Countries and Companies
Thanks to Patrick O'Neil at the University of Puget Sound for pointing out a great map demonstrating globalization via Starbuck's and MacDonalds. It would provide a great exercise in interpreting graphic data. Ask your students to translate the graphic information into words. You can write a rubric for grading those little "essays" so grading them won't be too difficult, and you'll get a good idea of your students' skill levels.You can check out Dr. O'Neill's blog for yourself by clicking here.
The map reminded me of the opportunities provided by comparing companies and countries. For instance, comparisons of countries' GDPs and corporate sales figures are fascinating documents. One chart is from The New Internationalist, which notes that "Of the world's 100 largest economies, 50 are trans-national corporations (TNCs)."
The Global Policy Forum offers a chart from May 2000 which shows the world's top 12 "economies" as
- USA $1,722.0 billion (1998)
- Germany $977.0 billion (1998)
- Italy $559.0 billion (1998)
- UK $487.7 billion (1998)
- Japan $407.0 billion (1998)
- France $222.0 billion (1998)
- Netherlands $163.0 billion (1998)
- General Motors $161.3 billion (1999)
- Daimler Chrysler $154.6 billion (1999)
- Brazil $151.0 billion (1998)
- Ford Motor $144.4 billion (1999)
- Wal-Mart Stores $139.2 billion (1999)
Your students could easily research an update to this data from the CIA World Factbook - which shows that China is now 2nd to the USA - and the Fortune 500 - which shows that Wal-Mart is now #2 on that list.
All those numbers bring to mind questions about the differences between nation states and corporations, especially MNCs and TNCs, that make for interesting discussions in comparative politics classes.
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:42 AM
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