Globalisation: The Arch-Enemy?

Author(s): Lene Sjrup

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 5, No. 10, The International Women's Health
Movement (Nov., 1997), pp. 93-98
Published by: Reproductive Health Matters (RHM)
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93
\ T the 8th International Women and Health
t\ Meeting in Rio de Janeiro in March 1997, a
A\ declaration from the meeting was made,
1 the Gloria Declaration, named after the
hotel where it was held. This document identified
two major systemic obstacles to achieving women's
health and rights: globalisation of the market
economy and religious fundamentalism. In many
presentations, interventions and comments made
during the meeting, these two obstacles were
mentioned. using the short-hand of 'globalisa-
tion' and 'fundamentalism'. I wish to focus in this
paper on 'globalisation', arguing that:
* 'globalisation' is so broad a category that it
becomes virtually useless as an analytical tool
if it is not examined, discussed and defined;
* too narrow an understanding of globalisation
may paint a picture of an overwhelming, inter-
national enemy and present women as victims;
* integratirlg 'the enemy' will strengthen the
international feminist movement as a global
political actor.
Globalisation
Loosely defined, globallsation means that the
world is becoming compressed into 'a sillgle
space'.l When McLuhan first talked about 'the
global village' in the 1960st he was referring to
how the media was becoming more globalised by
the day. More recently, the term has been applied
in an increasing number of ways until by now, it
has itself become part of 'global consciousness'.
Yet globalisation - as well as de-globalisation -
are at least as old as the rise of the so-called world
religions, as Robertson points out.1
A number of researchers refer to globalisation
in its economic aspect, and this is also what the
Gloria Declaration mainly does. Globalisation in
this context means a global and liberal market
economyZ as well as the appllcation of structural
adjustment policies. I have no problems with the
economic analysis in the Gloria Declaration,
which states that:
i... globalisation of production and of Snance
markets, structural adjustment policies, and the
growing economic crisis in many of our countries
have led to severe cutbacks in public health
services. The pursuit of cost recovery and user
fees as methods of financing the health sectort
reduced access and growing inequality in access
and in health outcomes, growingprivatisation of
servicesw lack of balance between health educa-
tion, prevention and treatment of illness and
disease, and the lowering of standards... are
other direct results of globalisation. '
I consider it a form of modern slavery when
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean,
Africa and Asia, which received a total of US$
S-0taXCatloBo | AtktA-3Xemy?
Lene Sj0rup
This paper analyses the meaning of the term sglobalisation', often used by feminists as shorthand
for the negative effects of the market economy and structural adjustmentpolicies on women and
health It argues for a broader approach to globalisation that combines an understanding of the
ways in which people, information, images, goods, money, and ideas are increasingly moving
around the world. Women are not only sometimes victims of this process but can also benefit
from it and participate in it as actors. The paper also shows howpeople and ideas are transformed
when movingback and forth from the level ofthe individual through to the global level. Using the
example of Catholicism, it argues that the universalist teaching of the Vatican on women 's sexual
and reproductive situation and needs is completely out of dateo and thatbecause of globalisation
Catholic beliefs have become more multifaceted than simply what the Vatican teaches. The paper
urges a more complex feminist analysis of how 'globalisation' affects and involves women and the
application of that analysis in political action.
94
20rup
458.1 billion in loans and paid back US$ 1.167
trillion in amortisation
and service
charges
as of
1988, still owe more than US$ 2 trillion to the
North.2 Since 1987, the economic
North has been
enriched
by US$ 50 billion
annually
in net
transfers
from the South.:9
This economic
slavery
has led to structural
adjustment
policies
and the
deterioration
in health services
described
very
well in the Gloria document.
However,
it might be politically
more inter-
esting to understand
globalisation
as a broader
concept
than its application
in neo-liberal
economic
policies.
