Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Guest
Field Note
Sukabumi, West Java
My own research is based on fi eldwork in
Indonesia as well as ongoing engagement with
students in the United States. The women
pictured here collaborated with me on a
research/activism project for migrant women
workers in Indonesia. The woman on the left
(“Rina”) had returned from working in Saudi
Arabia as a domestic worker for two years. She
wanted to return to Saudi Arabia for another
contract to earn more money for herself and
her family, but she was concerned about her
rights and her safety. She had been employed
by a person she considered fair and reasonable,
but she had heard from friends and neighbors
that many migrants had experienced serious
abuses while abroad. The woman pictured on
the right (“Sorani”) is an Indonesian activist who works in support of migrant rights. She discussed with Rina and me her
strategies for mobilizing political change, and she helped us to see possibilities for building transnational alliances among
American and Indonesian workers, students, and activists. Based on these interviews, as well as many years of working with
migrant women working in factories in Indonesia, my own research has increasingly sought to understand the ways in which
we in the United States, as scholars, students, workers, and consumers, can better serve global justice.
Credit: Rachel Silvey, University of Toronto
Figure 10.2
that people could survive. A key component of survival in
these countries is the informal economy , the uncounted
or illegal economy that governments do not tax and keep
track of, including everything from a garden plot in a yard
to the black market to the illegal drug trade. The infor-
mal economy is a signifi cant element in the economies
of many countries, but GNI statistics omit the informal
economy entirely.
GNI per capita also masks extremes in the distribu-
tion of wealth within a country. The Middle Eastern oil
countries of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
have per capita GNIs over $24,000, a level higher than
that of several European countries. These fi gures give us
no hint of the degree of overall participation in the coun-
try's economy, the average citizen's material standard of
living, or gaps between genders or among regions. Eco-
nomic production and the wealth it generates are not dis-
tributed evenly across the seven emirates that make up the
United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi, the emirate that domi-
nates the petroleum industry, generated over half of the
country's GDP in 2010. Dubai, the next largest emirate,
generated about a quarter of the GDP, and the Qaywayn
emirate generated less than 1 percent of the country's
gross GDP.
Another limitation of GNI per capita is that it mea-
sures only outputs (i.e., production). It does not take into
account the nonmonetary costs of production, which take
a toll on the environment through resource depletion and
pollution of air and water. Per capita GNI may even treat
such externalities as a plus. For example, the sale of ciga-
rettes augments GNI. If cigarette use causes sickness and
hospitalization is required, the GNI fi gure is boosted fur-
ther. Conversely, the use of energy-effi cient devices can
actually lower GNI.
The limitations of GNI have prompted some
analysts to look for alternative measures of economic
development, ways of measuring the roles technology,
production, transportation, and communications play
in an economy.
To gain a sense of the role of technology in the
economy, the occupational structure of the labor force
can be measured using the percentage of workers
employed in various sectors of the economy. A high per-
centage of laborers engaged in the production of food
staples signals a low overall level of development, as
conventionally defi ned, and a high percentage of work-
ers involved in high-tech industries and services signals
a high level of development. Productivity per worker is
338
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