Term
| How did the World Systems Theory emerge? |
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Definition
| [point] World Systems Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein) emerged from international theories from the 1960’s and 1970’s, that were popular in the 1980’s as well. |
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Term
| Know the four principals of World Systems Theory |
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Definition
o Split into 3 groups: core, semi-peripheral and peripheral.
El Salvador, Nicaragua, or possibly Israel would be in the semi-peripheral
o Resources, capital, labor, and value come from the 3rd world or periphery. They flow to the 1st world or core
o The core nations have interests in maintaining the current world system |
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Term
| What are examples of periferal nations? |
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Definition
| Brazil or Argentina in the peripheral |
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Term
| What are examples of core nations? |
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Definition
| Germany or the U.S would be in the core |
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Term
| What are examples of semiperiferal nations? |
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Definition
| El Salvador, Nicaragua, or possibly Israel would be in the semi-peripheral |
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Term
| What historial roots does the WST have? |
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Definition
| [point] World Systems Theory has historical roots in the philosophy of Hegel, and then Marx. Hegel said that truth was in “the whole” (rather than parts of the whole). |
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Term
| What do global institutions do? |
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Definition
| - The terms of international trade are designed to maintain the wealth of the core (think of the IMF or World Bank, which are “global institutions”) |
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Term
| Why did Chuck said oil prices (and gas prices) will rise because of the Middle East, democratization. |
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Definition
| The U.S will have allies with countries that are wealthy in oil even if they don't believe in their politics |
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Term
| How does Chuck define globalizaition? |
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Definition
| - Chuck defined “globalization” by the process of increased transactions over distances without regard to differences |
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Term
| Why is US food relatively cheep? |
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Definition
| Our food in the U.S. relatively cheap because energy prices tend to be lower in core nations |
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Term
| What sped up globalization? |
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Definition
| The technology of containerization (in shipping industries) sped up globalization |
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Term
| - There's a power shift, and a redistribution of wealth worldwide Mobility, corporations can move places easier, cheap labor is there and opens up a larger reserve of labor. |
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Definition
| - There's a power shift, and a redistribution of wealth worldwide Mobility, corporations can move places easier, cheap labor is there and opens up a larger reserve of labor. |
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Term
| - The three relationships to capital have changed a lot since before 1970, and especially since around the Great Depression. What are they? |
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Definition
o Capital-Labor: mobilization cheapened labor
o Capital-State: states can't regulate corporations anymore
o Capital-Capital: no more fixing of prices or monopolies--> cut throat, worldwide |
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Term
| What does the film, the corporation argue? |
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Definition
| The film The Corporation argues that if the corporation is a person, then it is a psychopath. |
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Term
| [Point] The corporation is the dominant institution of our time. The corporation produces great wealth yet cause much hidden harm (A paradox). These are artificial, not natural, creations, that try to get as much profit as they can. |
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Definition
| [Point] The corporation is the dominant institution of our time. The corporation produces great wealth yet cause much hidden harm (A paradox). These are artificial, not natural, creations, that try to get as much profit as they can. |
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Term
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Definition
| - A corporation is one form of business ownership, group of individuals that try to grow and sustain their investments |
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Term
| Did it used to be harder or easier to become incorporated? |
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Definition
| - It was harder to become incorporated before, like in the late 1800’s and before because it more of a privilege and corporations were temporary |
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Term
| What is the 14th amendment and how does it apply to corporations? |
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Definition
| - The 14th amendment was passed in 1864, put an end to slavery, and gave african americans rights such as due process. Corporations took advantage of this by taking these same rights. |
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Term
| What is a corporation legally obligated to do? |
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Definition
| A corporation is legally mandated to earn profit |
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Term
| What can it do as a legal person? Why is it not a person? |
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Definition
- As a legal “person,” a corporation could borrow money, and sue which it couldn’t do before
- the corporation has “got no soul to save and no body to incarcerate.” |
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Term
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Definition
| - externality- 2 people make a transaction together and a 3rd person pays for it |
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Term
| What are corporations known to spread harm to? |
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Definition
| Corporations were shown to cause harm to: workers, human health, animals, and the biosphere. Under each of these categories, there are sub-categories (for workers, the specific harms / subcategories are: layoffs, union busting, factory fires, and sweatshops.) |
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Term
| What are elements of a corporation’s pathology? |
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Definition
| Reckless disregard for concern of others, deceitfulness and lying, inability to form long lasting relationships |
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Term
| What personal attachment does Chuck have to externality? |
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Definition
| - Chuck talked about his friend Carrie Morrison who recently died. To Chuck, her death - and some cancers - was an example of an externality |
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Term
| Will middle class lifestyle come to you? |
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Definition
| Chuck said a middle class lifesyle won't come to you, you'll have to seek it out in the future |
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Term
| What are the two major purposes of a corporation? |
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Definition
| The two major purposes of a corporation are Limited liability and profit |
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Term
| What is the peculiar or unique American idea of corporations? |
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Definition
| The peculiar or unique about America’s attitude towards corporations is they are treated as people |
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Term
| Why do corporations dominate? |
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Definition
| Corporations dominate because of their size, their wealth, and their mobility |
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Term
| What relationship does the Hundi example show? |
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Definition
| - When Chuck used the example of Hyundai (which became Hinex) in Eugene, he was talking about the relationship between corporations and the mobility of corporations |
