Create a Solution

Role:
You are a member of the Springerfieldville City Council. Springerfieldville is a small town about an hour out of Detroit, Michigan.

Context:
In the past, your town was a part of the automotive industry. In the past, there was a small teacher college, but it went out of business when there was less of a demand for teachers. The two major factories (both connected to the GM supply chain) have gone out of business, leaving two brick factories completely unused. The town unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 14% and they are suffering a housing crisis. With less revenue, their education is becoming underfunded. The town population is a mixture of educated / white color workers (managers, former professors, etc.) and high-school educated blue-collar workers.

Task:
You need to help redefine the town. You need to create an innovative, perhaps even radical, plan for change. Your solution must address the following:

• What are the major problems?
  
• What caused the town's problems? How do their causes relate to globalization?
• What is your solution? How will your solution relate to micronationalism (regionalism) or transnationalism?
• Why will your plan work?
• How will you pay for your plan?
  

February 19, 2009

Read the following excerpt from Wikipedia:

Whilst it is all too easy to look at the positive aspects of Globalization and the great benefits that are apparent everywhere, there are also several negative occurrences that can only be the result of or major motivating factors that inspire some corporations to globalize.

It can be said that globalization is the door that opens up an otherwise resource poor country to the international market. Where a country or nation has little material or physical product harvested or mined from its own soil, an opportunity is seen by large corporations to take advantage of the “export poverty” of such a nation.

One example used by anti-globalization protestors is the use of “Sweatshops” by manufacturers. According to Global Exchange these “Sweat Shops” are widely used by sports shoe manufacturers and mentions one company in particular – Nike.[21] There are factories set up in the poor countries where employees agree to work for low wages. Then if labour laws alter in those countries and stricter rules govern the manufacturing process the factories are closed down and relocated to other nations with more liberal economic policies.

One powerful source has blown down cultural boundaries around the entire world. What is this influential tool? It is the Internet and its endless margin of discovery. With the Internet people can easily access someone half way across the world. They could converse with someone living a completely different lifestyle yet still have something in common, the Internet. If language is a barrier then a website like Flickr, a photo sharing site, lets people from Singapore and Germany alike communicate without words. The Internet in essence makes the world a smaller place. Someone in America can be eating Japanese noodles for lunch while someone in Sydney Australia is eating classic Italian meatballs. One classic culture aspect is food. India is known for their curry and exotic spices. Paris is known for its smelly cheeses. America is known for its burgers and fries. McDonalds was once an American favorite with its cheery mascot, Ronald, red and yellow theme, and greasy fast food. Now it is a global enterprise with 31,000 locations worldwide with locations in Kuwait, Egypt, and Malta.

With the melding of cultures using another countries language in ones body art is now considered normal. Culture is defined as patterns of human activity and the symbols that give these activities significance. Culture is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold, and activities they practice. Globalization has joined different cultures and made it into something different. As Erla Zwingle, from the National Geographic article titled “Globalization” states, “When cultures receive outside influences, they ignore some and adopt others, and then almost immediately start to transform them.”

INSTRUCTIONS

E-mail your answers to me (or hand-write them)

Step 1: Make a list of at least five words that you did not understand. Try and figure out the words based upon the context.

Step 2: Identify the main point (often called the thesis statement) of this article. Write your answer in your own words.

Step 3: Explain the author's bias. Cite at least two "loaded words" to back up your point.

Step 4: Offer your own opinion on this article's main point. Do you agree or disagree with the idea that globalization is dangerous?

February 4, 2009

Bell Work:
Paragraph #1: In what ways have women gained more rights than they used to have?
Paragraph #2: What are some areas where women still lack power, rights or equality?

February 3, 2009

Go to the Native American Art post on our Discussion Zone.

Our Social Voice Social Network can be found at socialvoice.ning.com