Volume 7, Issue 3 -

Combining literature on transnational families, migrant workers, and expatriates, I suggest a reconceptualization of military service personnel’s labour during overseas deployment as transnational. Further, I argue that during deployments, military families are thus transnational families who experience unique issues related to their geographical separation. To illustrate this, I explore the way in which military families access information and communications technology in order to maintain relationships across geographical distances, emphasizing the emotional labour of military service personnel and their families. I conclude that conceiving of military service personnel as transnational labourers enables a more nuanced understanding of transnational labour in the context of globalization, one which acknowledges a “grey area” between an ideological dichotomy that places poor manual labourers from developing countries (migrants) in contrast to rich knowledge workers from developed countries (expatriates) with little recognition of the diversity of transnational lives in between.

Ideologically, the two projects of globalization and sustainable development are informed by totally different sets of principles and values. This article launches a thorough conceptual and theoretical juxtaposition of these two projects, which shows that these two phenomena overlap structurally but diverge ideologically on a number of economic, social, and ecological issues. In essence, the juxtaposition between globalization and sustainable development provides an illuminating insight into the structural affinity as well as the subsequent potential clashes between the two. This article examines the different aspects of affinity between these two projects, analyses the most significant differences and contradictions between the two, and analyses potential solutions to harness globalization forces to sustainability. By conducting such a critical comparative analysis of these two projects, a deeper insight is gained with regard to any potential that would make them mutually supportive rather than mutually exclusive.

Globalization, as a process of intensified interaction and integration between different economies, polities and societies, has sharpened many conflicting arguments that arise regarding the balance between economic development and environmental quality, the character of environmental transformation and policy responses, and the linkages between global processes and domestic environmental rights, opinions, and beliefs. Does globalization contribute to increased economic opportunities and policy innovation, or does it drive environmental degradation and instability? Why do some emerging economies amplify the imbalance between economic growth and environmental protection while others produce a turning point toward environmental responsibility? Building on the framework of Theodore Panayotou, this article traces the main linkages between globalization and the environment and focuses on five effects of globalization in China, India and Brazil: scale effects, institutional effects, technology/product effects, policy effects, and societal effects. It argues that globalization accelerates structural, institutional and societal change in these emerging powers thus altering their industrial and policy structure, resource use patterns, and most importantly the awareness and responses to environmental degradation. The article also finds that globalization conducts and amplifies market and policy imperfections that may spread and exacerbate environmental damage, yet it also generates pressures for reform from environmental movements generating opportunities and attracting international interest.

Using the examples of Detroit and Germany’s Ruhr Region, the photo essay addresses the challenges former industrial centers across the United States and Europe are confronted with at the end of production: shrinking populations, the loss of jobs and the decay of industrial sites. One popular narrative about de-industrialization in both Detroit and the Ruhr is the idea of a “rebirth through culture” following the discovery by the so-called creative class. While the media discourse is more or less similar, dealing with processes of structural change always still needs to be locally specific–there is as of yet no standard recipe for reviving these cities, and changing their image in the face of increasingly “global” demands remains difficult.