Ch. 20 Journal

Urbanization

Urbanization can be the root of many problems. A housing challenge emerges because there are not enough houses to hold the influx of people in the city. There is also a work shortage as not enough jobs are open for people to work and make a living. Thus, many people seek jobs in the informal sector.

"city level studies have revealed that the social response to economic crisis and austerity has produced a variety of changes at the household level. These include increased labor force participation by women and income earning on the part of children and the elderly" (p. 435). From this quote it is clear that economic crisis affects the most vulnerable populations in society; women, children and the elderly. In times of economic hardship it must be twice as hard to scrape together a living, which can affect their diet, their kid's ability to go to school etc.

"Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India and has developed a world reputation as a computer soft-ware center. For many cities their global niche is to provide a manufacturing base, often founded on low labor costs and export-oriented activities" (p. 433) It is interesting how cities are urban centers for technology but lots of it is built on under-paid workers and for some, the exploitation of women and children.

According to the book, Bombay has one of the highest population densities in the world, one reason is because the area was originally seven linked islands. People live in shelters made out of plastic, cardboard, cloth or whatever they can find. Right next to these slums is 'Bollywood,' India's gleaming epicenter for film and where the wealthy live. It is interesting to note that the author said the slums as intransitory, so a family can live on a crowded patch of pavement for 20-30 years; communities develop and mature and for slums to seem established to a foreigner's eyes might be a little surprising, since they may seem so uncluttered and unorganized to the naked eye.

When people live in crowded areas and they are poor, they will tend to have poor health and nutrition. They tend to live shorter lives. Increased # of births and migration contribute to urban growth. Some social needs: water, sanitation, drainage. In summary, it is important for governments and city planners to recognize urban dwellers as active citizens. In this century, the world's poorest populations will be in the South and urban poverty will be a problem due to rapid urbanization. When one is poor, it is tough to make a living in the city.

Ch. 7 Journal

Environment & Sustainability

issues at hand: increasing industrialization is destroying the environment
some causes: overpopultion, overgrazing, energy production, increased production
some effects: atmospheric pollution from car exhaust, coal burning, soil depletion & erosion

questions to think about: what will happen if everyone in China consumed on the same level as Americans?

we need to learn how to manage the 'global commons'

This chapter talks about the change in perception of the environment, from the 'conquest of nature' to 'managing the commons.' Conquest of nature meant that our interaction with the environment was required to survive- it was a " either we take over nature to survive, we nature takes over us" mentality. Conquest of nature involves transforming the environment creatively and as a necessity. An important author in the 1960s, Rachel Carson, published "Silent Spring" revealed the destructiveness caused by DDT, which affected the food chain. An example of environmental destruction is when Japanese fishermen were affected by high levels of mercury found in fish, called the case of "minamata" in the 1970s. More recently, there is an oil spill in the ocean and a company under BP is responsible for the million (or billions?) of dollars in damage. I heard on the news today they are still trying to stop the oil leak from reaching the coastline of Louisiana. Their latest strategy is to fill sandbags to stop the oil flow underwater. Environmental concerns were discussed at the Brundtland Commission.

It is disappointing that the United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty meant to reduce carbon emissions, when the US was responsible for 25% of the carbon emissions in the world. As a powerful nation, it is important to set an example to take care of the environment and we had failed in that category.

vocab: sustainable development (SD)- development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

neoliberal view: nature can be summed up in economics, resources given a price in capital and SD achieved by following the laws of economics
people-centered view: focuses on local concerns, the needs of the local people working in partnership with gov. associations to achieve SD, includes traditional medicine practices
global environment management view: this emphasizes cooperation between countries to be good stewards of environmental resources, teamwork! view was presented at Agenda 21 'Earth Summit' meeting in Rio in 1992

In summary: sustainable environment involves the participation of everyone. The author said that in the future, the outlook of SD seems to be the relationship between social and economic interests instead of the relationship between humans and the environment. Environmental problems not only affect nature but also the the livelihood of human beings, as well as animals, the food chain etc. Achieving SD will impact all sectors of life, not only economically but also politically, socially and individually. I think that a big change can come from America. We have the potential, but our consumption levels are still high and we, as a nation, waste a lot. If America established new laws to conserve the environment this will be effective. Look at Singapore, Canada or (from my own experience) Hong Kong. Everyone in HK touts a cloth bag. I know in some governments they will charge people for plastic bags. Good idea. Americans would probably fight law tooth-and-nail but if no one enforces these laws to stand for the goal of achieving SD, no one else will. Non-profits and other group alreaday try and if the gov. will back them up, the green movement will be all the better. A sidenote: some companies like Sam's club and Ikea do not bag items. Instead, they load them back onto the shopping cart so customers can just load them into their cars. There is no need for a plague of plastic bags.

I feel like an environmentalist writing this, but it always gets to me how Chamapaign has no recyling program. I heard there's a rumor that Champaign will develop one soon. Anyways... just comparing America to Senegal in terms of bathing habits. When I was in Senegal, people in the village usually took cold bucket showers. This saves a TON of water, in comparison to 20 minute hot steaming showers. Imagine if all Americans started taking bucket showers, how much water that would save!

'The Fractured Community,' by Kate Crehan

Ch. 3: The Community of Kin

Zambia, prior to independence, was known as Northern Rhodesia. There was a significant prescence of missionaries who helped create a written language to write the Bible from the oral language Kaonde. Europeans discovered copper in the 1920s and began to exploit the nation for its rich minerals, solidifying a copper mining industry. There was a huge labor migration to urban areas for work and protests began in the 1930s. After independence, Zambia's infrastructure began to deteriorate. The North-Western province is sparsely populated and infested with tsetse flies, mkaing it difficult to keep livestock.

Crehan depicts Zambia through Gramsci's definition of the state: "The State is the entire complex of practical and theoretical activities with which the ruling class not only justifies and maintains its dominance, but manages to win the active consent of those over whom it rules." This chapter talks about kin relationships that create the political and relational power structures within society.

The author talks about kinship (the "imaginary community") and local authority as coinciding aspects of the political sphere. However to the people of Zambia, kinship was very important. In comparison to the West, we have "come to think of kinship and its obligations as occupying its own particular domain." The Kaonde kinship is based on matrilineal descent, meaning that a child will belong to the clan of his or her mother. There are 8 kinship "statuses" such as inanji (mother), mwisho (mother's brother) kolojanji (older sibling) nkasanji (younger sibling), mwana (child) mwipwa (nephew/niece) nkambo (grandparent) or munkana (grandchild). These are the roles that people in society identify with. The colonists found it odd that households were female-headed. Chiefs were also identified as "owning the land" and had "authority over everything that happened within their area" but when the author tried to clarify the chief's role, she found out that "the chief had nothing to do with soiety." This distinction between male and female roles is interesting because last week was a discussion about "Women in Development" and "Gender and Development." In some societies they already have a disctinction of roles and women even hold more power than men. Like the Koande, women carry the family name. Therefore sometimes devlopment discourse assumes that women are unequal and need to climb their way up to meet the level of a man's privelege, but some African socieites have already gotten that down. It is wrong to assume that all cultures will benefit from "gender and development."

