Global Divides: North-South Gap

• Global Divides refers to the gap in development and wealth between the Global North and the Global South.

Brandt Line

• It was developed in the 1980s to illustrate the geographical split between richer and poorer nations.
• Most richer countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, excluding Australia and New Zealand.
• Most poorer countries are in tropical regions and the Southern Hemisphere.
• The perception has become outdated due to economic development in many poorer countries.
• Countries like Argentina, Malaysia, and Botswana have above-average GDP per capita but are still considered part of the "Global South".
• The Global North consists of developed societies in Europe and North America which make up 1/4 of the world's population
• These societies are characterized by established democracy, wealth, technological advancement, political stability, aging populations, zero population growth, and dominance in world trade and politics.
• Inequality has increased despite development gains globally.
• By 2000, Western Europe's per capita income was thirteen times bigger than Africa's which in 1820 it was three times bigger.
• In 2013, Oxfam reported 85 of the richest people in the world owned the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population.

Factors Causing Inequalities

• Availability of natural resources
• Different levels of health and education access
• A country's economic structure/industrial sectors
• International trading policies and access to markets
• Quality of governance and international relations
• Conflict
• Vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change

Asian Regionalism

• Primary motivation is to advance welfare in the region.
• The desire to prevent the collapse of international trade and financial flows and the downward spiral of economic activity led to the adoption of non-discrimination as the foundation of WTO and GATT.
• Some economists and policymakers are skeptical about regionalism because of its potential negative effects on the Multilateral Trade and Financial System.
• Asian countries are connected through markets.
• Regionalism can link the diverse economies in the region to boost productivity needed to sustain growth.
• It also provides leadership to help sustain open global trade and financial systems.
• Asia includes powerful countries and economic centers with shared economic priorities.
• Disagreements can arise due to politics and history.
• Cooperation may require some national sovereignty which may lead to the narrowing of policy options for pursuing national objectives.
• The center of economic activity is shifting to Asia.
• Addressing challenges requires rapid economic growth, addressing citizens' demands, and sustainable and inclusive growth through Regional Economic Cooperation.
• Asian countries connect through financial transactions and direct investment.
• Asian regionalism benefits the world by creating regional mechanisms for managing and contributing to effective global solutions.
• Regionalism benefits Asia by cooperating in setting exchange rate and macroeconomic policies to minimize the effects of global and regional shocks.
• These policies facilitate the Resolution of Global Imbalances.
• Some countries established discriminatory currency blocs with strict exchange controls which led to the collapse of international trade and financial flows which accelerated the downward spiral of economic activity.
• Asian regionalism helps sustain global economic progress when other major regions are reaching economic maturity.
• Asian leaders have committed to closer collaboration and taken concrete steps towards addressing the Financial Crisis in 1997/98.
• Cultural globalization has become a conceptual focal point that attracts research across disciplines such as Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, and Geography.
• Media and hybridity point towards middle ground in the recognition that cultures have long been in contact through warfare, trade, migration, and slavery.
• Hybridization is an interdisciplinary concept based in Intellectual Projects, Post Colonialism, Cultural Studies, and Performance Studies.
• The global media debate raises concerns about the free flow of information, trade, lack of balance, and free flow of information ideology.
• Cultural imperialism's most important aspects involve power, effects, flows, and processes.
• The Northern Hemisphere is characterized as rich, industrialized, wealthy, and capitalist.
• International Relations are viewed through Post Modernism, Realism, Liberalism, and Marxism.

Global Cities

• This idea emerged in social science literature in the 1980s, shortly after the concept of globalization
• It is the location where the globalizing force can be physically noticed.
• The term suggests power, sophistication, wealth, and influence.
• The ideas and values of the metropolis shape the world.
• They provide adequate wage jobs.
• They offer discrimination-free opportunities.
• People can access educational opportunities and health care.
• Residents are not at risk of forced eviction.
• The Japanese Mori Foundation’s Global Power City Index measures the global power of cities through Economy, Livability, Environment, and Accessibility.
• High costs, alienation, impersonality, and social isolation are downsides.
• The Al-Qaeda network was implicated in the attack--though consisting mostly of Saudis--is also actively supported by Russia.
• Religion in Global Conflict involves Identity, Accountability, Security, and Ideas

Transnational Religion

• Topics include Migration of Faith, Transnational Religion, Religious Universalism, Local Particularism, and Religion Transnationalism
• All Starbucks branches and Shanties look similar, representing cultural homogenization.
• Affluent spaces in developing countries may mirror the Global North, areas of underdevelopment in developed countries may reflect conditions/poverty in the Global South.
• Asian regionalism has benefits and could sustain growth, stability, ensure the right policies, and reduce inequality.
• The shift from cultural imperialism to globalization is explained by Ideological Competition, Geo-Political Competition, Economic Competition, and Analytical and Paradigms of Thoughts.
• Cultural hybridity involves the Interface of Globalization, Localization, Hybrid Products, Mixed Tradition, and Cultural Forms.
• Nestor Garcia-Candini's cultural hybridity covers Museums, Television, Communication, and Universities

