Race, Poverty & Globalization

Race, Poverty & Globalization

INTRODUCTION

How is poverty related to globalism, and why are people of color under the most severe threat from this process? Certainly, other people are also under a threat from this globalization process, and some would assert that democracy and capitalism itself may be undone by this process if it is not checked. To answer the above question and to understand why minorities and other marginal populations are most at risk, it is first necessary to better understand what globalism is, particularly the type of globalism that dominates today's markets.

In the most general sense, globalism refers to "the process in which goods and services, including capital, move more freely within and among nations" (Greider 1997:32). As globalism advances, national boundaries become more and more porous, and to some extent, less and less relevant. Since many of our early industries, such as steel, were location-sensitive, there was a natural limitation to globalization. To be sure, some things remain location-sensitive, but mobility is the trend (Norwood 1999). It is assumed that liberalizing laws and structures, so that goods and services can become more globally focused, will produce more wealth, and indeed this seems to be true. Using this general understanding of globalism and globalization, it would be accurate to say this process has been developing and growing for well over a hundred years (Fishlow 1999:5).

METHODS

Data Collection

After searching Florida State University's (FSUs) Online Archives, I came across a reference manual that I believed would help me to compile and analyze my sociological research. I used the work of Otto Newman and Richard de Zoysa (2001), The Promise of the Third Way: Globalization and Social Justice, as a conceptual framework for data collection. Adhering to the advice of Newman and Zoysa, the following types of data were collected in order to "maximize time and to see the same scene from different angles" (2001: 115):

Documents and Literature

After further searching FSUs Online Archives, I selected several books, four journal articles and an in-depth study in order to begin my literature research. I read pertinent chapters and excerpts from the books and reviewed the journals and the study. Below is a list of the literature I used:

Books

Greider, William. 1997. One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Newman, Otto and de Zoysa, Richard. The Promise of the Third Way: Globalization and Social Justice. 2001. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Singh, Kavaljit. 1999. The Globalization of Finance: A Citizen's Guide. London & New York: Zed Books.

Journals

Fishlow, Albert. "Review: Globalism: New Reality, Old Strategy." July 1999. American Journal of Sociology 2: 2.

Kasarda, John D. Oct. 1998. "The Threat of Globalism." Race and Class. 40: 2-3.

New York: Touchstone.

Norwood, Janet L. July/August 1999."Global Finance in the Americas: Wealth & Hunger

Revisited." NACLA Report on the Americas. 33:1.

Yutzis, Mario J. "A Special Issue on Globalization and Discrimination." 1998. Peoples for Human Rights, IMADR Yearbook. 6.

Study

United Nations Development Programme. "Human Development Report." 1999. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Interviews

Using a semi-structured interview format, I interviewed three individuals, Mary, Robert and Phil,* all of whom were able to share unique perspectives on how race and poverty have been affected and/or shaped by globalism and the social justice movement. Mary, a sociology major who is now in the process of getting her Doctorate, is doing her doctorial thesis on globalism and its effect on third world countries. Robert is a college-level professor who teaches a class that explores the correlation between race and poverty in the U.S. Phil is a published author that has written several essays on globalization, poverty and woman's suffrage. In the interviews, I was seeking to understand what globalism meant to the different interviewees. I also sought to understand how these very different perspectives fit into public opinion about race and poverty as a whole.

Data Analysis

Relying on the work of Newman et al. (2001), data analysis was an ongoing part of the data collection. At regular weekly intervals, I would go over my observations, how these observations related to the research question, what questions I was formulating from the data, and what new directions I needed to pursue. Every week, I compiled my preliminary and developing understandings and sought triangulation of data from all sources. For example, I would review the data collected from the literature, my own observations, and the interviews that I had conducted.

At the end of the data collection and ongoing data analysis period, I again followed the advice of Newman et al. and "maximized time" (2001:157) by providing two other students, both of whom are sociology majors, but neither of whom were assigned this project, with my field notes and transcripts. In one three-hour sitting, my two volunteers and myself compiled all data, including my individual and collective notes. I then re-read the entire corpus of the data, starting with the interviews. Keeping my initial question in mind, the three of us made notes of patterns, trends, and interesting cases. At the end of three hours, I was able to formulate my final question used in this research paper.

In the two weeks leading up to the submission of this report, I began the process of consolidating my assertions into those that would best answer my research question. All subsequent time was spent warranting my assertions and writing the final report. All assertions were modified to account for both the confirming and disconfirming evidence.

FINDINGS

My initial question--How is poverty related to globalism, and why are people of color under the most severe threat from this