Ch. 5 Economic Locaations: Men, Women and Production
Setting: Kibala & Bukama, rural Chizela

Kinship commodoties:
"Hoe blades, metal cooking pots, water containers, blankets and ready made goods came to replace locally produced iron, clay pots, bark cloth, animals skins. Other new items introduced to society were bicycles, Bibles, and soap that became part of rural life." In the 1980s the cash economy started to grow because these new items became a necessary part of rural life. There was pressure between the market principles and kinship principles. For example, kinship-based flow of goods would include the ability to send a young child out for errands, or access to a killed animal for meat.

Roles were expected to be filled regardless of age and they were accepted at any skill level.
Men: clearing the bush, making the fields, built houses, fish & game
Women: day-to-day cultivation, kept house in order, cooked and fed her husband and family, beer

The marriage was based on interdependence. I noticed that women's roles were needed daily, and men accessed them on a daily bases whereas men's roles were more "project by project." Polygymy was common place and the more wives one had, the better one would eat. However the wives this was a disadvantage in some respect becauase she had to compete for her husband's attention etc. Divorce was straightforward, however it was avoided by older men. Divorced or single women could always return to her matrikin.
The author states that "what needs to be emphasized is that men obtained access to their basic staple food through women. Harvesting sorghum was a women's job, and if a young man was not married, he would not grow or harvest it because "'no one was there to harvest it." A man harvesting sorghum was seen to be demeaning for his manhood. Women lacked freedom of mobility as compared to men.

My thoughts: The distinction of roles in Zambian society can probably be found throughout Africa. The author documents their roles were clearly and I doubt that the Zambian people would "classify" themselves the way the author had. Her research had an anthropology feel combined with economics, and I guess the two are very closely related if we wanted to look at the kinship relations and market relations. In conclusion the two are intertwined and men are dependent on women and vice versa.

Ch. 18 Journal

Gender and Development

"The distinction between (biological) sex and gender (with social and cultural origin) was increasingly being put into operation to challenge the existing social norms and positioning of men and women. This led to the problematizing of gender relations and the ways in which they impact development policies themselves. This approach, known as GAD (gender and development) has been taken forward and applied to a range of development policies and practices" (p. 390).

I think the distinction is important because it does have a different emphasis. It has shifted from "Women in development" (WID) to "Gender and Development" (GAD). Feminists in the 1970s wanted to challenge whether the category of women created a barrier that excluded them from development processes and they wanted institutions to rethink gender in the bigger context of development. Feminists and gender advocates saw that it was wrong to integrate gender into development planning by contextual interpretation of women's needs" based on her biological sex. It was time to rethink things and see them in terms of social and cultural contexts.

It's important for women of the North and the South to team up together to "achieve quality and dignity in their domestic lives as well as safety and respect" (p. 387).

The book says that there is a link between women and nature, and the 'ecofeminist' idea values motherhood as a very spiritual and a very productive calling. This concept is called "Women, environment and development" (WED).

Basically, we need to restructure the way we perceive gender and women's issues. Instead of separating the roles of men and women, we need to see both roles in the context of development, to see their social, cultural and economic relations as working towards a better and equal world. This means that we cannot ignore the 'masculinity' of men and men's role in development as well. With this restructuring, policy interventions require a gender analysis. GAD is a broader approach to address inequality in which men AND women both are partners in development.

Summary:
WED- highlights relationship women have with environment as main users and managers of natural resources
WID- focuses on women
GAD- focuses on gender relations and resource activities
gender mainstreaming- analyzing gender in all aspects of development, not only in women or women's issues and the insistence that gender issues should be placed at the heart of all development policies and practices.

media for 4/26

"Nigerian Oil"- National Geographic Magazine

The photo on the front page of Port Harcourt is quite a sad sight to see. The pretty blue sky is stained with black smoke above crowded huts next to gray water. Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and oil has caused "Nigeria has become a dangerous country, addicted to oil money, with people increasingly willing to turn to corruption, sabotage, and murder to get a fix of the wealth. The cruelest twist is that half a century of oil extraction in the delta has failed to make the lives of the people better. Instead, they are poorer still, and hopeless."

In and of itself, oil is a good thing. It brings the prospect of growth and financial wealth for the nation. It will bring in revenue and jobs to work at the gas plants. Oil is a blessing but also a curse for the people of Nigeria. It is an indirect cause of numerous environmental problems. Oil spills, polluted groundwater, ruined cropland etc. The fisherman talked about the effects of constructing the gas plant. Pipelines are being built through farmland and swamps, barreling through the wetlands. Acid rain now pelts the metal rooftops. Builders tore down the forest which used to protect the towns from the east wind so now the rains and winds destroy the Nigerians' rooftops. This may seem like an irrelevant, seasonal problem but when people need money to rebuild their destroyed houses, it takes a toll on the whole household, economically, financially, socially. People cannot even catch fresh fish... relying on imported frozen fish.

Quote: "With all the oil money coming in, the state doesn't need taxes from people. Rather than being a resource for the state, the people are impediments. There is no incentive anymore for the government to build schools or hospitals....I can say this," Osuoka said firmly. "Nigeria was a much better place without oil." We can see this "natural resource curse" throughout the developing world. For some countries the natural resource has been diamonds. Whatever the case, the natural resource has tremendous potential to boost the economy but the country is left in a horrible economic state, barely able to provide for its own people. It is very paradoxical but happens because rulers have divided interests. In the case of Nigeria, like the said, the government has no incentive to build schools, hospitals or maintain a stable infrastructure. As long as money is coming in, basic social necessities are being ignored.

Quote: "The oil companies, led by five multinational firms—Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Italy's Agip, and ExxonMobil and Chevron from the U.S.—transformed a remote, nearly inaccessible wetland into industrial wilderness. The imprint: 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) of pipelines, 159 oil fields, and 275 flow stations, their gas flares visible day and night from miles away." The article talked about how the first discovery of oil was prior to Nigeria's independence in the 1960s. Now, multinational firms are still "attached" to Nigeria. Their pipelines are increasing Nigeria's dependence upon richer countries. In a way, it's a form of post-colonialism. Ironic, but true. Big companies still want to get a share of Nigeria's riches, and none of the profits are benefiting the people.

The oil companies gave out cash to village chiefs or provided health clinics or water tanks to allow them to build a pipeline through their village. While this may seem like reasonable compensation to the oil companies, money doesn't solve everything. The article mentions how projects would be semi-completes and left useless, like incomplete schools, clinics without staff, water tanks without pumps. Providing cash will not put a bandage on the problems the villagers face. Oil is the cause of escalating violence from rebel groups in the area.

