Students:2009/2010 student themes

Overview of students' work which was focused on the Globalisation process and risks associated with it - not only global risks, but also those that everybody could face in the everyday life. The work was collaborative in later stages and resulted in a Globalisation Risks and Opportunities handbook.

Isoman copper mine (hypothetical case study) - what are the solutions?

Is globalisation a neutral process? - introductory thesis & discussion with Jana Hybášková

Jule Kathinka Plawitzki
Loss of Biodiversity- caused and solved by Globalization?

The text focuses on biodiversity as a global environmental problem and shows how the loss of biodiversity is caused by globalization and if a further globalization is even necessary to face this challenge.

To understand the correlation between globalization and biodiversity globalization as an abstract phenomenon causing risks is described in the beginning of the article. In addition a comprehension of biodiversity in general is necessary – therefore a short definition about biodiversity in general, its distribution and its significance is given, furthermore causes for reduction are presented. It turns out that not every cause for the loss of biodiversity is inevitably liked to globalization, but you can not either separate this two phenomena. In a further step the article deals with facing this challenge: Examples for actions by the private economic sector, NGOs and by the governmental sector are given – all of them are not effective (enough). The reason for this is an asymmetry between biodiversity and wealth. To face this asymmetry a further globalization is necessary: In terms of institutions and markets for compensation of this asymmetry and a World Environment Organization is needed. Furthermore every single person has to act by herself/himself.

Corinna Lohrengel
Media and culture in a globalized world The globalization of media is a controversial topic concerning the debate of globalization. Many outcomes could be seen in a positive such as in a negative way and it’s not clarified which one has a bigger influence. This article analyzes these positive and negative aspects and gives an overview of their impacts.

The following article deals with the term "global village" and the critical approaches to it. Does the globalization of media cause homogenization and standardization concerning products, experiences and lifestyle of generations? Do we have to give up our individualism for a collective identity? The text also gives an overview of the influence of media in a globalized world and how they are used for manipulation and marketing. One last point of this essay is the question of global or local media. How can the media be globalized when not everybody has the same conditions concerning the access to the Internet or the television?

Henning Strate
Challenges to Energy Security - Is a demonization of conventional energy production under current global trends beneficial?

In 2008 the worlds energy consumption reached about 740 Exajoules, with 85% of it being derived from the combustion of fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency expects worldwide energy demand to double by 2030. While there are many reasons to rightly believe that the excessive burning of fossil fuels is the cause of many changes to the environment and climate, it is also equally true that in the last centuries and decades fossil fuels have provided a considerable part of humanity with unparalleled economic and industrial success, indirectly triggering inventions in almost any field and improving man's living conditions on Earth over those of previous centuries. Within the process of meeting the future energy demand largely through the use of renewable energies it might also prove to be benificial looking at opportunities to improve upon conventional energy production – other than to demonize it. The following article will analyse some current global trends, especially in the field of electricity production, and the great challenges to a coherent energy policy.

Marenka Krasomil
The New Economic Market: Water

Globalisation contains a lot of different fields. One part is the process of word wide interaction and linking up between people, companies and nations. The interaction increases especially in the field of politic, economy, culture, environment and communication. This interaction effects individuals in the same way as institutions or societies.

A big topic of globalisation is the environment, the sustainable management of limited recourses. I will focus especially on the supply of water. The secure supply of portable water of high quality is the condition for life on earth. Politicians as Boutros Ghali prophesised the war on water already in 1885. Others believe that in the 21.century water will takeover the interest that oil had the 20. century (www1.bpb.de, Boutros Ghali:"Die Kriege der Zukunft werden um Wasser geführt").

Big parts of the world population still do not have access to healthy water. This water shortage will highly increase in the next years and wound stay a regional problem of developing countries. Water covers 75 % of the surface of the earth, but just 2,6 % of this water is freshwater and 0,6 % is usable, the rest is contained in the ice of glaciers or part of the eternal snow. The water deposit on earth is unchangeable but the regeneration cycle of water takes several of hundreds of years. Through water pollution and other reasons as highly usage of water in the agriculture sector and the unequal distribution of goods in general this water shortage will be one of the biggest problems to be solved in the next years, to secure human living. With complex and costly methods attempts are made to compensate the approaching shortage. For example plans are made for river-linking in Spain, or the construction of pipelines from Canada to California.

