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Globalisation

infoWhy this? Globalisation explains the growing interdependence of places through flows of goods, services, money, information, and people. Tracing supply chains and examining transnational corporations, labour conditions, and fast fashion enables us to evaluate the uneven benefits, costs, and ethical implications of global production and consumption.

scheduleWhy now? Near the end of KS3, this unit brings together ideas developed through cities, tourism, migration, inequality, and environmental change. It allows us to trace connections across scales and evaluate complex trade-offs before applying these ideas explicitly in the final sustainability unit.

neurologyYou need to know

  • Globalisation is the process by which places, economies, and people become increasingly interconnected and interdependent through flows of goods, services, money, information, and people across national borders.
  • The world is more connected because improvements in transport, digital communication, and trade systems allow ideas, products, and decisions to move between places more quickly, cheaply, and at a larger scale.
  • Everyday items such as bananas grown in one country, clothes stitched in another, and mobile phones assembled from parts made in several countries show that consumption in one place depends on production in many others.
  • The main drivers of globalisation are trade, technological change, and improved transport, because these reduce barriers, lower costs, and speed up exchange between countries.
  • Containerisation has increased global trade because standardised containers can be transferred easily between ships, lorries, and trains, which reduces handling time, damage, and transport costs.
  • Developments such as larger container ships, air freight, fibre-optic cables, smartphones, and the internet have increased global connectivity by shrinking time and space.
  • A transnational corporation, or TNC, is a business that operates in more than one country by controlling or coordinating production, sales, services, or investment across international borders.
  • TNCs operate in multiple countries to reach larger markets, reduce production costs, access raw materials, benefit from lower taxes or fewer regulations, and spread risk across different locations.
  • A global supply chain is the sequence of stages through which a product is designed, sourced, manufactured, transported, marketed, sold, and disposed of across different countries.
  • Nike is a TNC that designs and markets sportswear globally while outsourcing much of its manufacturing to supplier factories in countries such as Vietnam, China, and Indonesia.
  • A typical T-shirt supply chain includes growing cotton, processing fibres, spinning yarn, weaving or knitting fabric, dyeing and finishing, cutting and stitching, transporting, retailing, and disposal or reuse.
  • Different countries contribute different stages of production because they have different labour costs, skills, technologies, raw materials, infrastructure, and access to consumer markets.
  • Global supply chains create interdependence because a disruption in one place, such as a factory closure, port delay, or shortage of raw materials, can affect businesses and consumers elsewhere.
  • Working conditions in some garment factories can include low pay, long hours, weak health and safety rules, insecure contracts, and limited worker rights.
  • The Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh in 2013 exposed unsafe factory conditions in the garment industry when the building collapsed and more than 1,100 people were killed.
  • Working conditions differ between countries because labour laws, enforcement, trade union strength, government priorities, levels of development, and pressure from buyers are not the same everywhere.
  • Fast fashion is a business model based on producing large volumes of low-cost clothing quickly to follow changing trends, while sustainable fashion aims to reduce environmental harm and improve social conditions across the product's life cycle.
  • Fast fashion can increase water use, chemical pollution, carbon emissions, textile waste, and exploitative labour practices, while sustainable strategies include using recycled or organic materials, improving factory standards, designing durable clothes, and encouraging repair, resale, and recycling.
  • Globalisation creates winners and losers because consumers and some businesses may gain from lower prices, wider choice, and jobs, while some workers, local firms, and environments may face exploitation, insecurity, or pollution.
  • Globalisation affects people and places at local, national, and global scales, and its overall impacts are uneven because the benefits and costs are not shared equally.

rocket_launchYou must be able to

  • Define globalisation using a geographical sentence that refers to increasing flows and interdependence between places, economies, and people.
  • Identify global connections in everyday products by tracing where raw materials, manufacturing, transport, retail, and consumption take place.
  • Explain how trade, transport, and ICT drive globalisation by linking each factor to lower costs, faster movement, or greater connectivity.
  • Use a named TNC example such as Nike to map a global supply chain and describe the role of each country or region in production and sale.
  • Sequence the stages of a T-shirt supply chain from raw material to disposal, using accurate geographical vocabulary such as sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and retail.
  • Compare working conditions in garment factories in different countries using evidence such as pay, hours, safety, and worker rights.
  • Assess ethical issues in globalisation by weighing benefits such as jobs and cheaper goods against costs such as unsafe labour conditions and environmental damage.
  • Evaluate the impacts of fast fashion and the usefulness of sustainable fashion strategies, reaching a supported judgement with specific evidence.
  • Judge who benefits and who loses out from globalisation at different scales, supporting conclusions with named examples and clear reasoning.


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