May 6, 2010

Cultural Impact #1: New Global Professions

"Davos culture"

Group of global professionals
The participants in this meeting do not represent governments in any official capacity, make policy decisions, or negotiate any agreements, they do share ideas and put forth proposals pertaining to global economic concerns
Harvard University professor, Samuel Huntington, sees these participants as a force of pursuing the business agenda of further globalization
This group of people (Davos) are unliely to serve or have family members who have served in the military

Characteristics of members of this group

There is a certain type of person provoking globalization
They make up 15%-25% of the population
They are highly skilled where education is concerned
They are well-off and therefore globalization benefits them the most
They predominantly speak English, but are also capable of spaking in many other languages
They feel more like world citizens as opposed to citizens of their own country
They travel a lot
They feel just as at home in Tokyo and Rome as they do in America because they travel there so often. They also feel at home because those cities are business-orientated. The hotels or other locations they stay at might be similar as well. Many can speak the languages used in that area. English will also be used.
This doesn't necessarily mean that they are fully aware of their own effects on globalization
Most of these people speak foreign languages

Immigration

Increased number of immigration and mobility
Every country in the world has to come to terms with multiculturalism
People need to deal with the problems of race and ethnicity
In order to do so, they look to the US as an example to promote diversity and tolerance of other cultures within a society

Education

These numbers will continue to increase over the next few years
A great example of this is the growing number of students applying to CEGEP
More and more people are looking for a better education
The thing today is to go to university, while some time ago, a large portion of the population did not

Globalization

Globalization can be seen as global multiculturalism
Meritocratic: a ruling or influential class of educated or skilled people
The rest of society is more regional and national in its outlook on society
They better understand the impacts of globalization (negative impacts)
They are the ones that are impacted economically and will probably have to serve in the military
A good portion of this group is foreign

Positive points

Negative points

Cheap labour. Wealthy businessmen set up factories and work centers overseas and pay the workers next to nothing to do the same work that North American minimum wage would cover. This saves them a ton of money because they don't have to pay workers legitimate salaries.
Creation of wants over needs (overconsumption) consequence of global warming
Job insecurity. In the earlier days, people had stable and permanent jobs. Now people live in constant fear of losing their jobs to competition.
Loss of culture
Illegal trade

Languages