Made Only in India by Kapur Anu;

Author:Kapur, Anu;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2009-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

5 Resurrecting Place goods

DOI: 10.4324/9781315665313-5

The winds of recent globalisation which began to blow near the end of the twentieth century resurrected the value of place goods. How could this be possible since a claim often made is that globalisation denied, if not obliterated, the role and presence of the local and the different? To draw a conclusion one needs to see the two-way impact of globalisation.

On the one hand, globalisation involves an unrestricted flow of goods, capital and people across the world. It channels and sustains itself through trade, finance and communication. The impact of this unhindered flow has been the possibility of propagating and implementing a similar set of dominant ideas across the globe. Take the case of architecture. The world over, the design and material for construction of buildings especially in leading urban centres is acquiring a similar kind of look. The Marriot Hotel in India, Los Angles or London is no different from the other. Shopping malls, airport or and even residential apartments carry features that starkly are ‘look alikes’. The type of clothes people wear, food they consume or their style of life carry many common features and characteristics. In the sphere of agriculture too one can see extensive areas of row after row of the same crop. Monoculture is the rule for agricultural production. Through these examples it may seem that the forces of globalisation have come close to creating a world where variety and diversity are becoming irrelevant and insignificant. Here one is reminded of Norberg-Schulz’s 1969 terse phrase ‘flat scape’, a world where heterogeneity and spatial variations are lost and forever gone (Relph, 1976). Some of the forces encouraging this ‘flattening’ are technological innovations like the World Wide Web permitting uploading and downloading of data and software from anywhere in the world, and processes such as outsourcing, offshoring, supply chaining or even online shopping through eBay or the Amazon website (Friedman, 2005). Therefore as identical goods, services and messages are being circulated all over the world, differences it seems are being washed over. Seen in this context theoutcome of globalisation is a world in which the sense of placelessness is augmented and the particularity of places is reduced.

Therefore one could conclude that globalisation dilutes, if not denies, the presence and role of the local, the different, which is at the heart of place goods. But this is far from a complete picture. On the flip side, the context of globalisation has in fact helped enhance and recover the value of place and with it place goods. There are many evidences in support of the fact that with globalisation spatial variations emerge strong and have not been ironed out.

The ruin wrought by the practice of monoculture is an example. The wholesale dominance of one high-bred crop and its demands of water and chemicals has led to the decline in the level of ground water and increased chemical pollution which has poisoned food chains and led to the proliferation of pests along with the declining indicators of human and environmental health.

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