"Clinton Signs Oil Deal In Angola"- Reuters

USAID partners with Chevron (US) as a sign of reconciliation. She praises Angola for their rebuilding/peace efforts after 27 years of civil war and encourages them to schedule an upcoming presidential election because the president (in office for 30 years) She also encourages Angola to diversify its market to agriculture. She says the US is interested in investing in Angola's farming sector. This is all in the name of "development assistance" under the Obama Administration.

"America's New Frontier" -Al Jazeera

Question: Can Obama turn US-African relations in a new direction?
People don't know who is in the lead, the military or the state department. There needs to be a balance between diplomacy and defense. The global war on terrorism after the attacks of September 11th effected US relations with Africa, especially concerning oil. President Bush wanted to start getting oil from Africa. New interests in Africa. Competing for interests in natural resources with China.

Question: What role will Africom play and how did it came to be?
It was launched Oct. 2008 to establish "security, stability and cooperation" in Africa, support US policy and partner with US's military groups in Africa. Africa would be suspicious of Africom because of US's history... why would soldiers be involved? This is usually a case for diplomats and development workers. But according to the video it made sense in military terms, however people failed to ask Africa how they felt about it, of course. It seems like military imposition, building US military headquarters in Africa. Africa has a different view from the US, one of non-alignment, they don't want to work under any powers since it has colonial implications, so Africom's progress was downplayed. It's headquarters ended up being in Germany and the leaders in Washington D.C. Africom tried to play down the skepticism.

This Youtube video relates with Clinton's interest in Angola. Before watching this segment I was confused about the connection but after watching this, I understood better. US wants to increase its relations with Africa. Whether its through Africom (military) or USAID (developmental assistance), the US will try to increase its influence and partnership with the continent.

Ferguson Ch. 6, 7, 9

Ch. 6 "Livestock Development"

The Thaba-Tseka Project was to develop livestock. The project involved dividing eight controlled grazing blocks of 4,000 hectares each. Members of the association would be entitled to grazing privileges and their cattle that grazed on the the land would be healthier and heavier. Some benefits of these grazing blocks would be extension, research, seeding and fertilization (p.170).

The following were conditions to be part of the association:

keeping fewer but more quality animals

livestock was to be purebred

following recommended management practices

removing animals that did not qualify for the assoc.

Things started to go downhill when people (not in the association) cut the fence to let their livestock graze. When these cases were brought to court, it was ruled that the cattle association did not have the rights to the allocated grazing area. This was another problem of appropriation... the land did not belong to the people running the project. There were many other reasons why locals who qualified to be part of the association refused to join it. 1) locals did not want to say that the project was a bad idea, even though they all felt that way 2) it would be betrayal to their fellow friends if they joined because the land should be shared 3) locals were suspicious of the plan.

The project also wanted to control the movement of livestock and their grazing but the locals disagreed. It was feared that: "the government is trying to deprive us of our animals by forcing them into an area where they will be unable to find enough food, so they will die" (p. 177).

Here is a quote from the book: "the 'introduction' of livestock markets was itself expected to dramatically transform the way in which people held stock. It was imagined that the provision of market outlets for livestock would make it possible for the first time for stock owners, previously isolated from the cash economy, to evaluate their animals in terms of monetary profit and loss" (p. 179). Therefore the project set up auctions was the planners were pleased but Ferguson argues that this was not an improvement because auctions were set up by the government even before the project started since the 1950s. The project's aim to "stimulate" a livestock economy was not credible.

I found this quote interesting: "The idea that livestock could be raised on commercial principles was appealing to women because it challenged the Mystique and promised to make 'men's animals' an asset that could be freely manipulated to maximize household income" (p. 187). I wonder if the outcome of the project would have been different if women were in charge of the cattle. I guess it depends on the target audience and the amount of support in order for a project to work successfully.

Questions:

1) Would the outcome of the project have been different if local women were the target audience?

2) Would it have made a difference if the planners of the project were women?

* * *

Ch. 7 "The Decentralization Debacle"

One problem with the project was planners did not realize the effect of politics from their project. From our textbook, we know that "development" is always generally tied to government, so the project's attempt to decentralize power apolitically is not possible. Page 194 says that "bureaucracy becomes the vehicle for the exercise of a particular kind of power." This idea is seen through the Thaba-Tseka project because it tried to decentralize administration in the local district by coordinating all the "development" activities at the district level instead of dealing with the bureaucrats. The project also tried to influence policies at the district level because it was a quicker way to get more funds.

* * *

Ch. 9 "The anti-politics machine"

Even though there the project was deemed a failure there were some things that were beneficial. The government of Lesotho had a stronger presence in the area, gov. services became available, a post office, police station and immigration control office was built. There were other services such as extension, seed supply and livestock marketing, health officials who monitored childcare and nutrition. Also a stronger military presence in the area due to better roads.

Ferguson describes "development" as a "machine for reinforcing and expanding the exercise of bureaucratic state power, which incidentally takes "poverty" as its point of entry- launching an intervention that may have no effect on poverty but does in fact have other concrete effects" (p. 255-256). He talks about how development has unintended effects and that is why many people are still attracted to development projects despite a running record of failures. Ferguson says that any development project forms a coherent whole, it is an anti-politics machine. I'm trying to better understand what he's staying here: that the "development apparatus suspends politics from even the most sensitive political operations" (p. 256).

Questions:

1) From the quote that development "suspends politics from sensitive political institutions, what does Ferguson mean by political operations? Does he mean it's the government's job to handle poverty/development?

2) What do you think attracted the Canadians in tackling the Thaba-Tseka project in the first place? Do you think they were attracted to the notion that development was an anti-politics machine?

Ferguson Ch. 2 & 5

Ch. 2 "The Constitution of the object of 'development'- Lesotho as a 'less developed country."

I like the opening of this chapter that basically debunks the World Bank's Report that Lesotho has "bleak economic prospects" and was "so ill-prepared" (WB1975). The following is a list on page 26 the proof that Lesotho was in fact already established- just not in the same way that is measured by the WB.

factors in Lesotho's economy identified in 1910:
money economy
market for Western commodities
plough agriculture
cash/subsistence crops, wool production
airports, roads, schools, churches, hospitals, labor migrant system

In 1910 the area Lesotho stands today is called "Basutoland." Ferguson makes it clear that the WB's description of Lesotho is very inaccurate. He says academic scholars would think it was crazy to say that the country was "untouched" by modern economic development."

