THE WORLD IS SPIKY

In October 2005, Richard Florida published an article called “The World is Spiky” in “The Atlantic Monthly”. He is also the author of “The Flight of the Creative Class” and a professor at George Mason University.

In this article the author concradicts Thomas L. Friedman’s book “The World Is Flat” and his thesis, the world is being flatened through globalization which makes it easier to travel, trade and communicate.

Florida has the opinion, the world is spiky because of peaks that are carried with the globalization. They symbolize cities that lead the world economy.

He points out that in urban areas happens a “clustering” which means that people move to agglomeration that cause metropolises and so-called “megacities”. Since more people live in those certain areas, they have more influence to economy.

Besides that, the author explains that the light emissions correlate with the economic activity as well as that innovations are not made all over the world but in some areas of the world like in the US, western europe and China or Japan.

The negative site of the peaks is that they affect the growing divide of poor and rich and only a few leading cities drive the world economy which causes another divide between countries, in particular, the difference between industrial and developing countries

55/1 GLOBALIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON POLITICS

In the present text “Globalization and its Impact on Politics”, Thomas L. Friedman points out the role media has in globalization.

Nowadays, the customers and consumers want to get involved in politics and patricipate in the descisions that decisive concern their lives. Besides that, there are many platforms where citizens can inform each other about broken railroads, speed cameras and such things. Additionally, news spread way faster than they did 50 years ago which means that also bad news go around faster and if there happened a scandal, the world will know about it by a few minutes. If that happens during an election for example, the politican has less good chances to be elected. On the other hand, it is easier to spread positive information as well and also to start a rebellion against ruling circumstances. Also, Friedman explains that the party that uses and dominates latest technology, dominates politics.

The media, especially the Internet, makes it easier for politicans to get closer to their citizens. The mutual flow of information is good for both sides. That way, politicans can win over some votes.