The limits to globalisation theory: A geographic perspective on Global Economic Change (Yeung 2002)
Kay 2001- globalisation has not diminished the economic significance of location. How does geography matter, (cause) geography, (outcome) globalisation. How is this inversion possible and plausible? Assessing the capacity of globalisation as a concept and a set of tendencies to explain the geographic world. Moving beyond first wave analyses of globalisation as a geographic phenomenon, develop a geographical perspective on globalisation. Globalisation processes are conceived as spatial tendencies, contingent on and accounted for by certain stringent and necessary requirements, some geographic, others politics, economic and/or technological.What geographical pre-conditions enable globalisation to take place in tandem with this reshaping of social life
Spatiality of globalsiation is an outcome of social constructions of space mediated through specific political, economic and technological forces. Geographical pre-conditions and empirical outcomes. Two pre-conditions- scalar switchability and discursive spatial practices. the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis cannot be explained simply as an outcome of globalisation
Uncovering and Delimiting the "globalisation Problematic"
Definition of globalisation in literature is largely elusive, vague and "chaotic". Geographers agree globalisation is a set of mutually constitutive tendencies comprising both material processes of transformation and countermovements, contested ideologies and discourses operate across a variety of geographic scales. Avoid the problem of "chaotic concepts".
Focus on economic globalisation, material processes of economic transactions and linkages across borders. Actor-orientated approach- focusing specifically on transformative role of global corporations and international financial institutions, focusing on the global scale in defining economic globalisation- an integrative set of tendencies operating on the global scale and intensifying connections and flows across territorial borders and regions
Instead of being an outcome driven, globalisation has become a universal cause. Globalisation seen an inevitable pathway to economic prosperity and success, opposite, seen as the cause of all kinds of socioeconomic malaises. Conceived as a political fix
The Geographic Foundations of Economic Globalisation
Questioning the common assumption of economic globalisation as a causal factor to cause empirically observable outcomes. Geographical pre-conditions, not economic globalisation per se help to explain empirical consequences and outcomes.
Economic globalisation as the transcendence of geographic scales
one necessary pre condition to enable economic globalisation to take place is the switchability of geographic scales. Economic globalisation represents a significant "scalar problem" because its very processes are constituted by the rescaling of multiple and overlapping geographic scales that fundamentally challenge the preexisting hierarchy of geographic spaces and territoriality. Events at different scales of the globe are often connected via globalisation tendencies. Rescaling effects of glocalisation and changing urban/regional governance. It is impossible to understand economic globalisation without addressing what enables it to transcend different geographic scales.
I argue that the global scale has an independent material existence beyond mere social construction- natural phenomena are global in their scale of occurence, impact and imagination. Its the ultimate space in which all possibilities for human emancipation lie
Spatial Switchability is that scales can be crossed over by social actors and produced by globalisation tendencies, rather scales are contested through social struggles and political means. The switching process may occur in ways that new configurations of scale occur. The actions of social actors not geographical globalisation account for empirical outcomes.
There is a continuous tension between capital's mobility on a global scale and its necessary spatial fixity at the local or another scale
Different degrees of Scalar switchability can be attributed to human imperatives and social constructions. Varies depending on specific globalisation processes, geographic scales may be more switchable in some processes than others.
The lack of a fixed ontological status among geographic scales such as homes, localities, and regions indicate these scales can be reconstituted, restructured and recombined through globalisation processes. Switchability enables globalisation processes to transcend nested territories and overlapping scales and reorganise them into different scalar geographies
Globalisation is also constrained and enabled by the fixed and non switchable ontological existence of the global scale. Earth places an upper limit on the spatial reach of economic globalisation that should be understood as a spatial-temporal tendency of becoming
Economic globalisation as Discursive spatial practices
Economic globalisation more than exploring reexisting spatial differences and switching but overlapping, geographical scales. Discursive dimension- discourses of economic gains and poltiical legitimacy are fundamental to improving the political and social acceptance on the right and left, about political tricks and strategies. Many globalisation discourses mobilise spatial metaphore to legitimise and justify the intrusive nature of globalisation. Spatial metaphore are developed from our geographical imaginations of the material world to make sense of the changing world.
Spatial metaphors serve as an important hermeneutical devices for the socio-spatial construction of globalisation tendencies without which globalisation would face a crisis of legitimisation. Spatial metaphors provide another necessary geographica pre-condition for globalisation to take place. Spatial imaginaries are always constructed from a particular social position.
Ohmae's metaphor of the borderless world- protagonists would like to see the negation of all territorial boundaries to enhance capital's global reach. The representational nature and underlying sociospatial relatiosn underscore the reproduction of this social metaphor.
Literature on globalsiation- 3 spatial metsphor to represent economic globalisation in sociaospatial terms, 1. as an external force, however globalsiation as out their and place as in here is problematic, relations inside are cast as good, externalising relations is seen as bad and totalising. This ontological seperation between local and global. Economic globalisation not crushing these localities, they have always been socially constructed in relation to the global scale.