Ferguson says: "Academic scholars of Lesotho, of all stripes, acknowledge this transformation [in 1910]. Suffice it to say that it is almost inconceivable that a serious scholar of Lesotho's history could say that Lesotho in 1966 was 'a traditional peasant, subsistence society...' (p.27)

This makes me think about all the guidelines of the WB and how dangerous it is to see things from only one side. If development projects were always based on inaccurate perceptions of developing countries, I would be very skeptical of how helpful they really are and I would not just take information as it is given. When analyzing the state of a country, it is important to look at the history, culture and not only measure progress in numbers. This whole chapter goes on to analyze the rest of the WB's plan titled " Lesotho: A Development Challenge." Ferguson goes on to discuss the preamble and each section of the plan like "the setting," "human resources," "trends in the economy," and "wages," "government operations," "employment" etc.

On "sectors," Ferguson comments that all the sectors have no unity. He says they make no sense unless we see them NOT as a description of an economy, but as a list of things which might potentially be "developed" (p. 49). This would mean that agriculture, mining, water resources, manufacturing industries, tourism, public services, education and banking do not work in unity to make the nation function at its potential. I can see how Ferguson describes the sectors in disarray and how the development agency of the World Bank has a chance to interceded and help out.

I found it humorous that Ferguson (p. 55) compares hasty classifications of LDCs to the following:
(1) all banks have money
(2) every river has two banks; therefore
(3) all rivers have money

the development version is:
(1) poor countries are "less developed"
(2) less developed countries (LDC) are those which have not yet been fully brought into the modern economy; therefore
(3) poor countries are those which have not yet been fully brought into the modern economy

In conclusion to chapter 2, LDCs differ everywhere. The classification of Lesotho as a LDC shapes the way policies are formed and assistance programs are enacted within the country.

Ch. 5 "The Bovine Mystique"

This chapter studies the power, property and livestock in rural Lesotho and takes a closer look at the Thaba-Tseka Project. Cattle is important to people in Lesotho. They highly prize their cattle for religious, social and symbolic reasons. The Westerners saw people keeping their livestock as "backward"- why keep skinny cattle if you can sell them on the market and make some money for yourself?

The puzzling thing to "westerners" Ferguson calls "the Bovine Mystique." Even in times of drought, the Basutos refused to sell their livestock and if they sold for a high market price. People took such pride in their livestock that they would rather die. But it's not that the Basutos were ignorant. They understood the concept entirely. The bottom line was that livestock is not a commodity in Lesotho. Ferguson states that the Bovine Mystique is "the result of the fact that "livestock" is constituted as a special domain of property by cultural rules, the most important of which establishes a "one-way barrier" between the domains of money as livestock" (p. 147).

I think this concept was so surprising to westerners because we would sell our cattle if that meant saving our lives. But to the people of Lesotho, cattle was not people property that could be sold off so simply. This fact would have set an alarm off in my head that the cattle development projects was on slippery slopes. Since a Canadian agency drew up the plans for this, they may not have anticipated the HUGE failure that was to come, because they didn't understand the relationship between the people and their cattle.

Ch. 13 Journal

"Half a Century of Development"

"Has the idea of development ever been useful?" (p. 308)

Amartya Sen, Nobel Peace Prize winner says yes, but only in the context that development should be about the enrichment of human lives. I agree with her. Development enables countries to boost their economy, increase human rights, women empowerment, improve education, public health, government infrastructure and the like. Overall, development is a good thing. When a country is developing, it is working towards improving whatever state its in and progressively working towards change. I think the recent theory of development has gotten very jumbled, complicated and theoretical when it is simply a matter of economics, and liberty from colonialism. This is generally the "western" view. Yes, there are many oppositions that development is bad, but only when politics are corrupt, or there are mixed motives, or, when development styles are imposed on countries. Development works when it happens to meet the specific needs of a country. Development should be tailored to each individual country because there is no "one-size-fits-all" plan.

The concept of development is a good thing because it gets people thinking about how their country fits into the global state of affairs, and it gets people thinking about history. Development is meant to be an equalizer and we can draw from historic examples of when people have made mistakes. History in the context of development gives people a guideline for identifying progress and recognizes disparities. Also, when the economy improves, so do the peoples' livelihoods. The more money is flowing into the country, the more capable the ruling powers have to invest in their people and their land. The problem arises concerning the "usefulness" of development when the money doesn't always go where it was planned to go. Or, rather there is no plan at all for development and money just trickles into the hands of the elite few. That is when negative things happen as a result of misuse and abuse of power, but development itself is not to blame.

After 50 years of development, there has been so much research conducted, case studies and literature on development. Globalization has been happening for so long but with the increase in info technology, communication and media sources, conversations about development has sky-rocketed. It has come a long way since the 1950s.

1940s: Marshall Plan

1944 Bretton Woods:

Conference of 44 nations, established the IMF, World Bank, UN, GATT/WHO.

1950s-60s: golden years

1970s: debt-driven expansion

1980s: development in reverse

neoliberalsim, LLDCs (lesser developed countries) grew in number

1990s: the end of development?

Development was 'declining' in the 1990s due to many changes. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the neoliberalization policies, the collapse of South-East Asian countries, the fall-back of conservative politics, change in policies through international organizations, compression of space and time through globalization, time as a commodity

vocab:

terms of trade= pricing of commodities sold compared to the pricing of commodities bought (p. 294)

Import Substitution Inducstrialization (ISI)= setting up domestic industries that originally come from imports, attract foreign investors to set up facilities in national boundaries

Ch. 9 Journal

Agencies of Development

This chaptered talked about the role of the state, it's agency (actions and capacity to influence events) and structure (pattern and framework) in the context of development.

"In the South, political parties are political outputs, as instruments of the government. They frequently are created and used by political leaders to help legitimize their regimes, as well as to provide the distribution of patronage, a coalition of powerful political interests sufficient to sustain the government can be secured" (194).

Reaction: It is important to notice that political parties have their own agenda and are self-serving, using development initiatives to gain popularity. Many times political parties will not follow through with their promises.

Role of bureaucracies:

-frame or suggest policy outcomes, power & control

'Developmental state' sees development in terms of achieving economic growth, generally through state promotion of industrialization (196).

Reaction: This was a big trend in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Countries were trying to build capital, finances and be competitive in the world market. ODA's, official development assistance, refers to grants or soft loans provided by OECD to promote development. ODA is controlled by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Money is a tool used to spur development, and success is measured in terms of money.

The UN system has 6 principal organs:

-Trusteeship Council

-International Court of Justice

-Secretariat

-General Assembly

-Security Council

-Economic and Social Council

Some specialized agencies include UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, FAO, WHO. The IMF and World Bank are products of the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. These are under control of rich countries because the President of the bank is always a US citizen and the director of the Fund is always Western European. This shows the imbalance of power within development agencies and reflects the division of the North and the South. The WB and IMF are further separated from the UN agencies because they provide a majority of the funding for development, serving the interests of the powerful. The poor countries are not the ones who have opinions on what is best for their country. The IMF and World Bank lack accountability to the rest of the UN. The World Bank shifted from poverty alleviation and lending money to finance projects to free-market strategies (206).

