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Images of Globalisation
From: London School of Economics and Political Science
| By:
Leslie Sklair |
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION |
 There is plenty of talk about globalisation, but can we actually see it? In this feature, Leslie Sklair (right) introduces globalisation from the viewpoint of the corporations that manage it and the dissidents that challenge it through a series of images. Rather than a "runaway world," these images present a closely defined world, which is for some a giant marketplace ready to be branded and traded, and for others, such as the Biotic Baking Brigade (the group dedicated to throwing pies at tycoons), an arena for exploitation--"to their lies, we respond with pies." |
Introduction
A spectre is haunting the world--the spectre of globalisation. It is an issue which has also haunted a great deal of academic debate; for example, Anthony Giddens has talked about the "runaway world" in which we live and the uncontrollable transformations wrought by globalisation. Globalisation, for me, cannot merely be defined as a series of uncontrollable changes, it is a closely managed system and while, like other systems, some of its consequences will be unforeseen, it is organised and controlled. |
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| Leslie Sklair introduces a series of images which portray globalisation. | |
I am interested in furnishing the evidence to illustrate various facets of globalisation and how it presents itself. Using a selection of images, including company brochures, satirical cartoons, and advertisements, I hope to cast light on the links between the CEO mastery of the times and a transnational capitalist class which co-ordinates everything and is, basically, in charge. It is this capitalist elite that regards the world in quite a different way to other people, and it incorporates four important political groups: corporate executives, bureaucrats and politicians, professionals and the consumer elite. Most images of globalisation--as with the process--reflect the interests of these groups. But I have also included those images which recognise and pose challenges to this system. |
So, from Diageo's visual representation of the world as a series of markets to the New Internationalist's depiction of the capitalist conquest of the third world, we can begin to grasp the complexity of globalisation. |
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