Power, places and networks

Globalization indices showing how countries participate in global interactions

Global superpowers and their economic, geopolitical and cultural influence

• Detailed examples of at least two actual or potential global superpowers

Powerful organizations and global groups:

• G7/8, G20 and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) groups

• Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) influence over energy policies

• global lending institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and New Development Bank (NDB)

Synthesis, evaluation and skills opportunities

How wealthy and powerful places exist at varying scales, and how the global map is complex and subject to change

An overview of contemporary global networks and flows:

• global trade in materials, manufactured goods and services

• an overview of international aid, loans and debt relief

• international remittances from economic migrants

• illegal flows, such as trafficked people, counterfeit goods and narcotics

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and outsourcing by transnational corporations (TNCs), and ways in which this networks places and markets

• Two contrasting detailed examples of TNCs and their global strategies and supply chains

Synthesis, evaluation and skills opportunities

The relative importance of different flows, and the suitability of different methods for graphically representing flows and interactions

Political factors that affect global interactions:

• multi-governmental organisations (MGOs) and free trade zones

• economic migration controls and rules

Our “shrinking world” and the forces driving technological innovation:

• changing global data flow patterns and trends

• transport developments over time

• patterns and trends in communication infrastructure and use

The influence of the physical environment on global interactions:

• natural resource availability

• the potentially limiting effect of geographic isolation, at varying scales

Synthesis, evaluation and skills opportunities

How processes that influence spatial interactions are interlinked in complex ways that accelerate globalization