Globalisation and Geography

yawn...must type this fast. today, er jie and i "finally" got to go for the geog talk on globalisation. yah..pple say 'woa'..so small think so big..but we have to right? can't be sitting at home reading a fiction book all day. so the talk goes like this: the guy's name is Henry Yeung. he is a NUS lecturer and some guy who is getting 'famous' by the day but no so yet in economical- geographical sense. Apparently, he's quite famous (found about 42000 results on him in google (TM) Anyway, the talk started with some NUS guys who promoted their geography modules and stuff. And the main impt part: Geography and Globalisation (1) basically, globalisation is a set of processes through which the world becomes more functionally integrated and interdependent. (2) globalisation needs national boundaries (3) the global-local dialectic; spaces of flows( borderless world) vs spaces of places (boundaries- presence of local e.g your own country) (4) Global and Local cannot be separated. (5) the world is unequal from the beginning.- pple are born rich/ poor. Globalisation enhances it-> results in increased tensions (6) with globalisation, the world becomes integrated ( space- shrinking tech.) (7) MNCs are actually TNCs (transnational companies) (8) Globalisation:#flows of capital and goods #movement of pple eg. migration #spacial diffusion of info and cultures (like pollination) #rise of international companies e.g UN, ASEAN, EU, World Bank, NAFTA, WTO, APEC, IMF (9) although globalisation makes us 'similar' (homogenisation), the more pple want to be diff.->" uniquely Singapore" (10) Good of GLobalisatiOn : you see products not made locally e.g Coke (R) (11) BAD of GLobalisatiON : #north-south divide-> poor get poorer/rich get richer #developed-developing divide #urban-rural divide CONCLUSION: world getting more uneven. (12) Globalisation and discontents: discourse shapes practice--practice brings out competition--> case of "competitiveness" in labour-intensive industries e.g Nike * over-riding all other considerations : natural and unchallengable explanation for past and future happenings. (13) Competitiveness--> life and death? --> NO (14) labour- intensive industries lower labour costs --unequal divide of income (15) *exploitation of ultra-cheap female labour in developing countries by Nike's need to please stock market analysts (Wall Street) * capital accummulation in Nike * pple making shoes don't get $. $ goes to repatriates. (16) What we can do: *look for spatial unevenness & inequalities * find out who caused it * look for ways to neutralise it--> (as if we can as students..haha) alright..tt's all for now.. lecture session over.