Principles of Cultural Hybridity

• Mixing previously separate cultural systems
• Mixing elite art (opera) with popular music
• Hybridity is the deterritorialization of cultural processes
• Impure cultural genres that are formed out of the mixture of several cultural domains
• Secularization is a decline in the importance of religion and an overall shift in human condition frameworks.
• Secularization makes a choice possible between belief and non-belief.
• The migration of faith across the globe grew during the 20th century.
• Transnational religion emerged after World War II.
• Globalization faces challenges, with security being one issue.
• Religion is relevant in times of crisis.
• Globalization has caused enormous problems, identity, accountability, and security.
• Religion provides answers within these times.
• Traditional leaders offer a sense of accountability.
• Osama bin Laden established Al-Qaeda while religious and has provided a metaphor of cosmic war imagery.
• It is the fight between good and bad, truth and evil.
• Al-Qaeda considered the attack to be religious, catastrophic, and an act of biblical proportions on the World Trade Center.
• Pierre Bourdieu stated public life is shaped by symbols in the act of "rites of institution" which can help to demarcate public space and indicate what is meaningful in the social world.
• No single entity, not even the United Nations, has enough resources to handle worldwide terrorism.
• Alliances of nations are necessary to share information and carry out joint operations to deal with violence on an international scale.
• Al Jazeera News Channel covered the Al-Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center.
• Violent religious movements have their own cultures and histories, but share attitudes toward religion such as refusing to accept the boundaries set by secular society.
• People questioned how religion could be related to vicious acts of political violence.
• Religious activists are puzzling anomalies in the secular world.
• Religion gave bin Laden and his cadres the moral legitimacy to employ violence on the World Trade Center.
• The terrorists' main objective was to make a powerful impact on public consciousness.
• The problems that the era of globalization brought with it are identity, accountability, and security.
• These problems were provided with answers by religion.
• The idea about global cities emerged in social science literature in the 1980s, shortly after the concept of globalization.
• Global cities are central in understanding contemporary spatial patterns of globalization:
• The global flows of people, capital, and ideas are woven into the daily lived experiences of residents
• It means power, sophistication, wealth, and influence.
• The ideas and values of the metropolis shape the world.
• The global city embodies both the good and the bad effects of globalization.
• The global city transcends borders.
• According to Sassen (1991), global cities have an income polarization with occupation, highly paid professionals on one side and low-paid providers on the other.
• Well-off professional lifestyles require low-paid workers for cleaning, child care, deliveries, restaurants, catering, maintenance, transport, retail, and domestic help.
• Sassen (2005) calls global cities global command centers of the world economy.
• Cosmopolitanism is tied to global cities.
• Large, diverse cities attract people, material, and cultural products from across the world.
• The idea of cosmopolitanism invokes pleasant images of travel, exploration, and 'worldly' pursuits.
• Consumerism is costly in resources.
• Commercial culture, retail, and shopping are commonplace.
• There is a cross-cultural variety of food, fashion, entertainment, and artifacts
• Networks and groups rely on geographic proximity.

Global Cities are Livable Because

• They provide jobs that pay an adequate wage
• They provide basic services, including safe water and adequate sanitation
• They are free of discriminatory practices
• People have access to educational opportunities and health care
• People are not at risk of forced eviction
• People have safe and clean communities and neighborhoods
• They provide affordable housing for residents
• They are governed through inclusive local democratic processes.

Global Power City Index

• It measures the global power of cities using the combination of six criteria which are economy, research and development, interaction, livability, environment, and accessibility. Global Power City Index (GPCI) Highlights
• It focuses on a wide variety of functions to assess and rank comprehensive power opposed to focus on particular areas like finance or sustainability.
• The index examines 44 world cities: examining city strength in terms of its economy, research and development, cultural interaction, livability, environment, and accessibility which is driven by 5 global actors who provide a all encompassing view.
• It reveals strengths and weaknesses and uncovers problems needing solutions
• The involvement of the late Peter Hall and third parties has lent authority to this peer reviewed index.

Characteristics of the 2017 Index

• London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Singapore have maintained their positions in the top 5.
• Sydney has made its way to the top 10 for the first time in seven years.
• Cities in Europe excel in livability and environment and cities in Asia excel in economy.
• London is in the lead for the sixth year in a row due to its high economic status, dining options, and numbers of tourists but New York is seeing decline in cultural events.
• Tokyo has seen stall in Visitors and thus slips on the global ranking from 1 to 4 on the economy and slips in sizes of the market.