SOSC 300K

1. SOSC 300K Lecture Note 11 Globalization and International Division of Labor

2. Main Issues • 1. International Division of Labor: • what it is • how it works this way (explanations) • 2. Current Wave of Globalization • the New International Division of Labor from the 1980s • Global feminization

3. Global Economy in 200 BCE-200 CE+ Globalization: a new or old phenomenon? Global economy in circa 12th. century) (the Eurasian silk route) http://pittsford.monroe.edu/pittsfordmendon/socstud/jyager/silkrout.htm

4. 1. The First World (the U. S., countries in Western Europe, and Japan) 2. The Second World (the Soviet Union, China and other socialist states) 3. The Third World (the rest—states in Latin America, Asian-Pacific region, and Africa) Or, in conventional terms: developed countries, developing countries and under developed countries Theoretical terms (world-system paradigm) 1. Core (the U. S., countries in Western Europe, and Japan) 2. Semi-periphery (states in Latin America and Asian four tigers [Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea] 3. Periphery (the rest) Classification of world nations

5. Wallerstein’s explanation on development and underdevelopment (1) • Why are some countries well developed, while others are underdeveloped? • According to Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-system paradigm, contrast between developed and underdeveloped countries is related to the colonial experiences • Developed countries were colonizing powers in the sixteenth- and early twentieth-century world-economy • Those “backward” countries were victims of colonialism • Though colonialism was challenged in the waves of post-colonial revolutions throughout the world after the W. W. II., the ties between colonizing powers and colonized countries continued

6. Western Europe United States Colonial Empires Wallerstein’s explanation on development and underdevelopment (2) Technology & consumer goods European colonial accounts in London banks Manufactured goods Raw materials P. McMichael, 2000: 47.

7. Colonialism (1) • From the fifteenth century, countries in Western Europe started to expand their territories throughout the world—establishment of various colonial settlements in the Americas, Africa, Southeast Asia • At the turn of the twentieth century, Japan became the first and the only non-Western colonizing power Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the adventurer who “discovered” the Americas in 1492

8. Colonialism (2) Source: Philip McMichael, p. 5.

9. Colonialism (in Southeast Asia) (3)

10. Colonialism (4) • What could a colonizing power benefit from colonization? • “Unequal exchange” thorough colonial division of labor (the form of international division of labor between the fifteenth and early twentieth centuries) • The colonial powers and their merchant companies exported manufactured goods such as cloth, guns, and implements for these products. Most of these manufactured goods were made of materials supplied by colonized countries (such as raw cotton from India, leather from North America, indigo, and other precious materials from South America) • The colonized areas such as Africa supplied labor (slavery) to the colonizers in the Americas for the establishment of tropical plantations (cotton, sugarcane, coca, and coffee plantations)

11. Colonialism (5) Source: Philip McMichael, p. 8.

12. Colonialism (5) • Some “luxury goods” (from the perspective of the colonizers) appropriated from colonized countries sustained the social status of the rulers of the colonizing powers (practices of social distinction and symbol of wealth and power) • These “luxury goods” included silk, porcelain, and tea from China, spices and ivory products from Southeast Asia, chocolate and coffee from South America

13. Colonialism (6) • After the nineteenth century, thanks to the introduction of tropical plantations in Ceylon, the Caribbean, British Malaya, North African, etc., rapid growth of the productivity of coffee, tea and sugar became mass-consumption products. These beverages became stimulus for the nascent working population to adjust into the factory work--see Sydney Mintz, 1985, Sweetness and Power (Penguin Books)

14. The “luxury goods”: Asian products in European markets Chinese Ewer, ca. 1715–25 (European market) Now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC Chinese Ewer, ca. 1520 in Portuguese market Now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC Chinese, late 18th-century,made for export to Europe

