Global Resistances

CAS 202: Asian Sites, Global Questions II

March 30, 2017
Final Assignment
Format: 6 pages [ approx. 1500 - 1800 words], double spaced.

Due Date: Hard Copy in class on 6th of April, 2017.

 Assignment Structure:
1. Introduction: Layout clearly what is the broader argument of the paper.

2. Main Section:
History of the commodity [Assignment 1],
Overview of the global commodity production system [Assignment 2],
Locate your themes/issues in this history and commodity system, and
discuss the issue/theme in depth.

3. Concluding Section: Summarize your paper and draw out the

implications of your argument for globalization in Asia.
The implications can be analytical, policy oriented, social movement
oriented, identifying the significance of work being done by an
organization, OR identifying an area where more
research/policy/action is required.
Recap
Theories of Globalization:

1. World Systems Theory: Globalization [1500 C] through

colonialism leading to creation of core, semi-peripheral, and
peripheral countries.
2. Global Capitalism Approach: Capitalists and political elites,
professionals and managers, workers and peasants.
3. Network Society: Informationalization of production and
decentralized networks of production, culture, and governance.
4. Globalization and Space: Global Cities as metropoles and
peripheries
5. Globalization and Disjuncture: Multi-directional flows and
scapes.
1950s to 1990s Globalization and Economic
Development in NICs

The East-Asian Miracle

1. State Developmentalism in Singapore and Hong Kong.

2. State-Developmentalism + the Cold War Politics in South

Korea and Taiwan

East Asian Financial Crisis [1997-1998]

Graduated Sovereignty Model of Development
in post-1997 context [Malaysia and Indonesia]

1. Special Economic Zones

2. Industrial Growth Triangles

Differential treatment [race, gender, ethnicity, and class]

A strong alliance between state bodies, transnational
corporations, and police / military
Recreation of the core-periphery relationship within the
Asian region.
Global Policy and Knowledge Transfers

1. Transfer of graduated sovereign policies and the growth of

industrial corridors and special economic zones across Asia
[China, India, Bangladesh, North Korea]

2. Impacts of policy transfers on smaller forms of economies

both informal and formal [e.g.: Bangalore, India]
Land Rush / Grab in Asia

1. Offshore Farming by food-insecure countries

2. Plantation by Agro-businesses
3. Foreign Direct Investment in non-agricultural
commodities [mining] and bio-fuels
4. Speculative state policies to generate economic growth.
5. Free-trade zones and industrial centers
6. Development of protected areas + Ecotourism
Media and Movement

1. Increase in digitally traded goods

2. The role of mass-media in re-imagining communities
3. Role of ICTs in governance and social movements
4. The Urban/Rural digital divide.
5. Piracy and Recycled Modernity and access to ICTs.
Graduated Sovereignty and Impacts on Labor
1. Competitive State policies [land, wage, law and order] to
attract private companies and FDI.

2. Neoliberal state collaborating with private corporations

by providing infrastructural support and ensuring law
and order, allowing for capital accumulation and economic
growth.

3. Impacts: Reproduction of international, gendered and

ethnic division of labor; alienation of laborers from land,
society, work; and manifestations of labor expolitation.
Nature
1. Anthropocene, Capitolocene, and Multi-species approach

2. Theory of Access and Social Movements

Theory of Access Analysis
Access is not property, nor rights, but the ability to benefit from
things, including material objects, persons, institutions, and symbols.

Access is a set of social relationships that can constrain or enable

people to benefit from resources without focusing on property
relations or rights [legal or community sphere].

It implies who does get to use what, in what ways, and when? Thus it
is closely related to questions of power and sovereignty.

