tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722/articlesGlobalisation Under Pressure – The Conversation2017-05-26T06:39:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/715752017-05-26T06:39:20Z2017-05-26T06:39:20ZIs China the potential driver of a new wave of globalisation?<p><strong><em>The final part of our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> considers how China is trying to take a leading role in continued global integration with its Belt and Road Initiative, and the obstacles it faces.</em></strong></p>
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<p>Since the 2008 global financial crisis – and with a particular impetus after Xi Jinping <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/15/xi-jinping-communist-party-chinese">became president</a> in 2012 – China’s foreign policy has been characterised by a departure from a “keeping a low profile” approach to one of “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/cjip/article/7/2/153/438673/From-Keeping-a-Low-Profile-to-Striving-for">striving for achievement</a>”. </p>
<p>Putting to use its economic, political and symbolic capital in global affairs, China has developed diplomatic thinking and practice that’s not just concerned with short-term economic benefit. Rather, it has focused on the long-term impact of its actions on both the outlook of the world system and the country’s position in it.</p>
<p>One of the ways China is seeking to achieve this is through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the 21st-century Silk Road. </p>
<p>Formally announced in 2013, the BRI brings together a <a href="https://cpianalysis.org/2016/10/07/how-new-is-the-belt-and-road/">number of pre-existing</a> as well as novel elements to provide <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v40y2016icp314-321.html">a strong link</a> between China’s domestic imperatives and its global orientation. It has thus become a focal point for the country’s resources, institutions and ideas. </p>
<p>The BRI is a concept with Chinese features; it is characterised by incrementalism, inductive thinking, and experimentation. It is not a uniform project, as different legs and sections of it differ from each other considerably – it includes a major <a href="http://cpec.gov.pk/">China-Pakistan Economic Corridor</a>, which has a notable developmental component, for instance, and buying and operating ports in developed countries such as <a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/218666/article/ekathimerini/business/coscos-ambitious-plans-for-piraeus-port">Greece</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.orfonline.org/expert-speaks/china-bri-forum-pursuing-change/">BRI Forum in Beijing</a> on May 14-15 gathered together dozens of heads of states and many more representatives of governments around the world. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171009/original/file-20170525-23230-q9x5hh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The BRI forum in Beijing hosted 29 head of states, including Vladimir Putin (left) and Recept Tayyep Erdogan (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/statements/54491/photos/48321">Kremlin Press Office</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Although initially announced as having a specific geographic focus on <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/china-one-belt-one-road-initiative-what-we-know-thus-far">Asia, Europe and parts of Africa</a>, it is now clear that the BRI is a <a href="https://www.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/wcm.files/upload/CMSydylyw/201705/201705110537027.pdf">truly global initiative</a>, as it aims also to involve the Americas and Oceania.</p>
<h2>Global growth</h2>
<p>In the last four decades, China has risen economically by <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21609649-china-becomes-again-worlds-largest-economy-it-wants-respect-it-enjoyed-centuries-past-it-does-not">integrating itself</a> in the global economy and gradually upgrading its position in the world. The country’s economic development would have not been possible without <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app5.10/full">the growth of others</a>. </p>
<p>Today, China is not only the second-largest economy (poised to overtake the US in the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/the-world-s-top-economy-the-us-vs-china-in-five-charts/">near future</a>), but also the engine of the world economy. It is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/why-china-is-central-to-global-growth">central</a> to global economic growth. </p>
<p>It is thus expected that China will assume a more significant role in shaping the future of the global economy. And the BRI is one way it will do this.</p>
<p>The BRI essentially promotes “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23792949.2016.1232598?journalCode=rard20">strategic international economic partnerships and multilateral credit to address investment, infrastructure, employment and economic development</a>”, with the goal of reinvigorating global economic growth. </p>
<p>One of the main concepts that defines China’s approach is <a href="http://english.gov.cn/premier/news/2015/03/28/content_281475079065086.htm">production capacity cooperation</a> – best described as the pooling together of resources to meet each other’s needs. The goal of this is to contribute to strengthening trade routes and supply chains, and to ensure sustainable flows of goods and services. </p>
<p>The initiative is a global plan that exceeds all previous such plans; it is <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/the-one-belt-one-road-explained/news-story/d02f063add5ad39d0bddda1718d0d416">seven times</a> larger than the post-second world war US Marshall Plan.</p>
<h2>State and market</h2>
<p>In developing the BRI, Chinese policymakers have drawn on the country’s own experience of developing by <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2007/09/xiaolian.htm">“reform and opening up”</a> and the evolving ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC).</p>
<p>Most significantly, the BRI invokes the central tenets of present-day <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorials/sinified-marxism/articleshow/2481741.cms">Sinified Marxism</a>: the state is the most responsible actor for bringing about prosperity, and the market is the main instrument through which this can be achieved. </p>
<p>To describe this complex state-market nexus in China, developmental sociologists <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Global-Rise-China-Today/dp/0745664741">Alvin Y. So and Yin-Wah Chu</a> propose the purposefully self-contradicting term “state neoliberalism” as opposed to the Western-style “market neoliberalism”. </p>
<p>It posits that the party-state needs to be powerful and politically stable in order to be able to act decisively in fine-tuning (both advancing and reversing) market flows, the scope and intensity of regulation, and to create exceptions (such as free economic zones). </p>
<p>The state is also in charge of <a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1046925.shtml">stimulating innovation</a> (a key to economic growth), which is strongly emphasised in the BRI. This way of governance allows the state to integrate itself in global neoliberalism, while also developing a particular neoliberal governmentality or rather <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog421/abstract">political technology</a> built into the web of laws, policies and official discourses. </p>
<p>In the debate on bringing the state back in the economy, the example of China (and the so-called <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10670561003666061">China Model</a>) is often cited as a challenge to the Western model. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has called the rise of China a “<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/01/china-worlds-largest-economy">wake-up call</a>” in terms of how we think of the global economy. </p>
<p>Chinese policymakers have used this to <a href="https://books.google.it/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mIdzm1imHb0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA23&dq=Neoliberal+Strategies,+Socialist+Legacies:+Communication+and+State+Transformation+in+China,&ots=7srWv2wljH&sig=5iQj554NRhQXMBeCbgSk3sWH6Fk#v=onepage&q=Neoliberal%20Strategies%2C%20Socialist%20Legacies%3A%20Communication%20and%20State%20Transformation%20in%20China%2C&f=false">acquire soft power</a> and boost their legitimacy.</p>
<p>Inevitably, the notion of a strong state that seeks political stability has opened debates on the effects of China’s BRI on <a href="http://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/democratic-theory/3/2/dt030207.xml">democracy</a> worldwide.</p>
<p>But in the same process, Chinese policymakers and scholars have argued against the promotion of universal blueprints, repeatedly <a href="http://acyd.org.au/acyd/understanding-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative">emphasising the impossibility of replicating China’s experience</a>. They have <a href="http://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=pol_facpub">called</a> for all nations to exercise their sovereignty in deciding on what model of development is most applicable to their own circumstances.</p>
<h2>Common destiny</h2>
<p>While not interfering in each other’s affairs is the core principle of China’s global involvement, its leaders do, however, frequently espouse a vision of how relations between nations should develop. Under Xi Jinping, this guiding concept has been the “<a href="http://iq.chineseembassy.org/eng/zygx/t1432869.htm">community of shared future for mankind</a>”, which emphasises mutual respect and cooperation. This has been built into all Chinese foreign initiatives, including the BRI.</p>
<p>This is why Chinese policymakers and scholars <a href="http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/lessons-asean-xis-belt-and-road-initiative">argue</a> that the BRI is not just a Chinese initiative, but is jointly “owned” by all participating countries. </p>
<p>The idea of a shared future, or “common destiny” as it is often called, is why the BRI is frequently called a blueprint for a different version of economic globalisation. Development scholars have also used the idea of “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23792949.2016.1232598?journalCode=rard20">inclusive globalisation</a>”, a term previously – less successfully – promoted by former UN secretary-general <a href="http://www.un.org/press/en/2002/SGSM8412.doc.htm">Kofi Annan</a>.</p>
<p>In essence, the BRI aims to address the need not only for a more equitable global economy – or, to cite from the official documents, it aims for “<a href="http://en.ndrc.gov.cn/newsrelease/201503/t20150330_669367.html">jointly creating an open, inclusive and balanced regional economic cooperation architecture that benefits all</a>”. This echoes the principle of solidarity and cooperation with developing countries, particularly in the Global South, which has been <a href="http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/whitepaper_665742/t856325.shtml">central</a> to China’s foreign policy since its foundation in 1949.</p>
<p>Today, there is an added dimension to this, inspired primarily by the rise of new protectionist and economic nationalist forces, best embodied by US President <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/29/donald-trump-is-an-economic-nationalist-whats-an-economic-nationalist/?utm_term=.f7d4674f165e">Donald Trump</a>. At a time of growing doubt about global capitalism, the BRI is a way for China and the world to ensure there are no major reversals.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>But the BRI rests on three defining contradictions. While it is an effort to capitalise on the four decades of growth and China’s newfound clout, it is also an attempt to provide the necessary impetus for a new round of reform and opening up, which the country desperately needs. </p>
<p>While it is an attempt to combat economic nationalism, it also works towards maintaining – and strengthening – the supremacy of the nation-state. And while it is bringing back the state in the economy, it aims to safeguard and advance global markets and free trade.</p>
<p>The outcome of the BRI as a vehicle of a new type of globalisation, therefore, cannot be framed in absolute terms. Nor it will be clear-cut. But it does have the potential to greatly affect the trajectory of the global order as a whole, as well as the trajectories of particular regions and countries, and the way we think about the world. </p>
<p>To properly gauge the potential of the BRI, we need to go back to one of the core statements made by Chinese policymakers – the BRI is intended to be a global, shared project, whose success will depend not only on China’s resolve, but also on the interest and <a href="https://euobserver.com/opinion/137970">response</a> of others.</p>
<p>And while China has so far secured the support of a number of governments around the world, the recent forum in Beijing also unveiled some obstacles to its future advancement.</p>
<p>First, the notable absence of China’s neighbour and partner within the BRICS grouping, <a href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2017/may/13/india-boycotts-one-belt-one-road-summit-in-china-1604412--1.html">India</a>, showed that China has yet to overcome border conflicts with its neighbourhood.</p>
<p>Second, a sceptical <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2093859/were-still-figuring-out-chinas-belt-and-road-european">European Union</a> (EU) – a strategic partner of China – has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/15/eu-china-summit-bejing-xi-jinping-belt-and-road">backed away from the statement on trade</a>. It has also restated its firm position on <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/china/26154/european-commission-vice-president-jyrki-katainen-speech-belt-and-road-forum-leaders-round_en">issues such as transparency and reciprocity</a> that have traditionally been a challenge for EU-China relations.</p>
<p>India and the EU are two actors that are particularly relevant for the BRI. Given how much China has invested so far in the initiative, and the extent to which the legacy of Xi Jinping – and the Communist Party – rests on the new global plan, making them more accepting of China’s vision is the new imperative for Beijing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastas Vangeli is a Claussen-Simon PhD Fellow at the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius</span></em></p>While China has so far secured support from a number of governments for its Belt and Road Initiative, the recent forum in Beijing also highlighted some obstacles to its advancement.Anastas Vangeli, Doctoral Researcher, Polish Academy of SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/742972017-05-25T06:44:38Z2017-05-25T06:44:38ZGlobalisation isn’t dead, it’s just shed its slick cover story<p><strong><em>The penultimate instalment in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> series questions the concept of globalisation, suggesting that the so-called backlash against it is merely neoliberalism unmasked.</em></strong></p>
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<p>With the recent rise in nationalism, surge in protectionism and Donald Trump’s “America first” vision, it’s become common to <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/buttonwood/2016/07/economics-and-politics-0">declare that the golden age of globalisation</a> has come to an end. That the three-decade-old “global village” is closing its doors. </p>
<p>But was globalisation ever really about internationalism and shared development? The fact is, globalisation has always been more political discourse than reality. </p>
