Globalisation, the Economic Crisis, and Small Enterprises in Makassar, Indonesia: Focusing on the Local Dimensions

It has been suggested that the economic crisis in Southeast Asia had a severe effect on small scale enterprises in the region. In this paper, I interpret the different consequences of this economic crisis ( krismon ) for small enterprises in the city of Makassar, Sulawesi, in the light of current globalisation debates. It is argued that for the majority of small enterprises, there have not been significant changes because of the relative isolation of Sulawesi within the Indonesian and global economies. However, for other small enterprises, there have been two significant changes indirectly linked to wider globalisation influences, because of the importance of conspicuous consumption amongst local cultural groups. In turn, this leads to an evaluation of both the strength of globalisation tendencies in the city, and the important influence of local cultural traits on the ways in which members of the local economy have responded to change.     

Tourism, Globalisation and Critical Security in Myanmar and Thailand

This paper seeks to articulate recent debates on globalisation and critical security with the process and local impact of international tourism development in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma). It argues that, although tourism is an important manifestation of the globalisation phenomenon, its impact on host societies is very much dependent upon the influence of local institutions and actors. Hence, the enquiry will focus principally upon the "global-local interface". The impact of tourism is viewed within the "new security" framework which involves broadening the notion of security beyond its traditional focus on military issues and inter-state relations into such realms as economic, environmental and societal security with a strong emphasis on sub-national situations. Using empirical examples of forced labour and human rights in Myanmar, the HIV/AIDS crisis and societal insecurity in Thailand and Myanmar, and the environmental impact of golf tourism in Thailand and elsewhere, the paper attempts to show how the perceived macro-level benefits of active tourism promotion are frequently traded off against significant, and occasionally severe, negative local security impacts. How such a situation occurs will be the principal focus of this investigation.     

Neoliberal Globalisation, "Exotic" Agro-exports, and Local Change in the Pacific Islands: A Study of the Fijian Kava Sector

The economically vulnerable and geographically isolated states and territories of the Pacific Islands find themselves increasingly powerless to resist the recent accelerated diffusion of globalisation and the economic options that this entails. Neoliberal policy has arrived in the ocean region later than elsewhere in the tropical world and in the developing world in general. However, it now almost exclusively frames regional and state policy agendas, and is profoundly restructuring economies and societies across the region. Agriculture, by far the leading economic sector in Pacific Island countries, has been targeted specifically for reform. The cultivation of non-traditional agricultural exports has formed the centrepiece of the evolving strategy. As well as "staple" exports such as sugar, copra, and taro going to non-traditional markets, "exotic" niche products are being developed for export to high income markets in Europe, Asia and North America. A major example of such a product is kava – a "traditional" crop used in the preparation of a ceremonial and/or social drink. Psycho- and physiological properties have been identified in the plant by the pharmaceutical industry that is marketing a range of kava products. Produced widely across the Pacific, Fiji is the major export source. This paper traces the evolution of globalisation in the Pacific Islands, placing the current wave of neoliberalism in its historical context. It goes on to outline the evolution of the Fijian kava export sector, and investigates some of the local socio-economic impacts of recent market growth. Given the evidence presented in this study, the paper asks if the power relations evolving under contemporary neoliberal globalisation are likely to be any different from those that existed during colonial globalisation.     

The Demise of Place Equity in Sydney's Economic Development Planning

The role of planning in Sydney's economic development since the mid-1970s is explored, focusing on its role in reducing spatial disparities across the region. Planning policies during the period of each State government--Labor (1976-88), Liberal-National (1988-95) and Labor (1995-present)--are reviewed. The paper analyses a hierarchy of factors underlying the relative failure of policies to lessen disparities, notably intra-government failure to produce effective policies, the influence of prevailing ideology, local institutions and political culture, and the wider context of globalisation and the mode of capitalist accumulation. Each of these has been significant in limiting planning's role in addressing uneven development across the region.     

