Global Divides: The North and the South

Global Divides: The North and the South

• Uneven globalization results in socio-economic and political imbalances.
• The world is often divided into North/South, and First, Second, and Third World categories.
• Global South is a metaphor for interstate inequality and a product of Western imagination.
• Historically, divisions existed among nations.
• Countries colonized by Spain in the southern part of the Americas are known as Latin America.
• The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided newly discovered lands outside of Europe between Spain and Portugal.
• The division also exists based on labor as: the core, the semi-periphery, and the peripheries.
• Global South refers to the socio-economic and political divide focused on the southern hemisphere.
• It consists of Africa, Latin America, and Asia (including the Middle East).
• These countries are not aligned with the northern hemisphere's fair labor practices, rights, free trade, reduced tariffs, and sustainable development policies.
• The Global South includes developing countries, whereas the Global North includes rich, industrialized, and wealthy nations.
• The Global North comprises the Group of Eight (G8): Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, Russia, United States.
• The Global North hosts the four powerful permanent members of the UN Security Council.
• It includes developed countries in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
• The Global South is also found in developed countries, with economic disparities and human rights issues.
• The Global North is also experienced within the geographical boundaries of the Global South.
• Countries that did not belong to first world capitalist or second world socialist economies were referred to as the Third World.
• The term Third World originally referred to former colonies of European countries.
• The term Third World described countries that lacked standard systems in banking, finance, and trade.
• It is outdated to say that countries in Southeast Asia belong to the Third World.
• These countries may be classified as the Global South.

Global Culture and Media

• Culture is the unified style of human knowledge, beliefs, and behavior.
• Media has influenced the development of culture.
• Historically, media had five stages that affect globalization.
• Oral communication: Language allowed humans to share information.
• Invention of Script: Script allowed humans to communicate despite distance.
• The Printing Press: It allowed continuous production and circulation of written documents.
• Electronic media: The telegraph, telephone, radio, film, and television opened new perspectives.
• Radio became the avenue for global product advertising.
• Digital media: Digital codes create, modify, and store content on electronic devices.
• Digitalized content is transmitted over the internet.
• Media is a carrier of culture and a tool for the interaction of people with different cultures.
• Marketing people seek to spread cultural products.
• Others bring cultural exchanges of beauty and power.
• Cultural differentialism views cultural difference as immutable.
• Cultural convergence suggests that globalization engenders sameness of cultures.
• Cultural hybridity suggests that globalization spawns mixing of cultures.
• Glocalization, coined from globalization and localization, reinforces that local cultures are not weak.
• Local cultures accommodate and assimilate cultures of the world.

Religion and Globalization

• The interaction of religion and culture resulted in a global-local religion.
• Vernacularization refers to the blending of universal religions with local languages.
• Indigenization transforms a universal religion to suit the specifics of a particular ethnic group.
• Nationalization constructs a link between the nation and church.
• Transnationalization has complemented religious nationalization.
• Globalization of religion led to global conflict and peace.
• Religions established to put God's will in fruition, however doctrines used to justify evil actions.
• Extremists believe that radical measures achieve the will of God.
• Fundamentalists believe that men follow passages of sacred books to legitimize actions.
• Nationalists tie their traditions with their nation or homeland.
• Juergensmeyer believes in five stages of global religious rebellion against the secular state.
• Conversely, religion plays a vital role in man's search for world peace.
• It provides moral principles and values to abate avarice and illusions.
• It touches inner self of humans to improve themselves and society.
• It works towards poverty reduction and economic equality.
• World Vision, for example, is a Christian humanitarian organization.
• Conflicts are caused by different interpretations of religious texts in the guise of economic and political clashes.
• Either individualized or institutionalized, religion is one of the actors of cultural globalization.

Global City

• The 21st century has closer relations between states with a wider perspective in technological development.
• Globalization made nations closer to each other.
• Globalization 1.0 (1492-1800) shrank the world, driven by workforce, horsepower, and wind/steam power.
• Globalization 2.0 (Pax Britannica era) had new institutions and global markets.
• Globalization 3.0 (Pax Americana era) saw the US as the hegemonic power.
• The present condition does not use force but soft power developed by Joseph Nye (2004) to retain influence.
• Soft power arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies.
• Corporations expanded their footholds outside their own countries.
• One driving force in global change is a deeply interconnected global economy.
• Multinational corporations (MNCs) play a substantial role in the global economy.
• MNCs threaten nation-states because nations seem to lack the capacity to dictate how MNCs ought to behave.
• MNCs play a pivotal role not only in the global economy but in the international political community.
• MNCs tie together an otherwise divided world under a banner of commerce and economy.
• MNCs and nation-states are key actors of the global community.
• Connectivity evidence is the concept and actual manifestation of the global city.
• The global city serves as a hub for production, finance, and telecommunications.
• Obvious characteristics of a global city are: cultural diversity, a center of economy and geographic dispersal of economic activities.
• New York, Tokyo, Singapore, and Seoul are global cities.
• The cities of San Francisco and New York in the United States of America were showcased as global cities that exhibit strength in innovation.
• Global cities promote the globalization of markets.
• The 21st century brought the countries together into global competition.
• Change is inevitable because of the flattening of the world according to Friedman (2005).
• Technological innovation, economic cooperation, and political alliance are some of the examples of the new trends in international relations.
• Globalization is increase in transnational and worldwide interactions that surpass the boundaries of states.
• Demography is a field in statistics that is concerned with births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease.
• The study illustrates the changing structure of human populations.
• Demography is a statistical study to determine world population other variable.
• The changing perspective on technology and technological advancements and the movement of international organizations (IOS) have made the world a global civil society.
• Global demography is about the trends and practices in world politics.

Global Demography and Population

• Ronald Lee (2003) argues demography is in transition resulting in low fertility, long life, old population.
• Global demographic transition started in 19th century due to declining mortality rates then caused transitions from high to low mortality and fertility.
• Developed nations have competed this transition, while developing nations are still in transition.
• Transition to low mortality was caused by medicine and improved nutrition.
• The factors that led to low fertility rate are the preference over child preference.
• Since globalization has something to do with the population demand of a state, It has an effect on demography but also in local or internal migration suggesting urban overpopulation.

Global Migration

• Social inequality, economic depression, and freedom deprivation lead to cosmopolitan ideas.
• Migration exists because certain people are being oppressed by their governments and want to be free from tyrannical politicians.
• Categories of global migration: voluntary economic migration, forced displacement, and refugee crisis.
• Voluntary economic migration is rooted in economic stability.
• The Oversees Filipino workers are a common example of labor migration due to the want of higher salaries in other countries.
• State of tyranny causes those who seek safety to move.
• Long term effects of migration include a vital affect on labor export, economic state, and a brain drain.
• One solution includes the study of issues and developments of global population to under current trends and the conditions and understand migration to prevent or solve potential issues with global citizenship.
• The aftermath of Cold War ended the bipolarity of the United State.
• People from global civilizations constantly move from one place to another to achieve good life that their home countries cannot be able to do.
• Transnational relations and the growing demand for economic wealth drives migration, which results in change of behavior and structures.