Globalization and its discontents - Stiglitz

NOTION : SPACES AND EXCHANGES

Text 4 – Globalization and its discontents by Joseph Stiglizt (2002)

Vocabulary

Globalization:  the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale

Summary

        The author tackles the subject of globalization. He mentions that it is necessary to a country to develop itself. Indeed it increases the economy of this country because of the international bargains and helps the country to be known. And this leads to higher standards of living. However, globalization also has negative impacts. It creates a substantial gap between people of different social ranks. In other words: wealthy persons will keep making money while poor people will struggle more than they were to gain money. Furthermore it extends to the vanishing of cultures.    Stiglizt wishes to establish a “fair development” which will ensure to give the same chances to everyone (health, education).

Opinion

        In my opinion, globalization is essential to a country’s development. “It has changed the way people think” : it has given new perspectives and goals to people. It has influence our everyday life. But obviously if a country increases in a way it will have impact on the other. I don’t think the “fair development” the author is talking about exists otherwise most of the countries will have already been following it.  However, globalization is directly linked to exchanges and spaces. As an example: a country will buy goods to another country. Because they can’t provide it to themselves: Canada can’t grow a huge quantity of cotton so there will be an exchange between this country and Brazil. Indirectly, it shows the diversity and differences of products in all the territory. It expounds that spaces are not the same and used for non-identical reasons.

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