Blog 4 – Global Community Networks

By Eric Yu

            I was surprised to hear how prevalent to hear how globalization affects The global economy has developed quite dramatically in more recent times, noted by how “global commodity networks” have started to appear. Korzeniewicz’s article (1992) discusses how important such networks are due to how multiple networks and groups are involved in the production of goods such as footwear. Thus, when analyzing how international trade can affect “resource, production, and distribution segments of a GCN” within particular areas, one must consider how these countries are attempting to improve their economic power (Korzeniewicz 1992, p. 315). At the same time, such analysis delves deep into how certain individuals, or small groups of people, in order to bridge those receiving and sending goods as “trading intermediaries” (Korzeniewicz 1992, p. 321). This article makes me wonder what other connections one can make with Asian countries, especially in the wake of more hard work pushed to lower-class people, as previously experienced with the “Other Asia” and “Other Asian America” (Hu-DeHart 1999, p. 17). As a result, I am forced to inquire on how one can effectively compare the situations that people face in different countries compare to the workers in Asian countries. Additionally, I am now wondering how exactly these “trading intermediaries” have shifted or changed to encompass a larger globalized world.

Question: Does “competitive collectivism” as Korzeniewicz describes it apply to the Asian economic sectors (China, Japan, Korea, etc.), especially for the “welfare of [economic sectors] as a whole?”

Original Citation: “Pedestrians pass a share price board in Tokyo where stocks fell steeply on fears about China’s slowdown. Photograph: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images”

From: McCurry, J. (2015, September 9). The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/29/asian-markets-fall-as-new-fears-raised-over-chinas-economy

Works Cited:

Hu-DeHart, E. (1999). Introduction: Asian American Formations in the Age of Globalization. In E. Hu-DeHart (Ed.), Across the Pacific: Asian Americans and globalization (p. 1-28), New York: Asia Society; Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Korzeniewicz, M. (1992). Global Commodity Networks and the Leather Footwear Industry: Emerging Forms of Economic Organization in a Postmodern World. Sociological Perspectives 35(2), 313-327. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0731-1214%28199222%2935%3A2%3C313%3AGCNATL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

McCurry, J. (2015, September 9). The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/29/asian-markets-fall-as-new-fears-raised-over-chinas-economy