Try "Empire" by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri; otherwise I have a lot on the
effects of globalization on the urban environment, but it is all on loan to
someone at the moment
"Empire" sort of argues that globalization is a means for capitalism to get
around the inconveniences set in place as a response to previous excesses of
the free market ("robber barons" of the 1890s who owned just about
everything; inconvenient things like the 40-hour work week, rights to a safe
working environment, end to child labour, etc.). If you don't let the
corporations do what they want (like bulldoze your local bronze age burial),
they'll take their "jobs" elsewhere...
After that, there are plenty of cases where the WTO & G8 have screwed people
in "developing nations"; one case I remember was Ghana, where all the local
rice growers went out of business (& lost their farms) because the IMF
forced the country to stop subsidies, making (heavily subsidized) rice
imported from California "cheaper" than home-grown...
Globalization is similar to the "Atlantic triangle" trade network: slaves
sent from Africa to the Americas to pick sugar & cotton to send to Europe to
be processed for sale in Africa... market economies are forcing developing
countries to produce "cash crops" for export (coffee & chocolate are big
these days; often with child labour or almost slave conditions), but not to
produce food for their own needs; as a result, they often have to import
basic foodstuffs from industrialized nations...
And yes: do we really need to comment on the heritage (or other) value of
21st century motorways? Given that we know where they are, how they were
built, what they cost, what they a/were used for, etc.? maybe we could
preserve a few, someday, when the car has gone the way of the dinosaur,
but...
-----Original Message-----
Maybe you or somebody else on this list knows of a relevant study that
conclusively makes the required case. I read Peter Singer's very readable
and thoughtful study "One World. The Ethics of Globalization" (2002). Singer
does not find conclusive evidence to condemn the globalized economy out of
hand (although he does discuss ways of improving its effects on
disadvantaged groups of people).
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