As with many abstract concepts, globalization is best appreciated—or not—in terms of its effects. Other writers have used the products of globalization (jeans, T-shirts, etc.) to illustrate their points. Here, Broughton (senior lecturer, public policy studies, Univ. of Chicago) demonstrates the outcomes with his tale of two cities. Galesburg, IL, in America's Rust Belt, was the site of a massive Maytag plant that cranked out refrigerators in the 1990s and early 2000s. When the company hit hard times in 2004, it transferred manufacturing to its spanking-new maquila (a production operation in a free-trade zone) in Reynosa, a Mexican border city on the Rio Grande. Broughton introduces readers to workers on both sides of the border. As their daily lives, families, aspirations, and struggles come into focus, globalization puts on a very human face. Mexican workers migrate from the agrarian economy of Veracruz to the northern border maquiladoras (factory towns) in hopes of a better life—many to find they've merely escaped the shadows of feudalism for the equally dark side of capitalism. Displaced Maytag workers in Galesburg struggle to support their families in lower-wage work, prepare for other careers, or move out of town. VERDICT As the economic watchword of the millennium, globalization is a cliché. But this story reveals the truly local results of this phenomenon. Though there aren't a lot of winners on the front lines, as in any good Dickens narrative, this tale shows that the human spirit rises above would-be captors. --Library Journal
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities
As with many abstract concepts, globalization is best appreciated—or not—in terms of its effects. Other writers have used the products of globalization (jeans, T-shirts, etc.) to illustrate their points. Here, Broughton (senior lecturer, public policy studies, Univ. of Chicago) demonstrates the outcomes with his tale of two cities. Galesburg, IL, in America's Rust Belt, was the site of a massive Maytag plant that cranked out refrigerators in the 1990s and early 2000s. When the company hit hard times in 2004, it transferred manufacturing to its spanking-new maquila (a production operation in a free-trade zone) in Reynosa, a Mexican border city on the Rio Grande. Broughton introduces readers to workers on both sides of the border. As their daily lives, families, aspirations, and struggles come into focus, globalization puts on a very human face. Mexican workers migrate from the agrarian economy of Veracruz to the northern border maquiladoras (factory towns) in hopes of a better life—many to find they've merely escaped the shadows of feudalism for the equally dark side of capitalism. Displaced Maytag workers in Galesburg struggle to support their families in lower-wage work, prepare for other careers, or move out of town. VERDICT As the economic watchword of the millennium, globalization is a cliché. But this story reveals the truly local results of this phenomenon. Though there aren't a lot of winners on the front lines, as in any good Dickens narrative, this tale shows that the human spirit rises above would-be captors. --Library Journal