Conditionaality: giving loans or grants subject on conditions, popular in structural adjustment programs.

The NGO sector has grown considerably and provided lots of assistance since the 1980s. ODA is given through NGOs but this sector is not adequate in transform lives on the large scale because they lack capacity, support and funding. Some states ignore social issues and leave them up to NGOs or development agencies to handle, however true poverty reduction requires institutional changes provided as a right rather than goodwill (216).

China Blues

This documentary was very disturbing yet eye-opening and insightful. It made me think twice about where my clothes come from. I can't imagine working for 17 hours and not having time the freedom to go to the bathroom when I need to, not getting paid overtime. These factory workers are so young. What stuck out to me was when "Little Jasmine" wanted to write a letter and put it in the jeans pocket for the person who wears the clothes. In a way, this documentary was her letter and outlet to the world showing people her working conditions.

The workers get paid so little, and their boss is not really nice. I would think since he came from a peasant farming background that he would understand, but his own success has made him blind to the downward cycle of inequality he is running at his company. However, I don't think there is too much he can do because he is at the mercy of international client's laws and their demands for lower prices. The film portrays him as a prideful man, and I'm sure the owner has to be strict in order for things to get done. I wonder how in the world they got cameras in the factory to capture all the footage we saw when the workers refused to go back to work, and them shouting at each other shortly after lunch.

One sentence I remember from the film was that if China treated their employees fairly and followed the labor rules, they were not be competitive. Unfair treatment just has a snowball effect, from the buyers/sellers to the production-line workers.

It was humorous how a Walmart attack just had to be included. The filmmakers are very clear in their stance towards big multi-national companies. Anyways, the living conditions were extremely strict and unfair. It felt like a labor camp. They had tiny bunks, and there was no cafeteria... they went back to their rooms to eat. The owners try to cut costs in every way and they dock from your pay when you are late. Workers fall asleep at work because they are so tired when big orders come in. They had to fight to get paid in time, the owner kept stating they have no money and no means to pay them, like the owners were the ones who are the victim. I know that the owner understands very well the concept of predator/victim. He displays big banners on the walls to restructure their thinking, like "If you don't work today you’ll be looking for hard work tomorrow.”

Workers were easily disposed of if they didn't like it, and first payments were put as a deposit, to prevent workers from leaving. Room/board and meals were taken from they pay. Workers were paid per garment made, and would receive less than one dollar for an hour's wage. This makes me think when people spend $50 for a pair of jeans... where is all the money going? It doesn't even go to the factory owners, which say ~$40,000 was their annual profit. I'm guessing the money goes to the companies overseas to Europe, the US etc.

The workers must have envisioned a glamorous and hopeful lifestyle in the city before arriving from the farmlands. Jasmine missed her family and the freedoms of childhood and the open wheat fields. She was only 17 but some of the workers were as young as 14. I think these young girls/boys are forced into maturity, taking care of themselves and their families much earlier than the youth in developed nations. This film gave me something to think about.

Ch. 15 Journal

Karl Polanyi and the 'Great Transformation'

He describes a 'self-regulating market economy' as the ideal, a form of utopia

He notes that the change at the end of the 18th century changed the structure of society

Social relations are then shaped by the economy (as opposed to the other way around)

People, nature and money become commodities

regimes of accumulation= different ways in which control is exercised over labor and their relations with the wider economic management

Toyota-ism can be referred to as flexible accumulation because production was based on flexibility to accommodate a changing market, whereas Ford-ism was based on rigid work allocation and a projected steady increase of consumers. According to the book: "'Toyota-ism' is based on the product types, responding flexibly to variations in demand in different market niches. It is demand driven rather than resource driven. I think the use of the phrase "ford-ism to toyota-ism" is pretty creative, catchy, and illustrated the idea pretty well. As competition increases, it is only natural for this process to happen. New companies such as Toyota will always arise to be more flexible to the changing markets. The quick and more flexible, the more successful the company.

kaizen refers to constant improvement i.e. quality control in Ford cars and their large inventory. This is contrasted with 'just-in-time' arrangements from Toyota, who reduce their inventory and stocks at the last minute.

Toyota:

workers have co-responsibility over finished product

batch production

multiple tasks

variety of production

demand driven

post-modernism

Ford:

workers have less responsibility over finished product

mass production

single task

uniformity of production

resource driven

modernism

Castell's view on a post-modern society:

redefinition of personal relationships, emphasis on self-realization

progressive groups mobilize resistance to industrial society: feminists, localists, religious, environmental

People finding meaning not on what they do, but in what they identify themselves with (ethnic, culture, beliefs).

I think Castell's view makes sense. Since capitalism and a market-driven economy, people have let the economy and their jobs define them. However with the movement towards redefining who someone is, people are now driven by their identities outside of work. It's like they have a new mode of thinking. This is better, because it opposes the mainstream flow. It makes people think more, and not everything is about feeding into the capitalist, neo-liberal thought. People are thinking outside the box, according to Castell, and I agree. People are starting to see the positives and negatives of a free market.

Holmstrom & Smith article

Summary:

Russia and gangster capitalism. People's biggest complaint has been the corruption in China. People should have seen it coming, but relied on the neoliberalism concpet of capitalism. Marx's concept of capitalism is different, called "primitive accumulation." Capitalism first emerged in Britain with 2 groups of people: ones with monopolies and the landless proletariat. According to Marx, capitalism is not just money, it is the unique social relationship between those two groups. This is utterly tied to the separation from the produce from the producers, ultimately people sell their labor.

Post-socialist countries are trying to privatize state-collective property. This will bring increased economic depression, social polarization, corruption and class struggle. "Between 1992 and 1995, Russia's GDP fell 42 percent.. since 1989 Russia's economy halved in size and 80% of Russians have no savings... In the mid-nineties, suicides double and deaths from alcohol tripled."

The author says this was in part to Jeffrey Sach's "cure all" plan to privatize the market. This initial plan came from the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID). Are they to blame? Were they pushing for an entirely Western agenda that went wrong? Basic rights such as education, childcare, housing and other subsidies are sacrificed for the transition to a "normal" economy. Sachs and company insist that the pain was unavoidable... is this justified? The author blames Western economy "architects" for the mess in Russia and China.

The rich Russians involved with "grabification" stealing everything they can get their hands on. hahahah this is an intriguing way of putting it, and the bourgeoise stashed their cash in Western bank accounts. And, people are trying to legalize it! Author claimed that Sachs fetishized capitalism, because prior to reform Russia did not have the 'capitalist' class. Capitalists had to be created, thus the birth of gangster capitalists... (mafia, nomenklatura, intelligentsia)

China's path to capitalism was different from Russia's because China effectively privatized their agricultural sector. Their economy consists of "special economic zones" and runs under state management. Mao thought (prior to 1978) provided equality and security in poverty, known as the "iron rice bowl." People can expect work, though they lacked freedom everyone was on the same page, and nobody owned anything.