Discussions
on the meaning
of globalisation
have been engaged
in issues
such as worldwide
information
systems,
global
patterns
of consumption,
the development
of
cosmopolitan
lifestylest
global
sports
events
like the Olympic
games, tourism,
the declining
influence
of the nation state, the growth
of global
military
systems
like NATO, the worldwide
ecological
crisis,
global
epidemics
like HIV/
AIDSr
worldwide
political
systems
like the
United
Nations,
global political
ideologies
like
Marxism,
worldwide
religious
movements,
and
migration.4
In shortt the concept
of globalisation
is applied
and used extensively.
There are two main theoretical
tendencies
in interpreting
the effects of globalisation.
One,
following
Wallerstein's
theory
of world systems,5
focuses
on capitalist
economy
and sees globalisa-
tion as an increasing
homogenisation,
or as some
call it, a coca-cola-nisation.6
If women's
sexual
and reproductive
health and rights are under-
stood mainly from this perspective,
they will be
understood
mainly in economic
terms, and par-
ticularly
in terms of the criticism
of neo-liberal
economics,
which gives one - valuable
- tool for
understanding
those issues.
The other theory,
put forward
by Appadurai,7
sees glolDalisation
from a broader
cultural
per-
spective,
in which globalisation
means increasing
differentiation.
In this sense,
women's
sexual and
reproductive
health and rights
may be under-
stood from both a global and a local perspective
simultaneously.
I would suggest
the application
of this approach
because
by using it, women's
roles as political
actors can be stressed.
A cultural
approach
to globalisation
combines
an understanding
of the different
areas and levels
of the meaning
of 'global'.
ThuSr according
to
Appadurai,
globalisation
touches
upon five main
areas,
what he calls ethnoscapes,
mediascapest
technoscapes,
finanscapes,
and ideoscapes.
When Appadurai
chooses
the suffix '-scape',
he
does so in order to indicate
that these are deeply
perspectival
constructso
dependent
upon local
perspectives.
By ethnoscape,
Appadurai
means:
'the landscape
of persons
who constitute
the
shifting
world in which we live: tourists,
immi-
grants, refugeeso
exiles, guestworkers
and other
moving
groups...
(who) appear
to affect the
politics
of and between
nations
to a hitherto
unprecedented
degree. ' 7
Mediascapes
refer both to the electronic
cap-
abilities
of producing
and spreading
narrative
information
through
newspapers,
radio and
television,
film, etc. and the images
created
by
these media which accompany
these narratives,
which are sent to viewers
all over the world.
When I visited Easter Island in 1997, for example,
people
were watching
the programme
'Dollars'.
These
mediascapes
construct
images
of 'the
other', of possible
lives and of fantasies.
Technoscapes
are about
how technology
moves across
borders,
not driven by political
control
or market rationality,
but by 'increasingly
complex
relationships
between
money flows,
political
possibilities
and the availability
of both
low and highly-skilled
labourt.
India,
for
example,
exports
software
engineers
to the USA.
The finanscape
is the increasingly
complex
land-
scape of currency
markets,
national
stock ex-
changes
and commodity
speculation,
in which
people and goods
move unpredictably
and with
megaspeed
around the globe.
Finally,
ideoscape
refers to the way irl which
'master-narratives)
and political
keywordst
for
example
'democracy',
are translated
from context
to context
and resonate
differently
in each placeo
eg. in Poland as compared
to India. Ideoscapes
become
increasingly
fluid as growing
diasporas
of intellectuals
supply
new meanings
to these
narratives
and keywords
in different
parts of the
world.
Each of these five areas expands,
has its
own logic and becomes
every day more global,
as people,
machinery,
money, images
and ideas
influence
'the global'.
Even so, they are not
homogeneous
all over the world.
On the
contrary,
they collide
with each other and are
transformed
locally.
