An introduction to Open World

Globalisation is the most controversial topic in the world today. Our lives are increasingly intertwined with those of
people across the globe. These links with distant places are not always new, but they are more pervasive than ever
before.

Take football. A hundred years ago, it was a British working-class passion. Twenty years ago, it was still a
predominantly European and South American working-class sport. Now it’s a huge global business. David Beckham
is a global brand; five African teams are playing in the World Cup in Germany, as are such unlikely countries as
Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea and Japan; Arsenal is managed by a Frenchman, and its squad includes five
Frenchmen, three Spaniards, three players from Côte d'Ivoire, two Swedes, two Cameroonians, a Belarusan, a
Brazilian, a Congolese, a Czech, a Dane, a Dutchman, an Estonian, a German, an Irish, an Italian, a Swiss and a
Togolese player; Thai schoolboys sporting Liverpool tops (Steven Gerrard is a local favourite) play the beautiful
game around Wat Saket, Bangkok’s Temple of the Golden Mount. Such cultural change - as well as the growing
economic ties of trade and investment and the political links between countries grappling with global problems - is
of the essence of 21st century globalisation.

This change is all-embracing, and yet profoundly misunderstood. Two reasons why so many people fear it. Is
globalisation eroding our identity, national or otherwise? Are global brands colonising the world economy (and our
minds)? Are we losing control of our lives to heartless mega-corporations and faceless markets? Many people think
so. And there is an element of truth to all these worries. But for the most part, the answer is reassuringly no.

Many books - some good, most of them bad - have been written about globalisation. Some argue that it is a good
thing; many more that it is not. This book aims to move the debate on. Globalisation is broadly a good thing, but it
is far from perfect. The crucial question, therefore, is not whether we should welcome or oppose globalisation, but
what kind of globalisation we want. Do we want completely open markets or should we keep some barriers?
Should Britons privilege their relations with Europe over those with America and other countries? Should
governments be doing more to tackle global warming? And so on.

These are vital decisions. Yet many people believe that we no longer have a choice. They think that global
companies now rule the roost and that the most we can do as citizens is to boycott their products in protest. They
are profoundly mistaken. This book will argue that we are still free to choose - as individuals, as groups of like-

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minded people and through the power of our elected governments. What’s more, we can, to a large extent, pick
and choose: unlike marriage, globalisation is not an either/or choice; it’s more like a supermarket where we can
choose from the best the world has to offer. This book will, I hope, help people make the right choices.

One of those rare books that grabs the conventional wisdom and turns it on its head. With brio and verve, and the
unique insight of the insider, Philippe Legrain examines the bogeyman of globalisation close up - and decides the
scaremongers have got it wrong. The result is an accessible, passionately argued case for the defence: anyone who
cares about our world and its future should read it
JONATHAN FREEDLAND

In this wonderfully lucid and intelligent book, Philippe Legrain takes on the many mistakes of the anti-globalisers.
Globalisation, he argues, is neither a label for Americanisation, nor an excuse for worldwide corporate domination.
It does not eliminate local cultures. Still less does it make governments irrelevant. It is a chance for mutual
enrichment, not a route to global impoverishment
MARTIN WOLF

At Disneyland teacup ride, a teacup is replaced by

a Starbucks cup.

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Globalization: the idea that “there are practically no serious, well-established forms of culture in the
modern world that are self-sufficient and autonomous, out of touch or out of communication with what
is going on elsewhere”; economically or politically, the barriers among cultures are rapidly breaking
down, resulting in a kind of global paradox in which people around the world may be exposed (resources
permitting) to the same kinds of images and objects, and in which there seems to be an increasing
degree of differentiation within cultures.

As economies globalize so do sign systems and, in the case of appearance styles, "looks." As companies
"go global" they must make their product intelligible and desireable to their new consumers. This is done
through advertising. Often this advertising focuses on selling a lifestyle, rather than the product itself, so
an entire system of signs - with all their particular historical meanings and biases- is deployed.

