Globalization
By Ginny Mercier
What is Globalization?
Globalization is...
My Product: Honda ATV
How Do the Four Types of Globalization Relate to My Product?
Technological Globalization
What is it?
Technological Globalization is a global sharing of knowledge, products, and ways to help us communicate. The production of goods, use of everyday instruments, and personal or political possession all involve technology and knowledge. As our world develops into a technology based system, we become more adaptable to new ideas and ways of communication. Technology drives globalization; there could not be one without the other.
Claim
Technological devices such as communication, transportation, and instruments allowed raw materials to become an assembled ATV. Without this type of globalization, the world would be seemingly silent.
Cultural Globalization
What is it?
Cultural Globalization is the sharing of values, meanings, and ideas across the globe that make for stronger social relations. Native foods, lanugages, governments, and religions shape how countries interact with each other and with themselves. The world is a diverse mix of people who live their lives in unique ways, but together we are a human race who share ideas and communicate through cultural globalization.
Claim
Cultural Globalization affects how my product was made and brought to me in America. Japan is known for its manufacturing companies, busy airports, and ports thriving with incoming and exiting ships. It is part of Japan's culture to grow and become more energy efficient. With these new steps in technology that relate to their culture, Japan finds ways to harvest their land's resources and make something new.
Environmental Globalization
What is it?
Environmental Globalization is the idea of making the world a better place. Around the world people deal with pollution control, reforestation, recycling, and research on global warming. Recycling and pollution control are huge aspects of globalization. Together people are raising awareness of how littering and pollution can damage our earth and cause illness to humans. As we raise this awareness, we are communicating and sharing a common goal.
Claim
Environmental Globalization makes it possible for my ATV to be made and shipped. The earth provides resources, oceans, airstreams, and even people to produce and transport goods. Japan utilizes their natural resources to make products in energy efficient factories in attempt to make our planet a cleaner place while expressing their culture. Every time a ship sails across an ocean or a plane flies through the sky to bring parts of an ATV from Japan to America, we are expressing Environmental Globalization.
Economical Globalization
What is it?
Economical Globalization is the integration economics collectively around the world. Trade is a huge part of the economy. Countries make money by exporting their natural resources to countries who don't have access to them. Treaties between countries form relationships that aid trade networks and prevent costly wars. Individual countries tax their citizens to help pay for national and local construction or importing of goods. When people pay their taxes, countries go to war, or keep up with the latest trend, they are expressing economical globalization.
Claim
Economical Globalization plays a huge role in how my ATV made its way to my garage. The Japanese employ thousands of people in their minefields and factories to gather resources and make parts of the ATV. Each worker is paid and parts are sold. As the parts are shipped, money goes into fuel and employees who make the transportation possible. When the assembled product makes it to a store, the store makes money from the buyer and the buyer continues to pay money for inspections, licenses, and new parts.
Where is My Product Manufactured and Why?
Japan
- Natural Resources
Japan uses their own resources like steel, glass, copper, iron, and aluminum in their manufacturing factories. Although they have many resources in the palms of their hands, Japan needs to import materials like rubber from Thailand, and plastic from Germany. Japan must also import a very valuable resource, petroleum. Japan is Iran's biggest oil customer, and has imported that resource for many years. Without their partnership with countries like Iran, Japan would not have enough fuel to power their modes of transportation and machinery.
However, Japan does have a large supply of coal across their country. Coal mines were necessary before Japan had better access to oil. Most of the coal mines shut down in the 1960's, but when needed, coal is a go to resource for the entire country and its factories. Japan's resources, as well as the few other resources that need to be imported, are used to make Honda ATVs. To build an ATV, a factory needs materials like iron, aluminum, plastic, steel, petroleum, copper, rubber, and glass. Through trade and natural access to materials, Japan has become a successful manufacturing nation.
- Physical Features and Climate
The island nation of Japan is surrounded by salt water oceans, has access to bays and rivers, and has a variety of mountainous or flat terrains. The island's landscape provides areas for nature to flourish as well as flatter land where Japan's large cities are built. The country's weather differs greatly from north to south. Similar to the United States, the northern regions of Japan have colder winters and nice summers, and the southern regions are warm year round with hotter summers. Because Japan is an island on the Pacific Ocean, it is always at risk for storms coming in from the sea and tsunamis on its eastern borders. Someone would live in Japan for a wide range of climates and the "island feel."
The Honda company can do so well in Japan due to its location. Located on a western island, the factory provides work for many people and has access to the coastline and resources. If the company were to build its factories in the mountainous areas of Japan, their business may not do as well. Those areas are less populated and don't provide the right landscape for a city to run. Honda placed their company in Ozo to help their business to succeed.
- Populations
The most populated city in Japan is its capital, Tokyo, followed by Yokohama, and Osaka-shi as of March 1st, 2015. Japan's total population is about 126,902,808 people.
Tokyo's population - 8,336,599 people
Yokohama's population - 3,574,433 people
Osaka-shi's population - 2,592,413 people
People choose to live in these cities because their large companies provide work and are located on the coast. Citizens of Japan are attracted to its physical features found just outside the cities and the economical value of companies within the cities.
- Transportation
Japan's transportation utilizes its resources and enhances the movement of goods and people. Modes of transportation are becoming more energy efficient. Since Japan does not have personal access to fuels like oil, its railways with coal powered trains are one of the most common ways people and goods are trandpsorted. Japan also uses its waterways between the islands. Roads in Japan are busy and have high tolls, so many people resort to boats and trains as an easier and cheaper way of travel. Japan is known for its many airports where its products are shipped and tourists fly in.
