This short paper will introduce and discuss following concepts: poverty, globalization, development, culture and cultural diversity. These are all important phenomenon, describing the world of rich and poor that we live in. Reducing the economic dispariti

Developing Studies: Assignment 1 – Short paper

Anna Leijonhufvud

January 2011

Introduction

This short paper will introduce and discuss following concepts: poverty, globalization, development, culture and cultural diversity. These are all important phenomenon, describing the world of rich and poor that we live in. Reducing the economic disparities between people, countries and regions is an ongoing struggle, nevertheless not new. Major efforts have been made to lesson the inequalities; still an enormous amount of people lack fundamental rights. The present debate is, notwithstanding the importance of history, influenced by new questions, concepts and ideas. Which are the new aspects of poverty, development, globalization, culture and cultural diversity? What are their strength and weaknesses? The aim of this paper is to present these concept’s complex definitions and elaborate on their different meanings to different agencies.

Poverty

Poverty is an age-old concern and a multi-dimensional phenomenon (Goldin and Reinert 2007). Income poverty is known as the most common way of measuring poverty and it derives from the consumption that human wellbeing is defined by the individual’s consumption of goods and services. Poverty is therefore often described as the lack of goods consumed due to lack of necessary income. Living on less than 1 US Dollar is often called “absolute poverty” or “extreme poverty” whereas “poor” is commonly used for living on 2 dollar a day. These are measured in “purchasing power parity” dollars (Thomas 2000). However, income is not the only factor that matters. Poor health is frequently recognized as a major aspect of destitution. It can be measured in various ways, for example using statistics of infant and child mortality, life expectancy, and malnourishment (Goldin and Reinert 2007). The latter estimated to approximately 1 billion of whom 150 million children ( 27.01.2011).
The lack of education is another major key obstacle to development and a cause to deprivation in income and health. Similar to health, education can be measured using different numbers: literacy rates, average years of schooling or enrolment rates. Empowerment – limitations in an individual’s ability to participate in social realms, such as work or political process is equally important. The reasons for empowerment can be discrimination or gender disparities. In many countries and societies, women are socially restricted, not able to enter the workforce; participate in politics or in some cases not having the same legal rights as men. Furthermore, working conditions is another often not discussed characteristic of poverty. To give an example, The International Institute is Tropical Agriculture estimated that more than 150 000 children are exposed to hazardous work in the cacao farms of West Africa (Goldin and Reinert 2007).
To summarize, poverty has many faces yet as Streeten (1995:32-33) notes, “Some authors regard all poverty as relative, but this is surely confusing inequality – an evil, but different evil – with poverty. Everyone in a society can be equally starving, and we would not want to say that they are not poor”.

Globalization

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Globalization

Globalization refers to an increasing sense of interconnectedness, driven by various economic factors, technological innovation, changes in policy and cultural preferences (McGrew 2000). In popular account globalization is often seen as a fairly recent concept. However, bearing in mind: “we live in one world, and have done so for a long time” (McGrew 2000:347).
Importantly, neither has globalization been linear progression nor even. Firstly, throughout history factors have propelled surges in globalization and restrained it. Secondly, it is a process of which results in winners and losers, not only between countries but also within them. The affluent often refer to the feeling of a shrinking world, caused by the Internet, airplanes and the global TV. Mindful the vast majority people lack access to these innovations, globalization is often associated with the feeling of disempowerment. This is not without grounds as many peoples fate are decided and sealed in bureaucracies thousands of miles away (McGrew 2000).
There are different theories on the pros and cons of globalization and how it affects the world and inequality. Consider the two following quotations:

A world integrated trough the market should be highly beneficial to the vast majority of the world’s inhabitants.

– Martin Wolf (2004:89)

While promoters of globalization proclaim that this model is the rising tide that will lift all boats, citizen movements find that it is instead lifting only yachts.

– International Forum on Globalization (Goldin and Reinert 2007:1)

The first quotation refers to the neoliberal analysis, strongly arguing that globalization can be a progressive force for generating prosperity in a world wide market civilization. Opposite of neoliberals, radicals suggest that globalization is deepening global inequalities rather than creating “one world” (McGrew 2000). It is neither right to say that globalization is merely a friend nor a foe. Globalization can be an important catalyst for alleviating poverty, yet the absence of appropriate domestic and international policies will diminish its role. In some unfortunate cases, it might even exacerbate certain dimensions of poverty, as described by the radical analysis (McGrew 2000).

Culture and Cultural Diversity

A culture can be defined as norms that set standards in a society. These norms can regard social behaviour, eye contact, clothing, personal space distance or body language used in public. For example, in a conversation Americans usually stand eighteen inches away from each other; they use direct eye contact and are rather demonstrative with their body language. In other countries, looking a person in the eyes can be an insult or a sign of lack of respect, especially if it is a person of higher rank than you (www.ethnoconnect.com/html/articles_01.html 23.01.2011).
Social exclusion is a concept often used in a discussion regarding poverty (Thomas 2000). It can also be referred to in the case of cultural diversity. If you don’t follow these cultural norms, you might be frozen out socially as people think your behaviour is “wrong”. Being a woman and not follow the dress code in strictly Muslim-ruled countries can even have legal consequences (www.ethnoconnect.com/html/articles_01.html 23.01.2011).
There are many problems and opportunities directly or indirectly related to cultural diversity. Lacking the room for a vast discussion, international migration is a cause for increased cultural diversity that I would like to point out because one of its major positive consequences is reducing poverty. 18th 19th and 20th century mass migration from Europe to Americas and Australasia enabled people to escape destitution. Today, more people than ever before wish to migrate, putting create pressure on the system. Goldin and Reinert recognizes the remarkable poverty reduction ability that lies with migration, as well as paying attention to the impact of migration on sending commodities and on the migrants themselves. The tremendous prospect of remittances is another positive consequence of migration, sometimes being a rather significant share of the GDP in poor countries. “Brain drain” is a negative outcome, resulting in skilled workers leaving developing nations to work in the developed world. This is especially a problem amongst medicine professionals, sometimes leaving few doctors and nurses behind to fight massive problem such as HIV & Aids and Malaria in their home countries (Goldin and Reinert 2007).