15. Frank’s explanation on development and underdevelopment (1) • In the 1960s and 1970s, Frank’s study on social development in Latin America inspired Wallerstein’s theory of modern world-system • But recently, Frank challenges Wallerstein’s ideas (together with Frank’s earlier thoughts)—Frank, 1998, ReOrient • What motivated the Europeans to conduct the long-distance navigation was to search for Asian silk, porcelain, and spices. All were produced and circulated in the intra-Asian trade (the sphere of maritime Asia) • Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century, when European colonizers arrived in Asia, they had to count on the Asian middlemen to join the lucrative intra-Asian trade. Most of these Asian middlemen were Chinese. • In the seventeenth century, The most notable example was the Koxinga family and their Nagasaki-Amoy-Macao-Vietnam-Manila business networks—the networks would even extend to Batavia [present-day Jakarta]

16. Frank’s explanation on development and underdevelopment (2) • Why did countries involved in the intra-Asian trade fall after the nineteenth century? • These countries (such as China, Southeast Asian states, and India) continued supplying European countries with raw materials for industrial development, so European countries developed. In the same time, the previous richer East Asian countries did not catch up the opportunities to engage in economic transformation. The critical moment occurred in the nineteenth century • Assessment of Frank’s thesis on ReOrient: rightly emphasize the centrality of the intra-Asian trade (vis-à-vis the one-dimensional perspective on the European expansion). But Frank’s explanation for the decline of the East is not complete (see review of Frank’s work in Kenneth Pomeranz, 2000, the Great Divergence)

17. Transition of the colonial division of labor to present-day international division of labor • The World War II and the rise of various post-colonial movements • Development of redistributive welfare states in both the Communist Blocs and the Western countries [i. e., the socialist planned economy and practice of Fordism in mass-production manufactures in Western countries] • Semi-periphery countries started to industrialize (by catching up the opportunities of offshore production of Western enterprises)—rapid economic growth in Latin America and the East Asian tigers (Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea)

18. Industrialization of semi-peripheral countries: establishment of Export Processing Zones (EPZs)

19. New International Division of Labor from the 1980s • DEREGULATION: • The end of socialist planned economy • The decline of Fordism in the West • The opening up of the Chinese and Southeast Asian economies • Former communist countries and Southeast Asian states became emerging economies—large amount of labor forces available • These emerging economies attracted foreign capital by setting up EPZS—for example, the rise of the Pearl Delta Region and the Yangzi Delta in mainland China • Economic restructuring in the former semi-peripheral countries (such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, S’pore and South Korea--to be upgraded into core countries or to be downgraded into peripheral countries?)

20. Globalization David Harvey, 1990, The Condition of Postmodernity, p. 241.

21. Global Feminization? • 1. In the course of industrialization in the East Asian tigers during the 1950s-1980s, export-oriented industrialization brought a rapid growth of low-wage female workers • 2. After the 1980s, when emerging economies followed the trajectories of industrialization of the four tigers, young female workers were enticed by the job opportunities in foreign factories

22. Why young female workers? • The employers would offer them lower wages (lower than men in the same job). They can accept lower wages (female workers are not expected to become primary breadwinners) • To request them to remain single and to fire them when they get married: the companies can save labor expenses on maternity leave benefits and other expenses on medical care • They are easier to manage and control—docile, low unionization, less militant

23. What do these women do? • They are employed largely in semiskilled, static jobs with little or no chance to develop skills or aptitudes that they could use subsequently • High turnover of women workers. They are easily to be replaced, not only women workers in the country but also elsewhere • The industries that they are employed are vulnerable to international trade fluctuations and to productive investment and disinvestment decisions taken in another part of the globe

24. Flexibilization (1) • In 1988, 108 countries in the world had ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO’s) Equal Remuneration Convention No. 100—”equal pay for equal work”. Among those that have not ratified it are many countries that are pursuing export-led industrialization strategy, including Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Women workers are disposable, “flexible”, and cheap • Deregulation and “fleixibilization” accelerate the erosion of notions of vocational skill and of job security

25. Flexibilization (2) • For women being laid off from factory work, they would find it difficult to look for other paid jobs • Among the four tigers, Hong Kong women aged between 50-64 are affected most seriously by economic restructuring • Why? Labor-intensive manufactures did not upgrade into capital or technical-intensive manufactures • Laid-off factory workers could not fit into the jobs in service industry