Reactions: This article was very well written and easy to read. I had to look up some names like Anatoly Chubais and Gorbachev to give me a better understanding of Soviet and post-Soviet history. It was very informative, insightful and written in a way that non-Economy majors (such as myself) could read, understand and be engaged.

Ch. 14 Journal

'Socialism'

"Socialism is attractive to countries that have escaped formal colonization and which remained largely separate from the world economy, like Afghanistan and Ethiopia. The second group are the countries that struggle against colonialism and have gained national liberation, like Angola, Mozambique and other Portuguese colonies. Socialist ideas became popular also in Latin America and Caribbean such as Cuba and Nicaragua."

"The socialist model of development, not just in Russia and China, but also elsewhere in the world, is in danger of appearing an unattractive and unviable model with no future."

My response to this statement is, "Why is socialism seen as unattractive?" It has clearly been attractive to developing countries and offers people the hope of a better more equal life. Though it has proved disastrous in the USSR, China was successful in adopting socialist ideas into their trade and has grown 10% per annum, according to the text. I think socialism is the other option besides capitalism for growing countries. Capitalism can be seen

"One approach of socialism is to focus on industrial capitalism to help underdeveloped countries gain independence from developed capitalist systems."

Can this really be called socialism then? Is this concept just using several points of socialism to improve society? Or, was socialism intended to help underdeveloped countries gain independence in the first place? There are so many motives behind 'socialism' good and bad. I think people meant for it to be good, and to gain independence however it has turned into something very negative after people have used it in the wrong way... and the perfect 'socialist' nation can never be achieved.

Mahmood Reading

The author claims that state formation is characterized by two identities, by the market and by the culture, both which are mistaken for the same thing. Mahmood states that the cultural aspect is much more important. Culture involves ethnic traditions, customs of tribal groups, language, religions etc. When colonies were formed, colonizers ignored existing ethnic boundaries. Ethnic problems arose within the political boundaries created by the state. Also he concludes that the greatest crime of colonization was not exploiting the indigenous, but to politicizing indigeneity.

He says the politics of colonialism are not "historicized" meaning "we failed to understand the extent to which colonial institutions shaped the agency of the colonized." This is a difficult and wordy concept to grasp, so in my own words: Europe's current perception and influence on post-colonial countries is still shaped by the legacy of colonialsim.

Africa needed "native authority" to enter history. Europe didn't see Africa as having any types of government so Africa was excluded from history. Africa's history only started when Europeans could recognized a legitimate form of government, which started at the tribal "chief." Europe only recognized government in terms of authoritarianism. However Africa's history of government is much longer and vibrant and its portrayed including religious ruling, kingdoms, women ruler heads and clans.

European powers created an ethnic divide between natives and nonnatives. Natives were not under the law so they had no rights. Nonnatives were bound to the law and had rights. Africa has ethnicities--> defined by different tribes.

3 Post-colonial Dilemmas:

*Rights- civil rights for all citizens, "bonus" customary rights for the indigenous

*Entitlements- only applies to "natives"

*Customs- word closely tied with "native"

"Colonialism is not just about the identity of governors, that they were white or European; it was even more so about the institutions they created to enable a minority to rule over a majority." (Mahmood p.14)

I agree. It doesn't matter what the race of the colonizers were. Colonialism is about a small few ruling and exploiting many.

"Let us reconsider the colonial legacy that each of us is either a native or a settler. It is with that compass in hand that we must fashion our political world" (Mahmood p. 15).

I agree. We should take culture into account and detach our minds from a native vs. settler mentality so we can better picture the effects of colonialism.

Ch. 12 Journal

'Colonial States'

The 7 features of colonial rule

*International Political Dimension

*Bureaucratic elitism and authoritarianism

*Use of 'customary' authority figures in colonial society

*Use of force

*Technological advantage

*Statism

*Hegemonic ideology

Colonial states had little or no say in their laws or economy. Colonial states depended on traditional authority figures to carry out their laws. These people were village chiefs or upperclassmen. Hegemonic power ingrained helplessness into the people's minds. They thought they were supposed to follow the rules. Hegemonic power prevents rebellions and uprisings because people inherently believe that their rulers are beneficial. One challenger of colonial rule was Gandhi.

"The idea that British rule was invincible was challenged by the law-breaking mass movements led by Gandhi and others- movements whose basic objective was to show that British rule could be challenged and to build up confidence and courage among the people so that they could develop the capacity to struggle successfully against that rule." (p. 284)

I like this quote because it is so true. The masses were subject to unfair exploitation however Gandhi became the voice of the people- and he had many followers that believed in independence. What's more incredible was that he led people in peaceful protest. This way has more impact because it brings out the injustices of colonial rule. When people protest peacefully, they open up the tables for negotiation and represent readiness for reconciliation. Gandhi was the pioneer for mass protest and civil disobedience during the Indian Independence movement. He led protests by rounding up peasants, farmers, urban laborers and led nation-wide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, rid "untouchability" and build religious and ethnic amity (wikipedia.org).

The British raj was the name of British colonial rule in India. India gained its independence in 1947.

Statism means the state has massive control over the economy. An example is Britian's East India Company, who controlled much of present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka. In 1858, the Crown gained power of India from the East India Company. Railways, roads, canals and bridges, telegraph stations were built in India for easy communication and transportation and were thus ruled by the state. However, while this benefited Britain, it harmed India because it did not create jobs for Indians, left India with high unemployment and crippled India's economy for the local businesses. Also, there were a series of famines in India, resulted from poor colonial administration and the economic constraints in India.

Britain controlled by force, exercising control through zamindars (landlords in India) and the military. Zamindars were Indian landlords who collected taxes from the peasants, then handed the money to Britain and keeping a portion for themselves. The majority of rules were enforced by the military. The text notes multiple rebellions in the Madras Province of India. In Africa, troops would devastate areas with violence.

Britain's power started to fade by the end of the 1930s with the establishment of the Indian National Congress (1937) which gave people local power. A highlighting event was the revolt of the Royal Indian Navy in Bombay, also known as the "Bombay Mutiny." The mutiny spread to many ships and 20,000 sailors. It was a strike against conditions and lack of food.

We can see the devastating effects of colonials and the changes after independence. The masses were quick to support the rebellions. The beginning of self-independence for India was the start of a new era.

"No government lasts long on the basis of force alone. The British had to have 'traditional' authority figures in Indian society on whom they could rely for political support and who could bring to the new state the cloak of legitimacy. Where they could not find authority figures, they created them." (p. 278)

My reaction to this quote is that the colonizers were quite clever in maintaining power abroad. For as long as they can convince people that their loyalty rested in Britain, they could control whole nations. They placed people they could trust, and that the locals could trust to re-enforce power. In Africa, Europeans ruled indirectly through tribes. They thought: "Every African belonged to a tribe, like every European belonged to a nation." Therefore each tribe must be under a chief. They took advantage of this by supervising chiefs and making sure these 'patrimonial rulers" represented European administration.

