Abstract
It is now common to argue that globalization has not been able to impose homogenizing effects but rather has brought forth a revitalization of the local. There are two types of complementary explanations for this. In the first place, changes in the socio-productive model and the means of regulation are argued. Enhanced by technological innovation in the field of communications, financial speculation has become the principal means of accumulation and, therefore, one of the principal expressions of globalization, bringing about a ‘visualization’ of the economy along with the ‘dematerialization’ of exchange.2 As a corollary, this domination has brought about a climate of uncertainty in productive investment that has been aggravated by the volatility of the markets while at the same time displacing production processes for consumption as the centre of social action.3 This more flexible socio-productive model has brought about the emergence of new regulatory formations whose fundamental characteristic is the local horizon allowing for greater adaptability to market, technological and cultural changes.4 This last point questions the relevancy of the nation-state as the regulatory space, par excellence, of the previous Fordist model while offering yet another line of arguing on behalf of the revitalization of the local.
This chapter is part of an on-going study conducted through the Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales — Programa El Salvador (FLACSO-Programa El Salvador).
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E. Swygendouw, ‘The Mammon quest: “Glocalization,” interspatial competition and the monetary order: the construction of new scales’, in M. Dunford and G. T. Kafkalas (eds), Cities and Regions in the New Europe: The Global-Local Interplay and Spatial Development Strategies (London: Bellhaven Press, 1992);
S. Lash and J. Urry, Economies of Signs and Space: After Organized Capitalism (London: Sage, 1993); P. G. Cerny, ‘Globalization and the Changing Logic of Collective Action’, International Organization, 49/4 (1995);
S. Griffith-Jones and B. Stallings, ‘New Global Financial Trends: Implications or Development’, in B. Stallings (ed.) Global Change, Regional Response: The New International Context of Development (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993f).
M. Castells and P. Hall, Technopoles of the World (London: Routledge, 1994).
Cerny, ‘Globalization’; W. I. Robinson, ‘Globalization: Nine Theses on Our Epoch’, Race and Class, 38/2 (1996); S. Sassen, Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
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S. Sassen, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).
F. Pyke and W. Sengenberger (eds), Industrial Districts and Local Economic Regeneration (Geneva: International Institute for Labour Studies, 1992); F. Pyke and J. Sensenbrenner, ‘Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Action’, American Journal of Sociology 98/6 (1993);
G. Benko and A. Lipietz, Regiones que ganan. Distritos y redes. Los nuevos paradigmas de la geografía económica (Valencia, Spain: Edicions Alfons El Magnanim, 1994).
A. Portes, ‘Transnational Communities: Their Emergence and Significance in the Contemporary World System’, Working Paper 16, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University (1995).
Concerning this point, see, among others, CEPAL (1991); E. Funkhouser, ‘Mass Emigration, Remittances and Economic Adjustment: The Case of El Salvador in the 1980s’, in R. Freeman and G, Borjas (eds), The Economic Effects of Immigration in Source and Receiving Countries (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1992); M. Lungo, K. Andrade-Eekhoff and S. Baires, ‘Migración internacional y desarrollo local’, in M. Lungo (ed.), Migracion internacional y desarrollo (San Salvador, El Salvador: FUNDE), 2; and A. Morales, Los territorios del cuajipal. Frontera y sociedad entre Nicaragua y Costa Rica (San José, Cost Rica: FLACSO).
Additionally there are the economies which relate to information and communication, fruits of the production of non-normalized goods, which can minimize the costs of transactions and that of labour, as a result of the availability of a considerable amount of qualified labour. J. Zeitlin, ‘Distritos industriales y regeneración economica local: visión general y comentarios’, in F. Pyke and W. Sengenberger (eds), Los distritos industriales y las pequñnas empresas, 3 (Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, 1993).
R. Riveria, Descentralización y gestión local en America Latina (San José, Costa Rica: FLACSO), 1996.
V. A. Orellana, El Salvador: Politicas de descentralización y capacidades de gestión administrativa y financiera de las municipalidades (San Salvador, El Salvador: FLACSO, 1997).
For Amin and Thirft this density is expressed in three ways. First, it has to do with institutional presence, or rather the existence of sufficient institutions of varying types such as businesses, local authorities, unions, etc. Second, this institutional thickness is not only an issue of magnitude but also the interaction between these institutions. As a corollary to this point, dominant local structures and/or coalitions of interest groups must be conformed which obtain collective representation and establish norms of economic conduct. And finally, there must be a consciousness which develops thereby allowing the actors to feel involved in a common enterprise. That is to say, that this institutional thickness looks toward the collectivization and corporativation of economic life in the corresponding locality. A. Amin and N. Thrift, ‘Globalization, Institutional Thickness and Local Prospects’, Revue d’Economie Regionale et Urbaine, 3 (1993). 27 This is not to imply that there are not other activities that play a protagonistic role in terms of local development as well as the configuration of a cohesive socio-territoriality thereby inducing sufficient institutional density. Nonetheless, in terms of employment, the artisan industrial activities in each of these communities carry great weight.
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Sáinz, J.P.P., Andrade-Eekhoff, K. (2000). Handicraft Communities in Globalization: Reflections from Salvadoran Experiences. In: Aulakh, P.S., Schechter, M.G. (eds) Rethinking Globalization(s). International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62425-6_9
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