Does Globalization Help?
I agree with the functionalists and I like the functionalists. I like the following quote taken from ETEC511, Unit 3. It does backs up my argument here as well as elsewhere in this paper.
“A functionalist is preoccupied with how things work (rather than with why they work and whose interests are served). Functionalists are interested in exploiting technology for efficiency. There would be considerable discussion about cost/benefit analyses, doing more with less and the financial rewards of conducting education online. Functionalists often have an uncritical (sometimes unwitting) commitment to extant power relations and are prone to see technology as neutral.” (UBC ETEC511, “Discourses that construct Technology”, retrieved from http://www.webct.ubc.ca/SCRIPT/etec511_det/scripts/serve_home)
The transition to globalization is filled with obvious opportunities and exciting challenges for the entire world. Globalization is a subject that tends to make some people in the West a bit in low spirit. However, through the information technology revolution that is the Internet, the world has shrunk. Therefore, the best and brightest in both sides of the digital divide can compete against each other in fields such as engineering and computer technology, although most do it for much less when it comes to dollars and cents (for what it costs in the West).
Moreover, one tenth of the elites in the West who control so much of their nations’ wealth are now looking at the world much differently than their predecessors. After all, money is made and spent as easily in India as it is right here in Canada. It is probably does not matter too much for them if the quality of life slips a bit for a while before the experts here can readjust with other fields. We may see this continues to grow as many more of the emerging new nations will join in this global village market to compete even with India or China.
The dilemma of the West is obviously caused by the concerns of one group of professionals who are threatened by outsourcing, while the other, mainly with mentally of global functionalist profiting from this globalization trend. But for the sake of economic growth and for economic vitality, the keys here are to maintain and compete and collaborate on a level playing field with the rest of the world. This trend might grow over time in favor of the developing nations for a while and spread the practice of outsourcing energetically beyond engineering and computer technology, thus contributing to narrow down the digital divide in some extend.
The effect of the global village market will truly felt when outsourcing will be practiced in many other areas such as education, law and even in medical industries but this will not yet eliminate the digital divide entirely. The mathematical equations of population quantity between India and European Union or China and North America do not match up so when it comes to leveling the digital divide. Besides even when things go better for China and India, there are other nations which will come to play the global village market and take some market share and close some of their digital divides.
The fascinating story of a company called Digital Divide Data in Cambodia is one of confluence between outsourcing, international entrepreneurship, information technology, and social enterprise.
In the United States, however globalization critics and non-functionalist groups, points out that the companies pays significantly less than the U.S. minimum wage. Therefore, morally this story is not so inspiring.
There are more of these stories, I know of some organizations that have sent simple but time-consuming data-entry projects to developing countries. New York City police tickets have been processed in Ghana, Lexis-Nexis articles have been entered in China, and insurance claims have been keyed-in in India. Many see India's success as a paradigm of international development based on IT services. Technology based development is faster, cheaper, better for the environment and more flexible than traditional resource or manufacturing development strategies. According the World Bank, the outsourced IT services market is estimated to represent $120 billion worldwide in annual spending and is growing at 20% per year. Within IT services, the total market for data processing and network services is more than $290 million, and growing five percent annually.
(Sources are from “The Herbus Online”, retrieved on Nov., 25th 2005 from http://www.harbus.org/media/paper343/news/2004/11/15/News/
The-Outsourcing.Dilemma-806504.shtml)