An other problem is the privatisation of the public water supply, caused through financial straits. Private investors have the chance to control the water supply and gain power over the formation of price and this will cause the widen of the gap between rich and poor. The process of privatisation in the last years always was a process of loosing codetermination of the population too. The interests of big companies were more important than civil rights.

To solve the upcoming water problem the whole world has to work together to pursuit the goal of a world wide and equal water supply.

Loewe,Jens: Das Wasser Syndikat.Dornach 2007 http://www.unesco.org/water/

Josef Nový
Integration and tolerance

The aim of this essay is to bring information about some aspects of Muslim integration process in Europe. The trigger of writing the text was one of many videos on Youtube suggesting that Muslim immigrants destroy our continent and are a threat for all the Europeans. I cited two scholars' works – Sami Zemni and Timothy Savage.

One of the things people are afraid to loose because of the inflow of immigrants is European identity. This abstract unit is very hard to define and it is the first issue this text deals with.

Multicultural Europe has to be Europe for everyone. To include all citizens in the process of creating it is another important topic.

Generalization is the enemy of tolerance. We should not make snap judgements and create prejudice.

One of the concrete affairs that is closely related to the topic is the French conflict considering Muslim girls wearing scarves. The essay will hopefully make someone think about these matters and maybe read more sources to understand it.

Julia Wolter
Society and Globalization

How is the individual to be defined in a globalized world? The article discusses the role of society and how determinates are changing. Where do national borders end in the Globalization processes and how are individuality and society embedded in the process? How much power lies in the individuals of a society, or is everyone powerless, because of the increasingly process of Globalization, which seems to be nearly intangible. Might this feeling of powerlessness be accepted as an apology for the ignorance of individually responsibility? The role of consumers' choices could in this concern take an important part to strenghten the individual consciousnesss, and maybe even the society's.

Svea Marie Wehling
(Svea Wehling: Justifiable Risk or headless Fear? The Difference between experienced and factual Disadvantages of a Process called Globalisation)

Are the concerns we have in terms of the globalisation process in accordance with the actual problems? Or do we stand in our own light and our appraisal is blurred by the fear of personal disadvantages? If so, what are the real problems we need to solve and how are we ought to identify them?

This essay is supposed to allow the reader another view on which issues the world actually has to fear and which we do fear. After outlining the importance of definitions, since globalisation and its associated terms are as diverse as the process of globalisation itself, this essay will evaluate the connection between the actual risks and experienced fears, such as the reduction of jobs, cultural conflicts and environment protection and put them into a global context. It will provide different arguments and analyses on which of these fears differ from the actual risks the modern society has to face. After examining the major concerns and risks it will refer to whom the term "society“ eventually refers and who consequently is affected by the globalisation and draw conclusions on the resulting required action steps.

Ilknur Yilmaz
Security – global safety or collective danger?

Abstract

This part first gives an introduction about the term “globalisation” in general, concerning the difficulty of its definition and its perimeter. Furthermore this introduction deals with the current process and the actuality of globalisation, besides the different areas that are affected by this term of globalisation and its process. After this introduction this elaboration gives an insight into the topic of security within this process of globalisation. Thus it is about how the global security is affected by this process, that is to say the chances and risk that appear for the globalised world are mentioned. After clarifying the conditions of globalisation, the security risks that result from the process will be illustrated. This leads to a short description of the necessity of solutions on national just as international level, to guarantee a safe and stable living all over the world. This elaboration terminates with a conclusion that should make clear the difficulty of achieving global security and safety, and the unpredictable effects and consequences of security arrangements.

Lina Samoske
Sustainable Energy

Solar Energy

Abstract – Sustainable Energy – Solar Energy

In the face of the climate change and the narrowness of the fossil resources it is clear that the sustainable energies like water, wind and the sun belong to the future.

The text „Solar energy“ will give a short introduction of different systems for using sustainable energy and will also clarify that globalisation and the climate change has a lot to do with the narrowness of the fossil resources like oil. The essay demonstrates the disadvantages and advantages of different systems, it will go into detail of solar energy and it shows that not every system is ecologically worthwhile for each country. At the end there will be a perceptive in the future, what the politicians and companies do for using sustainable energy.

In conclusion there can be said that there is still a lot of work to do that every country invest in our earth and is using sustainable energy systems. Also a lot has already happened in the past twenty years.

