Globalisation: Reshaping the Geographical Imagination - Coursework Example

Globalisation: Reshaping the Geographical Imagination During the last few decades of the twentieth century the world has turned into the stage for play called globalisation, with new entities and realities taking the leading roles. Globalisation has become one of the key factors influencing spatial, political, social, and technological aspects of the modern world geography as it literally reshapes the world we live in. The drastic effect of the globalisation on the modern metropolis stems out of the change in the way people and places interact with each other as was pointed out by Foucault in his works: Michel Foucault states that the space in the contemporary era is defined by the relationship between sites. The problem of site, or placement, arises from demography. "How do home, work and other sites relate to each other" Foucault asserts that the anxiety of our era is fundamentally related to space. (McMaster 2005, n/p) The factors that have influenced the development of the international trade of goods and services, international investment and migration flows, and consequently blurring the political and geographic boundaries, are numerous. It is this way because the world environment itself is an extremely complex and interrelated system. Any change in one integral part of the system leads to the change in the related parts. Thus, the economic implications of the globalisation process and its psychological effect have altered the modern conceptions of what a city is and provoked discussion on issues of urbanism and antiurbanism. The notion of the strict separation of the urban and the rural, embodied in such iconic images as the walled city of the Middle Ages, the fortified city of the seventeenth century, the Puritan stockade staring out into the primeval forest, even the smokestacks of the industrial city viewed from the refuge of its hills, has given way to urban conglomerations that can be mapped only by satellite, a landscape in which nature is preserved only by culture. The identification of city life with civilization itself, growing out of both etymology and a Whig sense of progress as defined by urban commerce, has been called into question (Ganim 2002, p.365) The major economic driving force of the globalisation, the desire of a firm to effectively allocate its resources among different countries is an extremely important factor, but not a new one at all. It has been in place for a long time. It has forced the companies to internationalize probably since the first wave of inter-national commerce has developed and continues to do so now. Maximization of output, profits or minimization of costs are not what makes the few last decades unique. However, the role of the targeting effective allocation is really significant and it cannot be omitted while analyzing the driving forces of globalisation. The next stage in optimization of the resources allocation is replacing indirect or direct export to the country with direct investment into the local production. McRae sees this process of replacing exports with local production as absolutely crucial, because it implies that goods will either be made close to their markets, or where costs are lowest. They will not necessarily be made where the company happens to have its headquarters, or its origins. The choice of where to produce will depend on a number of things. Where there is a fear of protectionism, as with cars, there will be a tendency to produce locally as a way of fending off such pressures. Where labour costs make up a large proportion of the total costs, there will be a tendency to shift production to countries where wages are low. Anyone looking around the world can see this process taking place. (McRae 1996, p.151) Shift in significance of various types of production and the special location of production site leads to the utilization of new productive spaces, and the negligence of earlier used procedures and activities, no more effective in the contemporary global marketplace. While the term globalisation seeks to explain a complex net of dispersed activities throughout the world, the impact on national and local spaces is far from abstract. Impacts of globalisation are direct and experienced by all members of society, often leading to social conflict as a result of the tensions within the processes of globalisation (Mittelman 1994, pp. 440-441). Another driving force of internalization and change in spaces is the rapidly developing telecommunications sector. Skyrocketing increase in availability of information, enhancement of communication flows and speed of transmission leads to significant decline in transactional costs and serves as an enabler for development of the operations across the traditionally defined borders. Development of the Internet and communication technologies is the unique characteristic of last few decades. Thomas Friedman emphasizes this fact in his book The Lexus and The Olive Tree by contrasting the 1880-1920s time of internationalization driven by the drastic decline in transportation costs and current processes: Technologically speaking today's era of globalisation is built around falling telecommunications costs - thanks to microchips, satellites, fiber optics and the Internet . . . These technologies also allow companies to locate different parts of their production, research and marketing in different countries, but still tie them together through computers and teleconferencing as though they were in one place. (Friedman 2000, p.xvii) With the environment becoming more and more dynamic and complex, the companies tend to globalise and geography becomes a phenomena of more heterogeneous type as well. Nowadays we witness a world of greater complexity; one that is more global and in which the pace of change is swifter. It is the world in which corporations are becoming open networks or systems of specialized parts, more reliant on knowledge and alliances (Pasternack & Viscio 1998, p.21). It is also the world where the traditional perceptions of urban and rural spaces have to be carefully re-examined. To catch a global market, a nation firstly appraises the basic needs, desires and ethics of the people of the buying country. Political boundaries are becoming virtually elastic by globalisation. A nation is supposed to flourish when its rural mass is not allured to drift towards cities and concentrate in their own agricultural or indigenous production. But globalisation is working the other way. Several metro cities are coming close to villages, creating a 'global village'. Due to acculturation and its related direction of spread, a 'friction of space' occurs. A steady flow of cultural mingling precipitates an easy 'space flow'. Globalisation achieves this. (Axtmann 1998, p. 79) Bibliography: Axtmann, R. 1998, Globalisation and Europe: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations, London. Friedman, T.L. 2000, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Ancor Books, New York. Ganim, J. M. (2002). Cities of Words: Recent Studies on Urbanism and Literature, [Online] MLQ: Modern Language Quarterly. Available from: [26 December 2005]. Jenny McMaster (2005). Parkette: In No Way Removed, [Online] Available from: [25 December 2005]. McRae, H. 1996, The World in 2020: Power, Culture, and Prosperity. Harvard Business School Press, Boston. Mittelman, J.H. 1994, The Globalization Challenge: Surviving at the Margins, Third World Quarterly 14: 427-43. Pasternack, B. and Viscio A.J. 1998, The Centerless Corporation: A New Model for Transforming Your Organization for Growth and Prosperity. Simon & Schuster, New York. Read More