The global is interpreted
locally,
through
what Appadurai
calls Xlocal
95
Reproductive Health Matters, No 10, November 1997
imaginations'. For example Spanish television
carrying news from Latin America creates a
global Spanish-speaking landscape, but in Spain
the news is interpreted through Spanish, and not
Latin American, eyes. The point is that these local
imaginations strengthen globalisation because
they all feed into the same globalisation process.
Globalisation may also be seen at different
levels. According to Robertson, four interacting
levels can be distinguished: the level of selves
interacts with national societies, the world
system of societies and humankind. In this model
the 'global' is not primarily thought of as a stable
system. Further, this model stresses that political
power must not be understood as being located
in one centre. On the contrary, changes at any
one of the four levels may influence the entire
field. The self is not only seen as an isolated
individual but as interacting with the nation, the
world system of nations and humankind, and as
such may influence each of these levels.1
The inter-relationship between these four
levels means a general transformation; the indi-
vidual, constantly being confronted with other
realities than the ones she was brought up in, has
an identity problem. Her world is no longer one.
The nation, too, is altered by the world system of
societies. This, in turn, is transformed by individ-
uals, by nations, as well as by humankind,
because realpolitik collides with all of these other
levels, all of which arises from globalisation. This
complexity is neither bad nor good; it trans-
gresses this binary form of thinking.
This is what I mean when I say that if
'globalisation' is not to be used as a put-down,
but as an analytical term, it has to be discussed in
terms of all the different ways that the world is
becoming one village. An important part of the
complexities of globalisation is the fact that
women may be victims in one respect, while
being global actors in other respects.
Globalisation and women's sexual and
reproductive health and rights
What does this analysis mean in relation to
women?Looking first at the global economy, let
me briefly analyse women in the 'finanscapes'
as an example.
While the currency markets, national stock
96
sj0rup
exchanges, and commodity speculations are
mostly handled by men, the economic land-
scapes are not just exterior forces which crash
upon women. They may hit women harder than
any other group of people, but even this is not
unambiguous. Women also participate in these
scapes. Women - the largest consumer group in
the world - deliberately buy goods where they
are cheapest. How many of us - not only in the
North but also in the South - do not drive up to
the big city malls and fill our cars with cheap
goods, thereby helping to turn over the market to
transnational companies who can outdistance
local markets?How many of us do not buy cheap,
imported clothes, thereby creating local unem-
ployment among women garment workers?
Further, many women also migrate to where
there are jobs and where money can be earned,
they partake in the finanscapes at a number of
complicated levels.
As women are situated everywhere and in all
the landscapes of the global, our reproductive
health and rights are also influenced by global-
isation. It came as a shock to many, for example,
that the Vatican, together with a number of
nations dominated by the religious right, actually
took part in the negotiations at the International
Conference on Population and Development in
Cairo in 1994, as well as at the Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 I
have elsewhere8 discussed the strategies of the
Vatican at Beijing. I shall restrict myself here
to analysing how the Vatican is situated as a
political actor at the various levels and scapes of
the global in relation to women's reproductive
health and rights.
Christianity is the worldts leading religion. In
1995 there were almost two billion Christians,
as compared with 1.1 billion Muslims, in a world
population of 5.7 billion.9 Among the Christians,
Roman Catholics were the majority, with almost
one billion faithful. No other world religion
holds as much power as the hierarchical Roman
Catholic church: it is present at the level of
individuals, nations, the world system of nations
and in relation to humankind. It is global in the
sense that it influences the four levels of the
global profoundly. This means that its teachings
on women, sexuality and reproduction not only
touch the lives of individual Catholics, particu-
larly at the liminal moments of birth, marriage
and death, but also through national politics, UN
negotiations and the idea of humankind. An
example of this was the role of the Holy See at
Beijing where we witnessed a complicated inter-
play between individual faith, politicians, national
politics and the formulation of a global ethics.