Fabian Siggemann
Shaping globalization: Braindrain in times of globalization

Globalization is a very far-reaching concept. It is defined differently by people around the world. People from the area of policy define it differently than people from the industry. Fact is, therefore, that globalization affects everyone. Globalization brings benefits and disadvantages for everyone. Mezricky described globalization as "an uncontrolled process." (Václav Mezricky. The nature of globalization. Global actors and driving forces. 2006). An important step towards globalization was the regulation for the conversion of other currencies to the dollar from 1971-1973. Companies now could trade easier over the borders of their countries to other countries. It emerged multinational corporations. (Václav Mezricky. The nature of globalization. Global actors and driving forces. 2006). International organizations were founded. Furthermore the loosening of borders between countries could be seen in the context of globalization. Almost free travel was now offered internationally. The developing of communication technology makes it possible to exchange information rapidly. Globalization involves four types of activities: development, stretching, intensification, speeding up and growing Extensity. These four areas influence each other, the developments in communication technology influence the expansion or the growing Extensity of global organizations. (Held, McGrew, 2008, p. 2) If, according to Held affect all areas of globalization, then it could be that globalization also brings disadvantages.

Globalization in its current speed overwhelms the adaptability of many people. In the western industrialized countries, many workers are facing unemployment or have been affected. For older workers, it is difficult to adapt to the new situation. A whole generation of workers thus falls into a deep crisis.

In developing countries, many people feel that they can’t prosper. In those countries, although come to something, but this is unevenly distributed. There are extremely rich man on the other hand, many very poor people living in slums. In the coming years we will recognize where the globalization will lead us. Economic crisis will bring us to other ways that we previously believed not to go.

Abstract

Developed countries use migration to gain advantage in the globalized economy. But the developing countries can also benefit from the migration, if the diaspora transfers money or know-how in their home home country. Emigration of creative minds from developing countries brings rather disadvantages in the short term but in the medium and long term enormous benefits. These advantages and disadvantages will be discussed in the text and explained chances of emigration. Examples will be given which shows us the chances. India is one developing country which shows us many benefits of migration in part of globalization. Not only industrialized countries enjoy the benefits of migration, in return, the developing countries, too. The battle for the best brains were won by the industrialized countries but years later the developing countries get back more and more advantages.

Stefan Marx
National laws for global capital markets - A contradiction?

Capital markets are a place where different financial instruments are listed. Through globalisation this process has become very unclear and sophisticated. Also the quantity of money which is traded on capital markets has increased. As a result this trade has to be regulated. Primarily companies, supranational institutions and governments can influence capital markets. Governments are donors of framework conditions while companies choose where and in which way their money will be invested. Institutions like the IMF have the task to stabilize financial markets. Governments had the power to fix the conditions of the market. But the power relations between governments and companies have changed in recent times. Multicorporate enterprises gain more influence on conditions of the market, because of their huge financial power. Governments have to play along if they want to maintain jobs and tax receipts in the country. By reason of their global validity capital markets operate different from national markets. In fact capital markets can’t be regulated by national states because they operate globally. For this reason a supranational institution with wide warrants of regulation is required. Actual existing institutions’ structures are inappropriate to fulfill this task. The IMF could be equipped with more responsibilities or another institution could be built to get stable capital markets.

Irmawan Rahyadi
Global-labor, Risk or Opportunity?

As we live around "fast-flows" society, people interact, intersect, intermingle and intermix with each other. International policy portrays the world as a relationship within. Each member of this global village knows each other business just like the next-door neighbor. Each country has their own agenda to empower and develop the wealth of their inhabitant. The social nature of human as the inhabitant of country is to interact. The country as well needs to interact one another. The relationship between countries could be done through politic, economic, military, and educational type of interaction. Economic relationship between countries has been extensively increased due to the world financial condition. Every country tries out any opportunity to relate to international scheme in order to increase or maintain its welfare. Welfare affects people as a production factor. When one couldn’t taste welfare in their own area, he will seek out in the neighbor’s area. This phenomena lead to mobility of labor. Labor moves to other country to pursue better life on the other hand neglecting its own country welfare. The small quantity of labor mobility reduces the country welfare.

Jonas Schier
Food shortage - a global problem? - not finished article

The article will discuss the main reasons for and the consequences of massive food shortage.

List of possible sub-themes for the Global Risk Society theme