Ch. 11 Journal

'Colonialism'

Summary: The first stage of expansion happened in the 16th century, driven by explorers, mercenaries and merchant adventurers. The quest for treasure spurred exploration in the West, including the Indies.

In the 17th century, the British were interested in North America, which provided tobacco and cotton. The British colonized North America and the Caribbean, which lead to manufacturing because of the scale of raw materials and slave labor. Also, the Triangular Trade brought slaves to America from Africa. Cotton, sugar, tobacco and large profits to Europe from America, and cloth and guns to Africa from Europe.

The 18th century intensified slave trade in the Atlantic. People were taking over the coasts of Africa and territory within Asia. The Dutch East Indies Company profited from the spice islands of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The 19th & 20th century was defined by industrial capitalism and imperialism. This included the Scramble for Africa, where the continent was carved between Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and Portugal. By 1900, Europe controlled 90% of the continent. The scrambled occurred during the great depression.

Vocab:

imperialism - general system of domination by a state over other states

monopoly capitalism - capitalism characterized by giant corporations that control much of the local and/or world markets, increased competition

indentured service - people contracting themselves to work for a certain number of years

semi-proletarianization - providing labor for others because they cannot pay back what they owe, called of debt bondage

Proletarianization: process of generalized employment of wage labor, employment of commoditized labor

petty commodity production - producing commodities for sale based on economic necessity, small scale and often includes household labor

-popular with rural populations who preferred petty commodity production than work hard labor in plantations and mines

The decline of slavery was marked by industrialization and new technology in North America and Britain, which rendered slave labor less competitive.

Colonial Labor Regimes: (p. 262)

A. Forced Labor (slavery)

B. Semi-proletarian Labor (debt bondage)

C. Petty Commodity Production

D. Proletarianization

Labor was an important part of colonialism, as was land. The demand for labor and land shaped the way of life. Society was also impacted by ethnic division of labor, of which Europeans were superior. Their strategy was 'divide and rule' (language and religion). In a way however this also united the anti-colonialists. Some people say that development was created in order to provide agency and establish order, to provide 'trusteeship' of someone's future. People also say the development was invented by Western Europe to control and manage the social effects, to "engineer progress within a framework of order, intention and design to anticipate and contain the social and above all class contradictions of capitalist development experienced in Europe" (p. 267).

My thoughts: I do believe development took place order to provide agency, but it was an effect of the social and structural devastation from colonialism. I don't think it was purposefully "invented" because of colonialism rather a way for developed nations to make amends and "improve" the poorer countries that they exploited.

Ch. 10 Journal

'Diversity in Pre-Capitalist Societies'

European demands, then, were on one side of the equation, but the other side depended on what the colonized regions had to offer in the first place, and how their inhabitants could be persuaded to part with with what was theirs. p. 220

My thoughts: In order to understand capitalism, we must see it from both sides of the equation. If one side is unwilling to budge, capitalism won't work. While capitalism can imply one nation dominating another, it doesn't necessarily mean that one nation is superior in regards to arts and culture, as illustrated by Europe's admiration of Mogul India. Europeans admired their fine arts, grand cities. To me, it's a matter of who got there first, who came up with the idea of saying how to run things, and exerting those ideas forcefully onto others which brought about imperialism, increased exchange in resources, products and the birth of capitalism.

Summary: Subsistence producers were swallowed up by powerful, capitalist states. For example the Spanish in Latin America. One people group called the Mundurucu were divided in the 1950s into those who chose to preserve their subsistence lifestyle in the Amazon and those who chose to branch out to other jobs such as collect rubber for traders. For the Mundurucu, there was no division between private "family" life and "work" life. Family relations would be present while they exchanged goods and their sexual division of labor was unique. Women did the majority of the work, the hard field labor, household labor and childcare while men were the hunters or cleared ground for cultivation.

Based on the Mundurucu, pre-capitalist societies they had no political organization like how we perceive ourselves today, associated with a specific race or political stance. They had no bureaucratic structure. Every village had a chief, but their purpose was for influence instead of authority. They also believed in supernatural powers and symbols. Economically, pre-capitalist societies were not organized to produce a surplus and were mostly egalitarian, kinship was very important. There were other kingdoms however, with an implicit caste system, like the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa of pre-colonial Rwanda (p. 229).

The Kingdom of Bakongo was an empire In Africa (present-day Angola) with smiths making weapons, knives and were exchanged throughout the country. They exchanged with colonists, merchants and missionaries. Europeans easily dominated established kingdoms such as the Incas of Peru, with the invasion of Spanish conquistadores. The Incas had an unwritten language. The Moguls 1526-1761 in north-west India, whose influence spread because of their monetized economy and organized state. The ruling elite were Muslims and the masses were Hindu. Castes existed in the division of labor.

The rise of Islam had a powerful effect in European cultures and was a unifying factor from West Africa to Indonesia. Its spread took off after the death of Muhammad in 632.

2 ending points:

-Wealth went to the transformation of productive processes in Europe, the Industrial Revolution

-European imperialism brought the new world economic order (p. 240).

Reaction to 'Darwin's Nightmare'

The culture and lifestyles of the fishing population is tragic. Fishing villages are infected with poverty, prostitution and filth. The trade itself is a downward spiral because the poor need a job so they become fisherman. However their job is dangerous on the lake (they go out in little pirogues) and they do not get paid a lot. It is hard to support a family on a fisherman's income. The local people do not benefit from this market whatsoever. The fish that is caught is processed at a factory that cuts them into filets. This process drives up the price of fish so that the locals cannot afford to buy it. While the factories provide jobs, this industry is not sustainable because it does not contribute to the health and longevity of the local population. All the fish is shipped out and the profit goes into the hands of the companies that privatized the fish market. (Something I noticed was that there were lots of businessmen in TZ who came from India, and I wonder about the socio-cultural ties with India and Tanzania.)

Many Russians fly to Tanzania in Post-Soviet planes to take fresh cargo back to European nations daily. They try to stuff planes with so much cargo in order to save money but the planes often end up crashing from the weight of the fish. It is common to see bits of plane debris at the airport from planes crashes that failed to lift off. Because there are many foreigners (especially Russians) that fly into Tanzania, prostitution is very common. They interviewed some "pilot's girlfriends" and the women said that they receive a good meal and maybe some beers when clients come. Prostitutes don't enjoy their job, they do it out of necessity. They interviewed Eliza (I believe was her name) and she said that she had dreams to become a teacher. Tragically, later into the film they found out Eliza was killed by a client.