<p>Even the term “global governance” is itself merely a <a href="http://criticallegalthinking.com/2014/12/02/governmentality-notes-thought-michel-foucault/">strategic turn of phrase</a>. <a href="http://intlmgt.cipa.cornell.edu/readings/Finkelstein.PDF">Defined</a> as “systems of rule at all levels of human activity, from the family to the international organisation, in which the pursuit of goals through the exercise of control has transnational repercussions”, the term obfuscates the real objectives of globalisation. </p>
<p>Over the past 30 years, this Western-led system, which is essentially a managerial approach to complex human and natural phenomena, has actually reproduced – intentionally – the problems it was theoretically intended to tackle through global collaboration: crime, environmental devastation, human trafficking, insecurity, terrorism, gender-based violence and political repression. </p>
<p>Globalisation, which is also referred to as <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/irsr.2011.1.issue-2/irsr-2011-0014/irsr-2011-0014.xml">neoliberalism</a>, has mostly served to generate profit and reify white supremacy. And in that sense, it is alive and well today. </p>
<h2>Local neoliberalism</h2>
<p>Scholars who draw from French philosopher Michel Foucault’s critique of neoliberalism argue that neoliberal states have actually ceased to be states that administer justice. </p>
<p>Today, we have managerial states that use policy (defined as government decision-making intended to modify or orientate social action in the form of a set of legal, political and technical elements based on social knowledge) to regulate the health and growth of the population.</p>
<p>They do so not via direct intervention in the style of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/welfare-state">welfare states</a>, such as Norway or Ecuador, where governments actively seek to protect and promote the economic and social well-being of citizens.</p>
<p>Rather, neoliberal countries, such as the United States, reduce social policy to a bare minimum, providing the least for the poorest sector of society while encouraging the wealthy to leverage the corporate sector to fund health and education (“<a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/case-market-liberalism">incenvitising the market</a>”, say its defenders). </p>
<p>On the domestic front, the neoliberal government achieves its desired balance of maximum productivity and minimum social responsibility by convincing people that they are responsible for their own wealth and well-being – the old <a href="https://www.naspa.org/constituent-groups/posts/the-myth-of-the-bootstrap">“bootstraps” narrative</a>. Those who cannot afford what they need are mostly left to their fates. </p>
<p>The American free-market health insurance fiasco, which <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/33-million-americans-still-dont-have-health-insurance/">leaves out 33 million</a> non-citizens, poor people, and young, healthy people, is the finest possible example of this (govern)mentality. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PA3kETvUXJg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary Sicko outlines the failings of the US health-care system.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Negative externalities</h2>
<p>For modern capitalism to reproduce itself, people across the world must <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-24-7-economy-and-the-wealth-of-nations-76684">produce and consume, consume and produce</a>. Global governance is how we manage the international costs this nonstop globalised market incurs.</p>
<p>From migration and the environment to terrorism and drugs, the powers behind globalisation have manipulated global forces to control populations both at home and abroad. A system originally “pitched as a strategy that would raise all boats in poor and rich countries alike”, as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikecollins/2015/05/06/the-pros-and-cons-of-globalization/#cd39898ccce0">a 2015 assessment of globalisation in Forbes magazine</a> put it, has in practice ensured the survival and reproduction of white and Western peoples.</p>
<p>If you’re dubious on this point, read this <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/">April 2016 Harper’s interview</a> in which a former Nixon White House aide admits that the war on drugs was designed to criminalise “the blacks”.</p>
<p>Laws have been designed to profoundly marginalise the poorest and the darkest-skinned people of the world (and, in predominantly white societies, gay men and women), <a href="http://www.who.int/pmnch/media/press_materials/fs/fs_newborndealth_illness/en/">often to the point of death</a>. </p>
<p>Nor are violence and environmental degradation unfortunate outcomes of unchecked free-market capitalism. They’re negative externalities that must be administered. Hence, we see homicide and pollution mostly produced in the developing world. </p>
<p>Central America is one such production centre. There, <a href="http://www.ciel.org/news/environmental-defenders-describe-human-rights-abuses-linked-with-the-mining-industry-at-the-inter-american-commission-on-human-rights/">the environment is being rapidly destroyed</a> as transnational corporations haul out timber, zinc, water, and other resources. </p>
<p>When locals defend themselves and their land from exploitation, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fracking-mining-murder-the-killer-agenda-driving-migration-in-mexico-and-central-america-67822">they are killed and criminalised</a>. Latin America is now the world’s <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/latin-america-s-environmental-defenders-find-themselves-crosshairs">most dangerous place</a> to be an environmental activist.</p>
<p>If rich countries must bear such problems, they are effectively relegated by policies both explicit and implicit to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/community-voices-environmental-justice">their poorest neighbourhoods</a>. In the US, it’s <a href="http://standwithstandingrock.net/history/">Native Americans at Standing Rock</a> who take the hit when oil companies come out swinging and <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/race-and-drug-war">black and Latino drug users who go to jail</a> rather than their equally numerous white peers. </p>
<h2>Migration and murder</h2>
<p>Sometimes, people in the developing world grow sick of the struggle and seek to leave their poisoned or dangerous homelands. There’s a system for that, too: international and domestic migration policies. </p>
<p>The kind of immigration <a href="https://www.academia.edu/11237133/_SECURITIZATION_OF_IMMIGRATION_AND_ASYLUM_IN_FRANCE_">rhetoric</a> favoured by <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/marine-le-pen-calls-multiculturalism-a-weapon-for-islamic-extremists-20170410-gvi6vz.html">Marine Le Pen</a>, Donald Trump and many others holds that border enforcement is a national security necessity: it protects natives against terror, violence and criminality.</p>
<p>Securitisation discourse, as this is called, generally depicts migrants in three ways, none of them good. </p>
<p>First, migrants are surreptitious transnational actors who pose strategic threats to host states. In the UK, right-wing politicians have made a debatable link between <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/23/anti-immigrant-politicians-link-london-attack-migrant-policy">immigration and recent terrorist attacks</a>, offering a xenophobic explanation for closing English borders.</p>
<p>Secondly, migrants pose a threat to national identity and to a country’s cultural and ethnic balance. This notion leads to racism and racial-identity politics like the various attempts to limit the use of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13038095">Muslim</a> veils and headscarves in France, Germany, Belgium and the UK, among other European countries.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170439/original/file-20170522-7364-160mixw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Brexit: a truly neoliberal move.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffdjevdet/28163449080">Jeff Djevdet/flickr/speedpropertybuyers.co.uk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, migrants are economic competitors who profit from the <a href="https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:U9-_KtKpIEQJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=es&as_sdt=0,5">Western welfare state’s social benefits</a>. In this category are Trump’s promises to restore working class Americans’ jobs by <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/02/23/donald-trump-jobs-america-ceos/">deporting “illegal” Mexicans</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/20/reality-check-are-eu-migrants-really-taking-british-jobs">labour-market rationale behind Brexit</a>. </p>
<h2>Nothing new under the global sun</h2>
<p>The unsettled state of politics today may seem scary and unknown, but substantively, very <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-the-great-regression-76293">little has changed</a>. </p>
<p>The current right-wing resurgence is merely the confirmation that neoliberalism, now entering its fourth decade, is so well entrenched that it no longer needs subtle political discourses about “global governance” and “international cooperation” to thrive.</p>
<p>Over the past year, racism, nationalism and chauvinism were democratically elected and approved at referendum, from the UK and the US to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-hungary-and-poland-have-silenced-women-and-stifled-human-rights-66743">Hungary</a> and <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Pepe-Mujica-Slams-Mauricio-Macris-Neoliberal-Policies-20161030-0018.html">Argentina</a>. They are legitimate movements now, not subcultures or aberrations but bare-faced political preference.</p>
<p>This is fascism, getting uncomfortably close to the mainstream.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ariadna Estévez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today’s ugly politics are not a backlash against global capitalism, they’re an open embrace of the racism and greed that has always underpinned so-called global governance.Ariadna Estévez, Professor, Center for Research on North America, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/752592017-05-24T06:30:18Z2017-05-24T06:30:18ZExpert conversation: ‘The right to luxury could constitute a legitimate claim’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Luxury exists in most human societies throughout the world but in different forms.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/art-car-luxury-brand-4081/">Gratisography/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>Anthropologist Marc Abélés latest research focused on luxury markets and arts across the globe, a topic he touched on at length with Léa Barreau Tran, from Sciences Po Bordeaux, during an interview published here as part of our ongoing series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a>.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Léa Barreaux:</strong> It’s rather unusual to associate luxury with globalisation because they seem so alien to one another. Luxury is often considered as an “illegitimate” subject in anthropology. You, Marc Abélés, have taken a different approach in establishing <a href="http://www.fmsh.fr/fr/college-chaires/27999">a global anthropology of luxury</a>. Can you tell us more ?</p>
<p><strong>Marc Abélés:</strong> Luxury is a universal phenomenon. It is just as present in our society as it is in societies far removed from ours, in both space and time. It appears in various forms, depending on the group’s specific history and culture. Bronislaw Malinowski, one of the pioneer scholars of anthropology focused on the circulation (kula-trading system) of precious goods (ceremonial necklaces and bracelets) in the <a href="https://wolnelektury.pl/media/book/pdf/argonauts-of-the-western-pacific.pdf">Trobriand Islands</a>, which he compared to the jewels of great European families in his ethnographic research.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159636/original/image-20170306-20753-1c5lfm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman’s ceremonial tunic from the Nivkh people (Amur river basin), in bleached carp skin, fine as silk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Musée du quai Branly, Jacques Chirac, photo Patrick Gries, Valérie Torre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Malinowski chiefly sought to uncover the significance of these objects and the symbolic and political connotations that determined the manner in which they were circulated. Well known to anthropologists, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1525/aa.1972.74.3.02a00280/asset/aa.1972.74.3.02a00280.pdf?v=1&t=j31mdf86&s=4a8245d0256e5986e9adb8bc839350155c764f64">the potlatch, a gift-giving system among Native Americans</a>, illustrates this phenomenon too. Its lavish spending, competition to impress and consumption of wealth has been extensively studied, namely by American <a href="https://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/online-collections-research/kwakiutl/ethnography">anthropologist Franz Boas</a>.</p>
<p>I also want to examine the political, symbolic and economic issues inherent in all forms of exchange, through the prism of the circulation of luxury goods. I am simply doing it in a very different context than that of traditional anthropology. These days, <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Consumer-Business/gx-cb-global-power-of-luxury-web.pdf">luxury commerce is carried out on a global</a> scale <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21635761-modern-luxury-industry-rests-paradoxbut-thriving-nonetheless-says-brooke">and represents a significant portion</a> of the world’s economy. At the end of the 20th century, the luxury industry, along with other sectors of the economy, underwent a <a href="https://www.lesechos.fr/24/07/2000/LesEchos/18199-053-ECH_la-concentration-bat-son-plein-dans-l-univers-du-luxe.htm">dual process of concentration of ownership</a> and financialisation. </p>
<p>It is one of France’s few <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/fr/fr/pages/presse/2016/la-france-confirme-sa-place-de-leader-dans-le-secteur-du-luxe.html">growing sectors</a> and it makes up the bulk of our exports, along with the arms and aeronautic industries. In light of this, I can’t see why luxury should be treated as an “illegitimate” subject.</p>
<p>Also, we should ask ourselves why there is such a need to ascribe legitimacy in the field of social sciences. Did you know that Pierre Bourdieu, the sociologist best known for <a href="http://www.bnfa.fr/livre?biblionumber=18603">The Weight of the World</a> kicked off his academic journal <em>Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales</em> with an <a href="http://www.persee.fr/doc/arss_0335-5322_1975_num_1_1_2447">extensive article on fashion</a>?</p>
<p><strong>Léa Barreaux:</strong> You’ve been studying the <a href="http://www.ethnographiques.org/2009/Petric">anthropology of globalisation</a> for a long time. These days, your focus is on China, a country with <a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/114141/chinois-moitie-produits-luxe">a huge appetite for luxury goods</a> and one of the world’s leaders in counterfeit products. Has China’s influence revolutionised the very nature and definition of luxury in the globalised world? What does it say about our own idea of authenticity?</p>
<p><strong>Marc Abélés:</strong> Actually, rather than trying to eradicate the counterfeit market entirely, which would be quite simply impossible, China has made real efforts toward limiting the worst excesses of counterfeiting. For example, in 2006, the Chinese government closed one of its counterfeit industry’s major outlets, the <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-07/01/content_630860.htm">Xiangyang Road market</a> in Shanghai.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159631/original/image-20170306-20775-1p4dtkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Imitation iPods in Shanghai’s Old Town in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/1349465169">Cory Doctorow/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That being said, one of the characteristics of luxury is to give rise to imitation, as a kind of counterpoint. This dialogue between “fake” and authentic contributes to the value placed on luxury products.</p>