Because the vast majority of the world's wealth is concentrated in the "hegemonic West," it is their
systems of meaning - represented through images and looks - that are being deployed. By way of this,
being "fashionable" can come to mean being Western, European-based, English speaking, and white.
Some scholars have discussed this as a new form of colonization, as through it the colonized actively
participate in the obliteration of their own cultural heritage while simultaneously reifying Western-
European knowledges and practices. Other scholars see it as offering a way in which individuals can
demonstrate some degree of agency within a globalizing world of signs that may otherwise leave them
feeling rather alienated. They argue that individuals can choose to take up elements of these globalizing
sign systems and incorporate them into their own appearance style, and that through this some of the
anxieties and ambivalences inherent to change are worked through.

Regardless of which side of the debate one falls, we do know that the global circulation of sign systems
can tell us a great deal about the global distribution of power. One particularly interesting example can
be found in the tobacco industry's favorite expatriate: The Marlboro Man.
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Marlboro began as a uniquely American sign system . It was both produced primarily in
America, and sold primarily to an American consumer. In many of its ads it even used the
concept of the nation and nationalism to make associations between the cigarette and
stereotypical understandings of what it meant to be an American man. The representation
"spoke of" a heroic, independent, rugged, and free-spirited kind of white heterosexual
masculinity.

...

Slowly, however, consumers began to catch on. Studies began to be published which indicated
that smoking was a dangerous and deadly habit.

"In 1965 the United States Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act
requiring the surgeon general's warnings on all cigarette packages. In 1971, all broadcast
advertising was banned. In 1990, smoking was banned on all interstate buses and all domestic
airline flights lasting six hours or less. In 1994, Mississippi filed the first of 22 state lawsuits
seeking to recoup millions of dollars from tobacco companies for smokers' Medicaid bills. And in
1995, President Clinton announced FDA plans to regulate tobacco, especially sales and
advertising aimed at minors(CNN 2000)." This regulationa included a ban on the sale or give
away of products like caps, jackets, gym bags, and clothing that carry tobacco product names or
logos.

As a result of this, the tobacco market in the U.S. began to dwindle as did markets in other
"Western" countries. The tobacco industry began to increasingly concentrate on non-U.S. and
non-Western markets through a global marketing effort, and it began to diversify its marketing
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in countries where brand-stretching regulations were not in place. In short, the tobacco
industry launched a global marketing effort and, since the term "global marketing" really means
the global deployment of images and meanings - sign systems - this meant that the Marlboro
Man became a world traveler.

(scroll down to proceed through the virtual tour)

"A Marlboro billboard provides shady relief from the sun for
gellabiya-clad men waiting for a bus along the
Red Sea coastal highway, Egypt" ( Lightfoot, 2002 ).

As the Marlboro Man and the Marlboro logo travel, they find creative ways to play the brand-stretching
game. Through sponsoring motor sport events they are able to reify associations between the cigarette
and notions of rugged and heroic individualism . Teams of "Marlboro Girls" are often found hosting a
variety of events in a variety of countries linking the brand to sexuality and sexual liberation - ideas
which are often themselves linked to the West. Much of this branding happens through clothing. For
example, one can always spot the Marlboro Girls because of their signature red and white - and
provocatively worn - sports wear.

(Please scroll down to proceed)

A Billboard in Mexico

Japanese Marlboro Girls

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Marlboro women and Marlboro cars arrive at Stade Demba DIOP, West
Africa (SICAP Liberté I, Dakar)

Mr. Mohamed Bin Sulyem during the United Arab Emirates Desert
Challenge Sponsors a Press Conference, 2004.

Among its various brand-stretching efforts Phillip-Morris, the company behind the Marlboro
brand, also launched a new line of clothing called "Marlboro Classics" and a chain of up-scale
boutiques which carried the line. The boutiques are primarily in wealthy countries where
consumers can afford to purchase the status label. This begs the question: what exactly do
consumers feel that they are purchasing through the Marlboro Classics label?