Development

There are many ways of defining development. Amartya Sen (1998 Nobel Prize laureate in Economics) sees development as an expansion of capabilities and enrichment of an individuals’ life. His words do not refer to materialistic consumption but the freedom to choose different ways of living (Hewitt 2000).
The idea of development has evolved over the last 200 years, becoming especially important during the last 50 years. Along with the internationalization its meaning has changed, as well as the institutions and discourses of development. Hewitt claims that development can be used in three senses 1) a way to measure a societies desirable state 2) a historical process where societies are changing overt time 3) major efforts made by various NGO’s, governments, social movements ect. seeking to achieve improvements (Hewitt 2000).
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) can be referred to the first of the three usages, as it is a method to determine the level of socio-economic progress. However, it is lacking many vital aspects of development. Consequently, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) introduced a new measurement called Human Development Index, abbreviated HDI. It comprises three dimensions that are measured by four indicators: health (life expectancy at birth), education (mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling) and living standard (Gross domestic income per capita). Nevertheless, there are many characteristics of development and HDI could easily be argued as not comprehensive enough, lacking information about for example gender equality (Thomas 2000).
Looking back on the 20th century, economic growth has been on of the most important aspect of achieving development, still being a major driving force (Hewitt 2000). One eminent example is Chinas unprecedented rise, profoundly due to rapid economic reforms and growth, bringing 250 million people out of absolute poverty. Indeed, The United Nations Millennium Goal nr 1 is predominantly likely to succeed because of Chinas contributions (UNDP 2005).
Today many other vital factors have been realised, sustainable development is one rising concept for debate. Woodhouse (2000) refers to the Brundtland Commission for its definition: “Development that meets the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (p.158). Moreover, the Brundtland Commission argues that if everyone were to live like those in the developed world i.e. consume as much, the global energy consumption would increase fivefold (Woodhouse 2000).

Conclusion

All concepts introduced above are strongly integrated to one another. I have tried to explain their single meanings and discussed their various aspects as multifactor phenomenon, although the reader should bear in mind the difficulty to successfully summarize such vast concepts. Poverty, globalization, development and cultural diversity are not new phenomenon; historians will give us many examples of their previous existence. Nonetheless, these concept’s various aspects have changed over time. To summarize, globalization has during the last couple of decades intensified, resulting in many arguing it’s positive and negative consequences. One the one-hand radicals claiming it is raising inequalities, on the other neoliberals arguing that it will bring prosperity to not only the affluent, but also the developing countries.
Development is also a concept that has evolved over time and economic growth is one important aspect both historically and at present. Albeit, today’s theories are empathizing many other essential factors, resulting in new measurements (ex. HDI) as well as new concerns (ex. sustainable development). Furthermore, poverty is an age-old phenomenon that has easily been defined in economic terms, referring to the lack of income. However, the importance of health, education, empowerment and working conditions has during the last decades been recognized as equally important. Last but not least are the aspects culture and cultural diversity. Migration has been and still is an important aspect of cultural diversity that can contribute to diminish poverty, nonetheless mindful its negative impacts.

Sources

Literature sources

Hewitt, T. (2000) “Half a century of development” in Tim Allen and Alan Thomas (eds.), Poverty and development into the 21st century, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chap. 13. 20 p

McGrew, A. (2000) “Sustainable globalization” The global politics of development and exlusion in the new order” in Tim Allen and Alan Thomas (eds.), Poverty and development into the 21st century, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chap. 16. 20 p

Thomas, A. (2000) “Poverty and the ‘end of development’ ” in Tim Allen and Alan Thomas (eds.), Poverty and development into the 21st century, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chap. 1. 20 p.

Woodhouse, P. (2000) “Environmental degradation and sustainability” ” in Tim Allen and Alan Thomas (eds.), Poverty and development into the 21st century, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chap. 7. 22 p.

UNDP (2005), Human Development Report 2005, New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, “Overview”, 14 p.

Goldin, I. and Reinert, K. (2007) Globalization for development, Washington: The World Bank

Streeten, P. P. (1979), Thinking about development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Wolf, M. (2004), Why globalization works, New Havean: Yale University Press

Other sources

2011 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics accessed: 27.01.2011

What is cultural diversity?
www.ethnoconnect.com/html/articles_01.html accessed: 23.01.2011

Purchasing power parity is used because the cost of living significantly varies from country to country.

For example, during the 15th century the Chinese emperor Hung-His banned maritime expeditions, restricting Asian globalization significantly. Indeed, those who constructed a ship with two masts where sentenced to death. Furthermore, the emerge of newly industrialised countries of East Asia, especially Japan, Taiwan (China), and the Republic of Korea in the late 1970s lowered the cost of moving goods, capital, people, and new ideas across the globe (Goldin and Reinert 2007).

The Millennium Goal nr 1 is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Halving the proportion of people living on less than 1 US Dollar a day and halving malnutrition.