<p><strong>Léa Barreaux:</strong> The globalisation of luxury goods is also felt in the field of <a href="http://www.slate.fr/story/79316/art-contemporain-fiac-mondialisation-casino">contemporary art</a>. On the one hand, it has given artists greater freedom of movement across national borders and a wider audience; on the other, it has increased speculation in the art market. As an anthropologist, how have <a href="https://transcontinentales.revues.org/1315">you seen</a> these trends manifest?</p>
<p><strong>Marc Abélés:</strong> There is a great deal of overlap between luxury commerce and the contemporary art market. Most businesses in the luxury sector involve artists in their creation process – they create foundations to promote contemporary art, and in some cases, also run auction houses. Luxury has become a global industry. It is under constant threat of homogenisation and trivialisation. Companies essentially want to project an image of extraordinary refinement by associating what is currently most priced in contemporary art with their brand.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159634/original/image-20170306-20775-1qzpj09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Damien Hirst’s diamond incrusted skull (Skull Star Diamond, 2007) is the pinnacle of ‘luxury art’ in the 21st century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/secretlyironic/524919354">Aaron Weber/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking at the Art Basel Miami Beach contemporary art fair, it was clear to me that this event is not solely designed for collectors; it also provides a platform for businesses in the luxury sector to promote their products. Looking at these kinds of events from within isn’t enough: we need to understand their impact on the city and the way they create connections between the rich and privileged, and a general public that is hungry for cultural symbols.</p>
<p><strong>Léa Barreaux:</strong> Establishing a global anthropology of luxury brings up a range of political issues and reveals the transformations that modern-day capitalism has undergone. How do you hope to contribute to these discussions without making prescriptive judgements about the positive and negative aspects of globalisation?</p>
<p><strong>Marc Abélés:</strong> We cannot distinguish the trends affecting the industry and commerce of luxury from <a href="https://oup.silverchair-cdn.com/oup/backfile/Content_public/Journal/sf/46/4/10.1093_sf_46.4.553-b/2/46-4-553b.pdf?Expires=1489165829&Signature=JkmCYQnno3UeXpw%7EQGq4WnDcxrM2bSZw7rXFTJmFSHwwhoqGtNBu4jVyimjd96NnpqUlZ4nJ5VTJcwPR-syUoDGWt9sWoFI1h7EazcB7X0GG-AxVRZZDj2AjGxGGVcapkYP9l7IuiCQeMXQjS2IqM1LoxbsySFPj95UGEr50rSkUJEO2f6-f8rhlwri74OUGkRuAKUrrsOEqiD7sfm%7E0woCmFHdtzrCRHqT1pjs3lkqKoLNdwVUDkSAz%7EtOkVzR1Ns6lZT3psTZ0C0oDqS9BM4KeaGP-3N1zFyBZX%7ERIBH4W9O7q0xuKKL%7EotSQGt%7EAopCM66w1cXueuhb9CAVTevQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUCZBIA4LVPAVW3Q">broader changes within capitalism</a>. Anthropology provides a multifaceted point of view by approaching luxury as a total social artefact. </p>
<p>As for prescriptive judgements, luxury is often associated with wealth, which can lead to it being condemned (as evidenced by the amount of moralising literature that has been <a href="http://www.echosdumaquis.com/Accueil/Textes_%28Date%29%20_files/Discours%C2%A0%20sur%C2%A0%20les%C2%A0%20sciences%C2%A0%20et%C2%A0%20les%C2%A0%20Arts%C2%A0%20%281750%29.pdf">published on the subject</a> since ancient times). I think we should remember instead that, in 1871, members of the Paris Commune published a manifesto in which they <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2253-communal-luxury">celebrated luxury</a> and made it their aim to bring it to the people.</p>
<p>After all, the right to luxury could constitute a legitimate claim. Luxury is neither an illegitimate subject for social science, nor one that is inherently off-limits to ordinary citizens.</p>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Alice Heathwood for<a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en/">Fast for Word</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Luxury is a global phenomenon present in all societies in various forms.Léa Barreau Tran, Chercheure associée à Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM), Sciences Po Bordeaux, Sciences Po BordeauxMarc Abélés, Directeur de recherches, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781822017-05-23T06:38:28Z2017-05-23T06:38:28ZThe global market for wine: China leads the emergence of a new world order<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vinyards in the Sancerre wine-growing region of France.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_curb/26522012754/in/photolist-oudGjB-oRKbkk-oSmG6q-oRbNJJ-oLsxjT-oTjTY9-88n7V6-2DT66-7VdZ6o-5xrcNH-2DT65-2DTRS-8qhA2q-2DR58-2E2Dyk-2DT64-73Zf8N-3cZyfM-tSLoMP-7VaxZv-d8648N-oYt9Fk-oWJiTk-74QZ1n-5qZkcL-3ky8EK-axazgb-ozGNig-NGEhv1-NZ3p1s-NZ3rdy-PamugK-NGEoaN-5WUMv2-49fpm6-265nZ3-2E77Ym-ePP4U-sQHKL-2A5ZZz-5dpKkD-7nthMw-7zFe1v-jHtV3-tuZ9g6-x8Fqj8-uqBVfW-GpEfnY-5qZjxq">Peter/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>The latest piece in our ongoing series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a>, first published by The Conversation France, looks at wine consumption around the world and how it moves from the local to the global.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Recent figures in the <a href="http://bit.ly/2pkx221">annual report</a> of the International Organisation of Wine and Vine (OIV) confirm that the world wine industry is undergoing considerable change. Long-dominant European nations are finding being challenged by the emergence of countries, such as China, both as producers and consumers.</p>
<p>Globally, demand has risen slightly, to 242 million hectolitres (mhl) down from its peak of 250mhl in 2008, but up from the low of 240mhl in 2014. And there are signs of long-term growth. </p>
<p>Per-capita consumption is stable or slightly falling among the French, Spanish and Portuguese – once upon a time daily wine drinkers. But what’s more than filled up the gap is the global market, with occasional consumers around the world drinking wine one to three times per week.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167750/original/file-20170503-21649-1rl14o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/miroslav-vajdic/25693179902/in/photolist-F9qgfo-8Eo1MR-nm4Fxx-amuXYD-fcNVAE-34duRY-bn2otx-5aYsgo-9h4H2P-9A4qEn-6soTFS-2oyJLL-9YeNeR-ovKYk-MuEcF-5aYmgq-8DkSqo-bNLcHz-7kvES-8DkS1Q-757ME-2Dw8GE-8DkR67-exSk4p-8YHTGy-9YStyb-8YERF2-mfLoW-6xKaka-9YPzEi-5JeU76-34AsmH-34AtzP-34F1A1-5aYsBQ-8DhNge-8ErgKU-8DkQWb-moNM5-5aUbri-8FcQVC-nYaDoP-mfL7n-gc7TSz-8DhKgH-6LcJMJ-8DhM7K-q3Qo8v-34ArGB-34EYs9">Miroslav Vajdic/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another encouraging sign for the industry is that wine is finding new customers in countries with large populations. <a href="http://online.sfsu.edu/cholette/public_research/mhscrc_JGMktg_rev041607.pdf">In the early 1990s</a>, the US market was ranked sixth in the world, but by 2016 it had climbed to the number one spot (31.8mhl). It was followed by France (27mhl), Italy (22.5mhl) and Germany (20.2mhl). </p>
<p>A substantial market has already been established in Brazil in spite of negative 2017 economic trends, and there are great expectations for India.</p>
<p>With these new markets often being driven by emerging local production, the number of wine-producing countries is also increasing. The example of Australia is most familiar, but few know the experience of countries such as Canada. </p>
<p>Consumption <a href="http://www.foodincanada.com/exporting-and-importing/world-wine-consumption-rise-study-130647/">in Canada has been rising steadily for some years</a>. And the government is making efforts to stimulate national production with the hope of being able to export Canadian wine. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/first-bottles-ethiopian-wine-castel">Local production is also emerging in Ethiopia</a>, where the highlands are well-suited to grape cultivation and there is a substantial non-Muslim population (<a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/256235.pdf">approximately 66% out of a total of 100 million</a>).</p>
<h2>China on the rise</h2>
<p>But it’s China that’s <a href="http://bit.ly/2oIQbqv">leading the industry shake-up</a>, by virtue both of its size and determination. Wine enjoys great symbolic value there, linked to the fact that it’s a product of the land and has strong historical roots. It also functions as a “high class” social marker. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-driving-world-wine-consumption-1422461583">Either way, China is now the sixth leading consumer of wine in the world</a> (17.3mhl), just behind Germany. And with a population of <a href="http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/">1.4 billion</a> in 2017, the potential for the Chinese market is considerable.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=637&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167752/original/file-20170503-21608-1eol1mq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Great Wall wine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kentaroiemoto/15234346464/in/photolist-pdd1rW-asChnJ-bA2nm4-dRsLkh-bn7sUj-6N8r1t-bn7sEj-q7QUh5-hPxNRE-bA2jdF-g6enRx-5PuU5h-bjDf6e-bvtFeB-5o6RSo-bvsH88-bn7vaY-eiuufM-g6dwU6-bA2jna-4HMRFK-bA2jEi-bA2jRk-g6cnL7-g6dRPQ-bvsEHH-g6cjiC-9Kp8Wv-6e9fbi-g6coqU-bn7sQu-5Zo92Z-bA2jFM-9JinXg-4k2BDX-4Ns5KN-5TVoLC-9UzFLT-bNLd7e-WF82F-r2ydYG-5nxrG6-8S8Wh7-34vXPp-3QFQpZ-34vXBp-7BQv8f-q7QSyW-34AvLY-b6ZDXR">Kentaro Iemoto/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With a new market and a government working to build the foundations for a national wine industry, China has now the second-largest area under cultivation in the world, 847kha up 17% over 2015. In fact, it was in 2015 that the country overtook France (now with 785kha) and it’s now second only to Spain (975kha). </p>
<p>China is expected to overtake Spain in the next five years. Vines are grown in <a href="https://www.decanterchina.com/en/regions/china/">dozens of provinces</a>, including Shandong, Hebei, and Tianjin, as well as the autonomous regions of
Xinjiang, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.</p>
<p>Whatever the country, where there is local production consumers tend to favour it. As they become more familiar with wine, they begin to try those from other countries, and this represents <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v418/n6898/full/nature01018.html">an important growth lever for international trade</a>. That’s why 40% of the wines produced globally <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlsson/2015/02/16/france-is-the-biggest-wine-producer-in-2014-but-less-wine-is-made-and-drunk-in-europe/#533cd65854c4">are currently exported</a>, compared to just 20% in the early 1990s.</p>
<p>Although how we consume wine is shaped to a large extent by cultural context, knowledge of the world of wine and techniques for analysing its sensory qualities, trends set by certain internationally known experts also play a part. </p>
<p>Countries with newer wine industries must therefore introduce their wines to other nations while steadily building recognition and a kind of wine-making pedigree. This too has the effect of stimulating international trade. </p>
<h2>France continues to lead by value</h2>
<p>For the French wine industry, while the landscape has shifted the foundations remain solid. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-france-biggest-wine-producer-20141023-story.html">France continues</a> to challenge Spain and Italy for the title of the world’s number-one producer by volume, and it continues to lead the world in terms of value. </p>
<p><a href="http://thekeyreport.com.au/figures-figures-and-more-figures/">France produced 43.5mhl of wine</a> in 2016 compared to 50.9mhl for Italy, but the value of France’s exports was €8.2 billion compared to Italy’s €2.6 billion. That’s over three times more, and 28.5% of the total value of the global wine market.</p>
<p>The figures confirm that French wines are perceived and purchased as high added-value products, and France continues to excel at capitalising on the quality of its wines. While Spain is the leading exporter by volume, the price of Spanish per unit remains low on international markets, with a total value of just €2.6 billion. </p>
<p>One immediately thinks of champagnes, revered and undisputed as the sparkling wine par excellence, as well as great bordeaux and burgundies, and more recently, the Provence rosés. </p>
<p>French wines are also exported to more countries than wines of any other nationality and, generally speaking, any new importer starts by “listing” French wines before looking at any other foreign producers. This is a reflection of what the French industry has been able to convey to wine lovers the world over in terms of image, quality and diversity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167751/original/file-20170503-21635-15hhvyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheers!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yakobusan/3162940696/in/photolist-5PuU5h-bjDf6e-bvtFeB-5o6RSo-bvsH88-bn7vaY-eiuufM-g6dwU6-bA2jna-4HMRFK-bA2jEi-bA2jRk-g6cnL7-g6dRPQ-bvsEHH-g6cjiC-9Kp8Wv-6e9fbi-g6coqU-bn7sQu-5Zo92Z-bA2jFM-9JinXg-4k2BDX-4Ns5KN-5TVoLC-9UzFLT-bNLd7e-WF82F-r2ydYG-5nxrG6-8S8Wh7-34vXPp-3QFQpZ-34vXBp-7BQv8f-q7QSyW-34AvLY-b6ZDXR-4NnTMz-8ifuiH-79yHGH-g6bZar-bHmMF-6sunyE-3mJXA-9jV14p-bvswYT-dc8zRQ-g4NFjY">Jakob Montrasio/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thinking strategically</h2>
<p>In the coming years, as wine-producing countries continue to seek to maintain and expand their domestic and international market shares, they’ll also need to adapt to ongoing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomaspellechia/2016/06/20/climate-change-from-a-global-wine-industry-perspective/#666ea692116b">climate change</a>. </p>
<p>Brazilian production dropped 55% between 2015 and 2016, for instance, because of a strong <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-el-nino-and-la-nina-27719">El Niño</a>, while production also fell in drought-stricken South Africa. To deal with this, an increasingly strategic approach is being developed, including <a href="https://kedge.edu/l-ecole/expertises/wine-and-spirits">specialised research schools</a>. </p>
<p>At all levels around the world, stakeholders are engaging with governments and decision-makers to increase the industry’s competitiveness and better tackle new international challenges.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The 2017 edition of the <a href="http://www.vinexpobordeaux.com/en/">Vinexpo wine and spirits trade show</a> takes place June 18-21 in Bordeaux, France.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacques-Olivier Pesme does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The latest figures on the world wine market confirm that the industry is undergoing considerable change, with European countries finding their positions and strategies challenged by the new world..Jacques-Olivier Pesme, Director of the Wine & Spirits Academy, Kedge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/765982017-05-22T06:22:05Z2017-05-22T06:22:05ZFrom Bulgaria to East Asia, the making of Japan’s yogurt culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of Japan's biggest food trends right now is Bulgarian yoghurt.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityfoodsters/16825348346/in/photolist-7Hnu3s-8RFEtu-5DhJCb-acySnA-rCNiSS-roCSrg-rEYZsY-qG6U7-dKQSVR-geqo4-qG6Uf-5xapgq-qG6Ub-nq8NFb-iNU5aT-nq8Hrn-72Uyd5-2saFFf-5geQUe-84cs8s-8zcGZx-6oYjBp-B2G18-aa6g84-h5SHxb-RPTGwQ-6p9cep-6pdkLW-6p9cbR-48sPSp-ii81dX-4qjH69-5DhJBf-qG6U3">City foodsters/Kakigōri Kanna/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>Yogurt has travelled from Bulgaria to Japan and back, channelling identities and national pride as it goes. The sixth article of our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> charts its course.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Japan has a new food fad: <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=11822188">yogurt</a>. Its artful display is the latest craze on Japanese tables, and yogurt is one of the trendiest foods in the country.</p>
