Question

The activity enables students to understand how globalisation has penetrated our lives and the impact the all-inclusive nature of globalisation has on an individual, a community and a nation as a whole.

STEPS

• Students are to list the names of products - food products, white goods, and luxuries, they are familiar with.
• Students are to write down their favourite TV programmes.
• The teacher is to collect the list and consolidate.
• Divide the classroom (into convenient groups) and assign each group a number of items (depends on how exhaustive the list is) and TV programmes.
• Let students find out who are the manufacturers of the products they use everyday and the makers/sponsors of their favourite TV programmes.
• The teacher is to (by involving students) classify the names of manufacturers and makers/sponsors collected by students into three categories: exclusive foreign companies; exclusive Indian companies; and companies working in collaboration.

Ideas for the Teacher

• The teacher is to debrief the students focussing on: How globalisation has been impacting our lives.
• Drawing the attention of the students to different faces of globalisation. As we use more foreign goods, our own small-scale industries have been losing their customers and are closing down.
• The activity could be concluded by introducing students to the ongoing debates about the impact of globalisation on the developing and developed countries.

Answer 1

Activity outcome:

1. Students prepare lists of food products, white goods, luxury items and favourite television programmes.
2. They identify the manufacturers, producers and sponsors of these products and programmes.
3. The class groups the findings into exclusive foreign companies, exclusive Indian companies and companies working in collaboration.
4. Students discuss how globalisation has increased choices, employment, technology, trade and exposure to other cultures.
5. They also examine its unequal effects: small industries may lose customers, workers may face insecurity, and local cultures may feel threatened.
6. The final discussion should compare the arguments of supporters, who emphasise growth and wider choice, with those of critics, who demand regulation, social safety nets and protection for weaker sections.

Conclusion: Globalisation affects individuals, communities and nations differently; therefore, its benefits must be made inclusive and its harmful effects must be reduced through suitable public policies.