It’s not what you know it’s who you know.....

This project will take you through a series of activities which will: 1.Help you understand where the power in the global economy is concentrated and why. 2.Develop your research skills3.Help you to work through a series of IT skills with support , at your own pace. 4.You must ask for help if you’re stuck, you are not expected to know it all, you’re here to learn!

Web quest – Going GlobalWhere is the power?

Where are the winners?

Firstly open a word document

Open up a word document and give it a heading:

Going Global - investigating the distribution of global economic power

Second you need a world map....

• Copy and paste it into “Paint”

Task 1 - Investigating the OECD & G8• Use the website to colour in the map (use the little bucket) to show

which countries are members of the OECD; http://www.oecd.org/ go to “by country” for the list.

• Find out from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OECD what the OECD is, when it was formed and why. Make a rough note.

• Now find out which countries are in the G8 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/3777557.stm . Are they also members of the OECD? Put them on your map in a different colour. Find out why this is a powerful group, make a rough note.

Task 1 continued• In your word document (page set up “Landscape” to give you more

space) put a heading OECD and the G8, copy and paste your map.

• Add a key:

• Add two text boxes (use draw tools) to explain what the OECD and G8 are, what they do and why they are important using your notes:

KEY

OECD

G8

The OEDC is

Task 1 continued - The Brandt line, North-South Divide

• Copy the North-South Divide (see above) onto your map (preferably in a different colour).

• The ‘Brandt Report’ published in 1980 used the line to illustrate the growing economic inequality between the rich North and developing South. The countries to the north of the line were the most economically powerful in 1980, has anything changed?

• Add a text box to the map to explain what the Brandt line was for and how the situation has changed since 1980.

Task 2 - Transnational Corporations (TNCs) – company power In your word document put a heading Transnational Corporations.

Transnational corporations are businesses which operate at a global scale. They are organised globally and owned by shareholders from around the world. Because of their complex operations it is very difficult to say where their product is “made”. Within a company there will be common management and working practices and communications systems (e.g. IT). The global economy is dominated by transnational corporations. They are the drivers of globalisation.

In your word document explain what Transnational Corporations are. Forbes.com collect data about the top 2000 public companies. They identify

where their home country is. Use the interactive map http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/01/biz_2000global08_map.html .

Task 2 continued Look at the map and answer the following questions in your word document:

Which parts of the world do not have top 2000 TNCs? Why do you think this is?

Choose one country from each region, click and find out how many companies are based there and what the largest TNC is:

North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, Oceania.

Use an excel spreadsheet to draw a bar chart showing the number of TNCs in each country.

Label the graph to show names of the largest companies (in text boxes). Describe and explain the pattern.

Task 3 - Rich people with global power Forbes collects information about the world’s billionaires

http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/05/richest-people-billionaires-billionaires08-cx_lk_0305billie_land.html . People with large fortunes are very important players in the global economy, they have vast amounts of money to invest and economists watch what they do to try to work out how to make more money themselves. Because they have made a fortune, they are seen as good people to follow.

The interactive map is useful because it shows where the richest people choose to live. http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/05/hometowns-networths-worlds-richest_billionaires08_map.html . You can right click on the map to zoom in or out. Where these people choose to live is seen as an indicator of the importance of the economy and quality of life around the world.

Add a new heading to your document The world’s richest people. Write a short paragraph to identify why these people are a good way of looking at

the global economy.

Task 3 continued Add a table to identify the five richest people and how they made their

fortune using Forbes:

Look carefully at the global pattern on the map showing where billionaires live and complete the following in your document (you can copy and paste, if you need the words they’re on the next page!):

Distribution of billionaires by region and country:

The richest ....................... in the world choose to live in a relatively .................... countries. The largest number of billionaires are found in ........................ and ..................... There are no billionaires at all in large areas of ................................ with the exception of countries such as Nigeria, ................................ and ............................... South America too has few billionaires, although the rapidly growing economy of ........................ is now home to almost 20 billionaires.

Large areas of Asia have ...................... numbers of ............................but the number is growing, particularly in ................................ and ..............................

Rank Name Source of wealth

1 Mr Rich ????

Task 3 continued

billionaires Brazil all USA Switzerland

Europe California people state China

Hong Kong Africa South Africa few Paris

London Mumbai New York low Moscow

Egypt India cities

Distribution within regions and countries:It is clear from the map that a few........................are very important locations for billionaires, this is where they can enjoy access to global business, good communications and a good quality of life. There are billionaires in almost every ................... of the USA, with a particularly large number on the east coast in ......................... and also in the west along the coast of ...............................in cities such as Los Angeles. In Western Europe there are billionaires in ................... countries with marked concentrations in the cities of ............................ and ................................. but also in the non-EU country of ............................. In Russia there are many billionaires, and they mostly choose to live in the capital, ....................... In Asia, the majority of the Indian billionaires choose to live in the increasingly important city of ................................., formerly known as Bombay, and in China the majority of the billionaires are concentrated in ................................The pattern of residence of the world’s richest people backs up the general pattern of global economic power.

Task 4 - World Cities A world city is important in the global economic system. Globalisation

is created and managed in the most important cities for finance and trade. The most complex cities have a big impact on global business, they influence the flows of money and goods between countries.

In your word document put a heading World Cities , in your own words explain what a world city is.

Being a world city is beneficial to development, and geographers rank cities according to their global influence. Get the ranking from the Globalization and World Cities Study Group (GAWC) based at Loughborough University http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/citylist.html .

Use the GAWC website . Draw a table in your word document and identify which of the cities are above or below the north south divide, right down to the score of 1:

Above N-S Divide Below N-S Divide

Alpha 12 point

Alpha 10 point

Task 4 continued • Copy the map again (from page 1 above) put it into your word

document . Give it a heading Map to show World Cities.

• Use the draw tools to add circles to the map showing rankings. The largest circles for Alpha World Cities scoring 12 down to smallest for Beta World Cities scoring 7. You can use colour to help and keep your circles quite small or it’ll be impossible! Use the GAWC website for the rankings http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/citylist.html

• Add a key to show what scores the circles represent.

• Now add the north-south divide (see above)

• Write a short paragraph:

• Describe the pattern of world cities,

• Explain the pattern