However, this kind of globalised religion
is, in another sense, very fragile. The teachings
and the techniques through which the hier-
archical church is upheld were countered by
other kinds of global discourses, feminist among
others. A global event such as the Fourth World
Conference on Women not only exposes the
fragility of the core teachings of the Vatican but
also clearly demonstrates the numerous local
imaginations of Roman Catholicism. This clash
between the global and the local does influence
hierarchical church power.
Catholics for a Free Choice, as a dissenting
Catholic organisation, stamps the main teach-
ings of the Vatican on women's sexual and
reproductive health and rights as patriarchal.
Nations with a majority of Roman Catholics who
do not follow the Holy See also demonstrate
the lack of coherence of Catholicism. States
dominated by Catholicism which have chosen
different policies from the Vatican in relation to
abortion, contraception, sex education and so on
weaken the teaching of the hierarchical church in
the local political arena. The local imaginations
of Catholicism, although they transform Church
power, at the same time confirm the globalism
of Catholicism, which is simply interpreted in
much broader ways. However, this also places
the hierarchical church on the sidelines as only
one form of Catholicism among others.
Therefore, when the Holy See is seen as
representing an overwhelmingly powerful global
organisation which is threatening women's
rights, a 'female victim' story may be told which
does not concur with the multifaceted nature
of the globality of the Catholic church. In other
words, Catholicism must not be falsely inter-
preted as being only one organisation.
In the changing global landscape of persons
who travel in the ethnoscapes as immigrants,
refugees, exiles and guestworkers, the Catholic
church apparently represents one common point
of identity: its teachings are global, as is the
saying of mass; very many priests and nuns have
travelled widely and understand the challenge of
the crossing of borders for people's sense of self-
identity. However, the hierarchical church does
97
Reproductive Health Matters, No 10, November 1997
not accept the particular problems which this
poses for women's reproductive and sexual
health and rights.
Being a nomad means that sex and repro-
duction are separated from geographical space.
Children, fields, partners and houses may be left
in one place, while money is made, safety is
sought, or studies are carried out in another. This
may be a temporary or a long-term division of
labour in any one family. This divison of labour
may also be divided according to gender and
age. It may lead to the establishment of com-
pletely new family formations, which may be
felt as liberating or frustrating. In the context of
global ethnoscapes, the universalist teaching of
the Vatican on women's sexual and reproductive
situation and needs is completely out of date.
New victim-stories?
Women are thus involved in globalisation at a
number of interlocking, diverse and sometimes
even contradictory levels. They may very well be
the victims of one aspect of globalisation, while
they remain central actors in other aspects. Why,
I ask myself, paint a picture of an overwhelming
enemy confronting women, when a more de-
tailed socio-religio-political analysis shows that
women participate in complicated ways in global
developments?Women surely are confronted
with a number of obstacles at many levels. But
why use a mega-term like 'globalisation' for
describing 'the' arch-enemy, instead of analysing
the many forms of oppression women face
within the process of globalisation, and including
those from which we also benefit?
Feminists have entered the international
scene and we can constitute and act as a multi-
faceted political force. We have also become
aware that while we may come together in order
to reach specific political goals, we do not always
agree on everything.l It is typical for political
campaigns to try to mobilise a constituency
through catch-words, slogans and easily under-
stood analyses which are repeated time and
again. As international political actors, however,
it would serve us well as feminists not only to
change the hegemonic content of mainstream
politics but also the style of mainstream political
campaigns. Influencing public opinion certainly
is important, but it must be done on the basis of
good political analysis. Let feminists not only
become politicians, but good politicians.
Correspondence
Lene Sj0rup, Centre for Development Research,
Gammel Kongejev 5, DK 1610 Copenhagen V,
Denmark. Fax: 45-33-25-81-10
References and Notes
1. Robertson R, 1992. Globalization:
Social Theory and Global
Culture. Sage Publications,
London.
2. World Debt Tables: External
Finance for Developing
Countries. Vol 1. World Bank.
Washington DC, 1996.
3. World Economic Perspectives.
International Monetary Fund.
