Geography of global processes part 2

1 GGRA02H3F The Geography of Global Processes Fall, 2011 Assignment, Part Two Additional information: My neighbourhood is in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada In Part 1 of the assignment you described your neighbourhood and identified the influences of globalization that have penetrated it. The objectives of the second part of the assignment are to go beyond local description to investigate the global influences themselves and how they function as global scale phenomena. The instructions for this part of the assignment are as follows. You must organize your report according to the order of the instructions below using sub-headings for each one. 1. Briefly restate the direct and indirect influences of globalization that you observed in your neighbourhood in part 1. 2. Select ONE global influence for research. You must explain the reasons for your selection including explaining how it affects your neighbourhood, in other words what type of influence it is, e.g. economic, social/cultural, physical, spatial. To decide the subject of your research you will need to look beyond the obvious. You may already have realized this in completing the first part of the assignment, but if you haven't then here are a couple of examples. -The actual building that houses a supermarket and the space around it may not illustrate global influences as much as what's in the store. So you will need to go inside and look for types of produce and merchandise that do reveal the penetration of globalization into your neighbourhood. Your research could then focus on, say, vegetable supply chains. -Another possibility is that you may have identified cultural diversity in your neighbourhood in which case you could direct your research to global migration and how it has influence on the changing ethnic composition of the Toronto region. 3. Research your selected global influence and write up your findings. This research should involve mostly the use of secondary, i.e. published sources. You must not interview people or write to companies, but you may include information from observation. e.g. the ratio of global to local produce in the supermarket and use published data where appropriate. Your research should attempt to answer the following questions: i) In what ways is the selected influence an example of broader global scale processes? This refers to things like the origin of a product or a cultural group, the global scale of marketing and supply chains, . 2 ii) What are the main factors that have influenced its development as an element of globalization? This would include many of the factors discussed in the lectures and readings, e.g. international division of labour, improved transportation, new technologies, socio-economic inequities. iii) Who controls it, i.e. what corporations, institutions, government policies. You may not be able to answer these questions in quite the same way as they are set out here. That will depend to some extent on what information you get from your research sources. But you should use the questions as a guide when you write up your findings. Your research can draw on information from the Internet but MUST also be drawn from published academic sources. This can include course readings where relevant, but you must also base your research on at least two additional journal articles or book chapters that you find yourself. Length: 1500 words maximum including reference list. Due: November 22 nd by 9.20 a.m. in class Worth 25% of course mark (Late penalty is 0.5% per day late (starting at 9.21 a.m. on the 22 nd ) 5 marks (out of 25) will be allocated for quality of writing, organization and use of correct referencing. Format of report NO title page required · name, student number, course code & TA's name in assignment header · page numbers (pref. bottom of page) · stapled · 1.5 spacing, 12 pt (Times New Roman) OR 10 pt (Arial) · maps should not be folded and should be no larger than a standard 8.5 x 11” paper - first person (I) is acceptable · headings/sub-headings recommended (be creative!) Referencing Any outside information (course readings, supporting evidence, illustrations that are not your own etc.) MUST be referenced accordingly. It is common practice within the Social Sciences to utilize the APA System (Parenthetical Author-Date References) as developed by the American Psychological Association. A handout as to the most commonly used entries has been provided on the course Intranet site. For further information, the following is recommended: http://www(dot)writing(dot)utoronto(dot)ca/advice/using-sources/documentation?start=2 http://www(dot)apastyle(dot)org/ 3 If you are not already familiar with annotation software, it is strongly recommend that you become acquainted with at least one option. Select annotation software that best fits your need and / or budget. For those of you in first or second year, it is a wonderful way to keep track of your source material going forward. Commonly used software options include: RefWorks http://www(dot)refworks(dot)com/ EndNote http://www(dot)endnote(dot)com/ Zotero http://www(dot)zotero(dot)org/ All of these programs keep a running library of references and have plug-ins to grab bibliographic information from the web (i.e. while searching journals, Amazon, Google Books etc.). They also allow you to automatically insert citations while writing and will automatically generate a Works Cited list or Bibliography as is necessary. They will output in multiple formats so they do not limit you to APA or MLA or the like. Our preference is Zotero, but the others also work well. A note on writing: The ability to write a well-organized paper, report or essay in clear and correct English is an essential skill for a university student. Completing the assignments for this course will give you the opportunity to receive advice on weaknesses in your writing skills and on how to improve them. A proportion of the mark for the each assignment will be allocated to the quality of the writing. UTSC has an excellent Writing Centre, located in Teaching and Learning Services in the ARC. Make use of it! There are also useful tips on writing at the TLS website. Go to http://tls(dot)utsc(dot)utoronto(dot)ca/TWC/index.htm A note on plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious university offence. It is also pointless because you learn nothing if you hand in something that isn't your own work. Read Section B.i. (p.404) of the UTSC Calendar for a full description of what constitutes plagiarism.