CONTEMPORARY WORLD REVIEWER
reference to size and density, fertility, mortality, growth,
Global City
- an urban centre that enjoys significant
competitive advantages and that serves as a
hub within a globalized economic system.
- The term has its origin in research on cities
carried out during the 1980s
- Economic was primarily constitute a global
city
- New York, Tokyo, London – economic
enters that exert control over the world’s
political economy
Indicators of a Global City
 Seats of Economic Power
New York- largest stock market
Tokyo- Most number of corporate headquarters(613 HQ)
Shanghai- world’s busiest container port
 Centers of Authority
Washington DC- seat of American state power
Canberra- sleepy town, Australia’s political capital
 Centers of Political Influence
New York- United Nations
Brussels- European Union
Jakarta- ASEAN
Frankfurt- European Central Bank
 Centers of Higher Learning and Culture
Boston- Harvard University
New York City- New York Times
Australia- Leading language universities
Los Angeles- film Industry
Copenhagen- capital of Denmark, culinary capitals
Singapore- MTV
 Economic Opportunities
San Francisco Bay Area- IT Programmers and engineers
London- nursing
 Economic competitiveness
Singapore- Asia’s most competitive city, houses the
regional offices of many major global corporations
Cities- the engines of globalization
1900- 5% of world population was urban
2007- 50%
2050- 75%
Demography
demos- population
graphia- description or writing
writings about population
Achille Guillard- Belgian statistician
John Graunt
Demography refers to the study of populations with
age distribution, migration, and vital statistics and the
interaction of all these with social and economic
conditions.
It is based on vital statistics reporting and special
surveys of population size and density: it measure trends
over time.
Demographic Transition
- Started in the mid or late 1700 in Europe
- Death rates and fertility <
- High to low fertility: 200 years in France
and 100 years in US
- 20th century mortality< in Africa and Asia
- Life expectancy in India (24 years)
Effect of Demographic Transition
- enormous gap in life expectancy
- Japan and West- 12 years LE at birth
- Increased 20 years by 1900
- India & China- economic stagnation
- High levels of population growth rates
- Low fertility rates (Japan)
- Higher dependency ratio (PH & India) – it
was caused by the decline in the infant and
child mortality and high levels of fertility
Theory of Demographic Transition
- Suggests that future population growth will
develop along a predictable 4 or 5stages
Stage 1
- Death rates and birth rates are high and
roughly in balance
- Population growth is typically very slow
- Constrained by the available food supply
Stage 2
- Death rates drop rapidly
- Improvements in food supply and sanitation
- Increases life span and reduce diseases
- Afghanistan
- Selective breeding and crop rotation and
farming techniques
- Access to technology, basic healthcare, and
education
- Europe
Stage 3
- Birth rates fall
- Mexico
- Decrease due to various fertility factors:
contraception, increases in wages,
urbanization, reduction in subsistence
agriculture
 - Late 19th century
- Transition in values
Stage 4
- Low birth rates and low death rates
- Below replacement level (Germany, Italy
and Japan)
- Sweden
- Creates economic burden on the shrinking
population
Stage 5
- Below-replacement fertility levels
- Increase in fertility
- Debated
- Nations as: High fertility, Intermediate or
low-fertility
Global Migration
- A situation in which people go to live in
foreign countries especially to find a job
- Permanent move rather than a complex
series of backward or onward series
Migration
- Conceptualized as a move from an origin to
a destination, or from a place of birth to
another destination across administrative
borders within a country or international
borders.
Types of Migration
 Internal Migration- This refers to people moving
from one area to another within one country
 International Migration- This refers to the
movement people who cross the borders of one
country to another
5 groups
 Immigrants- Those who moved permanently to
another country
 Workers- stay in another country for a fixed
period of time
 Illegal Immigrants
 Migrants- Families have petitioned them to
move to the destination country
 Refugees (asylum seekers)- unable or unwilling
to return because a well-founded fear of
persecution on account of race, religion,
nationality, membership in a particular social
group, or political opinion
Reasons for Migration
Push Factor- induces people to move out their present
location
Pull Factor- induces people to move into a new location
1. Cultural factor
- Slavery and political instability (cultural
diversity)
2. Socio-political factor
- Political instability
- Situation of war, oppression, lack of socio-
political right
- Social conflict
3. Environmental factor
- Ecological changes
- Environmental Migrants – persons or group
of persons who, for compelling reasons of
sudden or progressive changes in the
environment that adversely affect their lives
or living conditions, are obliged to leave
their habitual homes, or choose to do so,
either temporarily or permanently, and who
move either within their country or abroad
4. Economic factors
- Remittances are more stable and predictable
as compared to other financial flows and,
more importantly, they are counter-cyclical
providing buffer against economic shocks
- Positive impact on GDP growth
- Expands the skilled workforce
- Remittances – crucial to survival,
sustenance, rehabilitation and reconstruction
- Remittances can spur economic growth by
improving sending countries credit
worthiness and expanding their access to
international capital markets
- Return Migration
Sustainable Development
- primarily relates to how the needs of the
people basically through the consumption
and utilization of resources, sustainable
development is often linked with climate
change which due to its hazardous effects in
the environment is known to be a major
restriction in achieving sustainability
2 fold link
 Impacts of climate change can severely hamper
development efforts in key sector
 Development choice will influence the capacity
to mitigate and adapt to climate change
Food security
- exists when all people, at all times, have
access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food
to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life
4 dimensions of food security
1. food access- access to adequate resources to
acquire a healthy and nutritious diet
2. Food use- use of food through adequate diet,
clean water and health care to reach the state of
healthy well-being
3. Availability – availability of adequate supply of
food, produced either through domestic or
foreign import, including as well the food aid
received from outside the country
4. Stability – access to sufficient food at all times,
without losing access to food supply brought by
either economic or climatic crisis
Global Citizenship
- is the idea that, as people, we are all citizens
of the globe who have an equal
responsibility for what happens on, and to
our world.
- as a moral and ethical disposition that can
guide the understanding of individuals or
groups of local and global contexts, and
remind them of their relative
responsibilities within various communities
(Caecilia Johanna van Peski)
Salient Features of Global Citizenship
1. Global Citizenship as a choice and a way of
thinking
- Various formative life experiences
- Primarily exercised at home through
engagement in global issues or with
different cultures in a local setting
2. Global Citizenship as self-awareness and
awareness of others
- Self-awareness helps students identify with
the universalities of human experience
3. Global Citizenship as they practice cultural
empathy
- Cultural empathy or intercultural
competence is commonly articulated as a
goal of global education
- Intercultural competence occupies a central
position in higher education’s thinking about
global citizenship and is seen as an
important skill in the workplace
4. Global Citizenship as the cultivation of
principled decision making
- Entails an awareness of the interdependence
of individuals and systems as well as sense
of responsibility
5. Global Citizenship as participation in the
social and political life of one’s community
- Feel a sense of connection towards their
communities and translate this connection to
participation
3 approaches to global economic resistance
1. Trade protectionism- involves the systematic
government intervention in foreign trade
through tariffs and non-tariff barriers in order to
encourage domestic producers and deter their
foreign competitors
- Shields the domestic economy from
systemic shocks
2. Fair trade
- Aims at moral and equitable global
economic system
- Price is not set by the market; negotiated
transparently by both producers and
consumers
3. Helping the bottom line
- Increasing aid is only one of the many
measures that is required.
- International norms and standards can be
adapted to the needs of the bottom billion.
- Reduction of trade barriers = reduce
economic marginalization of these people
and their nations