Economic interactions and flows

More people than ever before work in call centres in the UK but are they the modern-day equivalents of the factory production line?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12691704

This article that was posted on the bbc is of particular interest to me. Call centres contain an incredible 3.5% of the entire UK workforce. I was very shocked by the way they described them to be 'Satanic mills'. The personal comments were also interesting because they seemed to be written relatively eloquently. This says something about the level of education possessed by a typical call centre worker. It's nice to see that the UK is using the local labor work force instead of adhering to the common malpractice of offshoring jobs 

Question:

What do you think made call centre's 'get their act together' by improving pay and working conditions? Is the same thing happening to similar firms around the world?

Political Outcomes Blog Post (Due March 20)

Sorry, but there weren't any pictures on the article...

Here's one anyway:

ARTICLE: 

For £150,000, You Can Buy Bulgarian-EU Citizenship

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2014/03/17/for-150000-you-can-buy-bulgarian-eu-citizenship/

Summary:

So the article pretty much talks about the now, increasingly popular practice of buying citizenships to foreign countries. According to the article: "The EU financial crisis in recent years, however, has opened the visas-for-investment exchange to a far larger number of less wealthy foreign investors. Spain, Portugal, and Greece, to name a few, have been offering them to those with enough money to buy a second home abroad." It was this particular portion of the article that I found to be most interesting/disturbing.

Me talking to myself:

Granted that there are some additional legal hoops that some countries require potential buyers to jump through, this article is a testament to the severe lack of money circulating in the economies of some countries (particularly those in the EU). They need these quick influxes of cash to help keep themselves afloat. Although such an agenda is not directly stated, making citizenships available for purchase definitely seems to imply a cause for concern. This makes me think critically about the limitations of forming a European Union in the first place. Could it be that the negative effects of the EU are beginning to outweigh the positive effects? How desperate are these countries? The intergovernmental approach that the EU adopted seems less feasible as more news like this (about struggling economies) begins to surface. Perhaps the countries are running out of options...

Socio-cultural Exchange

Choose either the concept of cultural diffusion (voluntary/consented change in culture) or cultural imperialism (enforced/pressured change in culture) and using specific examples explain how transnational corporations either intentionally or unintentionally spread consumerism through your chosen concept.

Cultural diffusion (a voluntary/consented change in culture) is an increasingly prominent concept in a world experiencing rapid globalisation.

McDonalds has an infamous track record for putting up stores in every corner of the globe. The franchise has become so commonplace, that it sometimes even adopts some local cuisines and preferences to indulge its consumers. In the Philippines, for example, the McDonalds menu contains additional Filipino-specific items like McSpaghetti (with some pinoy style sausage, cheese, and sweet sauce), Ube-flavored ice cream, and Filipino breakfast items (like tocino). The incorporation of such products has enticed consumers to become regulars at the establishments. Inevitably, this technique made more Filipinos develop a preference for fried fast-food items that are extremely popular in the United States. We have experienced somewhat of a cultural diffusion in our cuisine as foreign foods dramatically increase in popularity because of globalisation. (The effects of which can be both positive and negative)

Starbucks is also a transnational corporation that has been experiencing exponential growth because of cultural diffusion. Typically, Starbucks intentionally places indications of earth-friendly and local-friendly activity on the walls of their coffee shops. They stress their preferences for local hiring, and write about the friendly and fair relationships they have with coffee bean farmers. This attracts consumers as it provides them with a sort of ethical incentive to purchasing a cup of coffee. They feel more inclined to purchase from Starbucks because of the perceived positive externalities. The positive externalities stand out as media reveals other more self-centred firms. The resulting consumerism is definitely apparent. Cultural diffusion has occurred as more Filipinos are adopting foreign lifestyle habits and becoming heavy coffee drinkers.
For more info on McDonalds Dtarbucks and other consumerist transnational corporations check out this link: http://consumerist.com/

Practice for Blogging for Globalization Unit

Pros and Cons of Globalization

Pros

- Increase in Accessibility of Information

Online libraries, information websites, videos, online courses, etc. has allowed widespread information to the far corners of the globe. Such tools have increased the education standard worldwide by making it more available with internet connection.

- International Communication

Mass social networking sites like Facebook and Skype has allowed relatively intimate international communication.

- International Awareness

Online media and videos have been used to raise awareness about certain issues dramatically, and has resulted in an increase in donations for important necessities like global relief and aid. Example: Kony 2012 and Yolanda relief efforts

- Increase in the availability of more goods and services

Cons

- Exploitation of Poor

Outsourcing work is now a popular strategy being employed by profit-driven firms that want to minimize expenditure at all costs. Example: Nike has an ongoing controversy as it is being criticized for "the following year it was revealed that workers in one of its contracted factories in Vietnam were being exposed to toxic fumes at up to 177 times the Vietnamese legal limit."

- Illegal Activity Online

The internet's introduction to the world brought with it new activity that needed to be legislated against or prohibited. These include but are not limited to: Child pornography, purchasing and selling of illegal substances, pirating. For example, "TOR" was an underground search engine that was well protected by its creators from any kinds of surveillance. It therefore became popular shortly after the turn of the century for the online drug market and other illegal markets.

- Strain on resource deposits

Fossil fuels are a finite resource that are definitely being strained by globalization. More oil, coal, natural gas are needed by countries transitioning out of agricultural economies and into more economies that are more oil-reliant. This will reduce the fossil feul reserves and lead to higher prices that could strain these economies

- Environmental strain

Ecological footprint could dramatically increase with more oil-reliant economies as production will probably increase.