Globalization and Africa Topic 1

Definitions The widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnectedness “The ongoing process of greater interdependence among countries and their citizens” (Fischer 2003:3) “The compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole” (Robertson 1992:8) “Intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring miles away and vice versa” (Giddens 1990)

Aspects of globalization Social- stretching of social relations across world Economic- spread of global capitalism Political- decline of nation-state’s power Cultural- homogenization, culture clashes, hybridity Technological- compression of time and space All these aspects are interconnected

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION 1. “Free Market Economy” where the market is “free” from State control 2. Economies Are Increasingly Linked Together- E.U, WTO 3. Global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations 4. Competition 5. Multi-national companies- Dutch East India Company, Nike, Wal-Mart, Royal/Dutch Shell,

Economic Globalization in AFRICA Little Industry and Technology “Brain Drain” Debt (IMF loans) 300 million people live on less than $1/day Sub-Saharan Africa in extreme poverty (less than 750 calories/day) Gap between rich and poor increasing

POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION The United Nations: Global association of governments. Facilitating cooperation in international law, security, economic development, and social equity The US and the UK were the only nations in support of going to war in Iraq Can a global politics with social values exist?

CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION McArabia Kofta

CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION Cultural Imperialism = Dominance of one culture over others Hollywood movies, MacDonald’s, Disneyland, Starbucks Dominance of the English language and invasion of other languages Do people all over the world have the same taste? Africa “Culture Industry” = opportunities for Africans to sell their culture in the “global market” that values traditional culture

TECHNOLOGICAL GLOBALIZATION Print, photography, film, telephone, broadcasting, satellites, and computer rapidly merging in the global communication network Increased Computer technology around the world Increase in internet use Communication technology compressing time and space (global) media and the worldwide spread of International Communication Technologies have made global interconnectedness Development of global media and ICT networks have not merely created new networks for the dissemination of information across spatial boundaries

Communication enabling globalisation The Internet with its 1.9 billion users in 2010 [4] Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Wikileaks represent a highway of global communication. Google is processing more than one billion searches per day [5]; 105 million Twitter users are tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day [6]; people sent more than 90 trillion e-mails in 2010 [5]; Facebook has 540 million users who spend about 700 billion minutes on the site every month [7]; Wikileaks has published 3,890 secret diplomatic documents from all over the world...

Cultural imperialism Many words that can be used to describe cultural imperialism are tied to concepts of colonialism: invasion, paternalism, proselytizing. Sometimes viewed as the ‘invasion’ by an Western business and culture “Globalisation is what we in the Third World have for several centuries called colonisation.” (Martin Khor 1995) Globalization poses significant changes to people’s ways of life Imbalance of cultural flows: from ‘core’ to periphery’, not vice versa Local cultures commercialised

Cultural imperialism Americanization Process where all peoples are becoming more like Americans through the prolonged and continued exposure to American culture used as both a synonym for globalisation, an expletive used to express fears of homogenisation and cultural imperialism the promotion and extension of American principles and values Refers to a global American monoculture promoted by American brands carrying the image of America: Coke, McDonald’s IBM, Nike, Marlboro American media dominance perceived as a manifestation American imperial domination

Cultural imperialism Americanization American image is also being shaped by popular culture and entertainment brands such as Jerry Springer, Sesame Street, Baywatch, Disney, Madonna, The Simpsons and MTV Top 100 multinationals are all US-owned companies! Royal/Dutch Shell: global group of energy and petrochemical companies, operating in more than 140 countries and territories, employing more than 112,000 people

Colonialism Manifestation of globalization both have led to the establishment of asymmetrical economic interdependencies between territories Colonialism seen to impose Western values on African nations Imposition of universalized religion, economic and political models in Africa Homogenization of culture