Washington DC, 1996. And see:
Isla, Miles, Molloy, 1996.
Stabilization/structural
adj ustment/restructuring.
Canadian feminist issues in a
global framework. Canadian
Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la
femme. 16(3).
4. Nyberg Sorensen N, 1995.
Globale dromme. Migration og
udvikling i et transnationalt
perspektiv. CUF Notat.
5. Wallerstein I, 1995. Culture as
the ideological battleground of
the modern world-system.
Global Culture. Nationalism,
Globalization and Modernity.
M Featherstone (ed). Sage
Publications, London.
6. Huntington S, 1996. The west
unique, not universal. Foreign
Aff2airs.
7. Appadurai A, 1995. Disjuncture
and difference in the global
cultural economy. Global
Culture. Nationalism,
Globalization and Modernity.
M Featherstone (ed). Sage
Publications, London.
8. Sj0rup L, 1997. Negotiating
ethics: the Holy See and the
Fourth World Conference on
Women, Beijing 1995. Feminist
Theology. 14(Jan):73-105.
9. Worldwide adherents of all
religions, mid-1995.
Encyclopaedia Britannica 1996.
Atheists numbered only 3.85
per cent of the world's
population.
10. Bunch C, Fried S, 1996. Beijing
'95: Moving women's human
rights from the margins to the
center. Signs. Autumn.
98
S.
J0rup
Resume
Cet article analyse le sens du mot "mon-
dialisation" souvent utilise par les feministess
pour designer en abrege les effets negatifs de
lteconomie de marche et des politiques
d'ajustement structurel sur les femmes et la
sante. I1 demande une approche plus large de la
mondialisation, combinant la comprehension
des manieres dont les individus, les informations,
les images, les biens et l'argent circulent de plus
en plus dans le monde entier, et ou les femmes
sont non seulement parfois des victimes, mais
aussi des beneficiaires et des participantes
actives. L'auteur montre egalement comment se
transforment les personnes et les idees quand
elles vont et viennent entre le niveau individuel et
le niveau mondial. Prenant ltexemple du
catholicisme, l'auteur estime que ltenseignement
universaliste du Vatican sur la situation et les
besoins de la femme sur les plans sexuel et
genesique est completement depasse, et que du
fait de la mondialisation, les convictions des
catholiques presentent des facettes beaucoup
plus diverses que n'en comporte ltenseignement
du Vatican. L'auteur demande instamment aux
feministes d'analyser les fa,cons multiples et
complexes dont la "mondialisation" affecte et
implique les femmes, et d'utiliser a bon escient
cette connaissance dans l'action politique.
Resumen
Este ensayo analiza el significado del termino
"globalizacion", utilizado con frecuencia por las
feministas como sinonimo de los efectos
negativos que sobre la mujer y su salud han
tenido la economia de mercado y las politicas de
ajuste estructural. E1 estudio aboga por una
definicion mas amplia del concepto de global-
. . t . . ..
lzaclon, que comblne una metor comprenslon de
la creciente movilizacion a nivel mundial de la
poblacion, la informacion, las imagenes, los
bienes, el dinero y las ideas; un hecho en el cual
las mujeres, ademas de ser victimas, son
protagonistas y beneficiarias. E1 articulo tambien
muestra la transformacion de la gente y las ideas
cuando se desplazan del nivel individual al nivel
global. Partiendo del ejemplo catolico, establece
que la ensenanza universalista del Vaticano
sobre la situacion y las necesidades de los
derechos sexuales y reproductivos de la mujer no
esta en sintonia con los tiempos que corren; aun
mas, senala que debido a la globalizacion, las
creencias catolicas tienen mayores facetas que lo
que indican las simples ensenanzas del Vaticano.
La autora exhorta a las feministas a analizar
como la "globalizacion" afecta y envuelve a la
mujer de forma compleja, y a utilizar adecua-
damente es e c ono cimiento en la ac cion politic a .