Chapter Review: Globalisation, New Technology and Transformation For many, globalization, the increasing integration of product, service, financial, and labor markets, is at the core of the economic and social transformation of the last 25 years. To be sure, the extent of globalization is new and unprecedented and it is easy to view globalization as the primary source of these changes. But while the extension of markets beyond national borders has accelerated structural economic change, the real fundamental changes in societies and economies has been the development of information and communications technologies (ICT). In a recent book, Social Justice in the Global Age, edited by the London-based think tank Policy Network, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) President Rob Atkinson argues that it is the ICT revolution and not globalization, that is at the core of recent social and economic transformation. In his chapter, "Globalisation, New Technology and Transformation," Atkinson points out that in order to achieve the full potential of globalization, global organizations like the World Bank, IMF, and U.S. Agency for International Development need to stop promoting export-led growth as the key to national development. Instead, their efforts need to focus on aiding nations to move away from negative-sum trade policies and encourage policies geared more toward domestic productivity and widely shared growth. Atkinson argues that the economic transformations of the last 25 years have occurred on a regular basis over the last several hundred years. At their heart are technological developments that have made dramatic social and economic transformations possible. He examines how the last great economic transformation from a regional factory economy to the nation-wide mass production corporate economy led to the same kinds of economic restructuring we have witnessed over the last 25 years. The difference being that now the restructuring is global, not national. Atkinson goes on to argue that it is the new technology-driven economy that is driving not only globalization, but many of the economic effects generally attributed to globalization. In other words, while globalization has had an impact on industrial change, economic dislocation, and income inequality, those changes are due to a more technology-driven transformation to a new economy rather than globalization itself. To read the chapter in its entirety, or access the whole book, go to http://www.itif.org/files/Atkinson_chapter.pdf |