Robertson (cited in Rantanen 2005, p.7) explains that globalisation "refers both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole."
Recent successful transitions to democracy in some of the Middle East countries seem to be significantly related to globalisation, consciousness of the world. The transitioning process was initiated in the name of protection of human rights.
Image sauce: http://world.edu/arab-spring-year-challenges-reforms-democratic-transition/
On the other hand, what if globalisation ironically is creating situations where human rights are ignored? There seems to be no consciousness of the world in relation to human rights in sweatshops of developing countries. For instance, a worker of Foxconn Technology Group which is a main supplier of Apple Inc committed suicide last month even though an agreement of improvement of working conditions was reached in March this year (Reuters 2012 no.pg). The precise reason of the suicide is unknown, however, it seems fair to say that the poor working condition affected the person's mental aspect negatively. Also there were other suicides in the company in the past.
Image sauce: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-accused-of-using-chinese-sweatshop-labor/
If Apple had had a recognition of universal standard of working conditions, workers in Faxconn would have been offered same working conditions as that of developed states. Therefore, in the context of human rights in sweatshops in developing states, globalisation could not refer to increasing consciousness of the world.
References:
Rantanen, T 2005, The Media and globalization, Saga, London, pp. 1-18.
Reuters, 2012, 'Foxconn says plant worker jumps from apartment', The Age, 15 June, retrieved 21 July 2012,
I really liked reading your blog this week. In particular, I liked that you focussed on a discrete area of the topic this week instead of trying to cover everything. The idea that globalisation involves an 'intensification of consciousness of the world' is an interesting point and I think your use of examples and images put everything in context. It is a shame that the word count is so limited as I think it would be nice to expand on this discussion. Great read, Cheers.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was extremely insightful and a nice way to look at the topic of the week. The current examples were a real eye opener and a great way to support your argument. The scholarly reference at the beginning was a good basis but I felt it could have possibly been explained or examined a bit more. Aside from that it was a great engaging read. Great Job!
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