp; PARTICIPATION TASK SHEET

2. INDIVIDUAL RAT (17.50-18.05)

3. TEAM RAT (18.05-18.25)

4. CHALLENGES (18.25-18.30) - ONLY IF REQUIRED

5. LECTURE INPUT (18.30-19.00), Globalisation discourse &amp; Criticisms of Discourse/Consequences

6. ACTIVITY/APPLICATIONS (19.10-20.15), inc. The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

Important Informations, Ideas &amp; Questions
As what I read, I conclude theories on both sides, the sceptics and the globalist in this reading.

The sceptics: Capitalism, Ideology, Capital Imperialism, (exercise) American Power, Hegemony, Marxist, Decolonization, Political Power, Military Force, Nationalism, Ruling Elites, Economic Exclusion, Solely Economy, Global Capitalism, Deindustrialization, Global Inequality/Gap/Poverty

The globalists: Equal Status, Post-Marxist/Weberian, Post-Structure, Power Relations, Regionalism, Political Power, Military Order, Multilateral Arrangement, Hybrid CUlture, Cultural Flow, Integration

The Great Globalisation Debate

- Why is (not) this a relevant/important debate?

- Debate positions

- Recent transformations &amp; signs

- Definition of of Globalisation

This refers to the process by which the world is said to become a single space; globalisation may be seen as the compression of space.

FRAMEWORKS FOR UNDERSTANDING

- McLuhan (1964) - A 'Global Village'

The term was introduced in order to describe how the world is shrinking as a result of new technologies of communication. technology determines social changes, which resulted in the big gap between rich and poor

McLuhan maintained that the increased connectivity of media would produce a global "utopian" village, restoring "collective" community. He is criticised for "technological determinism" argumentation (technology changes people not vice versa), and the assumption that technology determines social changes. He mistakenly assumes that expansion of global capitalism produces positive effects.

- [Appadurai] (1990) &amp; 'scapes'

Abudarai investigated certain "scapes" in relation to Media ([Mediascape]Mediascape), Ideologies (Ideoscapes), Technology (Technocscape), Ethnicitiy (Ethnoscape) and Finance (Finanscapes)

“Ethnoscapes,” according to Appadurai, are “landscape[s] of persons who constitute the shifting world in which we live; tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guestworkers and other moving groups and persons constitute an essential feature of the world and appear to affect the politics of (and between) nations to a hitherto unprecedented degree.”

Mediascapes - The first characteristic involves “the distribution of the electronic capabilities to produce and disseminate information,” and the second involves “the images of the world created by these media.”

Technoscapes - Technoscapes refer to the “global configuration…of technology, and of the fact that technology, both high and low, both mechanical and informational, now moves at high speeds across various kinds of previously impervious boundaries. Appadurai adds that there is a relationship between technoscapes and ethnoscapes because the movement of technology and the movement of the actors capable of manipulating this technology are closely linked.

Ideoscapes - Ideascapes “are often directly political and frequently have to do with the ideologies of states and the counter-ideologies of movements explicitly oriented to capturing state power or a piece of it.”

Finanscapes - Finanscapes refer to the flows in “currency markets, national stock exchanges, and commodity speculations.”

Further Reading: http://www.newinfluencer.com/mediapedia/arjun-appadurai/

- Criticisms of 'Globalisation' as a Discourse

- CULTURAL GLOBALISATION (nee IMPERIALISM)

The Contemporary globalization, and the movement of cultural system and values, follows the same patterns as cultural imperialism. (MCDonald-isation, CocaCola-isation)

- Cultural Homogenisation

Cultural contact rarely results in homogenisation but changes and "adjusts" culture - appropriation, see also : Third culture third culture Third Culture Third Culture Kids - Adaptation/Appropriation

The appropriation movement involves translation, indigenisation, transformation

- A 'Culture of Capitalism'

Marx and Weber shared a concern with the social relations involved in capitalist production. they agreed that employees were denied any part of the ownership and control of the instruments of economic production and that employees were subordinated to those who did own and control.

Activity/Proposition Statements
1. Globalisation is the wrong term to describe contemporary/recent trends? Agree/Disagree

2. Excerpt from The Gods Must be Crazy (1980) (8.30–15.50 mins) - an example of intercultural contact and communication.

Indigenisation/Appropriation OR Cultural Imperialism (Globalisation)? Which and why?

Glossary
p1 of The Great Globalisation debate: "Globalisation has become the leitmotif of our age"

Leitmotif: A melodic passage or phrase, especially in Wagnerian opera, associated with a specific character, situation, or element. OR A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel. * I assume it would be this definition. WikiAnswers.com

p2 of The Great Globalisation debate: "Ideal-types are heuristic devices which order a field of enquiry..."

Heuristic is an adjective for experience-based techniques that help in problem solving, learning and discovery. A heuristic method is particularly used to rapidly come to a solution that is hoped to be close to the best possible answer, or 'optimal solution'. Heuristics are "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments or simply common sense. Wikipedia

P20 of The Great Globalisation debate: “ …the current era is defined by the existence of a nascent global capitalism.”

Nascent : coming or having recently come into existence - a nascent middle class - her nascent singing career. www.merriam-webster.com

ABOUT GLOBAL VILLAGE:

Global Village is a term closely associated with Marshall McLuhan, popularized in his books The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) and Understanding Media (1964). McLuhan describes how the globe has been contracted into a village by electric technology and the instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time. In bringing all social and political functions together in a sudden implosion, electric speed has heightened human awareness of responsibility to an intense degree.

Today, the term "Global Village" is mostly used as a metaphor to describe the Internet and World Wide Web. On the Internet, physical distance is even less of a hindrance to the real-time communicative activities of people, and therefore social spheres are greatly expanded by the openness of the web and the ease at which people can search for online communities and interact with others that share the same interests and concerns. Therefore, this technology fosters the idea of a conglomerate yet unified global community.Due to the enhanced speed of communication online and the ability of people to read about, spread, and react to global news very rapidly, McLuhan says this forces us to become more involved with one another from countries around the world and be more aware of our global responsibilities. Similarly, web-connected computers enable people to link their web sites together. This new reality has implications for forming new sociological structures within the context of culture.