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Term
| How do corporations get their labor? |
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Definition
| Corporations play one labor pool (group of people looking for work) against another. They tap into the reserve army of labor, especially in poor (peripheral) nations. |
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Term
| What are major characteristics of sweatshops? |
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Definition
| - The major characteristics of sweatshops are: Substandard working conditions, below standard wages- no overtime, place of little power and rights |
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Term
| What are the three types of slavery? |
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Definition
- 28 million people are currently enslaved around the world. This amount of people is larger than slaves in 1855
- The three types of slavery are sexual, military, industrial |
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Term
| Where were the women from in the film, the hidden faces of globalization, and how old were they? |
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Definition
| The women featured in this film were mostly from bangladesh They were in their teens or 20's. they tend to be fired in their 30's |
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Term
| - How does the film address the following argument: “.11 or .17 cents / hour seems like so little, but you have to look at the context of the poor countries. For those countries, that’s a pretty good amount of money?” |
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Definition
| The argument is not valid |
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Term
| How do subcontractors play a part? |
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Definition
| Subcontractors must agree to their production standards with big corporations like Wal-Mart |
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Term
| What danger are women in of getting fired from the sweatshops? |
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Definition
Women get replaced if they don’t meet their production quotas, or if they talk to a union representative or try to form a union
- Disney moved after the women workers asked for higher pay and better working conditions
- The women wrote a letter asking Disney to return in response to Disney’s act |
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Term
| Do the conditions have to be like this? |
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Definition
| The conditions do not have to be like they are in order for corporations to conduct business, and to make profit |
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Term
| Point- A young Wal-Mart garment worker who often works 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 or 10:30 p.m., said she only gets 1/3 of overtime pay. The company says, “we owe them.” The worker says, “No, they steal from us.” This is a prime example of her knowledge that wealth, value, and resources flow from the periphery to the core, NOT the other way. |
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Definition
| A young Wal-Mart garment worker who often works 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 or 10:30 p.m., said she only gets 1/3 of overtime pay. The company says, “we owe them.” The worker says, “No, they steal from us.” This is a prime example of her knowledge that wealth, value, and resources flow from the periphery to the core, NOT the other way. |
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Term
| What is our duty to help? |
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Definition
| - Our responsibilities in the U.S. to the women, children that make our clothes are to be a smarter consumer, fight for better rights for those workers through |
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Term
| [Point] The broad topic area of this lecture is Globalization and International Inequality. Chuck argued that the current young generation is experiencing information overload. You need to a context in which to assimilate the information. |
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Definition
| [Point] The broad topic area of this lecture is Globalization and International Inequality. Chuck argued that the current young generation is experiencing information overload. You need to a context in which to assimilate the information. |
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Term
| How does the industrial slavery work? |
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Definition
| [Point] People that work in sweatshops still get paid, for the most part. But some people are industrial slaves, who are not paid. That’s the topic for today’s news segment from Australia on Nike Corporation. Chuck calls the video’s example of industrial slavery “faux debt,” which means false debt. Let’s say a company sends recruiters into Vietnam to find child laborers that they’ll take back to a factory in Malaysia. They offer a poor Vietnamese family some money, and take the child in order to pay off this new “debt.” When the child arrives, his or her passport is confiscated. The kids sign contracts to stay for a term, like three years, often in a language they don’t understand. In order to leave they have to buy out their debt and re-purchase their passports, which is often impossible because they paid so little. Hytex is a subcontractor of Nike in Malaysia. There are workers from various countries (Bangladesh, Vietnam, Burma) in the Hytex factory, which has poor working conditions. |
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Term
| How did Nike handle the scandal? |
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Definition
| - Nike handled the exposure about their subcontracted factory by giving better housing and closed the old living quarters. Also gave refunds of foreign worker fee, refund of recruitment fees, access to passports and free flights home. |
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Term
| How can we support these people? |
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Definition
| - We can do 3 things to support the people that work in these factories, according to Chuck: boycott, pressure our institutions, be smarter consumers. |
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Term
| What environment is for slavery? |
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Definition
| - The 3rd world is an environment where various types of slavery can flourish |
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Term
| - The intersecting trends / issues the British Defense Department Report from 2007 address (3 Issues) |
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Definition
Malallocation, technology increase, globalization
- Global warming (one of the issues) impacts the poor most |
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Term
| What did the British report say? |
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Definition
| The British Defense Dept. Report also discussed the importance of traditional gender definitions, especially as they apply to women. [May we see an increase in gender inequality?] This report also predicted the financial collapse of the U.S., one or two years early. |
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Term
| What does Chuck say is the future of globalization? |
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Definition
| - This was NOT in the British report, but the future of globalization, according to Chuck is cheap energy and a shift to local energy sources |
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Term
| What does Chuck fear could happen to the US? |
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Definition
| - Chuck fears that the U.S. could become a “hollowed-out garrison state.” The elements of this kind of State are an increasing protection of corporate interests while stepping up the level of repression and militarization on the domestic front. The U.S. will have growing support among the public for policies, at all levels of government, addresses social problems through the police, courts and prison system. |
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Term
| [Point] Chuck ends lecture with a quote from Eugene V. Debs, an early 20th century labor activist and draft resistance advocate who ran for President in 1912 (Socialist Party). As he was being tried in federal court for his draft resistance work during World War I in 1918, he said, “As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.” |
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Definition
| [Point] Chuck ends lecture with a quote from Eugene V. Debs, an early 20th century labor activist and draft resistance advocate who ran for President in 1912 (Socialist Party). As he was being tried in federal court for his draft resistance work during World War I in 1918, he said, “As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.” |
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