<p>Today, millions of Japanese include yogurt in their daily diet, and the market <a href="http://www.pr.com/press-release/711253">is growing steadily</a>. And <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/meiji-holdings/">Meiji Holdings</a>, a Japanese company that has a subsidiary specialising in dairy products, is the biggest domestic producer in an industry valued at 410 billion yen ($US3.7 billion) annually, according to a March 6 article in the online newspaper <a href="http://www.ssnp.co.jp/articles/show/1703060006758720">Shokuhin Sangyou Shinbun</a>.</p>
<p>How did yogurt go from being a food alien to the Japanese, a substance often considered distasteful or even inedible just 35 years ago, to being a daily necessity and a symbol of health and well-being?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169967/original/file-20170518-12242-1e1fvam.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plain Bulgarian yogurt has become a symbol of good health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Bulgarian_yogurt.JPG">Ned Jelyazkov/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new superfood</h2>
<p>That was the question underlying the fieldwork I conducted from 2007 to 2012, for which I examined both dairy companies and consumers (available <a href="http://www.pastoralismbg.com/other/profile.php">here in English</a> and <a href="http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/research/education/univercity/student/yotova/02">also in Japanese</a>). I traced this commodity through time and space – from Bulgaria to Japan – watching it transform. </p>
<p>I asked people: what do you think you’re actually eating when you consume yogurt? Is it a specific bacterium, a cool trend or a health-boosting substance?</p>
<p>Turns out, yogurt’s current standing in Japan as a scientifically proven, evidence-based health food was created by a sophisticated marketing campaign that brought consumers to this non-traditional product through mythologist branding.</p>
<p>Meiji’s yogurt commercials extol the Bulgarian origins of their product, presenting the eastern European nation as the sacred birthplace of yogurt. In Bulgaria, they tell consumers, dairy production is an old tradition, and “the wind is different, the water is different, the light is different.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LynFO9V3RPA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bulgaria, the sacred birthplace of Japanese yogurt.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What triggered the Japanese Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt company, which now boasts <a href="http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/column/20090225/1024047/?SS=expand-life&FD=-310522840">43% market share and 98.9% brand awareness</a>, to invest in this product?</p>
<h2>The quest for longevity</h2>
<p>Meiji started considering how to develop Bulgarian-style yogurt for the Japanese market in the late 1960s.</p>
<p>At the time, the only type of yogurt available in Japan was a sweetened, heat-treated fermented milk with a jelly-like texture. Brands such as Meiji honey yogurt, Snow brand yogurt and Morinaga yogurt were distributed in small 80-gram jars and consumed as a snack or dessert, according to Meiji’s company history.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169965/original/file-20170518-12217-kmjo2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sweet Morinaga yogurt was around in the 1960s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.morinagamilk.co.jp/english/products/yogurt.html">Morinaga Milk</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plain yogurt with living <em>Lactobacillus bulgaricus</em>, like what is popularly consumed in Bulgaria, did not exist. One member of Meiji’s Bulgaria yogurt project told me he still remembered the shock of trying the plain yogurt presented at the Bulgarian pavilion at the <a href="http://www.expomuseum.com/1970">1970 World Fair in Osaka</a>. It was weird, he said, and astonishingly sour.</p>
<p>But plain yogurt had a powerful draw: the promise of increased longevity. At the dawn of the 20th century, Nobel Prize-winning Russian scientist Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), <a href="https://webext.pasteur.fr/biblio/ressources/histoire/textes_integraux/metchnikoff/smjmetabio2009tan.pdf">developed the theory</a> that ageing was caused by toxic bacteria in the gut. He pinpointed lactic acid bacteria for its ability to neutralise these toxins and thus slow the ageing process. </p>
<p>Metchnikoff touted the unparalleled effectiveness of <em>Lactobacillus bulgaricus</em>, isolated from homemade Bulgarian yogurt, for this task and recommended eating it every day.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169983/original/file-20170518-12237-1r9sjcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Metchnikoff feeding his good bacteria to the elderly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Pr._Elie_Metchnikoff.jpg">Revue </a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That myth remains today. During my fieldwork in Bulgaria, I heard the same story many times: how powerful the local bacterium was; how it made delicious and healthy yogurt. </p>
<p>One elderly woman attributed her daughter’s recovery from breast cancer to homemade goat-milk yogurt. </p>
<p>“It is the bacillus that makes our milk, my girl”, she concluded. “It is unique. When I was young I didn’t eat much yogurt, but now that I take it every day, my blood pressure has been normal and I feel so energetic!”</p>
<h2>From inedible to irreplaceable</h2>
<p>Meiji realised that, technologically speaking, it would not be difficult to produce plain yogurt with living <em>Lactobacillus bulgaricus</em>. In 1971, the company launched its innovative product in Japan, simply calling it “plain yogurt”.</p>
<p><a href="http://qa.meiji.co.jp/faq/show/1409">Consumers hated it</a>. Some took its sourness to mean that the product had gone bad while others doubted its edibility.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169989/original/file-20170518-12217-zbgstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yogurt was associated with good health, before good taste.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ignatgorazd/11688783725/in/photolist-7Hnu3s-8RFEtu-5DhJCb-acySnA-rCNiSS-roCSrg-rEYZsY-qG6U7-dKQSVR-geqo4-qG6Uf-5xapgq-qG6Ub-nq8NFb-iNU5aT-nq8Hrn-72Uyd5-2saFFf-5geQUe-84cs8s-8zcGZx-6oYjBp-B2G18-aa6g84-h5SHxb-RPTGwQ-6p9cep-6pdkLW-6p9cbR-48sPSp-ii81dX-4qjH69-5DhJBf-qG6U3">Ignat Gorazd /Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Meiji persevered. In 1973, after making an agreement with the Bulgarian state-owned dairy enterprise to import yogurt starter cultures, the company received permission to rename its product Meiji Bulgaria yogurt. </p>
<p>The idea was to market authenticity, making full use of the Bulgarian rural idyll: pastoral scenery, herds of sheep and cows, bagpipers in traditional garb and healthy elderly people living in harmony with nature. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, the company combined this strategy with further microbiological research and closer cooperation with the Bulgarian side. In 1984, Japanese consumers saw a new Meiji Bulgaria yogurt with sleeker packaging, helping build its market presence. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169043/original/file-20170511-32593-1b5l7hp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meiji Bulgaria yogurt in its nice new package.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">LB Bulgaricum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meiji got another boost when it acquired the right to put the government-issued <a href="https://www.window-to-japan.eu/meiji-celebrates-40-years-of-meiji-bulgaria-yoghurt-lb81-a-foshu-product-for-healthy-longevity.html">Food for Specified Health Use (FOSHU)</a> seal on the label of its Bulgarian yogurt in 1996. Health benefits have been the focus of its yogurt branding and marketing ever since. </p>
<h2>Branding the holy land of yogurt</h2>
<p>Imbuing their Bulgarian brand with new meanings, images and values, Meiji has not only turned a nice profit but also created in Japan a beautiful picture of Bulgaria as “the holy land of yogurt”. </p>
<p>Back in Bulgaria, <a href="http://www.tbmagazine.net/statia/700-tona-blgarsko-kiselo-mlyako-na-den-se-proizvezhda-v-yaponiya.html">the media</a> is fascinated by the popularity of a Japanese-made Bulgarian yogurt. In one 2015 article, <a href="http://www.mediapool.bg/balgarskoto-kiselo-mlyako-po-kupuvano-v-yaponiya-ot-koka-kola-news232738.html">Japanese consumers</a> claimed that Meiji’s Bulgarian yogurt was more popular than Coca-Cola.</p>
<p>Almost every story about Japan, <a href="http://www.bacchus.bg/spisanie/gurme/2007/09/01/785505_da_pohapnesh_v_iaponiia">whether travelogues about dining</a> or <a href="https://dariknews.bg/novini/interviu/qponskiqt-poslanik-oshte-zhivkov-daval-za-primer-ikonomikata-na-qponiq-654696">economics articles</a>, mentions the Bulgarian yogurt success story. This narrative is even used <a href="https://books.google.fr/books?id=aviNCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=elby+yogurts&source=bl&ots=7R-M0tLpy0&sig=8v7993k7KV7j_6M-TlMp1ffnlMo&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=elby%20yogurts&f=false">by companies and politicians in post-socialist Bulgaria</a> to invoke national pride. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169041/original/file-20170511-32607-d02d9d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Bulgaria, preparing yogurt from goat’s milk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maria Yotova</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To many Bulgarians I met, the new Japanese identity of their local yogurt embodies the very spirit of Bulgarian collective traditions. At the same time, they feel more connected to the modern world by its adoption as a symbol of health and happiness in one of the world’s great economic powers. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/new-globalism-a-counterculture-that-could-redraw-the-world-map-69390">Globalisation may have shaken cultural values</a> across the world, but yogurt’s transformation has been a miraculous one, becoming a source of health and nourishment for people in Japan and a salve for the Bulgarian national soul.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Yotova has received funding from the Graduate Univversity for Advanced Studies, Mishima Foundation, and Japan Sociey for Promotion of Science. </span></em></p>How a simple bacterium traveled across time and space to become Japan’s latest food fad.Maria Yotova, Lecturer in Food Culture, Kwansei Gakuin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/780562017-05-19T18:16:46Z2017-05-19T18:16:46ZGlobal series: Globalisation Under Pressure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170194/original/file-20170519-12263-40oiu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">atlas</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/35364974@N05/8667080997/in/photolist-ecT4dZ-9fheWG-ndy5bJ-5rvnWL-qv8Dc-8PZbAi-8cya5W-ajem8s-eW1TJX-fWzCLg-8Cm9SN-834yvQ-fQtWRA-9iMWxG-5GAhuV-fpwHu-8XVsT5-8XSpi2-ajbyq4-8XSoYz-yNNDC-5aXN5j-5RFGg-8XVt2f-cFbKcw-d9pZHY-6oNvmz-mGURqU-bqzcSR-NqC1G-5DDsbd-2jCvYf-4QYXr7-pd9rDX-5DDsKq-fkjjQB-hYhy2-8S4836-4Kn7VV-n4NCk-ew6up-fWD8H1-7NFrZt-pL134-ggQu6s-7NFs1p-5DzaAp-5mohrB-zr7NY-7gehr5">Chris Murtagh/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The rise in nationalism. Brexit and Trump. Reactionary far-right parties wooing millions of voters around the world. The facts on the ground are clear: globalisation – and the international economic and political system that has underpinned it for the past half-century – is fracturing.</p>
<p>Globalisation Under Pressure is a new series from The Conversation Global that both analyses the old international order and surfaces local stories of finance, migration, jobs, education and culture that show the far-reaching impacts of the changes underway today.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/is-china-the-potential-driver-of-a-new-wave-of-globalisation-71575">Is China the potential driver of a new wave of globalisation?</a></h2>
<p>While China has so far secured support from a number of governments for its Belt and Road Initiative, the recent forum in Beijing also highlighted some obstacles to its advancement.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/globalisation-isnt-dead-its-just-shed-its-slick-cover-story-74297">Globalisation isn’t dead, it’s just shed its slick cover story</a></h2>
<p>Today’s ugly politics are not a backlash against global capitalism, they’re an open embrace of the racism and greed that has always underpinned so-called global governance.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/expert-conversation-the-right-to-luxury-could-constitute-a-legitimate-claim-75259">Expert conversation: ‘The right to luxury could constitute a legitimate claim’</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170601/original/file-20170523-5743-1ophk58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/art-car-luxury-brand-4081/">Luxury exists in most human societies throughout the world but in different forms. Gratisography/Pexels, CC BY-SA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Luxury is a global phenomenon present in all societies in various forms.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-market-for-wine-china-leads-the-emergence-of-a-new-world-order-78182">The global market for wine: China leads the emergence of a new world order</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170505/original/file-20170523-8869-g30eui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/peter_curb/26522012754/in/photolist-oudGjB-oRKbkk-oSmG6q-oRbNJJ-oLsxjT-oTjTY9-88n7V6-2DT66-7VdZ6o-5xrcNH-2DT65-2DTRS-8qhA2q-2DR58-2E2Dyk-2DT64-73Zf8N-3cZyfM-tSLoMP-7VaxZv-d8648N-oYt9Fk-oWJiTk-74QZ1n-5qZkcL-3ky8EK-axazgb-ozGNig-NGEhv1-NZ3p1s-NZ3rdy-PamugK-NGEoaN-5WUMv2-49fpm6-265nZ3-2E77Ym-ePP4U-sQHKL-2A5ZZz-5dpKkD-7nthMw-7zFe1v-jHtV3-tuZ9g6-x8Fqj8-uqBVfW-GpEfnY-5qZjxq">Vinyards in the Sancerre wine-growing region of France. Peter/Flickr, CC BY-SA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The latest figures on the world wine market confirm that the industry is undergoing considerable change, with European countries finding their positions and strategies challenged by the new world.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/from-bulgaria-to-east-asia-the-making-of-japans-yogurt-culture-76598">From Bulgaria to East Asia, the making of Japan’s yogurt culture</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169987/original/file-20170518-12260-1sd1ypn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityfoodsters/16825348346/in/photolist-7Hnu3s-8RFEtu-5DhJCb-acySnA-rCNiSS-roCSrg-rEYZsY-qG6U7-dKQSVR-geqo4-qG6Uf-5xapgq-qG6Ub-nq8NFb-iNU5aT-nq8Hrn-72Uyd5-2saFFf-5geQUe-84cs8s-8zcGZx-6oYjBp-B2G18-aa6g84-h5SHxb-RPTGwQ-6p9cep-6pdkLW-6p9cbR-48sPSp-ii81dX-4qjH69-5DhJBf-qG6U3">One of Japan’s biggest food trends right now is Bulgarian yoghurt. City foodsters/Kakigōri Kanna/Flickr, CC BY-ND</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How a simple bacterium traveled across time and space to become Japan’s latest food fad. </p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-the-great-regression-76293">The road to the great regression</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">War, Ford, fascism, Reaganomics, the pink tide, the EU, debt crises, rights-based activism, a fierce backlash… none of this is new. Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We may think of current reactionary politics as radical and new, but unchecked mercantilism has always ended with a fierce backlash from both left and right. Here’s what history tells us about today.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-alert-how-lessons-from-china-can-help-us-rethink-urgent-health-threats-75608">China can help us rethink our response to deadly pandemics</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_der_Pest#/media/File:Abraham_Bloemaert_-_Niobe_beweent_haar_kinderen.jpg">The ancient Greeks were the first to use the word pandemic, but not in the modern sense of a global disease outbreak. Dedden /Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pandemics are global threat, but not everyone prepares for them in the same way.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/our-24-7-economy-and-the-wealth-of-nations-76684">Our 24/7 economy and the wealth of nations</a></h2>
