Meeting “felt aspirations”: globalization and equity from an anthropological perspective

What’s new about globalisation other than just trade? The standard answer is that globalisation is international trade backed by high speed transaction of information, communication, and capital flow. It is this entire package that makes a difference. If this is what globalisation is about, and if this trend is now sweeping the world then social relations would be of little or no consequence. Indeed, if space is no longer significant then where can anthropologists anchor themselves? This paper considers globalisation from an anthropological perspective.

The paper first presents an ideological shift that characterises globalisation today, away from the protection of producers that is clearly visible up and down the social strata, towards a consumer economy. The paper then considers how consumers are globalised, followed by an analysis of the Indian experience of growth and its impact on equity. The situation among the fishing community of Kerala is examined, looking at the limits of traditional craft in todays global market place.

Conclusions include:

• the most remarkable aspect of globalisation is its determination to satisfy the consumer and raise demands in this process
• globalisation has rid us of some of our naivete, for now we realise the enormous ideological gulf between status holding beneficiaries and stakeholding consumers
• status holding projects need to be re-articulated within stakeholding ones that take the individual as a consumer in the broadest sense, this is how citizens also become substantive partners in the developmental process
• a considerable amount of state investment is required to build structured capacities, this is not aimed at usurping the economy, but instead intends to make it possible for the state to eventually play the part of a regulator of regulators- a super regulatory body
• it might be necessary for states in developing societies to initially invest in enhancing structured capacities on the basis of which then an equitable market situation can be reasonably expected to develop
• globalisation must adopt a continuous Fichtean dialectic as a methodological tool if it wishes to relate development with equity, where individuals are impelled to acquire higher levels of capabilities as they set up projects which in turn generate other projects in a never ending spiral