"Glocalization" is the Word for Business, Government and Community ... But Maybe "Translocal" is Better"Globalization" is more complicated than the concept's enthusiasts and critics have led us to believe. National governments see their power shifted "upwards," toward international markets and multilateral organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. Though nation-states remain the legal bearers of sovereignty, national governments stand by helplessly as borders that were once seemed defensible now are penetrated all but frictionlessly by flows of capital, ideas, weapons, drugs, people. That's globalization. It offers the promise of unprecedented economic growth, fueled by creative connections between the brightest and most innovative persons from around the world. It promises too a loss of control and of protections.
National governments at the same time see their powers and responsibilities shifted "downward," toward local governments and communities that often neither understand nor are prepared to cope with new demands and vulnerabilities. The problems we face in places such as Indianapolis are not local so much as they are global+local or glocal. It's an unattractive word, but it's what we have. (Well I am playing with "translocal," it is not quite so grating.)
National governments at the same time see their powers and responsibilities shifted "downward," toward local governments and communities that often neither understand nor are prepared to cope with new demands and vulnerabilities. The problems we face in places such as Indianapolis are not local so much as they are global+local or glocal. It's an unattractive word, but it's what we have. (Well I am playing with "translocal," it is not quite so grating.)
Glocalization means local problems unavoidably global as well. Immigration shows one way that globalization permeates every cranny of our lives: newocmers shape welfare policies, education, workforce development, crime control, and health care for everyone. And it isn't just the challenges local institutions have adapting to the presence of new languages and cultures. Newcomers still maintain ties to their former homes, which means that local events on the other side of the planet have an immediate impact on local lives here. You should get a flavor of this when Sara Allaei discusses global immigration February 27. Sara is assistant dean of international services at IUPUI, and every year deals with hundreds of students from other countries, some who wish to stay in the US after graduation, some who carry home with them the intellectual and ideological changes wrought by their Hoosier experience. 
To immigration add the hyper-pressures on local communities and families from trade, global shifts of jobs and investment, crazy religious arguments that swoosh untethered around the web ... no wonder so many find xenophobia a perfectly rational response.
Viewing our challenges as glocal can help redefine possible solutions. Take the recent conference on Indiana and China being held by Indiana State University's Network Financial Institute. As lunch speaker Jack Perkowski noted, just the sudden eruption of China and India onto the global playingfield represents an expansion of the world workforce by 2 billion people, how could that not transform everything beyond all recognition? According to Perkowski, China's biggest imapct will not be its vast resevoirs of cheap labor ... its impact will come when it emerges as a technological innovator, and when the rest of the world is forced to adopt Chinese ways of defining and solving problems in order to survive competition. A global perspective would tell Hoosier businesses that they should invest in China, or prepare for competition from Chinese companies.
I suppose a local perspective would warn Hoosiers that if Indiana companies aren't prepared for this competition, local communities and families will hurt. This was the view of members of my panel, all MUCH better qualified than me to explain what would be necessary for Indiana to prosper from the global competition. The good news is that Indiana seems to be doing most of the right things locally to attract global investment -- infrastructure investments, tax policies, nurturing relations around the world, and so on -- so our economy should be all right.
A glocal perspective will emphasize that particular local players in China -- local firms, city governments, provincial universities -- could matter a great deal to local counterparts in Indiana. Seeing this situation as an instance of glocalization forces us to think about local-to-local connections, independently of national governments, in an environment that is shaped by not determined by international institutions. "Translocal," maybe the concept does make sense.
The idea of translocal in some ways forces us to revise the old ecologists' mantra "think globally, act locally." We have to think locally with global linkages. The upcoming discussions of human-induced global climate change are sure to emphasize that in human history, the main cause of mass migrations has been climate changes that prevent groups of people from being able to make a living. Under the old paradigm of "think global act local," the expectation was that by changing our behavior at the local level -- cutting down local carbon emissions, for instance -- global improvements would result. Or perhaps by voting locally for Green-friendly politicians, beneficial global polices might be adopted.
The idea of translocal in some ways forces us to revise the old ecologists' mantra "think globally, act locally." We have to think locally with global linkages. The upcoming discussions of human-induced global climate change are sure to emphasize that in human history, the main cause of mass migrations has been climate changes that prevent groups of people from being able to make a living. Under the old paradigm of "think global act local," the expectation was that by changing our behavior at the local level -- cutting down local carbon emissions, for instance -- global improvements would result. Or perhaps by voting locally for Green-friendly politicians, beneficial global polices might be adopted.
This idea of translocal points in a different level. We can prepare ourselves locally for global climate change (Floridians, build your houses on stilts). Better, we can identify localities across the planet that will be hurt by global climate change, and help those communities prepare. Or we can anticipate large numbers of ecological refugees, and prepare our communities for absorbing them. Or prepare those living in environmentally precarious areas to adapt to our communities before climate changes drive them from their homes. I think Susan Erickson might explore these idea when she discusses global migration patterns on February 14.
Let's try this framework with another "Great Decisions" topic, Central Asia. In a global framework, Central Asia matters to Hoosiers because its large reserves of oil and natural gas will be needed to keep the global petro-economy (of which Indiana is part) humming. But without a glocal perspective, it's difficult to understand the particular vulnerability of Central Asian regimes to radical Islam, which provides local grievances in Uzbekistan with a global (or even cosmic) ideological framework. Such a view shows how the US government's global war on terrorism is held hostage to local clan politics in Uzbekistan. And a translocal perspective might give us hope that perhaps by educating young Uzbek college students in the Hoosier Heartland, we might help shape a more democratic future for their country when they go back home.
Glocal and translocal perspectives also change our way of thinking about the moral aspects of business. Butler's Center for Faith and Vocation has a series of discussions of issues such as "trust and business" and "capitalism and the common good" that are even more relevant when we recognize that every day we experience the intersection of possibly incompatible local definitions of "trust" and "common good." The global perspective of a Sam Huntington would warn about the "clash of civilizations." A translocal view would treat contending local views of family and faith, good and evil as opportunities for exploration and deepening of both sets of views. What the result might be, I know not.
I'll play around some more with "translocal" and see what develops.
A good study of the glocal aspects of migration, see the report by the UN's "Global Commission on International Migration."
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