<p>Ever more people are stuck with shift work in a globalised economy that operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.</p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/selling-brazilian-fashions-the-women-of-angolas-suitcase-trade-spot-trends-and-pedal-dreams-73324">Angola’s ‘suitcase traders’ sell Brazilian trends, and dreams too</a></h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">An Angolan importer buying Havaianas in the market of Brás, São Paulo, Brazil. Léa Barreau Tran, Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brazilian soap operas are wildly popular in Portuguese-speaking Angola, influencing style and creating a business opportunity for thousands of Angolan female entrepreneurs who travel the world to bring fashion back in their luggage. </p>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/two-swedish-economists-foresaw-the-backlash-against-globalisation-heres-how-to-mitigate-it-73862">These Swedish economists foresaw the globalisation backlash</a></h2>
<p>Can a 90-year-old insight into the distributive effects of free trade help us mitigate the downsides of globalisation?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The rise in nationalism. Brexit and Trump. Reactionary far-right parties wooing millions of voters around the world. The facts on the ground are clear: globalisation – and the international economic and…Reema Rattan, Global Commissioning EditorFabrice Rousselot, Directeur de la rédaction, The Conversation FranceStephan Schmidt, Audience DeveloperClea Chakraverty, Cheffe de rubrique Politique + Société, The Conversation FranceCatesby Holmes, International Editor | Politics Editor, The Conversation USLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/762932017-05-19T05:28:04Z2017-05-19T05:28:04ZThe road to the great regression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169850/original/file-20170517-6030-10i3a2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">War, Ford, fascism, Reaganomics, the pink tide, the EU, debt crises, rights-based activism, a fierce backlash... none of this is new.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>This article examining the backlash against neoliberalism is the fifth instalment in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> series.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>In 1980, the novelist Martin Amis attended a meeting in Texas with Ronald Reagan, then in the midst of the campaign that would put him in the White House. Reagan liked to end his electoral activities with some audience Q+A. The more personal the question, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/HeliganSecretsOfTheLostGardens/AmisMartin-TheMoronicInfernoAndOtherVisitsToAmerica_djvu.txt">Amis explained</a>, the more Reagan enjoyed answering.</p>
<p>Question: “Of all the people in America, sir, why you for President?” </p>
<p>Reagan grins. </p>
<p>Answer: “Well, I’m not smart enough to tell a lie.” </p>
<p>Laughter, applause. </p>
<p>Amis relays the exchange: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>‘But why do you want it, sir?’ Reagan flexes his worn, snipped, tucked, mottled face. ‘This country needs a good Republican and I feel I can do the job. Why? I’m happy. I’m feeling good.’ Here he turns. ‘And I have Nancy to tuck me up at night.’ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Laughter, applause, hats in the air. </p>
<h2>Anger, discontent and resentment</h2>
<p>Imagine this anecdote today. Were Donald Trump had asked the same question in 2016, it seems like he may have responded: “Because I’m unhappy. I’m feeling bad. And my relationship with my wife is catastrophic.”</p>
<p>And surely his Republican audience would also have clapped, identifying now not with Reagan’s optimism but with Trump’s self-portrait of anger, discontent and resentment. </p>
<p>Ronald Reagan, that carefree actor-president, may have been the last US leader to channel Americans’ good feelings about the free market. As Robert Putnam outlines in his famous <a href="http://bowlingalone.com">investigation</a>, Bowling Alone, civil society and social bonds in the US strengthened from the early 20th century until the 1970s, when the era of neoliberal reforms began. </p>
<p>At that point, things quickly began to unravel. Historically speaking, the growth of mercantilism, en economic nationalism that seeks to enrich the state through trade and wealth accumulation, has always deteriorated social bonds, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The market also <a href="http://www.rochelleterman.com/ComparativeExam/sites/default/files/Bibliography%20and%20Summaries/Comparative%20Politics_0.pdf">weakens relationships that are clientelistic</a>, toxic or patriarchal. </p>
<p>Problems arise when mercantilism becomes an expansive, generalised social dynamic, which is precisely what globalisation unleashed starting in the 1970s. After global economic crisis exposed the limits of the Fordist assembly line-style mass production model, the world veered sharply back toward the liberal, unregulated <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/manchester-capitalism/">Manchester capitalism</a> that had predominated before the second world war. </p>
<p>The rest of the story, which is the subject of our new book <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1509522352,subjectCd-SO20.html">The Great Regression</a>, you know well. </p>
<h2>‘A catastrophic level of social corrosion’</h2>
<p>We often make the mistake of thinking that globalisation is a radical new phenomenon, both postmodern and futuristic.</p>
<p>In fact, in his 1944 book <a href="http://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb/pdf_4/Great_Transformation.pdf">The Great Transformation</a>, historian Karl Polanyi was already explaining the political and social crises of the inter-war period as a reaction to the failures of the free market. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169363/original/file-20170515-7024-fllol3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Regression-Heinrich-Geiselberger/dp/1509522360">Amazon</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>From his perspective, the whole utopian idea of a self-regulating market was nihilistic and self-destructive, materially incompatible with the variety of human social life of humans. </p>
<p>For the pragmatist Polanyi, the “free market” never existed and could never exist. To begin with, mercantilism as a financial system has always required aggressive state intervention, both to ease the pains of its flaws and to break people’s natural resistance to being dragged along by the coattails of their economy. </p>
<p>Practically every government in the world has undertaken this process since the 1980s. In <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/%7Esharonb/jape.html">privatising public services</a>, for example, they have created enormous business opportunities for local elites (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/06/business/the-big-push-toward-privatization-in-argentina.html?pagewanted1">Argentina</a> being a prime example), stimulated rampant real estate speculation (just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/feb/06/made-london-property-speculation-industry-capital">the UK</a>) and used public resources to rescue the banking system from its own mistakes (remember <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/spain-banks-timeline-idUSL5E8H88YV20120608">Spain</a>?). </p>
<p>When mercantilistm reaches the catastrophic point at which it begins to corrupt all society, Polanyi says, then collective counter-movements emerge. These efforts to reestablish communal living can have radically different political orientations. </p>
<p>The 20th century had the fascists, waging what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci dubbed “<a href="https://quadernidelcarcere.wordpress.com/tag/teoria-della-rivoluzione-passiva/">passive revolutions</a>” that aspired to alter the economic and social machinery to preserve elite privileges. It also saw Roosevelt’s New Deal, Europe’s 1940s democratic socialist movements and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/attlee_clement.shtml">Clement Attlee’s reformist Labour government</a> in the UK (1945-1951). </p>
<p>All these were anti-mercantlist projects inspired by democratisation, learning and egalitarianism.</p>
<h2>Anti-neoliberal counter reactions</h2>
<p>This history is a reminder that there is an old pattern to these shaky modern times. </p>
<p>In the 21st century, counter reactions to globalisation have also been taking radically different forms. Early in the century, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13260219.2013.853353">Latin America’s leftist governments</a> challenged the neoliberal order, rejecting the Washington Consensus and building regional solidarity.</p>
<p>Then, there were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-years-on-the-spirit-of-tahrir-square-has-been-all-but-crushed-53461">Arab Spring</a> uprisings of 2010 to 2013, which sought to deepen democracy in a region long dominated by dictators. </p>
<p>The former was crushed and the latter has <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-a-chilean-outsider-revive-latin-americas-ailing-left-71213">largely waned</a>. But the innovative ideas developed in the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/1644759/Understanding_European_movements_new_social_movements_global_justice_struggles_anti-austerity_protest">anti-austerity protests</a> of Iceland Greece, Spain and Portugal following the start of the European debt crisis in 2009 are still very much alive.</p>
<p>What has everyone talking are developments on the opposite end of the ideological spectrum: Brexit, Trump, the extreme right, Islamic fundamentalism – <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-brexit-to-colombias-no-vote-are-constitutional-democracies-in-crisis-66668">neoliberal backlashes</a> offering new solutions for global elites hoping to preserve their privileges in a turbulent international economy.</p>
<p>It is early yet for an in-depth analysis of the current regressive phenomenon. But we can at least start asking the right questions.</p>
<p>First, did economic discontent really fuel the rise of the modern right, as many claim? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2016/jun/24/the-areas-and-demographics-where-the-brexit-vote-was-won">Data from the UK</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/white-voters-victory-donald-trump-exit-polls">the US</a> indicate exactly the opposite. Not only – not even mainly – blue collar workers supported Brexit and Donald Trump; <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-trump-voters-social-sciencing-the-s-t-out-of-yard-signs-66099">the rich and the educated did</a> too. </p>
<p>But it is misleading to blame the resentment of the declining middle class for the state of Western politics today.</p>
<p>Money played a crucial role in right-wing victories in the US. Big business and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.html">well-funded think tanks</a>, including the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/study-confirms-tea-party-_b_2663125.html">tobacco lobby and the billionaire Koch brothers</a>, have funded the US Tea Party for years, and starting in 2015, they richly backed Trump. </p>
<p>To mobilise the traditional conservative base of the Republican Party, <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-trump-and-sanders-rewriting-the-rules-on-money-in-politics-56891">cash was injected</a> into media blitzes that spread simple messages, often lies, appealing to American fear.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"838497324158472192"}"></div></p>
<p>Money is not the whole story, but it is an important part of it and it has historic resonance. During Europe’s fascist and Nazi movements, regressive counter movements feigned solidarity with the 99% while clearly enjoying the support of the 1%. The market’s positive response to Trump’s victory may be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-we-can-learn-from-markets-reaction-to-a-president-trump-68116">clear indication that this is happening again</a>.</p>
<p>So far, the new regressive movements are adopting very different forms to their left-wing recent predecessors in Latin America and Europe. They diverge not only ideologically – with cosmopolitanism on the one side and xenophobia on the other – but also in their organisational models.</p>
<p>On the right, politics today is characterised by <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-inauguration-ushers-in-2017-the-year-of-the-strongman-70846">strong, personalised leadership</a>: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump being prime examples. </p>
<p>Recent progressive anti-neoliberal movements, on the other hand, have been mostly been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">defined by citizen participation</a>.</p>
<p>There’s no evidence (yet) that regressive movements are necessarily more successful than their progressive counterparts. Rather, in times of economic crisis, left-wing advances such as workers’ rights have been met with a powerful, well-funded resistance.</p>
<p>The near-constant protest of Trump, Erdoğan or Orban confirm progressive counter-reactions <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-victory-comes-with-a-silver-lining-for-the-worlds-progressives-68523">are very much alive</a> indeed. But they seem unlikely to put regressive movements out of business any time soon.</p>
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<h2>One step forward, two steps back</h2>
<p>The mainstream progressive response to this reactionary challenge has been, primarily, nostalgia for Keynesian economics: increase public spending to stimulate the economy, boost demand and create employment, redistribute wealth to grow the economy, among other things.</p>
<p>That’s a bad alternative. Keynes is dead and he’s not coming back. Everything about his era – from the post-second world war international relations system of Bretton Woods and the Soviet threat to the fast clip of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/6251312/Keynes-the-Return-of-the-Master-by-Robert-Skidelsky-review.html">economic expansion</a> back then – is unthinkable today. </p>
<p>Only in a few places has the popular response to the failure of the self-regulating free-market been to push for greater freedom and deeper democracy, rather than to retrench or reminisce. </p>
<p>In addition to a timid normalisation of such activism around basic rights such as housing, a universal basic income, cooperativism and feminism, we have <a href="https://theconversation.com/austerity-portugal-is-on-a-different-path-to-greece-and-spain-heres-why-48121">Portugal’s left-wing ruling coalition</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-podemos-the-party-revolutionising-spanish-politics-33802">Podemos</a> in Spain and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/syriza-sweeps-to-victory-in-greek-election-promising-an-end-to-humiliation-36680">Syriza government in Greece</a>.</p>