There is a high level of HIV/AIDS but there is no clinic around for treatment, or medications readily available. There was a Christian minister in one fishing village however he does not advocate the use of condoms. This can be a problem because he believes pre-marital sex is a sin. However HIV/AIDS is spread through the culture of extra-martial sex. There needs to be re-alignment of sex education and HIV/AIDS prevention because NOT telling people to use condoms causes more harm than good.

The biodiversity in Lake Victoria is deteriorating. Levels of oxygen are depleted, the native species are disappearing because the alien species that was introduced is predatory to all other species and taking over the lake. Some hungry villagers, the poorest of the poor, will eat whatever the planes and factories leave behind. They will scrounge the dumps for fish carcasses that still have meat and roast them, but these fish dumps are crawling with rotting soil and maggots. Plus these carcasses are probably moldy and barely edible. One villager said this fish tasted more bitter than normal.

The youth make glue to inhale to help them sleep. It's made from fish parts. When they sniff it, they can sleep anywhere and according to a young boy, "it gets rid of fear." The documentary shows lots of street children left on their own, many to get in fights and fend for themselves. They sleep in groups. There was one girl who had to stay with the younger boys for fear that the older boys would take advantage of her.

The predatory species in Lake Victoria has spawned endless problems. While the Lake provides a supply of fish, fisherman and their families are suffering. There is disease, poverty, HIV/AIDS, hunger, homelessness and prostitution that are magnified by the lake's vicinity. Messing with nature and privatization of the fish market has caused so much more harm than good. The stories of these fishing villages are often unheard of. I am glad that this documentary brings those problems to light and forces us to think about the implications and consequences of 'capitalism' and global markets.

Cox Reading 'Political Geography'

Cox states that capitalism means "the production of commodities with commodities." That means in a market, everything becomes a commodity, something that is bought, sold or rented. Capitalism cannot exist without labor markets. After the Cold War, the world moved towards capitalism and free markets, but this comes with problems too. Capitalism produces competition, the cheapening of the product and developing it, and wage competition.

Three preconditions exist for capitalism:

1) the separation of the immediate producers from the means of production.

This can often be forcible and violent.

2) (abolition of slavery) immediate producers must be free to work for a wage

3) there must be people with large sums of money

Forces of production:

1) skill of the worker

2) instrument of labor

3) object of labor

Socialization of production include interdependence between firms and specialization. Firms need each other to stay afloat. It includes skill development like literacy and technical know-how. Sources of tension include the inequality of power, insufficiency (wages, benefits) and insecurity (unemployment), insignificance (people replaced by machinery), the degradation of the environment, politics (monopolies, left-wing and right-wing, property rights).

Environmental degradation includes the depletion of non-renewable resources. Examples of this include over-fishing and oil. If oil is used at a rate faster than we can replace it, we will run out of resources. There are external costs involved as well which are not caused purposefully but have an equally important impact on future generations, like pollution caused by a power plant. This impacts both humans and the environment. Another factor of environmental degradation is population growth as well as growth in consumption. Not only are there more numbers of people on this earth, but each person tends to consume more.

"Moving in the direction of lower wages and less militant, more pliable labor is often a strategy for business as it attempts to elude the challenge of the labor movement" (pp. 52-53).

Businesses will always be up against labor unions. Businesses will find loopholes to cheapen the mode of production or try to replace labor with machinery, and labor unions will try to uphold their rights and improve working conditions. Cox says that the worker's movement is very geographically uneven, and I agree. The quote above illustrates that businesses will move to a place that is favorable to them, where they don't have to follow the rules. It's like a chase... the businesses will go where labor unions don't exist. That geography will then try to "cope."

Cox states that with the change of capitalism, there is a change of the home and the cityscape. Centered around the construction of a factory may be the construction of houses, schools and churches. Capitalism changes the infrastructure of an area. It can affect transportation, communication, the price of housing etc. Space has become commodified, and "conflicts between firms and employees is reflected geographically" (p. 61).

What I got from this: capitalism and politics are determined by geographical location.

Ch. 6 Journal

'Is the World Overpopulated?'

Overview: The traditional Malthusian view is that the growth of population will eventually overtake the production of food because the Earth has limited resources. The production of food grows arithmetically (1,2,3,4...) while the human race reproduces geometrically (2,4,8....). This leads to important questions: Is the world being overpopulated? Does the world have enough resources to support people?

The Neo-Malthusian view is similar to the traditional Malthusian but is less pessimistic, stating that human intervention can put a check on population growth. However their theory stems from the view that the poor have the most children due to ignorance and "lack of foresight" and make it an imperative that people have less children (p. 133).

Population is rising because mortality is decreasing. The trend is that population increases are stemming from low-income countries. In fact, many higher-income nations have a declining population. One explanation may be that people in low-income countries tend to have more children in order to compensate for possible losses. Also there is improved public health and sanitation, allowing safer deliveries, higher fertility and longer lifespans. The United Nations Population Fund projects that the world population may stop growing at 10 billion people (p. 127). Currently the world's population is nearly 6 billion people. The three components of population are mortality, fertility and distribution.

The Demographic Transition Theory (p. 128) ties together industrialization and fertility and is based on the modernization theory. Since the Industrial Revolution, high mortality and fertility rates have turned to low mortality and low fertility rates in developed nations. The more industrialized, the more likely a nation will have low deaths and low fertility.

Migration: "The level and the nature of development determine migration patterns. Migration decisions have emotional and practical repercussions of great significance, affecting the equality of people's life." p. 129

My thoughts: The migrant population is often overlooked. I think it is an important part of the population equation so I am glad they talk extensively about the plight of migrant workers. They are often faced with unequal treatment, work long hours with low pay, work in dangerous environments and are prone to mistreatment and vulnerable to disease, especially if they are illegal migrants since they shy away from going to hospitals. The book gives examples of historical migrations such as migrants from the India subcontinent going to oil-producing Middle Eastern countries, European migrants to North & South America in the 1900s, the migration caused by famine in Indo-China and sub-Saharan Africa and refugees from the Cambodian Pol Pot regime.

"Development is the best contraceptive." - Bucharest slogan 1974 (p. 134)

My thoughts: Was this really a slogan? It made me laugh out loud but also think twice about the impact of development. I don't think it is the only way to slow population growth. While it is a catchy phrase, development incorporated with education are the best contraceptives. Also, the book talks about the many social factors that contribute to population size. This connects with the International Conference on Population and Development's (ICPD) Programme of Action which advocate for women and health. Their focus is on: 1) reproduction, women and the family 2) the inter-relation between population dynamics and development 3) mortality, migration and the elderly.

Population vs. birth control: birth control refers to the rights of couples or individuals to control childbearing on the basis of choice. Population control refers to the controlling of childbearing through policies.

Vocab:

Replacement level- level of fertility at which women have enough daughters to replace themselves

Infant Mortality Rate- number of deaths to infants under one year of age in a given year per 1,000 live births

fertility rate- number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years in a given year

crude birth rate- number of births per 1,000 population in a given year