It pays attention to legal, illegal, and informal ways of accessing and

using things.
Theory of Access Analysis
An analysis of structural and relational access mechanisms mediate and shape the
social relationships of access. These include:

1. Technology
2. Capital
3. Markets
4. Labor and labor opportunities
5. Knowledge
6. Authority and Institutions
7. Identities
8. Social Relationships
Seattle: Anti-globalization
movement [1999]
Post 1997-1998 East Asian Crisis
Offshoring of jobs to Asia and Latin
America
International Monetary Fund and
World Banks Structural Adjustment
Policy in Asia, Latin America and Africa
Chinas inclusion in World Trade
Organization despite human rights
violation

An Anti-globalization Movement seeking

for protectionism.
Bangkok, Thailand: Anti-globalization
movement [2000]
Tenth United Nations
Conference on Trade and
Development
Protection from Free Trade
Policies and Development
Violence

A call for subsistence based

economy.
Form and scale of resistance in a globalized
context
Local [Urban/Rural]

Regional [Urban and Rural]

National

Asian

Global
Resistances in Thailand

Local [Urban/Rural] Rasai Salai and Pak Mun

Regional [Urban and Rural] Ubon Region + Bangkok

Assembly of the Poor [Umbrella
National Organization]

Asian ???

Global Direct Action Network [USA]

Resistances in India against World Bank
Arch Vahini, Anand Niketan [NGOs
Local [Urban/Rural] and Activists]
Save Nimar and Narmada Bachao
Regional [Urban and Rural] Andolan [Coalitions], Politicians,
Activists
National
Environment Ministry, Supreme
Asian Court [Justice System]

Global ??
Experts and Money from OXFAM,
Survival International, UN and ILO
Convention [107] recognition of
rights of indigenous peoples.
 Resistances in a globalized context require mobilizing and
accessing networks across scales to resist local issues

It requires accessing all avenues: law, NGOs [civil society

organizations, politicians, experts, International donors,
grassroots activism, knowledge, technology.

Access Theory Analysis: As per law, everyone has rights to all of

the above mechanisms. But the question is do they have the
access to it?

Mapping global chains and identifying key sites for

interventions.
World Social Forum [2001]

Held in January at the same time

as the World Economic Forum

A Global Civil Society against

Imperialist and Neoliberal form of
Globalization

A counter-hegemonic form of
globalization rather than anti-
globalization
International Indigenous Peoples Forum on
Climate Change (IIPFCC, 2008)
A caucus of the UN Forum on
Climate Change

Rights of indigenous peoples on

customary land against
government programs to preserve
forest to earn carbon credit
[Malaysia, Indonesia, Lao, Nepal,
Sri Lanka]
Asia Floor Wage Alliance [2005]
Purchasing Power Parity $,

An imaginary currency built on the

consumption of goods and services by
people, this currency allows us to
compare the standard of living
between countries, regardless of the
national currency.

Currently the Asia Floor Wage is

calculated to be PPP$ 1021 / month.
Universal Basic Income [2005]
India [2011] : Pilot Projects

Macau SAR [2014]: Wealth

Partaking Scheme
BRAC [Building Resources Across Communities,
1972]

Establishing new cooperative value chains:

Dairy, Food, Fisheries, Handicraft

Providing raw material and technology,

alongside health, education, micro-credit
programs, governance programs

Setting up retail stores and marketing

[online and in Europe and US]

Self-sustaining through enterprises

Community Radio Programs

Access to information regarding:

1. Rights and laws
2. Information on markets and
technologies
3. Filling the gap between the state
and the market
4. Offering information in local
dialect
5. Encouraging local performers,
interests, music and artists
6. Providing a platform to voice
grievances,
7. Providing access to women, rural
areas, and immigrants.
Piracy and Recycled Modernity

1. Decentralising ICTs
2. Providing access to films,
music and software
3. Cheaper infrastructure for new
businesses
4. Decentralized form of
production and distribution
networks,
5. Circulating commodities and
ideas beyond a prescribed
geography.
Details of Exam
Date: TUE 11 APR
Time: PM 2:00 - 4:00
Location: HA [Haultain Building ] 403, 170 College Street

Structure of the Exam:

Four short essays [5 points each]
One long essay [15 points]
Question Bank
1. Explain the following theories of globalization using an example:
World Systems Theory [Immanuel Wallerstein]; the Network Society
[Manuel Castells]; Global-scapes [Arjun Appadurai].

2. Why is it important to undo the digital divide?

3. How do the economic growth models of Taiwan and South Korea

differ from those of Singapore and Hong Kong?

4. What are the different processes driving land rush or land grab in
Asia? [Use examples]

5. How have China and Malaysia attracted electronics manufacturing

in their countries? And what are its impacts on laborers?