<p>Today, it is evident that Greece is not the European Union’s burden to bear but rather part of its salvation. Syriza has proposed an alternative to European financial metastasis by <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/06/03/greece-eurozone/">reclaiming fiscal sovereignty</a>, battening down the markets, focusing on democratisation, and seeking continent-wide social solidarity. </p>
<p>It’s noteworthy that virtually <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">all rights-based anti-neoliberalism</a> has come from peripheral or semi-peripheral nations: first Latin America a decade ago, and now southern Europe. All of them have faced fierce opposition from the rich West. </p>
<p>It may be time to start <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-hate-neoliberalism-but-love-each-other-a-latin-american-grassroots-guide-68899">thinking about the Global South not as a problem but as a solution</a> to the great regression.</p>
<p><em>The Great Regression, available in 13 languages, can be <a href="http://www.thegreatregression.eu/">found online</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donatella Della Porta receives funding from the ECR.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>César Rendueles Menéndez de Llano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We may think of current reactionary politics as radical and new, but unchecked mercantilism has always elicited a fierce backlash from both left and right. Here’s what history tells us about today.César Rendueles Menéndez de Llano, Professor of Sociological Theory, School of Social Work, Universidad Complutense de MadridDonatella Della Porta, Dean, Institute of Human and Social sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/756082017-05-18T06:32:38Z2017-05-18T06:32:38ZAs Ebola and zika recur, rethinking global pandemics with lessons from China<p><em><strong>This article has been updated. It was originally published as part of The Conversation Global’s series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> on May 18 2017.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Though a recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was <a href="http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/dream-response-and-little-miracles-help-quell-latest-ebola-outbreak">quickly quelled</a> after killing three people, fear of rapidly spreading global diseases remains high after West Africa’s 2014-2016 Ebola crisis and last year’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35370848">zika</a>, chikungunya and dengue scares in the Americas. </p>
<p>In February, Bill Gates <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2017/02/19/bill-gates-warns-of-epidemic-that-will-kill-over-30-million-people/#2a720a3d282f">warned</a> that an unknown “airborne pathogen” could soon kill 30 million people in a year and said he has engaged the public health-focused Gates Foundation to prepare for that possibility. </p>
<p>He is not alone. Since the emergence of the <a href="https://pro.anses.fr/bulletin-epidemiologique/Documents/BEP-mg-BE26-art1.pdf">H5N1 virus in Hong Kong</a> 30 years ago, global health authorities have been working hard to be ready to take on the next big <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/avian_influenza/en/">avian influenza</a> outbreak from Asia.</p>
<p>Birds are particularly suspect because, ecologically speaking, they are the reservoir where flu viruses mutate, and as <a href="http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1554/2853">poultry breeding increases</a> dramatically around the world, the possibility of a new flu virus being transmitted to humans rises. </p>
<p>With its Chinese origins and global impacts, avian flu fear offers an interesting opportunity for a cross-cultural examination of how the East and the West do disease differently. </p>
<p>What do pandemics even look like in China?</p>
<h2>The Western history of pathologies</h2>
<p>There is no word for pandemic in the Chinese tradition. The term <em>chuan guo liu xing de</em> (literally, an influenza that spreads to all countries) has been introduced in the last 20 years. Traditional terms for epidemics are <em>yi</em> (pest), <em>wenbing</em> and <em>fengbing</em> (diseases caused by heat and wind). </p>
<p>Language influences thinking, and for the human mind to shift from epidemics to pandemics, it needs to have a representation of the world as a totality or a globe.</p>
<p>In China, the change occurred <a href="https://gradhiva.revues.org/3308#ftn1">with the introduction of maps by Western missionaries in the 16th century</a>. This gave locals a vision of what Mandarin Chinese called <em>tianxia</em>: everything under heaven. </p>
<p>Mapping the globe is a <a href="https://lectures.revues.org/11035">Western invention and political tool</a>. The notion of the pandemic hinges on the possibility of following emerging infectious diseases as they spread across the globe.</p>
<p><em>Pandemos</em>, the classical Greek etymological origin of pandemic, does not refer to diseases. Nowhere in the medical treatises of Hippocrates and Galenus, where the Western concept of epidemics is developed (as a disease attached to a place, or <em>epi</em>), does the word appear. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167194/original/file-20170428-12992-8vaav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=618&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ancient Greeks were the first to use the word pandemic, but not in the modern sense of a global disease outbreak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_der_Pest#/media/File:Abraham_Bloemaert_-_Niobe_beweent_haar_kinderen.jpg">Dedden /Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Homer uses <em>pandemos</em>, which literally means all people (<em>pan</em> + <em>demos</em>), in his eighth-century epic poem, The Iliad, to describe a hero who can live in different societies. For him, it has a positive connotation. </p>
<p>Some four centuries later, Plato introduces a negative interpretation of the word in <a href="https://rhr.revues.org/7543?lang=en">The Symposium</a>, where he makes a distinction between heavenly love, exercised in the dialogue with smart and beautiful young men, and pandemic love, which results from hazardous encounters with men, women or even animals.</p>
<p>In Greek mythology, Pan, god of shepherds and flocks, is an ambivalent deity, a satyr-like being represented in rituals as a goat copulating with humans. His is the power of creation and disorder familiar to pastoral peoples who live in close proximity with nature. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167195/original/file-20170428-12987-u1f5p6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=679&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pan, the Greek god, often crosses the borders between men and animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_(god)#/media/File:Pan_goat_MAN_Napoli_Inv27709_n01.jpg">Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, our concept of pandemic disease retains its link to the fear of pathogens crossing between animal species. Christianity borrowed from Plato the ancient idea that <em>pandemos</em> is pathological, and that following the will of God means respecting boundaries between beings. </p>
<p>The notion was applied to diseases only much later, in the 19th century, when Westerners invaded the tropics and discovered illnesses such as yellow fever and cholera. The <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-History-of-Disease/Jackson/p/book/9780415720014">historian Mark Harrison</a> tells that one of the earliest uses of the word pandemic is found in the 1860 work of the British officer Robert Lawson, who described disease spreading across the globe in “pandemic waves” based on the magnetic waves model.</p>
<h2>We can’t really prepare for global pathogens</h2>
<p>The term pandemic really came into its own with <a href="https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/">the 1918 Spanish flu</a>, which probably started in the United States and went on to ravage Europe, then at war, as well as Africa and India. </p>
<p>After this traumatic global event, which killed between 20 and 50 million people in one year, public health authorities tried to anticipate the next big flu. There were influenza pandemics in 1957 and 1968, caused <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22148/">by the emerging H2N2 and H3N2 viruses</a>. </p>
<p>Eventually, the <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0011184">detection of H1N1 in 1978 and again in 2009</a>, which is similar to the Spanish flu, led to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/cdcresponse.htm">massive vaccination campaigns</a>, especially in the US. </p>
<p>With the advent of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/national-strategy/risk-assessment.htm">genetics-based risk assessment three decades ago</a>, it now became possible to follow the emergence and mutations of pathogens, and respond accordingly. </p>
<p>But what if pathogens don’t follow the rules? Because diseases sometimes develop in a way that cannot be calculated using probability, Western global health authorities now also trying to be ready for the catastrophic effects of diseases that cannot be prevented with biomedical intervention. </p>
<p>This Western style of pandemic preparation has ramped up since the US launched its global war on terror in 2001, with its attendant fear of biological terror. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/akS9HG8CAl8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In ‘28 Weeks Later’ (2007), an unknown pandemic ravages the British Isles, turning people into zombies.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>It’s all about the <em>qi</em></h2>
<p>China takes a wholly different approach to such concerns.</p>
<p>In 2003, after the emergence of SARS strengthened global mobilisation against H5N1, three microbiologists from Hong Kong University, Kennedy Shortridge, Malik Peiris and Guan Yi, argued that the ecology of Hong Kong – a transportation hub located near areas of dense poultry and pig breeding – enabled them to detect emerging influenza viruses before they became pandemics. </p>
<p>They <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2672.94.s1.8.x/abstract">concluded their article</a>, The Next Influenza Pandemic: Lessons from Hong Kong, with the words: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The studies on the ecology of influenza led in Hong Kong in the 1970s, in which Hong Kong acted as a sentinel post for influenza, indicated that it was possible, for the first time, to do preparedness for flu on the avian level. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shortridge even made a linguistic argument for this hypothesis. He noted that the Chinese character for “house”, <em>jia</em>, depicted a pig under a roof, as if the Chinese language made visible the mutations of viruses in domesticated animals. </p>
<p>Peiris quoted the ancient medical text <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520288263">Classic of the Yellow Emperor</a> (<em>Huangdi Neijing</em>): “The superior physician helps before the early budding of the disease. The inferior physician begins to help when the disease has already developed; he helps when the destruction has already set in”. </p>
<p>And Guan <a href="https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/novel-coronavirus-ncov-mers-2012-2014/143792-yi-guan-has-begun-work-to-study-novel-coronavirus-ncov">portrayed himself</a> as a virus hunter, able to see human and animal populations from the perspective of the deadly microbes transiting between species.</p>
<p>According to the three microbiologists, China could use its traditional cultural resources to anticipate pandemics. </p>
<p>Chinese traditional medicine discerns no sharp separation between the bodies of humans and those of animals, or between wild and domesticated animals. All bodies share energies, <em>qi</em>, whose balance, following the polarities of <em>yin</em> and <em>yang</em>, can be disrupted by crises. </p>
<p>Good doctors, the Classic of the Yellow Emperor advises, will anticipate the mutations of these energies before they become catastrophic and facilitate a new balance of the <em>qi</em>.</p>
<p>Thus, unlike the Christian tradition, in which the transgression of crossing boundaries between species offends God, in the Chinese perspective, pandemics are a sign that some kind of change, some international rebalancing, is needed. </p>
<p>The emergence of epidemics in China, then, simply calls for a <em>geming</em> – the Chinese word for revolution, which means a change of mandate under heavenly governance. In this view, humans should see pandemics as an opportunity to create a better life ourselves, not to panic. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Created in 2007, the <a href="https://www.axa-research.org">Axa Research Fund</a> supports more than 500 projets around the world conducted by researchers from 51 countries. Discover the work of Frédéric Keck and his team on the <a href="https://www.axa-research.org/">dedicated site</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75608/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fréderic Keck est membre du Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He has received funds from Axa Research Fund for some of his previous research.</span></em></p>Not every country prepares for global health threats in the same way.Frédéric Keck, Directeur du département de la recherche, musée du Quai Branly, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/766842017-05-17T04:17:34Z2017-05-17T04:17:34ZOur 24/7 economy and the wealth of nations<p><em><strong>This article is the third in our series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a>, on what the changing nature of work means for families and society.</strong></em> </p>
<hr>
<p>We now live in a world where – thanks to information and communication technologies – we are able to produce and distribute goods, services and capital around the globe virtually nonstop. </p>
<p>To keep merchandise and consumers moving across time zones and national borders, employers must increasingly staff workplaces around the clock. And after worldwide <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3184959">labour deregulation during the past decades’ neoliberal reforms</a>, they are now free to hire workers on a casual or on-call basis to reduce labour costs. </p>
<p>This relentless schedule has led prominent sociologist <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/working-247-economy-0">Harriert Presser</a> to call ours the “24/7 economy” – a market that works relentlessly, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.</p>
<h2>Working nonstandard schedules</h2>
<p>Shift work is on the rise in the 24/7 economy. The definition of this phenomenon, which is also known as “nonstandard work schedules”, varies somewhat among scholars and across countries. But it essentially refers to schedules in which the majority of an employee’s work hours fall outside a typical daytime Monday-to-Friday schedule. </p>
<p>This includes evenings, nights, rotating shifts (alternating between day, evening, or night shifts but on a fixed schedule), split shifts, irregular hours and regular weekend work.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/working-247-economy-0">In the United States</a>, some groups are <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2007/12/art1full.pdf">more likely</a> to work nonstandard hours than others. Young people, men, those with less education and low-skilled workers have higher incidence of nonstandard hours. As do married couples with young children and single mothers. </p>
<p>Broadly speaking, jobs in the private sector, the service industry and in sales are more likely than other occupations to require nonstandard hours. These include janitors, waitresses, retail workers, nurses and personal-services providers, among other frequent shift workers.</p>
<p>Not coincidentally, these are among <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2013/12/29/industries-to-watch-in-2014-the-10-fastest-growing-fields/#1f831aea3d09">the fastest-growing sectors</a> in the US and globally.</p>
