Outline of chapter 3

Global Economy and International Telecommunications Networks

Introduction
Global economy affects our personal lives in many ways. The price of gas is determined by global oil markets, the ups and downs of interest rates are prompted by global money flows, and the availability of jobs is greatly affected by activities of global corporations.
1. Pre- modern World
The world in the past was different from the one of today. For instance, what we used to wear in the past was made by local people living with you in the same town. The only foreign products used were for kings and rich people, the close were made of materials naming gems, silk, and other products that were easy to transport but yet were expensive.
2. Division of labor:
One of the things that distinguished the modern world from the pre-modern one was the extent to which division of labor was used in the production process. As the division of labor increased, the production increased as well. As a result, specialization accompanied the division of labor, and thus results in increasing efficiency. In many ways, division of labor is a devil’s bargain. It increases productivity via specialization, which in turn creates problems of coordination and control. The managers were taking these problems seriously and were trying to solve them by controlling (face to face level).
However, when business owners started realizing that some components could be made more cheaply in other parts of the world, they moved away from centralized production. The lower cost was due to the easy access to raw materials, and cheap labor worker. Thus, the global division of labor is intricately tied to modern communication technologies, while the telecommunications technologies allow for global coordination and control.
3. Imperialism:
The world in the 13 century was multipoler, for instance, Indian and Italy traded with each other via Egypt and Iraq. This situation changed with the emergence of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British Empire in the 14 century. The Western power transformed the multipolar world into a monopolar one. Thanks to the development on technologies and advances in weaponry, Western powers could control. These countries were interested on cotton, rubber, and other raw materials. To obtain that imperial powers used divide and conquer strategy to weaken potential opposition. Today, we have moved from the era of imperialism to electronic imperialism.
Global media flows:
After independence of many countries, the center of the world also moved across the Atlantic to the United States. The main power if the US was its economic power rather than its military one. Today the US is in the center; it dominated the world through culture as well. For instance, it dominated the cinema and TV (Hollywood). As a result, the US tends to look at its media through business prospective.
Developing nations consider the import of US films to be a new kind of invasion, a cultural one. Electronic imperialism is from the center the US to the periphery the rest of the world which is a one way flow.
5. Transborder Data Flow:
With the improvement in transportation technologies, international trade progressively moved beyond lightweight, high –value items to heavier and bulkier commodities. One of the main reasons that services changed was that they required an intense amount of interaction between the service provider and the consumer. For instance, computer software needs to be done by a trained human being.
6. Toward a new world system:
With the shift of power from one part of the world to another one can think of the following questions: Once the US power declines, will the center merely pass from the US to another country? Or will there be an emergence of a multipolar world like the one of the 13 century.