Economic globalisation is constructed as a spatially external force that causes all kinds of prosperity and/or misery
Economic globalisation has been put forward in political campaigns and official speeches as natural and inevitable, a "tina" argument- no alternative, not inevitable, more than scalar switchability needed for globalisation to take place. Globalisation was made by humans and can be unmade or remade by humankind
Economic globalisation has also been championed in the popular media and business literature as universal and beneficial to humankind globally- again socio-spatial construction overlooks its equally possible spatial logic of exploitation and uncertainty
economic globalization is neither always universal nor necessarily beneficial. It clearly depends on preexisting geographic foundations of particular globalization tendencies
and their historically contingent realization through various political, economic, and social arrangements
A crisis of globalisation? Interpreting the Asian Economic Crisis
The Asian financial crisis highly relevant in highlighting the causality of economic globalisation, interpreting it as an outcome of economic globalisation, a misrepresentation of globalisation critics. Different discursive contructions offer insights into the sociospatial constructions of economic gloibalisaiton
The scalar switchability of capital allows national and local economies of Asia to be deferentially incorporated into the global economy. Global capital switches not only within scales but also between scales. Increases vulnerability to global economic downturns
Need to demistify the hegemonic discourse of globalsiation theory in which economic globalisation is conveniently posed as the key explanation for the crisis
Existing Explanations of the Asian Economic Crisis
Three explanations for the 1997-98 economic crisis- 1. neoliberal arguments of moral hazard, 2. political economy of globalisation 3. the marxist perspective. Internal factors of crony capitalism and excessive state intervention, national scale, point the finger at failure of national governance not economic globalisation. Need to demystify the hegemonic discourse of globalisation as the key explanation for the crisis
The crisis as an outcome of economic globalisation- scalar switchability allows local and national economies of Asia to be incorporated differently into the global economy, whereas spatial substitution increases the crisis tendency of host Asian economiesthrough greater ease of global capital inflows and outflows, scalar switchability allows unprecedented global exports of of capital from local and national economies in Asia increasing their vulnerability to global economic downturns.
Neoliberal thinkers maintain there is nothing fundamentally wrong with economic globalisation per se, view it as a positive influence on economic development, blame Asian economies that didn't put there houses in order, bailing out crony busineses, huge trade deficits, falling exports from Asia. Imf help worsened the crisis, scaring away potential investors and causing more financial panic. Opponents to this explanation adopt a political economy approach, question why did this not happen when intervention into Asian economies was more pronounced, the timing iddue
Third explanation from the radical Marxist perspective, argue this isnt a financial crisis, but reflects conditions in the real economy., involves all circuits of the economy, linking domestic and international capitalist accumulation processes, represents a serious breakdown in capitalist regime of accumulation, however need to debunk the myth of economic globalisation as the cause of crisis
Towards a geographic perspective on the Asian Economic Crisis
A geographical perspective on the crisis viewed not as an outcome of globalisation but a contingent development within the spatial logic of economic globalisation itself
Emphasis the social construction of geographic slaces and scalar switchability offer useful theoretical lenses to examine the spatiality of the crisis and its discursive representations
Economic globalisation has been developed as a smokescreen to cover up the direct causes of the crisis
What is out there?
Massive liberalisation and deregulation at the national scale further allowed "scalar switchability" through which local/national capital began to globalise itself and massive foreign debts were accumulated that were highly vulnerable to major currency fluctuations
Conclusion
Economic geographers made a significant contribution to study of economic globalisation through our theorization of its inherent spatiality and scalar effects. The study of globalisation lies within the study of spatiality- social, economic, cultural and political, of what is increasingly being seen as a single and interdependent world
This article has investigated the geographic foundations of economic globalisation and argued economic globalisation is very much shaped by its own spatial peculiarities. Geographical pre-conditions are required for economic globalisation to take place
Economic globalisation is not capable of producing and causing empirically observable outcomes, other necessary preconditions and contingent factors are needed.
Saying the 97-98 crisis happened because of economic globalisation is biased and promblematic
Scalar switchability- a geographical pre condition can explain why the crisis occured in a particular historical moment, such fulfilment varies geographically
An alternative- the relational perspective on the spatiality of globalisation views such locales as cities as a meeting place for diverse geographies of linkage
What is missing is an account of the experiences of significant transformations in their own everyday social lives. Can make a much better connection between the apparently nonhuman processes of economic globalisation and their manifestations in all sorts of human activities, practices and struggles. We have to pay attention to economic globalisation as a living experience, entailing both transformations of social practices and resistance from social actors, bridging the unfilled gap between stylized abstractions in most globalisation studies and the contradictory experiences of most people who are living with economic globalisation as an everyday fact