<h2>Health, well-being and relationships</h2>
<p>We wanted to know the consequences of the 24/7 economy on workers, family life and children, so we conducted <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10935-013-0318-z">a comprehensive review</a> of the evidence from 23 quantitative empirical studies spanning three decades (1980-2012) and five countries: the US, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Croatia. </p>
<p>Our research mainly focused on studies that examined the impact of 24/7 economy on children’s development – their social and emotional well-being, physical health, cognitive ability and academic outcomes – but reviewed the evidence on how families, parents and couples are affected as well. </p>
<p>When it comes to adults, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1479-8425.2010.00432.x/abstract">the evidence</a> that working nonstandard schedules are associated with poor physical and mental health is clear. Physical health problems include increased fatigue, insomnia, stomach and digestive issues, higher cardiovascular risks, being overweight. And the group is also tends to make unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as smoking and drinking alcohol. </p>
<p>Chronic fatigue, sleep deprivation and the resulting stress are all major obstacles to productivity. There are also psychological disturbances associated with sleep deprivation, including adverse effects on memory and reaction time, as well as chronic anxiety and depression. </p>
<p>Such stressors are correlated with a greater risk of workplace accidents among employees on nonstandard schedules.</p>
<p>There is also evidence that shift work can negatively impact <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10935-013-0318-z">the relationship between parents and couples</a>, and that working evenings or nights is associated with greater depressive symptoms among mothers and fathers. </p>
<p>Overall, people who work nonstandard hours tend to have <a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/working-247-economy-0">lower life satisfaction</a> and higher levels of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10834-012-9308-1">family conflict and marital instability</a>.</p>
<p>Such schedules do have one notable benefit, though: greater paternal involvement in child rearing. Regardless of whether it is the mother or the father who does shift work, in such families fathers spend more time with children than in those where both parents work standard day schedules. </p>
<p>Whether greater paternal involvement in child rearing might counterbalance some of the negative effects that nonstandard work schedules have on family life is a question that merits further study. </p>
<h2>Impact on children</h2>
<p>What’s clear is that the negative impact of the 24/7 economy clearly trickles down to kids. </p>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10935-013-0318-z">consistent evidence</a> that nonstandard parental work schedules are linked to adverse developmental outcomes, with children more likely to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2011.00862.x/abstract">exhibit social and emotional problems or have lower maths and language skills</a>. </p>
<p>These children are also more likely to be overweight or obese, engage in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740907001181">risk-taking behaviors</a> (smoking, drinking, using drugs, delinquency and risky sexual activity) and to be at <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2950649/">higher risk for depression</a> compared to those whose parents work standard day schedules. </p>
<p>This impact has been observed throughout child developmental stages, from infancy to adolescence, and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10935-013-0318-z">across countries</a>. Our review revealed several pathways that can lead parental nonstandard schedules to correlate with poor childhood outcomes. </p>
<p>When parents show signs of depression, are harsh and insensitive with their children or create a generally unsupportive home environment, for example, those are vectors. So, too, are reduced child-parent interaction and intimacy and a lack of quality time spent doing developmentally important activities such as homework, parent-teacher meetings, sports and music lessons. </p>
<p>Our research also reveals that the 24/7 economy does not uniformly impact families and children. While shift work does have a negative effect on children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, disadvantaged families are hit hardest – that’s kids of low-income or single-parent families – along with families in which one or both parents work full-time on a nonstandard basis.</p>
<h2>National differences</h2>
<p>While the negative impact of the 24/7 economy on families and children has been reported across different developed countries, it is pronounced in some places and muted in others. </p>
<p>Consequences seem most pronounced in the US. Generally speaking, American workers <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/26/u-s-lacks-mandated-paid-parental-leave/">do not benefit from many family-friendly workplace policies</a>, such as flexible arrangements and sick or leave days. This is particularly true in low-wage and low-level jobs, and it impacts most directly those who work outside normal business hours.</p>
<p>In Australia, on the contrary, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616305184">the adverse effect</a> of shift work on adolescent children’s mental health was limited to those who come from single-parent households.</p>
<p>While in the Netherlands, working nonstandard schedules does not seem to have any detrimental impact on <a href="http://www.springer.com/de/book/9789401774000">family well-being</a>. One <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740916304479">study</a> comparing the UK, the Netherlands and Finland found that nonstandard parental work schedules are associated with less sociable behaviour among children in the UK but not elsewhere. </p>
<p>A plausible explanation for this difference is that in Finland the government provides early childhood education during nonstandard work hours, while the Netherlands offers flexible and reduced work hours. Such policies enable parents to organise child care during work hours, whereas in the UK – which is, like the US, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/apr/16/legacy-margaret-thatcher-neoliberalism">a typical neoliberal state</a> – no such provisions exist. </p>
<p>Understanding country-based differences in how the 24/7 economy impacts families and children is critical. So we are currently developing a larger international comparative project involving scholars from eight countries across three continents to elucidate national variations. </p>
<h2>Help, please</h2>
<p>The past four decades have witnessed the rise and triumph of neoliberalism worldwide. This has gone hand-in-hand with the deregulation of labour and financial markets, privatisation and cutbacks on social spending. </p>
<p>The process culminated in the <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/schoolsbrief/21584534-effects-financial-crisis-are-still-being-felt-five-years-article">global financial crisis of 2008</a> and persistently rising social inequality. Both have spurred a larger debate on the benefits and disadvantages of neoliberal globalisation.</p>
<p>Even so, the 24/7 economy is likely to continue expanding, particularly since digitalisation worldwide has rendered it increasingly feasible to work outside the office and beyond normal business hours. </p>
<p>It is critical for governments to make policies that support parents, enabling them to balance work and family so that children may grow and flourish. Families are the social and economic fabric of society, and the future prosperity of the world depends on the healthy development of the next generation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76684/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jianghong Li is affiliated with Telethon KIDS Institute, The University of Western Australia; Centre for Population Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth Western Australia
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wen-Jui Han does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ever more people are stuck with shift work in a globalised economy that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Jianghong Li, Senior Research Fellow, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.Wen-Jui Han, Professor and Director of the PhD program of the Silver School of Social Work, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/733242017-05-16T06:37:10Z2017-05-16T06:37:10ZSelling Brazilian fashions, the women of Angola’s ‘suitcase trade’ spot trends and pedal dreams<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157532/original/image-20170220-15894-18wpsep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Angolan importer buying Havaianas in the market of Brás, São Paulo, Brazil.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Léa Barreau Tran</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>This second article in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> follows tha path of Angolese women shopping in Brazil for their market stalls back home.</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://www.worldatlas.com/af/ao/where-is-angola.html">Angola</a>, a Portuguese-speaking country, is strongly influenced by the cultural output of Brazil, the world’s Lusophone powerhouse. </p>
<p>Brazil is often represented as a <a href="https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00300187">land of hope in Angola</a>. Angolans can’t get enough of its <em><a href="http://tbivision.com/highlight/2016/05/emerging-shadows-brazillian-drama/593012/">telenovelas</a></em>, the intrigue-filled television dramas that are broadcast daily on Angolan channels, or of the glamorous styles worn by soap opera stars.</p>
<p>To satisfy women’s fashion demands, a growing number of <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/why-africas-future-depends-on-its-women-entrepreneurs/">female entrepreneurs</a> in Angola’s capital <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/06/why-is-angolas-capital-the-most-expensive-city-in-the-world/">Luanda</a> are hitting the road, travelling by plane to Brazil, among other fashion hubs, to buy up coveted Brazilian styles. </p>
<p>They return with suitcases full of clothing, Havaianas flip-flops and accessories to sell to eager consumers in Luanda’s <a href="http://www.quantumglobalgroup.com/news/informal-sector-activities-angola">informal markets</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/164465/original/image-20170407-29396-1agmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The once-industrial district of Brás in downtown Sao Paulo is known for its sweatshops, clothing stores and informal markets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/3336/26311713326">Diego Torres Silvestre/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>The Brazil-Angola connection</h2>
<p>This woman-led, <a href="http://caras.uol.com.br/fashion/famosas-com-estilo-delegada-helo-personagem-salve-jorge-looks-roupas#.WKra13-HdS7">pop culture-driven</a> South-South fashion trade, which has been largely overlooked in research on African gender mobility, results from Angola’s struggling post-war economy. </p>
<p>Since the end of the 26-year <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">Angolan civil war</a> in 2002, the country has had <a href="http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/angola">high unemployment and an undiversified market</a>, compelling entrepreneurs to look abroad for opportunity.</p>
<p>The textile trade’s “suitcase traders”, or <em>moambeiras</em>, as the female importers are often called, are mainly mothers and heads of households aged 30 to 50, who live in Luanda’s poor periphery. Independently but as part of a network, they organise regular buying trips on one of four weekly flights between Luanda and São Paulo, Brazil, a global <a href="http://thebrazilbusiness.com/article/fashion-industry-in-brazil">fashion centre</a>. </p>
<p>Though there is no official data on the subject, the number of Angolan women travelling to Brazil is estimated at around 400 per week.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157535/original/image-20170220-15922-s5pgzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An African restaurant in São Paulo’s Brás district.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Léa Barreau Tran</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To reduce costs and to make them feel less isolated on business trips, which may last a few days or a week, the <em>moambeiras</em> stay in hostels in São Paulo that specialise in housing African traders. </p>
<p>In Brazilian markets, though, the Angolan women will mix with other buyers and retailers from across the world. Each year <a href="http://imprensa.spturis.com/imprensa/releases/pdf/sao-paulo-e-referencia-no-turismo-de-compras.pdf">11 million people</a> come to São Paulo from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe to shop. </p>
<h2>African communities in São Paulo</h2>
<p>Because of its low production costs and large night markets, São Paulo is also an important place for informal or illegal commerce. </p>
<p>For the <em>moambeiras</em>, there is no better place to shop than the <em>Feira da Madrugada</em>, located in the megacity’s Brás district, which has thriving African networks. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H95tbvhzUPQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The large night market of São Paulo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Restaurants and hostels that specialise in African clientele offer places to socialise, make connections and, for many, spaces where black Africans in Brazil, a multi-ethnic society with prevalent <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/09/brazil-destination-choice-africans-201493113721757775.html">racial discrimination</a>, can feel comfortable.</p>
<p>“Here it’s ours,” claimed one <em>moambeira</em> during my <a href="https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01478538/">doctoral research</a> in Brazil in 2013, referring to São Paulo’s African enclaves. </p>
<p>As the manager of the Victoria hotel, where many Angola women are housed, told me, “They made the hotel their home here in Brazil! They feel at home, [they] have a certain level of intimacy with us, in terms of freedom.”</p>
<p>Brazil has long held an ambiguous power of attraction in Africa, especially for <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/regions/africa/palop-tl_en">Portuguese-speaking countries</a>, such as Angola and Mozambique. The country has high <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2014/07/crime-brazil">crime and violence rates</a> that may strike fear into the hearts of travellers, but the Brazilian TV series so popular at home also show the country as a land of hope and opportunity. </p>
<p>In 2011, about <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/16/world/la-fg-brazil-african-immigrants-20120916">15,000 Africans from 55 different countries</a> were officially registered in Brazil, and sources report the number of Angolan residents of Brazil at <a href="http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=2118:">around 1,100</a>. Some of them are refugees, though exact numbers are unknown.</p>
<p>For Portuguese speakers, Brazil also offers unparalleled opportunity for economic and <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2013061510043840">educational advancement</a>. Because fashion is by its nature an aspirational industry and <em>telenovelas</em> have a <a href="http://www.iadb.org/es/noticias/articulos/2009-01-29/telenovelas-brasilenas-tienen-impacto-en-comportamientos-sociales,5104.html">demonstrated impact on women’s behaviour and world views</a>, for Angolese female consumers, wearing Brazilian clothes may represent something more than just good style. It may feel like an act of empowerment. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G8NcvJbSJjs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An episode of the Brazilian TV show ‘Salve Jorge’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The end of hope?</h2>