Forgotten Roots of the Green City: Subsistence Gardening in Columbus,Ohio, 1900-1940

Subsistence gardens were a significant land use in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area from 1900 to 1940. Their existence, however, was materially erased from the city and discursively erased from its history after that period. This paper investigates the processes of that erasure, particularly in the American Addition neighborhood of Columbus, concentrating on the articulation of an urban normative that made such land uses appear contrary to "modern" urban development. At the same time, the existence of such practices and landscapes in the city was explained away by a crisis narrative of the garden that helped to support the idea that such practices did not produce "normal" urban spaces. The simultaneous material and discursive colonization of subsistence gardens as "relief" measures during the Great Depression left these landscapes and areas dependent on the City of Columbus, under whose control they were transformed into more "appropriate" cityscapes.     

Marxism, Sarcasm, Ethnography: Geographical Fieldnotes from South India

This paper addresses questions of ethnography in geographic fieldwork through research conducted on globalisation and work in Tiruppur, an industrial boomtown in South India. During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Tiruppur town in western Tamilnad State became India's centrepiece in the export of garments made of knitted cloth. This industrial boom has been organised through networks of small firms integrated through intricate subcontracting arrangements controlled by local capital of Gounders from modest agrarian and working‐class origins. In effect, the whole town works like a decentralised factory for the global economy, but with local capital of peasant‐worker origins at the helm. My research explores the historical geographic trajectories linking agrarian and industrial work, and the ways in which these histories are used in the present. In these uses of the past in remaking self and place, I interrogate the self‐presentations of Tiruppur's entrepreneurs, as these “self‐made men” hinge their retrospective narratives of class mobility and industrial success on their propensity to “toil”. This paper explores questions of ethnographic method emerging from a political‐economic context in which globalisation has worked by turning “toil” into capital.     

Hillsong: A Megachurch in the Sydney Suburbs

Religious belief and practice, especially Pentecostalism, are increasingly suburban phenomena in an otherwise more secular society. The megachurch of Hillsong in Sydney's north-western suburbs has recently grown rapidly, offering a distinct architecture, institutional structure and informal service format Protestantism generally, distinguished by its stadium show, prosperity preaching, overt materialist orientation and egalitarian populism. Diverse church social groups have partly replaced the civic social institutions never vibrant in suburbia, creating social capital and a new, more fluid sense of place. Hillsong exemplifies the globalisation of religion, while simultaneously stressing local ties, with contemporary media technology in a traditional theological and modern social context.     

Resource Struggles and the Politics of Place in North Lampung, Indonesia

This paper considers the difficulties inherent in countering the negative effects of globalisation in Indonesia through an enhanced recognition of place-based cultural communities, which are seen to offer an alternative and more progressive path towards development. Focusing on the local history of resource struggles involving Javanese migrants and local people in North Lampung, the paper examines the ways that different groups of migrants and local Lampung people have dealt with changing resource control mechanisms in the context of the local transmigration ( Translok ) programme and large-scale agro-industrial development in the region. Whilst elites have been able to develop their personal wealth by capitalising on political and economic uncertainty, poor people from both groups have had to contend with conflict and increasing livelihood vulnerability that, if anything, has been intensified through the reassertion of place-based cultures of resource control. In challenging populist narratives of resistance to transmigration that pit migrants against "indigenous" local people, the paper identifies the class-related ambivalences towards development and structures of authority that cut across community and locality in the Translok zone     

