Sociological Images

Lisa Wade, PhD on December 19, 2011

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Lisa Wade, PhD on December 19, 2011

2013

2012

2011

2010

Lisa Wade, PhD on December 19, 2011

2013

2012

2011

2010

Transnational Dominance

Martin Hart-Landsberg, PhD on November 16, 2011

Although Republicans and President Obama are said to disagree about economic policies, there is one initiative that they both enthusiastically support: free trade agreements. President Obama single-handily resurrected the free trade agreements with Korea, Panama, and Colombia from political oblivion; they were ratified by the U.S. Congress in October.

Now, he is eagerly pursuing a new multilateral agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (involving Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States). Significantly, as Public Citizen reports, “a leaked document revealed that the Obama administration signed a special pact to keep all documents relating to the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement negotiations secret.”

One might ask why the leaders of so many countries are anxious to sign such agreements, agreements which not only lower tariffs but also strip away the powers of governments to regulate international investment, production, and capital flows.

One answer is the enormous economic power of transnational corporations (TNCs), the main beneficiaries of these agreements. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:

TNCs worldwide, in their operations both at home and abroad, generated value added of approximately $16 trillion in 2010, accounting for more than a quarter of global GDP. In 2010, foreign affiliates accounted for more than one-tenth of global GDP and one-third of world exports.

The largest transnational corporations are from developed capitalist countries. These corporations also tend to be among the largest and most powerful firms in their respective home countries. At the same time, as the table below shows, their international operations now account for a majority of their assets, sales, and employment. Looking at all TNCs, the United Nations reports that the value added by their foreign affiliates generated approximately 40% of their total value added in 2010, up from 35% in 2005.

The estimates of TNC production cited above, although impressive, actually understate transnational control over global economic activity. At one time, TNCs only engaged in international production through establishment of foreign affiliates. In some cases, the parent company and its foreign affiliates operated relatively independently, each serving a different market.

Now, transnational corporations generally rely on complex cross border production networks that involve the linking of production across many countries, with final sales often taking place in still other countries. Most importantly, these networks often include “independent” partner firms that undertake various activities according to an overall transnational corporate strategy. While some of the partner firms may themselves be transnational corporations, many are not, which means that TNC controlled activity is greater than the combined activities of parent and affiliate firms.

Transnational corporations use a variety of so-called “non-equity modes” (NEMs) of control to direct the operations of their partner firms, with contract manufacturing and service outsourcing among the most important. Cross border activity involving NEM relationships is conservatively estimated to have generated over $2 trillion of sales in 2010. The United Nations reports that some 18–21 million workers are directly employed in firms operating under NEM arrangements. Around 80 per cent of NEM-generated employment is in developing and transition economies.

As the following figure reveals, cross border production activity anchored by NEM relations now dominates a number of key export industries. For example, NEM production now accounts for more than 50% of all toy, footwear, garment and electronics exports.

The production of the iPhone offers one of the best examples of the logic and operation of these transnational corporate controlled cross border production networks. As the Asian Development Bank explains:

iPhones are designed and marketed by Apple, one of the most innovative U.S. companies. Apart from its software and product design, the production of iPhones primarily takes place outside the US. Manufacturing iPhones involves nine companies, which are located in the PRC, the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea), Japan, Germany, and the US. The major producers and suppliers of iPhone parts and components include Toshiba, Samsung, Infineon, Broadcom, Numunyx, Murata, Dialog Semiconductor, Cirrius Logic, etc. All iPhone components produced by these companies are shipped to Foxconn, a company from Taipei,China located in Shenzhen, PRC, for assembly into final products and then exported to the US and the rest of the world.

Not surprisingly, the division of profits, as shown below, reflects the overall hierarchy that structures this and other cross border production networks.

The importance of cross border production networks to transnational corporate profitability helps to explain why these corporations are such strong supporters of free trade agreements. And, although I have focused on manufacturers, transnational retailers which sell the products produced by these networks and financial service companies which underwrite both the production and consumption of these products are also major beneficiaries and therefore powerful advocates.

The operation of these networks, the majority of which are centered in East Asia, have greatly contributed to the growth of global imbalances, marked by East Asian trade surpluses and U.S. trade deficits. These imbalances were papered over, and global capitalist accumulation sustained only because of the debt-driven housing bubble which financed U.S. consumption.

The collapse of the bubble has led many analysts to call for a rebalancing of Asian and U.S. economies. However, rather than address this need, governments throughout the world, responding to dominant capitalist interests, continue to pursue new free trade agreements, a pursuit that if successful will only intensify existing economic and social problems and make needed changes harder to achieve.

China and the New Luxury Consumer

Guest Blogger Tricia Wang on November 4, 2011

Cross-posted at Bytes of China.

