Chapter 13



Chapter 14 Global Awareness and….

Awareness of Issues

Ripple Affects of Globalization:

1. Benefits of the Internet

• Opportunities to make global connections, to tap into vast quantities of information and opinion and to present understandings of the world to anyone who will listen

2. Drawbacks of the Internet

• Opportunities to reinforces ignorance since information often lacks content and is unreliable, searches provide a wide range of points of view and perspectives

• Links to less desirable aspects of human life including terrorism, poverty, human trafficking and environmental degradation

3. Technology tends to create more needs than they address

Television as a prime form of entertainment, use of a cell phone any time, anywhere, i-pods to satisfy individual musical tastes, GPS to orient drivers

Ingenuity Gap:

The gap between people’s need for new and innovative solutions to problems-and their ability to supply those solutions

The gap is often clear cut: the developed world can provide solutions, the developing cannot

WHY?

Developing countries: Less money is available; weak market forces; internal conflicts that create instability

Gender Issues

Gender Gap: Social, economic and political differences that separate men and women

• 2005 World Economic Forum Study on the extent to which women in 58 countries had achieved equality with men in terms of politics, economics and health care

• Scores: 1- 7: 7 represents full gender equality

• Sweden-1; Norway- 2; Iceland-3; Denmarck-4; Finland-5; New Zealand-6; Canada-7

VS

• South Africa-36; Japan-38; Zimbabwe-42; Italy-45; Mexico-52; India-53

Communication Gap:

• Some members of women’s organizations-and those who they are trying to reach, often do not have access to contemporary communication technologies

• When members of these groups try to use technologies, they often face some of the following barriers:

Social and cultural expectations

language difficulties

lack of education

money

• The result? Women tend to have less access to communication technologies than men –and less ability to use these technologies in a way that meets their needs

Women in Government

• Some statistics:

• First woman in a national legislature: 1907 ( Finland ),

• First Canadian woman to sit in the House of Commons: 1921

• By 2007, no national legislature included 50% women ( even though they make up half of the population )

• Rwanda: Has the highest proportion of female parliamentarians

Why is it that if women form half of the population, why do they not hold half of the elected positions in governments?

Women and Employment

1. Employment equity in Canada is still a concern

• 1967: Canadian women who worked full time outside the home earned 58.4% as much as men

• 2003: Canadian women earned 71.2% as much as men

• Reasons for the change: Lobbying campaigns to reduce the inequity, laws requiring men and women to receive equal pay for equal value

2. Women in Canada are still struggling to rise to leadership positions

• 5.4% of the top earner’s at Canada’s 500 top corporations were women

• 3. Women still do more unpaid work than men

Women in Canada spend 4.3 hours a day doing unpaid work compared to 2.8 hours for men

Labour and Employment Issues

1. Unions and Collective Bargaining

• Unions have been under attack since the era of globalization began

WHY?

• The thought that…

o Nations think their economies have to be lean and strong

o Unions contribute to rising manufacturing costs

o Unions promote the interests of their members-not the state

AS A RESULT:

• There is far more outsourcing now than in the twentieth century

• union membership has fallen sharply over the past several decade

• BUT, despite reduced membership, unions continue to exert power and influence at the national level

2. International Initiatives

• At the international level, most unions remain fragmented and have yet to gain real power

• Some “super-unions” have been formed ( those that cross national borders and include large populations )

• An example of a super union: The International Trade Union Confederation. Their goal: to ensure that globalization does not erode worker’s rights-and more

• Many international unions are trying to redefine the society that many workers experience

• International campaigns are therefore now focusing on safeguarding human rights and getting rid of poverty

3. Labour standards

• Protests against the World Bank, the IMF and the G8 are often about how globalization threatens labour standards ( Measures that protect workers and the environment )

• The argument of protesters: The World Bank has done a lot to protect investors- but little to protect workers

• The goals of protestors: Since they have no policy making authority, they aim to pressure organizations to place labour standards on their agendas

• The results: Public awareness of labour issues has increased-as well as other changes ( IMF now has eradicating poverty as one of its main goals; TNCs have begun to develop codes of conduct to guide their actions )

BUT

The battle over labour standards continues:

Some say that setting high labour standards will reduce competitiveness, while others say that without labour standards, the “race to the bottom” increases inequality and suffering

Quality of Life

• measured by many social and economic factors

• A large part is standard of living, the amount of money and access to goods and services that a person has; these numbers are fairly easily measured.

• Others such as freedom, happiness, art, environmental health, and innovation are far harder to measure

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download