Globalization’s Impact-Impoverishment Urban Workers & Unemployed Migrants and Solutions

Resources

  1. Martin, W. & Beittel, M. (1998, Winter). Toward a global sociology? Evaluating current conceptions, methods, and practices. In The Sociological Quarterly, 39 (1), 139-161. This article covers the transnational methods and vocabulary (from interdependent economic histories go beyond national states, regional, and international market structures to explain trans-national relations ) needed to study the history and consequences of globalization such as massive impoverishment, constant economic crises and concentrated wealth.
  2. Davis, M. (2006).  The prevalence of slums. In Planet of slums (pp. 20-49). London: Verso. This bok chapter is about the global tendency toward urban impoverishment in slums populated by squatters which comprise over 1/3 of world’s urban population in 2003 [over ½ of urban dwellers are poor by UN standards, over ¼ live on less than 1 dollar/day]. The poorest urban populations are in Africa where 2/3 can not afford minimum nutrition requirements. These peripheral squatter communities [made up of refugees, returnees, war veterans, internally displaced, and unemployed migrants] in most of Africa, Asia and Latin America are very different from hand me down houses or public buildings in inner cities of imperial core. 
  3. Arrighi, G. (2008). Marx in Detroit. In Adam Smith in Beijing. (pp. 13-39). London: Verso. This book chapter is about Market Socialism resulting in inequality, corruption, the plunder of individual bank accounts by the  government banks, concentration of wealth, and the constant resistance of workers to privatization of services and resources. The chapter continues to explain how having radical political parties does not mean a region’s struggles succeed in forcing capitalists to reorganize distribution of profits. Teachers and students need to focus both on labor processes producing goods and profit, as well as on class conflict in the workplace, at a time that globalization is concentrating wealth in parts of some cities and impoverishment everywhere else. Thus [while resistance movements retain or obtain control of the water and land) we can see an integrated world economy without generalized capitalist development.
  4. Arrighi, G. (2010). Dynamics of global crisis. In The long 20th Century (pp. 309-335). London: Verso. This chapter explains recent emphasis of monopolies while US was acting as world government,  on financial transactions instead of producing goods to trade since 1970s.  Since 1300s this has been a recurring trend whenever trade of goods gets too competitive for the dominant empire of the times. In this last cycle, after the defeats in Viet-Nam, the difficulties running international currency markets linked to gold standard, the initial loss of legitimacy for globla anti-communism, and the defiant  petroleum cartel, the stage was set for the predictabl and confirmed downturn of the US. pressured by inflation in 1970s and 1980s, European industrial competition and transferance of funds to oil producers. This had happened to Florence, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the British all of whom needed to borrow to pay for their wars and consumerism. The capitalist state allied to the war industry submitted to the banks in order to recuperate supremacy in the world market by changing Third /Second World access to First World crédit. This did not solve economic crisis but only relocated it until 2001 and again 2007.  
  5. Bouchareb, R. (director). (2001). Little Senegal. Paris: France 2 Cinema. This is a movie about African migrants in a US city.
  6. Peck, R. (director). (2001). Profit and nothing but. NY: Icarus. This movie is about the consequences of globalization both in the US and in the Caribbean.

Secondary sources useful in the lesson

  1. Robbins, R. H. (2004). Talking points on global issues. A reader. Boston: Pearson
  2. Castro, F. (2002). War, racism, and economic injustice. Melbourne, Australia: Ocean Press
  3. Hoskins, J. (1998). Biographical objects. How things tell the stories of peoples lives. NY: Routledge
  4. Wierzbicka, A. (1997). Understanding culture through their key words. NY: Oxford University Press
  5. Neuwirth,, R. (2005). Shadow cities. A billion squatters, a new urban world. NY: Rouledge
  6. “The World of seven billion. Where and how we live” Insert. (2011, March). National Geographic,
  7. Forohar, R. (2011, 28 February). Briefing: Food fights: rising global grocery bills are hitting the poor. Time. p. 19. In Africa, 36-45% of household budget spent on food