Oh how this Toyota Highlander advertisment is reflective of the new global order. I saw this picture in Guangzhou’s domestic terminal. A Chinese couple is getting out of their Japanese brand car into what appears to be a private yacht. A white male greets them, taking their travel items and appears to be eager in their service.

This advertisement reflects a new Chinese imaginary — one that is global, expansive, unlimited, and exploratory. It also tells us who has the power to live out this imaginary. Ten years ago or even five years ago, I don’t think this advertisement would’ve existed. But now companies have turned to the Chinese consumer, encouraging them to participate in this lifestyle. The entire global economy right now depends on the Chinese elite and middle-class to spend. But how long can this go on for until we see the next crisis? For how long can each system create “value”?

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Tricia Wang is an ethnographer, sociologist, and researcher. She is on a Fulbright in China observing how digital technologies are mediating new conceptions of information and desire among youth & migrants. She is a student at UC San Diego’s PhD Sociology program. She blogs at Bytes of China.

Thanks to Benjamin B. for the tip!

Appropriating Dia de los Muertos at Halloween

Lisa Wade, PhD on October 31, 2011

Yesterday we posted about an effort to raise consciousness about racist costumes. Those who celebrate Dia de los Muertos are similarly frustrated about people who appropriate the traditions of the holiday, celebrated in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, California, and Arizona.

Not just another name for Halloween, Dia de los Muertos is a two day celebration honoring children and family members who have passed. Nuestra Hermana explains:

On these days, altars are made in honor of them. People build them on their loved ones graves, at home or anywhere they find rightful to honor their loved ones. They make ofrendas (offerings) to the dead of their favorite foods, toys (for children), pictures, pan de muertos, sugar skulls and many other things that help guide the spirits of the dead safely to the altars. Marigolds, known as the flowers of the dead, are usually prominent in the altars.

In Mexico, many people sleep overnight at the graves. Every ritual & altar is not the same everywhere. Many places have their own traditions and ways of honoring the dead. One thing is for sure, Dia De Los Muertos is not Halloween. It is a sacred time and holiday for Latin@s everywhere.

Hermana implores readers not to borrow imagery or traditions from Dia de los Muertos just for fun. To do so, she argues, is “disrespectful… [and] also a erasure of someone’s real life culture.”

“Day of the Dead” (and other offensive Mexican stereotype costumes) from Costume Craze:

Thanks to Dolores R. for the tip!

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Course Guide for Sociology of Gender

Lisa Wade, PhD on September 16, 2011

Course Guide for
SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER
(last updated 09/2011)

Developed by Mary Nell Trautner, PhD
University at Buffalo, SUNY

Social Construction of Sex & Gender

Intersexuality

Patriarchy / Oppression

Patriarchy as Male Dominated

Patriarchy as Male Identified

Patriarchy as Male Centered

“Doing Gender,” Gender as Performance

Intersectionality

White privilege

Childhood Gender Socialization

Gender & Language

Gender & Mass Media

Gender & Work

The Wage Gap

Gender & Sports

Sexuality: Homophobia

Sexuality: Sexual Behavior

Gender & the Body

Physical appearance and beauty work

Obesity and overweight

Gender and Family

Hegemonic Masculinity

Intimate Partner Violence

Sexual Harassment

Forced Sex & Sexual Assault

Anti-Rape Campaigns

Visions for the Future

If you would like to write a Course Guide for Sociological Images, please email us at socimages@thesocietypages.org.

The Evolution of the Easy Bake Oven

Lisa Wade, PhD on September 16, 2011

Yesterday Hasbro announced a new model of the Easy Bake Oven designed in response to the growing efficiency of light bulbs. This sounded to me like a perfect opportunity to bring back our post on the evolution of the toy. You’ll see the new model at the end.

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My niece got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas this year and I was shocked. Shocked!

No, not because of gendered gift giving, socialization, blah blah blah… (I don’t know where you would get that idea). Instead, I was shocked by what cooking apparently looks like in 2009. But let me start at the beginning…

The first Easy Bake Oven was released by Hasbro in 1963 (history here). It looked like a range with a stove top and an oven:

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It looked like this, with minor changes in color and amenities, for a while.

1964:

1971:

Then, 1978. It turns out, in 1975, for the first time, sales of microwave ovens exceeded those of gas ranges. And, what do you know, the Easy Bake Oven was suddenly a microwave with a digital clock:

1983:

Presumably, between 1963 and 1978, what cooking looked like changed dramatically and the evolution of the Easy Bake Oven reflected that. This is what surprised me when I saw my niece’s oven.

Ironically, this year’s Oven is painted in the original turquoise, as a nod to 1963, but it is still clearly a microwave:

easyBake

2011: Commercially available light bulbs are no longer inefficient enough to bake goodies. This year’s model, then, is actually a real oven, reaching temperatures up to 375 degrees:

So that’s technological and socioeconomic change as signified by the Easy Bake Oven.

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Transnational Dominance

China and the New Luxury Consumer

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