ICT and globalisation Simon Oakes. ICT and globalisation Presentation outline Aspects of...

ICT and globalisation

Simon Oakes


Presentation outline

• Aspects of globalisation• Global adoption of connected devices• A starter quiz on the uses of ICT• ICT, supply chains and financial flows• ICT and the new geography of retailing• ICT, migration flows and global culture• ICT and global disaster management• The interrelationship between globalisation and ICT


ICT drives many aspects of globalisation

What possible ‘overlaps’ exist between the categories shown?


ICT drives many aspects of globalisation

Different aspects of globalisation,or types of global interaction


Rapid, on-going connectivity growth

• There is already an

average of more

than one connected

device (mobile,

tablet) per person

on the planet.

• Continued growth

in access to

connected devices

is expected up to

and beyond 2020.

The forecast growth of global connected devices (global population is 7 billion)


A quick starter quiz


ICT is used in many ways

• As a classroom exercise, discuss how technology helps accelerate

each different strand of globalisation (economic, social, cultural,

political).

• In each case, ask: what is the technology used for?

• And who are the user groups, or players? These could include:

citizens, civil society organisations, transnational corporations, small

businesses, national governments, multi-governmental organisations

(MGOs). Can you provide examples?


Technology builds economic networks

The growth of global TNCs owes

much to technology:

•Supply chain monitoring

•Just in time (JIT) ordering from

out-sourcing suppliers, from fruit

farms to call centres

•Management of each TNC’s own

spatial division of labour

Open and closed global production networks


Technology shapes complex networks

• The business

structures

shown here rely

on the

connectivity

ICT provides.

• How far was

this possible

prior to ICT

innovation in

the 1980s?


Technology and business networks

• Marks and Spencer uses the latest technology to help it regularly

update the orders it places with its Kenyan suppliers.

• Each time the barcode of a food purchase is scanned in a Marks and

Spencer store, an automatic adjustment is made to the size of the

next order placed with suppliers in distant countries like Kenya.

• If store till receipts in the UK show a good days sales for a particular

product in the run-up to Christmas Day, then an email is

automatically sent to Kenya at midnight to increase production

quotas the next day.


ICT and micro financial flows

• The mobile personal banking system M-

Pesa has spread throughout east Africa and

India.

• Around 10 million people access their bank

accounts and send money payments using

their mobile phones.

• In rural areas, farmers use mobiles to

check market prices before selling produce

to ‘middle men’.

Foto

lia


Connectivity case study

• Black Star Line is a Ghanaian e-commerce company.

• Black Star Line helped the chief of a Ghanaian village to realise a business

plan: the village has four huts that have been modernised and are now

marketed online to newly-married Europeans in search of an ‘eco-honeymoon’

destination.

• Thanks to Black Starline, the village now earns up to £1,000 a week ± an

unthinkable amount of money previously.

• Find out more at: http://www.21stcenturychallenges.org/focus/herman-

chinery-hesse-thesofttribe/


The new geography of online retail

• UK Christmas spending reached £14.6 billion in 2013.

• 20% of this was online spending, up from 17% in 2012.

• One in five goods were bought online at Christmas.

• Retail sales through shops keep falling in absolute terms, with

another 1% fall in 2013–14.

• HMV, Woolworths, Curry’s have all closed recently.

• Find out more at: http://www.retailresearch.org/shoppingforxmas.php


The new geography of online retail

• Amazon is currently testing unmanned drones to deliver goods to

customers in the USA.

• The drones, called Octocopters, could deliver packages weighing up

to 2.3 kg to customers within 30 minutes of them placing the order.

• However, the US Federal Aviation Administration is yet to approve the

use of unmanned drones for civilian purposes.

• Find out more at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25180906


Electronic remittances• ICT plays a growing role in

supporting global flows of

migration.

• Somali migrants in the UK

send US$100 million home

annually. Barclays and other

banks transfer the funds

electronically.

• ICT also helps migrants stay

in touch with families, using

Skype. Remittances and other resource flows to lower-income countries, 1990–2014


Global diaspora networks

• 40 million people worldwide claim Scottish ancestry.

• On-line ancestry websites enable people living all over the world to

traces their roots back to Scotland.

• Scottish tourist industry counted 2.8 million overseas visitors in 2007.

• GlobalScot is a website run by government-funded Scottish Enterprise

that encourages members of the Scottish diaspora to network with

one another.

• Diaspora communities thrive on Facebook and Twitter.


ICT and global culture

• ICT plays a growing role in bringing about global cultural exchanges.

• Think of recent examples of local cultures ‘going global’ via YouTube

or other social media.


ICT and natural hazard management

ICT can be used to assist with:

•hazard mitigation (pre-event)

•the hazard response, at the

community, national and

international levels

•post-event rescue,

rehabilitation and

reconstruction

Can you think of examples?

Foto

lia


ICT is used to issue hazard warnings


ICT is used during hazard events

• In October 2013, 150 km h-1 winds felled trees and disrupted

commuter trains in England and Wales.

• Many of the problems caused by severe weather were mitigated by

better and earlier communication, through Twitter, websites and email

alert.

• ‘We tweeted pictures of fallen trees to show the extent of the problem

and our customers re-tweeted them to their followers and helped get

the message out. They even tweeted pictures back to us, Twitter is

now an integral part of our communication channels.’ Southeastern

Railways


ICT is used to increase emergency aid

• In November 2013, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an

umbrella organisation for 14 UK humanitarian aid agencies, used

mobile fundraising for its Philippines Typhoon Appeal.

• The appeal’s mobile donation channel raised over £1 million in mobile

donations in 2 weeks.


ICT is used after the hazard event

• New technologies help coordinate relief efforts.

• Mobile-phone cameras can also be used to help agencies map and

document a disaster zone — this can often be a citizen-led response.

• Aerial photographs allow superior mapping of an area after a disaster has

struck

• Google Earth was a major player in the Haiti 2010 relief effort. The

company uploaded laptops with up-to-date post-event aerial photographs

and flew them to the disaster zone for NGOs to use


ICT and globalisation: analysing the interrelationship

• According to one

view, ICT ‘causes’

globalisation.

• According to another

view, ICT is the

‘result’ of innovation

by globalisations

leading players.

• A third view is that

everything is linked

in a feedback loop. The feedback loop: how technology shapes globalisation and vice versa

ICT and globalisation Simon Oakes. ICT and globalisation Presentation outline Aspects of...

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