Global contacts have been a factor in world history for many centuries. In the postclassical period, Arab merchants developed extensive commercial contacts, including international exchange of money, and products circulated widely for elites in Afro-Eurasia. In the early modern period virtually the whole world was embraced in some level of commercial exchange. Industrialization added further dimensions, including new technologies that accelerated transportation and communication.Many scholars believe, however, that the intensive network of contacts that developed from the 1970s onward constitute a really new phenomenon in world history, and they often call this globalization. Some find globalization a good thing, some bemoan the problems and losses it entails, but almost no one argues that something like it is not occurring.
The documents that I would like you to read (you can read them all by clicking here) deal with two aspects of globalization, a shared consumer culture, particularly among young people, with various articles and comments from the early 21st century Internet (itself an innovation from 1990 onward) and the workers’ side of globalization, with interviews with Mexican women workers done by a Mexican social scientist whose work was first published in 1985.
Both aspects of globalization reflect the growing reach not only of communications technology but also multinational firms. The passages on consumer culture reflect the global activities of chains like McDonalds and the ease of listening to and learning about music icons like Michael Jackson (including the legal problems he encountered, with accusations of sexual improprieties) thanks to MTV, CNN, and other outlets. On the worker side: multinational firms seeking cheap labor costs and tolerant regulation of work and environmental conditions, for products to be sold elsewhere, aim at lower prices for consumers and/or higher profits for themselves. In the process they bring factory work to places like China, Indonesia, or Mexico where industrialization is still in process. The second set of readings deals with this phenomenon in Mexico, highlighting the maquiladora industry—factories on the border—owned by foreign and particularly U.S. business. In the passage Mexican women in Tijuana, just south of San Diego and convenient for shipping back to the U.S., describe their conditions. Their comments mirror a larger debate, about whether conditions, though worse than in the industrial countries, nevertheless bring benefits and further promise for the future, or whether they are simply exploitive. Debate also rages of course about impacts back in the industrial world, in terms of jobs lost in the United States and elsewhere.
Debate, in fact, is the name of the game for globalization. Changes not only in work but also in culture raise questions about values being lost, with superficial consumerism replacing meaningful cultural traditions. Are there ways to shape globalization so as to maximize gains without accepting all aspects of the process?
After reading the documents, I would like you to think about and discuss the following: What are some of the main features of global youth culture? Do the three documents all suggest the same kind of youth culture? What might be some key differences in the experience? Why are people attracted to global youth culture? What kinds of criticism or resistance might global culture rouse? Why does global culture find greater audience among youth than among older adults? How do maquiladora workers and their conditions compare with those of workers in industrialized societies? Why do multinationals locate facilities in places like Tijuana? What are the main advantages and disadvantages of working for a multinational company in Mexico? Are most workers basically contented or discontented, and why? Your thoughts…
11 comments:
wow. Those documents were pretty interesting. What really jumped out at me was in the section about the McDonalds in China, It said that the McDonalds in china was like a date place (as we can see according to the man's observances).....Wow in America..McDonalds is a pretty lame date place.
Oh and I tried to go on that obsessed MJ fan's so called website. Nothin came up haha
poor bubles! he was left behind! lol, so the MJ stuff was pretty bad. Especially the tatoo stuff. and of COURSE he's innocent of EVERYTHING because he's PERFECT!! and who makes out ina McDonalds? that was pretty sad. i will say though, i will be paying more attention when i drive down like, every street!! oh, and i have a bumper sticker on FB with a giraffe that's like ooberly obese and it's titled McDonalds hits Africa!! guess it has more meaning than i thought!!
Well that was quite interesting. I can see what you mean by this youth culture with MJ and McDonalds. Now the comments under the McDonalds article threw me for a loop. It is really odd to think of McDonalds as expensive. Now the articles on Tijuana that is pretty crazy. It seems like Britian during the industrial revolution (will we ever be civilized). And whats up with paying workers $1 to make a $200 dress.
hahaha wow and i thought i was a fan of certain people and there music. the girl is basically obsessed with him. but i paint a pretty clear picture in my head how cultural globalization works now... but goodness! i wonder if michael jackson got a restraining order on her?
This is a hard call when asked if the benefits of working in a multinational country in mexico. Its hard because the workers in Mexico are being treated better than what they are than if they were working at a Mexican company but then it doesn't seem fair to pay them less just because they are working in Mexico. I think that it is better for the Mexican people even though it really isn't fair.
Youth culture is all about role models. If someone you respect someone or some fast food joint is cool, that is going to be your new favorite person/fast food restaurant. At a young age you can not make decisions on your own. So you perceive "cool" as what society perceives it as. And when you grow up, these ideas stay with you, with slight exceptions. You can see this in the first document. My mom used to listen to ABBA (*puke*), Michael Jackson, and Boney M. as a teenager growing up in Bangalore, India. It is interesting to note this obsession with Western cultural traits. When I went to Mumbai, India last December, I felt like I was in New York. KFCs and Mcdonalds' were to be found everywhere. There were three big malls in the small portion of city I was in. In Bangalore, I went down a strip of brightly-lit stores that included Armani, Guess, Van Heusen, and other well-known Western brands. But what does American know of India? From examples of ignorance I've witnessed, only what can be gleaned from Lagaan, a film depicting colonial India. I've seriously met people (plural) that thought India was in Africa.
um... wow. I never knew somebody could be so obsessed! Thats really scary. Its also amazing to me how much something that Americans view as common and everyday can be viewed as such a luxury that its an ideal date place like Mcdonalds. It was cool that people could come together (i'm assuming it was on a blog) and talk about local music that they've found and like. Its cool that the world has become so globalized, but scary in the same respect. How much more can technology advance? We already can be in China's pocket in a metter of seconds, what is next in bringing the world closer?
Globalization is just Americanizing people. Its crazy. But the love of MJ was amazing. She really seems to like him. But I think it is because he was cool to her sister who thought it was cool that he was from America. Here in America he isn't as well liked. Well not liked enough to get a tattoo of his face on our body.
And the McDonalds in China. I guess it's cool to have a date there, even though here, if we were to go to McD on a date we would chop our date's head off for being so cheap and lazy. Globalization is so fast and so extreme that it is off the walls.
well i found it pretty different that in china mcdonald's is seen like a sort of romantic place, and a place almost as if to take some one on a date but its probably because its not something of their culture so they want to be seen in it because its different and cool. but i dont see why they would think of it like that. and the mj thing was just different, i dont get how and why someone would say they "love" an artist when they truely dont know them they know their songs and stuff like that and maybe have seen them 2 times or something but they dont truely know, much less to the extent to get a tattoo of them.
I can't imagine going to McDonalds for a date hah. How cool something is is pretty much based on what other people think about it though so I guess opinions are different everywhere. I'm actually really upset though because I've always wanted to travel the world but it's almost starting to seem pointless if I can just see the same stuff here. Like you said in class today if you go to the cities in other countries it looks like New York City or another large city we have in the U.S. I think it's really depressing that places are loosing their culture to things like McDonalds
I agree with everyone, the documents were interesting. From the first two documents it sounded like American influence was accepting. Like it was almost a rare delicacy, the things that American culture brought. It's easy to tell that Americans really take things for granted. It's also ridiculous about the women workers in Mexico. Completely taken for granted, but what can they do? They need the money, what little they can get, to provide for their families. It's just sad to see.
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