About this video

• Video Title: Globalization - How crises change our world (1/2) | DW Documentary
• Channel: DW Documentary
• Speakers: None explicitly named, but various individuals are featured and interviewed.
• Duration: 42:26

Overview

This documentary explores the evolving landscape of globalization, focusing on how technological advancements, geopolitical shifts, and resource demands are reshaping international connections. It uses the smartphone as a central example to illustrate the complex global supply chains, economic power dynamics, and emerging conflicts that define our interconnected world.

Key takeaways

• The Persistent Nature of Globalization: Despite claims of its retreat, globalization is actively expanding, driven by technologies like smartphones that connect billions and are integral to modern civilization.
• Globalized Production and Labor: The manufacturing of complex products like smartphones involves a worldwide division of labor, with components sourced from various continents (e.g., materials mined in Africa, assembly in China) and designed in innovation hubs like California.
• Shifting Economic Power: While the US remains an economic powerhouse, China has emerged as a significant global player, altering the economic balance that once favored G7 nations.
• Geopolitical Competition and the Chip War: The production of essential components like microchips has become a critical area of geopolitical tension, particularly between the US and China, with Taiwan playing a pivotal role due to its advanced chip manufacturing capabilities (TSMC).
• Resource Scarcity and Ethical Concerns: The demand for raw materials like cobalt, crucial for smartphone batteries, highlights ethical issues in resource extraction, particularly in regions like the Congo, where labor conditions are often poor and environmental impacts significant.
• Emerging Markets and Shifting Dynamics: Countries like India and China are actively participating in and influencing global supply chains, with cities like Shenzhen becoming hubs of technological innovation and global ambition. Singapore is presented as a model of urban planning and a stable financial center amidst global shifts.
• Climate Change Impact on Supply Chains: Environmental factors, such as increasingly intense monsoon rains, can disrupt global production and supply chains, demonstrating nature's influence on the global economy.
• The Future of Globalization: Globalization is characterized by a complex, interconnected system of supply chains, infrastructure, and communication networks, but operates with diverse sets of rules and ongoing competition, particularly between major global powers.

Here's a summary of the YouTube video, organized to help you answer the reflection assignment questions:

Summary Focused on Answering Reflection Prompts:

This documentary, "Globalization - How crises change our world (1/2)," illustrates the complex and often contradictory nature of globalization through the lens of the smartphone. It reveals how deeply interconnected our world has become, yet also how this interconnectedness creates significant ethical challenges and geopolitical tensions.

Key Themes and Examples Relevant to Prompts:

• Decent Work & Human Rights:

  • Lived Experience/Video Examples: The video highlights the stark contrast between the "designed in California" image of iPhones and the reality of their production. It shows "coding sweat shops in India" where workers are paid very little, and depicts artisanal cobalt mining in the Congo where laborers, including possibly minors despite regulations, work in dangerous conditions for meager wages due to pervasive poverty. The assembly line workers in India for "Nothing Phone" earn better than average wages but still significantly less than in the US or China, and management forbids interviews, suggesting a lack of transparency and potential limitations on worker voice.
  • Benefits and Costs: Consumers and tech companies (like Apple, Huawei, BYD) benefit from low production costs and high-quality, accessible technology. However, the costs are borne by workers in developing nations who endure low wages, unsafe conditions, and environmental degradation, and by communities impacted by resource extraction.
  • Privacy: While not a primary focus, the video touches upon the immense power and data contained within smartphones, implying potential privacy concerns, especially with companies like Huawei aiming to connect and control everything through their digital networks.

• Theory Lens (Utilitarianism vs. Rights-Based Ethics):

  • Video Moment: The artisanal cobalt mining in the Congo.
  • Utilitarianism: Might argue that the overall good is maximized because the mining provides employment and income (however small) for thousands of impoverished Congolese, and supplies a critical resource for technologies that benefit billions worldwide (smartphones, EVs). The "greater good" for more people is served.
  • Rights-Based Ethics: Would strongly condemn the situation. It emphasizes the inherent rights of the workers, particularly children (if they are indeed present despite regulations), to safety, fair wages, and freedom from exploitation. The dangerous conditions and low pay violate fundamental human rights to life, health, and decent work.
  • Convergence/Clash: They clash fundamentally. Utilitarianism might justify the exploitation for the sake of global technological advancement and economic benefit for the many. Rights-based ethics would prioritize the protection of individual workers' inherent dignity and rights, even if it meant higher costs or slower technological progress.

