Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
However, networks of globalization also have an intrinsic positive
momentum of their own, once they are established to draw people in.
The asymmetries that are created by rapid multinational investment can
potentially be resolved through the agents of globalization as well. This
is partly owing to human propensities for conformity and partly the
result of inherent interdependence that multiple connections necessitate.
Each intersection of threads that gives strength to a net is dependent
on subsequent connections of threads. It is often easier to have knots
and interfaces between threads if there is some common tensile strength
and other properties of the threads—hence the tendency to build net-
works with some common dominant properties. This insight about
human societal connections is revealed in a topic by David Singh Grewal,
Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization
(2008). The
narrative presents the potential of networks in wielding power but
also exposes the darker side of such power as it inexorably moves to a
collectively self-infl icted conformity that can constrain choice. Grewal is
particularly concerned about globalization in this context since he
believes that “everything is being globalized except politics.” By this he
is referring to our tendency to move toward common norms on language
usage, dress, and other harmonizing infl uences of globalization.
Thus through globalization, we are moving toward a set of common
norms but individual choice in terms of choosing development paths and
environmental priorities may be more limited as a result. Might such a
subversion of genuine “choice” still be a positive development in the
grander scheme of race relations? Grewal gives examples of the historical
dominance of the gold standard, the growing dominance of English as a
language to make his point. He also considers other areas where network
power has encountered diffi culties such as the failure of global trade talks
in 2008. He does not have much sympathy for the collapse of the Doha
Round of Trade talks because the network power generated by this kind
of system would have required a “suppression of democratic politics at
a national level.” However, Grewal is perhaps too sanguine about the
triumph of national politics, given various other challenges that confront
us on a planetary scale. Environmental governance necessitates making
connections across intrinsic ecological networks that are endowed by
nature and often infl uenced negatively by anarchic human behavior. This
is where making as many connections between individuals and societies
in a systems-oriented approach to politics is so consequential.
In order to fully appreciate the linkage between globalization and
environmental justice, particularly in the context of developing economies,