<p>Joana, a 36-year-old Angolan, travels to Brazil once a month to buy clothes and Havaianas. She explained to me how she selects clothing according to the characters played by Brazilian actresses. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first place people look is telenovelas for the latest trends, you see people imitate them: ‘Oh, she dressed like that’! So they call the clothing after the actress or character. Like, if it’s someone from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138277/">Xica da Silva</a>, everyone starts calling it the ‘Xica da Silva’. When you buy…you [want to] bring back a Xica da Silva, this is what we [do]. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157536/original/image-20170220-15914-1nyb26z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angolan female trader selling wares from Brazil and China in Luanda’s Africampo market.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Léa Barreau Tran</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As 42-year-old Mariazinha said of Brazil: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I like that country. It’s a bit hectic, but I like it…because I don’t need to learn a new language…. So I decided to go to a country where we have the same language, even if their Portuguese is slightly different. This way I don’t waste much time. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This ease of access motivates female traders to continue travelling to Brazil despite the cost of plane tickets and high Angolan customs taxes that take a bite out of their bottom line. </p>
<p>But trade destinations are shifting quickly. Today, Brazil is in the midst of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/facing-unemployment-austerity-and-scandal-brazil-struggles-to-keep-it-together-71663">severe economic crisis</a>. Austerity and political collapse are hurting its image as a land of opportunity for African migrants and entrepreneurs. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, China’s fortunes are on the rise, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/riskmap/2015/07/08/chinas-investment-in-africa-the-african-perspective/#5f490451459e">as is its investment in Africa</a>. For Angolan textile traders, as for other segments of the global clothing trade, it is quickly becoming one of Brazil’s main competitors.</p>
<p>In 2013, Joana mentioned to me that she was considering going to China to pursue business, but was concerned about her ability to navigate there considering that she lacked a local network.</p>
<p>By 2014, when I met her back in Luanda, that hurdle had evidently been cleared. Joana showed me the Chinese clothing she was already selling. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167250/original/file-20170429-12992-sa3j4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese wholesale aimed at African consumers in Guangzhou, China.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the Chinese market swiftly adapts to offer clothing in colours and styles that appeal to African tastes, its competitive edge over Brazil is sharpening for Angola’s <em>moambeiras</em>. Linguistic and cultural challenges aside, Chinese businesses have demonstrated a <a href="https://africansinchina.net/how-many-africans-are-there-in-guangzhou/">willingness to engage in trade with Africans</a>, and the low price of Chinese goods helps to offset the higher cost of airline tickets.</p>
<p>This informal garment trade is one small part of the <a href="http://macaudailytimes.com.mo/china-lusophone-countries-trade-grows-32-6-percent-one-month.html">growing</a> commercial relationship <a href="https://www.angop.ao/angola/fr_fr/noticias/economia/2016/9/41/Chine-Des-entrepreneurs-angolais-devraient-etre-plus-audacieux,4ff8061c-3bf8-4503-80b3-212ff4122a86.html">between China and Angola</a>. </p>
<p>Still, not all female entrepreneurs can pull off such a trip, especially given Angola’s current <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/angola/2015-10-28/angolas-perfect-storm">economic crisis</a>. In the long run, whether the entrepreneurial <em>moambeiras</em> of Luanda set their sights on China or keep business focused on Brazil, these women will continue to reveal the global origins of Angola’s informal trade – and its fashion style.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barreau Tran Léa a reçu des financements du Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, du Réseau Français d’Études Brésiliennes (REFEB) et de l'Institut Français d'Afrique du Sud (IFAS). </span></em></p>Brazilian soap operas are wildly popular in Portuguese-speaking Angola, influencing women’s fashion and creating a business opportunity for thousands of Angolan female entrepreneurs.Léa Barreau Tran, Chercheure associée à Les Afriques dans le Monde (LAM), Sciences Po Bordeaux, Sciences Po BordeauxLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/738622017-05-15T06:40:20Z2017-05-15T06:40:20ZTwo Swedish economists foresaw the backlash against globalisation – here’s how to mitigate it<p><strong><em>The first article in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/globalisation-under-pressure-38722">Globalisation Under Pressure</a> looks at work from the 1930s that anticipated the backlash against globalisation.</em></strong></p>
<hr>
<p>Economists <a href="http://policonomics.com/eli-heckscher/">Eli Heckscher</a> (1879-1952) and <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1977/ohlin-bio.html">Bertil Ohlin</a> (1899-1979) died more than three decades ago. But it’s fair to assume that neither would have been surprised by the underlying causes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-wins-us-election-scholars-from-around-the-world-react-68282">Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States</a>, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-is-on-britain-votes-to-leave-the-eu-experts-respond-61576">Brexit</a> for that matter. </p>
<p>Their <a href="http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch60/T60-0.php">Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) model of international trade</a> – developed at the Stockholm School of Economics in the 1930s – clearly predicted today’s middle-class discontent bellowing at the ballot box. </p>
<p>The two Swedes recognised the simple but too-often-overlooked soft underbelly of global trade and growth: prosperity doesn’t distribute evenly. And workers in bustling export industries benefit at the expense of those who face foreign competition.</p>
<h2>Inherent inequality</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169269/original/file-20170515-3675-5f45fu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eli Heckscher’s work predicted today’s middle-class discontent bellowing at the ballot box.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEli_Heckscher.jpg">Slarre via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Building on the H-O model, academic economist <a href="https://www.gc.cuny.edu/stonecenter/Branko-Milanovic">Branko Milanovic</a> has described in an elegant chart how income around the world changed from 1988 to 2008. Only one income bracket failed to get significantly richer: those around the 80% percentile. That’s the middle class in the developed world and the upper class in poor countries. </p>
<p>Ironically, Milanovic’s graphic both resembles and reflects the proverbial elephant in the room that carried Trump to victory in regions such as the US Rust Belt, which are populated by those he <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-donald-trump-inauguration-kass-0122-20170120-column.html">characterised as forgotten Americans</a>. </p>
<p>It supports Heckscher and Ohlin’s fundamental premise about the unequal consequences of economic growth – rare is the tide that lifts all boats. Milanovic demonstrates the disparities of our era of globalisation: the rich get richer, the poor get much less poor, and a big chunk of the middle class gets left behind. </p>
<p>The argument is relatively easy to understand. Assume that in a country there are only two industries, divided into high-skilled and low-skilled workers who produce high-tech content (product H) and low-tech content (product L). </p>
<p>Country A (say the United States) has proportionally more high-skilled individuals than country B (let’s call it China). Let’s further assume that both the Chinese and Americans have similar tastes for products. That’s a lot of assumptions, but the intuition should be straightforward: countries with a higher proportion of more educated workers have an advantage in producing more technologically advanced goods. It’s as simple as that. </p>
<p>In the absence of trade, the United States would produce more goods and services that use high-skilled workers than China. A simple demand and supply graph illustrates this: </p>
<p>Without trade, the United States produces more high-tech goods and consumers pay a lower relative price for them than in China. But here is the important point: in the US, the wages of high-skilled workers are lower than in China. Not lower in absolute but in relative terms. </p>
<p>Great programmers in the US are handsomely rewarded because the country can export the goods and services they produce. If Apple, Uber or Facebook could sell and operate only in the US, the demand for high-skill workers would be much lower than it is today, and the country’s lower-skilled labor force would not face such strong competition from abroad. </p>
<p>With trade, low-tech goods become relatively cheaper in the US. But, critically, people who work in low-tech industries there face the prospect of lower wages, even if the overall price of goods and services in the economy falls, because there is less demand for their jobs. Trade increases job growth in the US economy, but <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.704.6665&rep=rep1&type=pdf">in some industries there are job losses</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169273/original/file-20170515-3672-1ry4jsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bertil Ohlin was Eli Heckscher’s student and collaborator.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Bertil_Ohlin.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The argument is relatively easy to understand. Countries with a higher proportion of more educated workers have an advantage in producing more technologically advanced goods.</p>
<h2>Mitigating harm</h2>
<p>There’s plenty of other evidence that trade has an impact on income inequality. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2233969?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents">Reviews from 1990</a> and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1573440405800061">1995 describe the old evidence</a> on the relationship between trade and inequality; there’s a 2003 exploration of the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387803001172">link between opening up to trade and inequality</a> in Argentina; and a <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6880972.pdf">review of cross-country studies</a> with data from the 1990s and early 2000s. </p>
<p>More recently, <a href="http://www.ide.go.jp/Japanese/Publish/Download/Report/2015/pdf/B110_ch01.pdf">a 2015 update of the H-O model</a> has extended the empirical evidence to show how trade increases the technology level in all partners and a <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/69344/1/733994415.pdf">2012 paper has examined</a> urban wage distribution in China. </p>
<p>But all the empirical evidence on the importance of trade to income distribution <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Farzana_Munshi2/publication/259556838_Globalisation_and_Inter-occupational_Inequality_Empirical_Evidence_from_OECD_Countries/links/5658557608ae1ef9297dab5b.pdf">comes to fruition in a 2014 paper</a> that finds clear evidence that openness to trade increases wage inequality at lower levels of income (within the OECD). It also found there was no significant effect at higher levels of income. </p>
<p>The H-O model sharpens focus on the realities of our modern world. Inflation has been strikingly absent in the rich world during the 21st century due largely to the growth and efficiency of international trade. This has made products cheaper for the average American but, at the same time, globalisation has significantly spurred income inequality. </p>
<p>The model provides a direct link between the Chinese internal migrant working long hours in a Shenzhen factory and the Silicon Valley employee enjoying an elitist’s workday, replete with healthy snacks.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.nathaninc.com/sites/default/files/Developing_Country_Labor_Market_Adjustment.pdf">economists had mistakenly expected</a> Heckscher and Ohlin’s canon to become less relevant, but that’s changing. </p>
<p>Recent work from MIT has provided <a href="http://www.ddorn.net/papers/Autor-Dorn-Hanson-ChinaShock.pdf">the first and timely systematic evidence</a> that the inequality effects of the H-O framework are much more profound and longer lasting than previously thought. </p>
<p>The fact is that <a href="https://economics.mit.edu/files/12751">too few people acquire better skills</a> as quickly as needed; <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/106917/1/812609026.pdf">too few disenfranchised families relocate</a> to more promising regions; <a href="http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/CognitiveSkills_2014/quintini_g3259.pdf">and the combination</a> of decaying skills and lack of mobility generates a downward spiral of discontent. </p>
<p>But all is not lost. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Open-Skies-Published.pdf">Trade lifts all countries</a> and contributes to improvement in productivity and the range of products at our disposal, and engenders myriad innovations that make modern life easier. Increased trade has <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100860000">even helped improve human rights</a> and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2307/full">made companies more socially responsible</a>. </p>
<p>And we have <a href="http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=economicscsier_wp">known the optimal policy regarding trade agreements</a> for a long time but failed to implement it effectively. Free trade has a necessarily distributive effect. And the correct path is to have trade agreements with specific programs to diminish its negative impact on certain levels of income. </p>
<p>In NAFTA, for instance, the Transitional Adjustment Assistance (<a href="https://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/nafta.cfm">NAFTA-TAA</a>) program had as its primary goal to assist workers who lost their jobs or whose hours of work and wages were reduced as a result of trade with – or a shift in production to – Canada or Mexico. </p>
<p>We should concentrate on designing programs complementary to trade agreements, such as the TAA, especially as we now know some of the distributive effects of free trade <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199615001543">don’t dissipate easily as previously thought</a>. </p>
<p>Ignoring Heckscher and Ohlin’s prescient wisdom has cost many people their livelihoods. The best path for society is to increase trade agreements but only if accompanied by fail-safes for the segments of society most likely to be adversely affected. </p>
<p>Policymakers and researchers forgot this for too long and we are now facing the backlash.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodrigo Zeidan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A fundamental insight into the distributive effects of free trade from almost 90 years ago.Rodrigo Zeidan, Associate Professor, NYU Shanghai and Fundação Dom Cabral, NYU ShanghaiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.