ICEH Papers

GLOBALIZATION AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Suresh, B.S. “Globalization And Urban Environmental Issues And Challenges” in Martin J. Bunch, V. Madha Suresh and T. Vasantha Kumaran, eds., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Environment and Health, Chennai, India, 15-17 December, 2003. Chennai: Department of Geography, University of Madras and Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. Pages 557 -561.

Abstract:

Globalization is a set of economic processes in which production, marketing and investment are integrated across the borders of nations. The liberalization and opening up of markets to the global economy is leading to the emergence of a single market for goods, capital, technology, services, information and to some extent labour.

Globalization is also a socio – political process because of its impact on culture, governance and domestic policy. The process of globalization is a convergence, though at differing speeds, of many institutional, legal, economic, social and cultural practices and processes across the borders of nations. Globalization as an idea is how we looking at the world and reducing cultural diversity in terms of perceptions and products.

The logic of globalization is the expansion of trade and investment in search of new markets and more competitive production sites. Companies can choose where they want to locate and people where they want to work and live, in a global market. The current tendency of Multi-National Companies (MNC’s) or Trans National Companies (TNC’s) to relocate geographically and set up production units in other areas of the world with cheaper labour, more lenient health and safety requirements, lower environmental protection standards and favourable tax laws in order to maximize profits. The rising power of MNC’s is skewing the distribution of gains towards the corporations, undermining the authority of national government and civil society, eroding human rights and environmental protection and also influencing the proliferating laws governing trade and investment.

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