Neoliberalization, social reproduction and the limits to labour in Jamaica

Since the 1980s the Jamaican state has systematically withdrawn from investments geared towards enhancing the social and psychological welfare of its citizens, shifting the responsibility and cost for the education, health care and socialization of dependent members of the society to households and communities. This shift in responsibility for social reproduction disproportionately and negatively affected women, who have traditionally assumed primary responsibility for this necessary component of capitalist systems. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Jamaicans, primarily women, successfully rendered a spatial fix to the crisis by stretching the space and scale of their everyday means of existence beyond the nation's territorial boundaries. However, as this paper demonstrates, Jamaica is approaching the limits of its population's ability to reproduce the social structures and relations needed for social stability. This situation, that I describe as the 'limit to labour' is increasingly manifested in declining levels of social cohesion and heightened levels of violence in at all levels of Jamaican society. Although crisis has been a defining feature of social reproduction in Jamaica throughout its history, the emerging social crisis should be distinguished in its severity because it has begun to erode the social institutions and norms upon which Jamaica's social order has historically rested. It is the economic costs of this emerging limit to labour that ultimately pose the greatest threat to the sustainability of current neoliberalization processes.     

A battle on two fronts: competitive urges 'inside' Atlanta

This paper argues that intra –regional competition is as important as intra –regional in the shaping of an urban region. Recent concentration on urban promotion within the discipline places an emphasis on competition between cities that should be counterbalanced by stressing the degree of competition between cities and their suburban peripheries. Using the case of Atlanta, Georgia, and in particular its Vision 2020 initiative, the paper explores how regionalist approaches can easily unravel due to continued rivalries from individual constituents. Placing its theoretical grounding within David Harvey's notion of 'structural coherence', the paper argues that regional policies within a capitalist environment of uneven development tend towards only temporary solutions.     

胡焕庸线的学术思想源流与地理分界意义

20世纪早期,中国面临内忧外患、人地关系矛盾空前剧烈,地理学家对于中国人口国情、西北开发及国内移民等关乎国运问题的思考与探索,孕育了中国的人口地理学.1935年胡焕庸发表的"中国人口之分布"是中国人口地理学走向成熟的标识,文中提出的"瑷珲-腾冲线"即"胡焕庸线",是中国人口地理的重要分界线.胡焕庸线的存在性与稳定性被人...     

Neoliberalism,Mineral Development and Indigenous People: a framework for analysis

There have been suggestions in recent literature that neoliberalism and globalisation present positive opportunities for Indigenous communities engaging in resource development projects on their traditional lands. This paper will present evidence from preliminary research on the neoliberal restructuring that has endured for those Indigenous communities of Queensland who have engaged with mineral development opportunities. Initial findings indicate that the State has devolved some of its responsibilities to the mining company in relation to Indigenous development and service provision. This paper develops a theoretical and analytical framework to enable an examination of the implications of this voluntary devolution of responsibility for Indigenous development and service provision and questions whether this represents a positive opportunity for Indigenous people in the region.     

Geographies of the financial crisis

Real estate is, by definition, local as it is spatially fixed. Mortgage lending, however, has developed from a local to a national market and is increasingly a global market today. An understanding of the financial crisis is ultimately a spatialised understanding of the linkages between local and global. This article looks at the geographies of the mortgage crisis and credit crunch and asks the question: how are different places affected by the crisis? The article looks at different states, different cities, different neighbourhoods and different financial centres. Investors in many places had invested in residential mortgage backed securities and have seen their value drop. Housing bubbles, faltering economies and regulation together have shaped the geography of the financial crisis on the state and city level in the US. Subprime and predatory lending have affected low-income and minority communities more than others and we therefore not only see a concentration of foreclosures in certain cities, but also in certain neighbourhoods. On an international level, the long-term economical and political consequences of this are still mostly unknown, but it is clear that some financial centres in Asia (including the Middle East) will become more important now that globalisation is coming full circle. This article does not present new empirical research, but brings together work from different literatures that all in some way have a specific angle on the financial crisis. The aim of this article is to make the geographical dimensions of the financial crisis understandable to geographers that are not specialists in all – or even any – of these literatures, so that they can comprehend the spatialisation of this crisis.     

Labour Market Adjustment in the Time of Krismon: Changes in Employment Structure in Indonesia, 1997–98

This study examines the labour market outcomes of the recent economic crisis ( krismon ) in Indonesia, focusing on the change of employment structure between 1997 and 1998. Indonesia's labour market has been extremely flexible in adjusting itself during the crisis. Labour has moved from "modern" economic sectors to agricultural and "informal" sectors, reflecting the strategy of poor households to cope with the hardship. While the impact of the economic crisis on the majority of male workers has been severe, female labourers have become increasingly involved in several jobs to enable the survival of their families.     

