Exploring the Gaps: Vital Links Between Trade, Environment and Culture by James R. Lee

This book examines globalization through four critical periods in human history to show the disconnect that has occured in the natural relationship between trade, environment and culture. Today's critical choices will determine how institutions respond to the disconnect, a growing problem of social anomie, and whether it is possible to reverse the unravelling of our social context. The book is part of a distance learning class, a database of trade cases, and includes a wide variety of available supports on the Web and in Video. Here is a related Powerpoint from the book.

Discussion Topics

Chapter I

1. Give a definition of culture. What does the definition of the word have to do with one's outlook or approach to globalization?

2. Give a definition of environment. What part of it is old and what part new?

3. What is trade? Do borders really matter?

4. Have these three definitions changed over time and are they still changing?

5. Are human beings "local" by nature? That is to say: if we are local by nature is there an inherent conflict with the non-local forces of globalization? Is there a basic conflict by definition?

6. Compare the relation between nature and culture in ancient times and today. How are they different and how are they similar?

Chapter II

1. List the arguments for and against the Overkill Hypothesis. Did human ancestors live in harmony with nature and have more respect than people today have for nature?

2. What is progress? What is development?

3. What do myths have to say about progress and development? Discuss the role of religion in this respect, especially the Epic of Gilgasmesh and the Bible.

4. Discuss the potato. It is a vegetable that has a huge impact on history (and still does). What does the structure of trade have to do with the disaster?

5. Who owns the Elgin Marbles? What should be done about the many objects in museums that were stolen at some point in time from its rightful owners? Should there be a limit to claims by age? Should all historical claims be up for discussion and legal rights?

Chapter III

1. Discuss the FUR case, especially the different value positions taken by environmentalists, governments, Native American, industry workers, and others. Is the banning of furs depending on how an animal is killed a barrier to trade?

2. Should how a bear is treated while it is alive be a barrier to trade? What is a farm and what is farming today and in the future?

3. Should there be a special tax on bird's nest soup sold in restaurants to pay for conservation of the swifts? The tax might also go to discovering articial chemicals that produce the same taste.

4. Is it immoral to own elephant ivory? In the end, the protection becomes a moral rather than a legal issue. Some countries now can export ivory legally under controlled management porgrams or harvesting. Should consumers avoid the product?

5. Is aquarium owning contributing to species loss, including coral? If there were an environmental tax to protect possibel abuses fostered by this industry, should some of the payments go to workers or companies that also lost out due to protection?

Chapter IV

1. Can there be international laws that deal with individual customs and rituals of culture and how they apply in a trade context? How can the basic principles of international trade disciplines apply to non-trade areas or non-tariff barriers to trade?

2. How should culture fit into the development process? Should it be treated as some kind of attribute in an equation that equals development? What can be done to measure environmental benefits (or costs) in a way that has some empirical basis?

3. Is restoration ecology's local approach doomed to failure due to the relentlessness of globalization? Can the local and the global really be separate any more?

4. Should environment be part of WTO discplines or would the environment be better served with an independent World Environment Organization (WEO)?

5. Are you worried about the future and the coherency of the social context? That is to say, is technology proceeding too fast for people to absorb it? Should peoples, governments and institutions purposely slow down the rate of change? This is clearly the case with monetary policy, in the fears of rising inflation. Is there another more subtle enhancement of expectations in a conjucntion that contains the seeds for excess?

6. Most welcome the Electronic Conjunction. Do you have objections to the Gene Conjunction on moral or ethical grounds? How has genetic modification changed over time? People have been altering genes for thosuands of years.



TABLE OF CONTENTS





List of Figures...............................................ix


List of Tables................................................xi


Preface.....................................................xiii


Acknowledgments...............................................xv





I. The Conjunction: A Theory Across


       Ideas, Places and Times................................1





    A. One Place, Many Places.................................2


        1. One Places.........................................2


        2. Many Places........................................6


        3. Today’s Tower of Babel.............................8


    B. Defining Terms.........................................4


        1. What is Culture?..................................12


        2. What is Environment?..............................15


        3. What is Trade?....................................17


    C. Cultural Perspectives on the Environment


           And the Role of Trade.............................18


    D. Conjunctions Through Time.............................23


        1. Anthropological History...........................26


        2. Economic History..................................29


        3. Social History....................................31


    E. Conjunction History...................................40





II. The Convergence of Trade, Environment and


         Culture in a Conjunction............................37





    A. The Tool Conjunction..................................39


        1. The Social Context................................40


        2. The Overkill Hypothesis...........................45


        3. Ivory, Tools, Trade and Culture...................51


        4. How Mammoth Hunters Became Buffalo Hunters........52


        5. Perspectives on the Tool Conjunction..............55


    B. The Agricultural Conjunction..........................57


        1. The Social Context................................59


        2. Amber Trade.......................................63


        3. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh..................67


        4. The Cedars of Lebanon.............................70


        5. Perspectives on the Agricultural Conjunction......73


    C. The Industrial Conjunction...... .....................74


        1.  The Context......................................75


        2.  The Dentalium Currency System....................79


        3.  The Irish Potato Famine..........................81


        4.  The Elgin Marbles................................85


        5.  Perspectives on the Industrial Conjunction.......86





III. Trade, Environment, and Culture in the


        Electronic Conjunction...............................89





    A. The Social Context....................................90


    B. Species Cases.........................................98


        1.  Fur and Morals...................................98


        2.  Bear Wine........................................102


        3.  Ivory Wars.......................................107


        4.  Turtles and Tradition............................114


        5.  Sharkfin Soup....................................118


        6.  Bats: The Turkey of Guam.........................121


    C. Habitats..............................................123


        7.  Electricity and the Cree.........................123


        8.  Bird's Nest Soup.................................127


        9.  Sugar Developed Addiction........................130


        10. Pisco............................................134


        11. Coral: Deforestation in the Ocean................137


        12. Mom, Apple Pie and Hamburger.....................141


    D. Perspectives on the Electronic Conjunction............148





IV. Beyond the Electronic Conjunction........................149





A. Perspectives on the Electronic Conjunction................149


        1. Comparing the Tool and the


              Electronic Conjunctions........................150


        2. Themes in the Electronic Conjunction..............155


B. Approaches to Conjunctions................................156


        1. Making Cultural Law Is Like


              Making Sausage.................................157


        2. Culture, Policy and Development...................159


        3. Can Cultural Excesses Be Defined?.................163


        4. Cultural Appropriateness..........................166


C.  Trade, Environment and Culture in the Next


              Trade Round....................................169


        1. The Next WTO Round................................169


        2. Unresolved Environmental Issues...................171


        3. New Cultural Initiatives..........................176


        4. Spill-over Principles in Trade,                  


              Environment and Culture........................182


D. After the Next Round......................................187


        1.	Cultural Feedback as a Limit


              to Globalization...............................187


        2. Future Cases of Trade, Environment and Culture....188


        3. The Endless Debate................................192


        4. The Gene Conjunction and Beyond...................195


Notes........................................................203


Key to Terms.................................................231


Bibliography.................................................233


Bibliography of Relevant TED Case Studies....................251


About the Author.............................................253