GEO 101 World Human Geography
Discussions Fall 2007
Discussion 2: The Geography of Globalization

Reading to Be Done Before This Discussion: : Daniel H. Pink. 2004. The new face of the silicon age: how India became the capital of the computing revolution. Wired 12.02. & Anderson, Chris. 2004. The Indian Machine. Wired 12.02. Both are available at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india.html
Things to Bring to Discussion: Your own notes on the article and/or a print out.
Due in Discussion THIS Week: Answers to the questions below due at the beginning of class.
Due in Discussion NEXT Week: Answers to questions as usual
Concepts/Ideas/Places: globalization, fragmentation, information society, interconnection

Context: One major characteristic of the present-day world economy is the growing mobility of capital and goods which not only increases the insecurity of working conditions in both industrialized and newly developing countries, but also allows transnational corporations to take more control over government actions.  Given the growth in foreign investment by transnational firms, places all over the world are becoming increasingly interconnected.  This is in contrast to the relative immobility of most people engaging in the daily activities of social reproduction.  Such immobility reinforces an opposite trend of reasserting local identities, cultures, and histories.  Religious, cultural, and national groups resist interdependent globalism by reasserting the uniqueness of place.  In lecture and discussion, we’ll discuss the ways that places are changed by increasing global interconnection and how people living in particular places resist or accommodate such changes. Additionally, we’ll address the question of how economic changes promote parallel changes in culture, religion, and social relationships.  We will ultimately ask what meaning the economic globalization of the world has for people in particular places in the context of capitalism’s uneven development.

To prepare for Discussion:  Since 1973, economic changes have introduced a new phase economic restructuring of the world economy called globalization. The world is becoming more interconnected due to the rapid progress made in communication and transportation technologies. Some people believe that globalization will finally extinguish economic and even cultural inequalities between different countries.  It is true that global integration has improved the quality of life for many in some of the poorest countries in the world.  Despite these improvements, globalization’s critics maintain that socioeconomic gaps will not only continue to exist but will widen. According to this latter group, the new agents of imperialism are multinational corporations, which benefit from precisely the same economic factors that prompted the initial colonization of the Third World: cheap resources and cheap labor.

In the early stages of the current era of globalization, perhaps from the early 70's to the mid 1990s the jobs being exported abroad were mostly secondary industries (manufacturing). This week's article, The new face of the silicon age: how India became the capital of the computing revolution by Daniel H. Pink helped to spark national debate about the increasing outsourcing of jobs in tertiary (services) and quaternary industries (knowledge work). The article chronicles the outsourcing of American white collar programing jobs to India from the point of view of workers in both the United States and in India. Americans who have lost their jobs argue that outsourcing will ultimately reduce the economic well-being of the United States. Indian programmers argue that not only can they do the job for less money (the average salary for an Indian programmer is $8000 per year vs. $70,000 per year for an American) but that they can do a better job (Pink 2004). Furthermore, outsourcing frees up Americans do do other, better things. In the accompanying article Chris Anderson similarly argues that outsourcing may lead to the "next great era in American enterprise" by freeing American creativity (Anderson 2004). Both sides of this argument have merit, but the article also raises some interesting questions. For example, while India may be importing jobs now, there may come a day when those jobs will go elsewhere, just as has occurred in the outsourcing of manufacturing to other countries. Outsourcing may move more American workers into doing knowledge work, but what happens when the Indians start competing not just on the basis of quality but also on the basis of creativity and innovation? In short "What comes after Knowledge?" (Pink 2004:5). Finally, though outsourcing may be good for the economy as a whole, it is is clearly not good for those workers who have lost their jobs at least in the short term. Do their difficulties merit any concern? Is it more efficient for former computer programers to be working as package delivery people? Where's the creativity in that?

 As with all of the articles you’ll read this semester, Pink's writing has a point of view and an argument. While it is couched as balanced journalism and is largely balanced, the author does express some underlying assumptions. Your job is not necessarily to believe everything the author says, but rather to question his conclusions in light of your own experience, other things that you have read, and in terms of the argument’s overall logic.  As you read, see if you can figure out what the author's overall argument is and why he believes that to be true. Does the article have a thesis statement or thesis paragraph? What evidence does the author provide in support of his argument. Think about these issues as you read because you will need to make your own arguments on these issues in your essay assignment.

Works Cited
Anderson, Chris. 2004. The Indian Machine. Wired 12.02. Available: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india.html

Pink, Daniel H. 2004. The new face of the silicon age: how India became the capital of the computing revolution. Wired 12.02. Available http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india.html.

Questions to be Answered and Turned in at the Beginning of Class
Name:
Honor Code:  

1.  What are three of the best arguments in favor of outsourcing jobs to India in the article? 

2.  What are three of the best arguments against outsourcing jobs to India in the article?

3.  What are three examples of jobs that can not be outsourced? In what sector of the economy are these jobs located? (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary)

4.  In light of the benefits and costs of outsourcing should goverments in the US ban the outsourcing of state contracts to foreign countries?

5.  What is one question about the reading that you would like to raise during discussion?