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOR AND DEBT CRISIS IN THE THIRD WORLD

The advanced capitalist ccuntries are undergoing an industrial devolution as remarkable as the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. The removal of high-paying jobs through automation and geographical migration destroys the main market of the center and precipitates debt crises in newly industrialized countries of the periphery which have followed export-oriented growth policies. This results in a new, internationalized form of the crises of iate capitalism and provides a new institutional foucs for crisis in the international banks. The paper examines this global process from the perspective of the geography of class struggle.     

Rural transformation: Cherry growing on the Guanzhong Plain,China and the Adelaide Hills,South Australia

Journal of Geographical Sciences - This paper echoes a tradition in agricultural geography by focusing on a single crop: cherries. It illustrates how developments associated with globalisation and...     

State versus Capital: The Regulation of the Vietnamese Foreign Sector

The debate over globalisation and the state has been sharpened by the emergence of such transitional economies as China and Vietnam. These states have become the subject of considerable attention, both in terms of the form that production is taking and the manner in which they interact with international capital. In both cases, interaction with international capital and the establishment of elements of the market economy have taken place under the auspices of highly centralised single party states. The resulting approach to the forces of economic globalisation has been both highly interventionist and, at times, extremely heavy-handed. As such, both countries may be seen as being seriously out of step with the advocates of liberalisation and economic globalisation. This paper seeks to further the understanding of the position of such states through an examination of Vietnam at two levels: first, through an overview of the distinctive and changing nature of the interaction and, second, through an examination of the nature and consequences of the differential treatment of labour and capital for foreign companies operating in Vietnam.     

中国资源型城市经济发展效率评析

从城市经济运行的角度,运用数据包络分析方法(DEA模型),对2007年我国75个地级资源型城市的经济发展规模效益进行了定量评价,揭示出我国资源型城市经济发展效率在空间分布、资源类别上的差异,分析了影响资源型城市经济发展效率的原因,并就如何提高资源型城市经济发展效益,促进其持续发展提出了相应建议.     

Mapping Globalisation

As a form of restructuring with new winners and losers, globalisation begets resistance, and these processes occur in particular places that have distinctive features. A map of globalisation may be drawn by showing the spaces of resistance, many of which are found at the local level, sometimes with transnational links involving formal or informal networks. To do so, one must first assess the variety of meanings that have been assigned to the concepts of globalisation and resistance. Noting shades of meaning from the natural sciences, medicine, history, philosophy, law, and feminist and other branches of social theory, this paper argues that different frames may be used in conjunction with one another to help explain Southeast Asia's diverse encounters with globalisation. The frames show that resistance is not merely a negation of the jarring effects of globalisation, but also a matter of imagining, in a non-utopian manner, something better. Remapping globalisation is a quest for an appropriate temporal and spatial scale of social organisation.     

Twenty years of change in the Fijian periphery: The case of the Kadavu Island

This paper reviews changes in the development and peripheralized status of the Fijian island of Kadavu from a 20‐year perspective. A combination of microgeographic studies in three villages and a mesogeographical analysis show that the conditions of internal dependency found in Kadavu in the early 1980s had not changed much: the pattern of cash crop production and trade remained almost entirely dependent on the yaqona (Pacific kava) beverage crop; shipping services provided by core agents had not improved; the island had experienced significant outmigration; and government initiatives to change the trend were limited. These elements perpetuate a core–periphery structure in Fiji that hampers the development of a self‐sufficient periphery. For Kadavu villagers, however, the benefits derived from the continued form of non‐capitalist production afford them a certain degree of autonomy vis‐à‐vis the market economy, which might be to their advantage under the ongoing conditions of peripheralization.