Facade of Marlboro Classics store, Verona,

Italy, 2003. Also from Marlboro Classics
advertisments

While we have now seen a few

examples of the ways in which globalizing sign
systems can effect cultural change and

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perhaps act as a new form of ideological colonization, we have not yet even consider the
critical human rights concerns brought on by globalization. The issue of a basic set of human
rights and whether or not these are being met, must be considered if we are to begin to
understand what it means to live in a globalizing world. Afterall, these issues - ideology and
lived experience - are always intertwined.

So, what happens when we do consider - even just briefly - issues of labor and human rights in
regard to Marlboro Classics???

In an article written by journalist Alessandra Ilari, Gruppo Marzotto, a leading Italian textile and
apparel exporter who also holds the licensing for the Marlboro Classics line, is interviewed. He
states that the line is "assembled in China." Reflecting on the conditions of production within
the Italian based textiles industry Ilari then quotes Marzotto,

Consider the following: “An Italian worker costs a company an average of $15.80 an hour, while
the same person in India costs an average of 57 cents and China's average wage costs range
from 40 cents for mainland labor to 70 cents on the coast."

So, while we cannot definitively say that the labor conditions behind the Marlboro Classics label
is sweatshop labor, we do know that conservative estimates published by Global Exchange put
the living wage in China at $0.87 per hour - seventeen cents below Marzotto's highest figure.

assignment time…please complete these questions:

 In what ways does Marlboro Classic, as a sign system, still

rely on stereotypical understandings of American
masculinity?

 Given the fact that the Marlboro Classics sign system has
been legally censored within the U.S., why is it still a viable
marketing tool in other parts of the world?

" It’s all in a label"

 Thinking through all that you have learned about the

globalizing sign system that is "Marlboro," and what you
know of the Marlboro Classics clothing line, how would you
analyze the version of the Marlboro Classics label that is
presented below in terms of what it might tell us - or not -
about globalization?
 Explain your answer

From http://www.visuality.org/txc7/globalization1.htm use this link to read more about Globalisation

Now read a range of the extracts available on the vle (or use these links) that express different
people’s views on the impacts of globalisation and read p 68-69 EdexcelFISH and Ch 8 Edexcel

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http://vle.ucs.org.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=552 UCS VLE PAGE WITH ALL OF THE LINKS BELOW

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_99/default.htm THE REITH LECTURES (SEE WEEK 1 ESPECIALLY)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/31/globalisation.lewiswilliamson VIEWPOINTS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1790941.stm BBC GLOBALISATION GUIDE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1444930.stm PUBLIC OPINION VOICED ON BBC
http://www.globalenvision.org/library/8/545/ FREE MARKET VIEW FAVOURING GLOBALISATION
http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_summer/focuson/index.html SIMPLIFIED COVERAGE OF DEBATES FOR AS LEVEL
http://defeatpoverty.com/2007/05/globalization-good-or-bad.html HOW GLOBALISATION CAN EASE POVERTY
http://old.lse.ac.uk/collections/globalDimensions/globalisation/globalizationGoodOrBad/Default.htm GLOBAL DEBATE WITH
VIDEOS OF MAJOR SPEAKERS LIKE ANTHONY GIDDENS
http://www.worldaware.org.uk/education/projects/trade/timcullen04.doc ESSAY ON PROS AND CONS
http://www.unpac.ca/economy/wag_main.html WOMEN AND GLOBALISATION
http://www.basu-mallick.de/projekte/Oliver_Basu_Mallick_2005_Rostow_and_Globalization.pdf DEVELOPMENT THEORY

SEE THIS SITE for answers to the following questions http://www.globalisationguide.org/

And then complete the following essay in 600 words

Using examples as evidence outline the problems and benefits associated with the processes
of globalisation.

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CAN YOU FIND A BETTER IMAGE OF WHAT GLOBALISATION IS ALL ABOUT? PLEASE SEND IT TO
ME AND WE WILL DISPLAY IT ON THE WALLS OF THE GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

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