Transportation and globalization go hand in hand. As my ATV was being built and shipped, technology was used to build and people communicated to make sure the product go to where it needed to be. When I bought my ATV, I had to communicate with the previous owner and use technology, like a truck and trailer to go pick it up. Without communication and technological globalization, I may not even have an ATV in my garage.
Kumamoto Factory
Global Problems and Solutions
Economical
Problem: A big problem in countries around the world is a lack of a clean water source. To begin with, the people don't have a place to dispose of their waste and garbage, so they dump it in rivers and streams. People down stream from them have no choice but to drink the contaminated water that they attempt to clean. With no money to afford technology worthy of filtering the water, and no hope of survival without the water source, many people die every day due to waste related diseases. This problem can be related to environmental globalization, but it is mainly an economical problem because people do not have the money or the resources to keep themselves clean and healthy, and no place to look for sufficient help.
Solution: Engineers in America make technology cheap enough for struggling countries to afford and working well enough to serve an important purpose. If countries like America continue to provide these goods to countries who truly need them, we can create an economical system that will boom. The production of this technology can create jobs in manufacturing countries and save lives in others. As the struggling countries improve their health and value for others, their economical value increases.
Environmental
Problem: Pollution is an enormous problem around the entire world. Factories and vehicles that release harmful chemicals into the earth's atmosphere affect the planet's health as well as our own. Energy efficiency and cleaner fuel are being proposed, but commonly overlooked. The continuation of the release of toxins in our air can create problems that we may not be able to fix.
Solution: If factories and vehicle manufacturers make machinery more capable of using less harmful fuels, our world's cleanliness, in time, can be nearly reversed. With cleaner fuels and more efficient sources of energy, our planet will be able to sustain our needs better than it has over the last hundred years. This solution ties to globalization because of communication and participation. Instead of disregarding advertisements about cleaner energy and thinking it is someone else's problem, people can start to do their part to make a difference, no matter how small.
Cultural
Problem: The world is becoming a much more interconnected and sociable place. As we all share or beliefs and try to influence each other's opinions, we change people's idea of culture and value. Every time someone moves, they carry their culture with them and add another point of view to a community full of many different views. All of this mixture can be beneficial, but it also causes people to lose touch with their roots and follow others who seem to know more than them.
Solution: Following someone else's sense of life that differs from what you truly believe can change your life. There are situations where these changes make your life better, but in other cases it can makes things more stressful. Trying to realize what is important in your country or your home is more important than trying to figure out how things are somewhere else. In America, we share our values and allow people to express their religion and lifestyles individually and freely. We are all influenced by each other, but it is important that we choose a cultural path specific to ourselves before we follow others. To solve this small but important problem, we should all put what we value before the force of influenced values other people share with us.
Technological
Problem: As technology is beginning to shape our world into something new, people are becoming more attached to their electronic devices. Instead of having a conversation or shooting hoops, teenagers sit on the couch on their phones and consider it socializing. I am guilty of these situations, when my phone and social media seems more important than a conversation with my friends sitting next to me. Technology has allowed the world to become more connected with those distant from us, but disconnected from those in the same room as us.
Solution: Technological Globalization has advanced to incredible new levels, both beneficial and slightly troublesome. To prevent people from becoming so attached to their devices and more distant from people around them, they should be more aware of how things around them can change while their not looking. The video below gives a representation of how people get so caught up in their phone, that they miss out on things that could have changed their life. I watched this video for the first time in eighth grade and it has made me think differently every time I pick up my phone instead of spending time with my family. A simple video or word of advice cannot change everyone's mind, but through these technological instruments, we can change how people prioritize their phone over a friend.
How Does Globalization Affect My Life?
The Positive: Globalization affects my life on a daily basis. When thinking about how exactly it does affect my every day life, I think about a school day. In the morning I'm woken up by an electronic alarm, which is technology. I check my phone and social media that I communicate with my friends on. I get out of bed and take a shower which is an instrument most people take for granted. After my shower I eat breakfast and watch the news. The news connects me to the outside world and gets me thinking about things I wouldn't normally think about. My dad drives me to my bus stop, and I ride the bus to school. The school bus is a mode of transportation provided to me through tax payer's money and the school system. When I get to school, I go to my classes and learn new things. This transfer of information is communicative, technological, and cultural. I socialize with my friends and talk about the latest trends or things going on at home. To end my school day I take the bus home and get started on my homework.
The Negative: The impacts of globalization on my life are not always positive, and can sometimes cause troublesome situations for me and people around me. The biggest fault in my relationship with globalization is my connection to my phone. Instead of watching a TV show or playing a board game with my family, I find myself sitting on the couch with my phone. Checking social media, listening to music, and texting my friends distract me from things around me. All are expressions of the four types of globalizations, but are not exactly beneficial.
The Future: In five years I think globalization will change my routine, making it more technology based and more interactive. In my classes there is a lot less lecturing and a lot more interaction. Lessons are taught with technological displays and multiple points of views, and I think this will only continue to advance. When my kids are in school and working, I think technology will do a lot of the work for them. This is a little disappointing to me because I would want my kids to be intuitive and not to reliant on technology that is not always reliable. The increase in technology when my kids are in school will be interesting to see how people can come together to create something so new.
Globalization in my day goes from something as simple as the use of a pencil to the creation of new knowledge and understanding. Without globalization, my life would be entirely different.