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Globalisation of markets

The amount of economic activity taking place across national boundaries continues to increase as the ease of international trade has restructured the global economy. Economic power is shifting away from traditional dominant economies and towards the ‘BRIC’ nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

What are the implications?

• Increase in global population movements and the emergence of a global middle class as the populations of developing countries become more affluent leading to a more diverse UK population.
• Diaspora communities in the UK may increasingly raise awareness of issues and create innovative campaigns focused on their countries of origin.
• Increase in international travel.
• Global competition is driving a shift towards a service industry and a ‘knowledge economy’ in the UK impacting on the UK economy and the latter leading to an increasing demand for highly skilled staff. (See labour market)
• Competition alongside economic migration may erode wages, conditions and job security in some sectors.
• Increase in services that can be provided remotely may be off-shored facilitated by lowering costs of ICT.
• Internationalisation of public services, particularly for health.
• Growing levels of inequality both between and within countries in both the North and the South.
• Global competition and the ease with which businesses and individuals can move locations may reduce the power of government to increase taxes or take other measures to address inequality.
• Increased investment in the UK economy as one of the most open in the North, impacting on interest rates.
• The growth of the global economy, particularly in developing nations, is putting more pressure on resources, which feeds through into inflation in energy prices and raw materials. (See global resource constraints).
• Growth in international campaigns and movements.

Moving forward

This driver does not have direct implications for VCOs but it will impact on the other drivers listed below as well as many others. (There is often a relationship or interdependency between different drivers, which may be important to your organisation. As you scan each driver, it is important to think about its relationship or influence on others; if drivers are linked, then you need to think laterally to draw in all those that may be relevant.)

• Global resource constraints
• Global population movements
• Interest rates
• Labour market
• International campaigns and movements
• Ethnic, cultural and religious diversity

However, here are some questions for your organisation to consider:

• As competition for skills increases, is your organisation able to take advantage of the global talent pool by attracting new migrants or workers from overseas? 
• If globalisation is considered by government as restricting their freedom to address inequality, which campaigning strategies will be most effective for social justice organisations?

Want to know more?

This driver is a stub and will be completed soon.  Here we will link to external documents and resources for further reading.