Who gains and who loses from globalisation, and at what scales does this play out?
Assess the uneven economic, social and environmental impacts of globalisation on different groups, places and scales
A focused answer to the H2 Geography outcome on the impacts of globalisation. The uneven benefits and costs across countries, regions and social groups, the economic, social and environmental dimensions, and how scale shapes who wins and loses.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this dot point is asking
SEAB wants you to assess the uneven impacts of globalisation, economic, social and environmental, across different groups, places and scales, identifying winners and losers. The central insight is that globalisation does not affect everyone equally: those positioned to connect to and capture global flows gain, while those bypassed or displaced lose, and these outcomes differ between countries, within countries and within cities.
The answer
A complex, uneven picture
Globalisation has raised aggregate global wealth and lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, yet it has widened relative inequality and imposed concentrated losses. The same actor can win in some respects and lose in others, so the picture is complex, not a simple split.
The winners
- Connected and newly industrialising economies that captured manufacturing, investment and trade.
- Transnational corporations and their shareholders.
- Skilled and mobile workers and the professional classes of world cities.
- Consumers, who gain cheaper and more varied goods.
- World cities, as command centres of the global economy.
The losers
- Marginalised economies left out of global flows by weak connectivity and governance.
- Workers in deindustrialised regions of richer countries.
- Low-paid, insecure workers in global supply chains.
- Small local producers outcompeted by global firms.
- Communities and environments bearing the costs.
The dimensions
- Economic: uneven growth, jobs gained and lost, inequality.
- Social: cultural change and the tension between homogenisation and local identity; polarisation in cities; migration.
- Environmental: emissions from global transport and production, resource depletion, and pollution displaced to poorer regions.
Why outcomes are uneven (the scales)
- Between countries: economies with connectivity, governance, skills and policy capture the gains; those without are bypassed.
- Within countries: cores and skilled workers gain; peripheries and low-skill workers lose (the global shift, cumulative causation).
- Within cities: polarisation between professionals and low-paid service workers.
Underlying mechanisms: cumulative causation concentrates advantage; the new international division of labour rewards high-value functions; and capital is mobile while many workers and places are not.
Examples in context
Example 1. Singapore and the region as winners. Singapore and several Southeast Asian economies have been major winners from globalisation, capturing trade, investment and global functions to raise incomes dramatically. Yet within these economies, debates over inequality, migrant labour and the cost of living show that even clear national winners contain groups who gain less, illustrating the within-country unevenness.
Example 2. Deindustrialised workers and marginalised economies as losers. Workers in former industrial regions of higher-income countries, and economies in parts of the world bypassed by global investment, have gained little or lost from globalisation, facing job losses or exclusion from global flows. Together they show the concentrated losses, by region and by country, that accompany globalisation's aggregate gains.
Try this
Q1. Identify two groups that tend to win from globalisation. [2 marks]
- Cue. Newly industrialising economies that capture trade and investment, and transnational corporations and their shareholders (also skilled mobile workers, world cities, consumers).
Q2. Explain why low-skill workers in richer countries can lose from globalisation. [2 marks]
- Cue. The global shift relocates labour-intensive manufacturing to lower-cost economies, so low-skill workers in older industrial regions lose jobs and face structural unemployment as their skills no longer match available work.
Q3. Explain why the environment is often a loser from globalisation. [3 marks]
- Cue. Global production and transport raise emissions and deplete resources, and pollution is often displaced to poorer regions with weaker regulation, so environmental costs accumulate even as economic gains are made elsewhere.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of SEAB exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Original12 marksAssess the view that globalisation creates clear winners and losers.Show worked answer →
Argument: globalisation produces highly uneven outcomes, with identifiable winners and losers at every scale, although the same actor can win in some respects and lose in others, so the picture is complex rather than simple.
Winners to set out: globally connected economies and the newly industrialising economies that captured manufacturing and trade; transnational corporations and their shareholders; skilled and mobile workers; world cities and their professional classes; consumers gaining cheaper goods.
Losers: marginalised economies left out of global flows; workers in deindustrialised regions of richer countries; low-paid, insecure workers in global supply chains; small local producers outcompeted by global firms; and communities bearing environmental costs.
Scales: between countries (connected versus marginalised); within countries (core versus periphery, skilled versus unskilled); and within cities (polarisation). The environment is often a loser through emissions, resource depletion and displaced pollution.
Evaluation: a strong answer judges that globalisation has lifted many out of poverty and raised aggregate wealth but widened relative inequality and imposed concentrated losses, so outcomes depend on position in the global economy and on policy. Markers reward winners and losers across scales, the economic-social-environmental split, and a nuanced judgement.
Original10 marksExplain why the benefits and costs of globalisation are distributed unevenly between and within countries.Show worked answer →
Argument: globalisation's benefits and costs are uneven because places and groups differ in their ability to connect to and capture global flows, and because the same processes reward some while displacing others.
Between countries: economies with the connectivity, governance, skills and policies to attract investment and trade (the newly industrialising economies, world cities) capture the gains, while marginalised economies with weak connectivity and governance are bypassed, deepening global inequality.
Within countries: cores and skilled, mobile workers benefit from investment and high-value jobs, while peripheries and low-skill workers face job losses (from the global shift) or low-paid insecure work; cities polarise between professionals and service workers.
Why uneven: cumulative causation concentrates advantage; the new international division of labour rewards high-value functions over routine ones; and capital is mobile while many workers and places are not.
Markers reward the connectivity-and-capacity argument, the between- and within-country scales, and mechanisms such as cumulative causation and the division of labour.
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