• Human Sustainability (Crafting a Definition):

  • Definition: Human sustainability refers to the capacity of global systems (economic, political, social) to ensure that all individuals have their fundamental needs met, can pursue opportunities for growth and well-being, and are treated with dignity and respect, without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. It's about creating a world where progress benefits people equitably and upholds their inherent worth.
  • Indicators:
    1. Living Wages & Safe Working Conditions: Ensures basic needs are met and workers are not exploited or harmed in the pursuit of products. (Evident in the critique of cobalt mining and factory work).
    2. Access to Education & Opportunity: Allows individuals and communities to develop skills and improve their long-term prospects, rather than being trapped in exploitative labor. (Implied by the desire for local processing of cobalt and the struggle for jobs in India).
    3. Environmental Justice & Resource Stewardship: Ensures that resource extraction and production do not disproportionately harm vulnerable communities or deplete resources for future generations. (Visible in the Congo's lunar landscapes and damaged school from mining).

• Why Business? (Argument For/Against):

  • For: Businesses are essential partners. They drive innovation (smartphones), create jobs (factories in India, China), supply crucial resources (TSMC, cobalt mining companies), and have the scale and influence to implement changes. They can be powerful forces for good if guided by ethical principles. The existence of companies like Apple, TSMC, and BYD is undeniable proof of their role in delivering products that define modern life.
  • Against: Businesses can also be primary drivers of exploitation and environmental damage due to their pursuit of profit. They may prioritize shareholder value over worker rights or environmental sustainability, leading to human rights abuses (cobalt mining, "sweat shops") and ecological damage. Their power can be immense, and without strong regulation, can be wielded irresponsibly. The video shows how their pursuit of low costs leads to these issues.
  • Where Power Stops/Leads: Business power should stop where it infringes on fundamental human rights and environmental integrity. It must lead in adopting ethical sourcing, fair labor practices, transparent supply chains, and investing in sustainable technologies and community development, even if it slightly reduces short-term profits. Regulation is crucial to set boundaries.

• Stakeholder Map (Smartphone):

  • Product: Smartphone (e.g., iPhone)
  • Key Stakeholders:
    • Vulnerable Actors: Artisanal cobalt miners in Congo, factory workers in China/India (low-wage assembly, potential exploitation), communities near mines (environmental damage, safety risks).
    • Powerful Actors: Apple (design, brand, market control), TSMC (chip manufacturing monopoly), major mining corporations (Glencore, etc.), governments (US, China, Taiwan - setting trade policies, subsidies), consumers (demand, purchasing power).
    • Intermediate Actors: Component suppliers, logistics companies, software developers, retailers.
  • Power Dynamics: Apple, TSMC, and major governments hold significant power due to their control over design, critical manufacturing, capital, and policy. Consumers have power through demand but are often unaware of the true costs.
  • Risk Bearers: Miners and factory workers bear direct physical, health, and financial risks. Communities near mines bear environmental risks. Developing nations bear the risk of resource depletion and exploitation without commensurate development.
  • Change to Shift Value: Empowering workers through stronger labor unions and international labor standards. Ensuring ethical sourcing with traceable supply chains and fair profit-sharing mechanisms that benefit local communities. Investing in local processing and manufacturing capabilities in resource-rich countries to capture more value internally. Stronger international regulations and enforcement against human rights abuses and environmental destruction.

• Berlin Lens (US vs. Germany/EU):

  • Expectation: The US approach, as depicted, is driven by a focus on economic supremacy, national security (chip independence), and often a more direct, competitive stance against rivals like China. It emphasizes market dominance and technological advantage. The EU/Germany approach is likely to be more focused on regulation, human rights, environmental standards, and a more multilateral, cooperative approach to global issues, even if it means slower economic gains. For example, the EU has been proactive with GDPR and the upcoming AI Act, focusing on rights and ethical frameworks.
  • Evidence to Change Mind: If the US were to significantly embrace and enforce strong, binding international human rights and environmental standards across its global supply chains (beyond just sanctions for geopolitical reasons), or if Germany/EU were to prioritize aggressive, state-led industrial policy for national security/competitiveness (like chip manufacturing subsidies) over strict regulatory approaches.

Hook Examples (Choose one that resonates):

• "The image of an iPhone, sleek and designed in California, is shattered by the reality of dangerous artisanal cobalt mines in the Congo and low-paid assembly work in Asia, forcing a re-evaluation of who truly benefits from our hyper-connected world."
• "Witnessing the meticulous, almost secretive process behind smartphone production, juxtaposed with the desperate conditions of resource extraction, made me question whether the 'globalization' we experience is truly advancing human well-being for all."
• "The film's depiction of Taiwan's critical role in chip manufacturing, making it indispensable and a geopolitical hotspot, revealed how deeply intertwined technology, economics, and international conflict have become, challenging my understanding of global power dynamics."

Synthesis Question for Global Managers:

"Given the inherent tensions between profit-driven globalization and the ethical imperatives of human rights and sustainability, how can global managers authentically integrate principles of justice and dignity into their operational strategies and supply chain management, ensuring that technological progress benefits all stakeholders rather than exacerbating inequality and exploitation?"