Detailed outline chapter 3: Global Economy and International telecommunications Networks

Lamiae Mejjane
Dr. Ibahrine
Fall 2007
outline: Global Economy and International telecommunications Networks

• Global economy is closely related to global communication

A) Premodern World

• The products bought by a person exist only in the village where the person lives: no foreign products are sold in the market

B) Division of Labor

• it creates specialization of labor which creates efficiency
• the flip side to division of labor is that it creates interdependencies (coordination and working in sync with each other)
• division of labor increases productivity via specialization, which in turn creates problems of coordination and control.
• in small factories, the division of labor is controllable (face-to-face interaction between the laborers and the boss)
• in a capitalist world where companies seek to capitalize on the locational advantage of each place, the interaction and coordination is more difficult.

C) Imperialism

• in 13th century, the world was multipolar
• 15th century, a monoplar world (with western powers)
• the economic relationship between the imperial powers and the subject territories changed in the age of imperialism.
• imprialism: a method to acquire raw materials
• Global telegraph network was used by the British to manage their vast empire

-it was first London-centric (mono-centric)

-lateral lines were rare

D) Electronic Imperialism
1- Global media flows

• many scholars argue that although the formal empires have been dissolved, the global political structures created during the age of imperialism remain in place (relation of interdependence between the rich and poor countries)
• USA dominates cinema and screens all over the world==> cultural invasion
• many countries called for a new world information order (NWIO)

2-transborder data flow

• modern telecommunications network can support a level of interaction between the service provider and the client that could be achieved only face-to-face in the past
• the USA has become the command-and-control node for global business activities
• Transborder data flow (TDF): computer to computer communication across national boundaries
• the developed countries are the brain of the world system and the developing countries the brawn
• developing countries see the flow of information as a way to blur national boundaries and threaten national sovereignty
• the center almost dominates the periphery

E) Emerging network structures

• TV: a top-down mode of communication where the sources are few and the receivers are many
• An US-centric nature of the global internet
• Network investment patterns suggest that in the future we will see the emergence of regional networks in Europe and Asia
  F) Toward a New World System
• the nature of the center-periphery relationship has changed through time
• the USA projects its power over its periphery in different ways such as 'international communication systems'