Home Research Projects Governance Beyond Borders Publications Discussion Paper - Crossing Borders: Law in a Globalized World Cover Design

Research Projects

Governance Beyond Borders

Publications

The art used for the strip on the left side of the cover was produced by Morgan Harper, a student from Ancaster High School, Ontario for the 2005 Roderick A. Macdonald Contest on Canadians as Citizens of the World. Her description follows:
After doing some research on globalization I decided to do a series of three paintings on what I thought were the key elements of globalization. For all my paintings I chose a rather simplistic colour scheme because what I got out of my research was that in order for globalization to work it needs to be something that is internationally recognized and understood. That reasoning also ties into why I only chose circles because a circle, to me, represents something that is simple, continuous and ever evolving. Globalization is a process that is very beneficial to the international community and it is essentially the key to future world economic development. Also, globalization is something that is ever evolving and we will continue to develop new communication and technological skills into the future; and, that is why the circle stood out the most to me.
For my first painting in the series, the symbol that I tried to focus on the most was the circle and how that could be transformed. I wanted it to represent a light bulb, a somewhat abstract light bulb, because a light bulb can represent knowledge, ideas and imagination. Globalization is the result of human innovation and technological progress and in order to make globalization an international tool we need to focus on the spreading of knowledge and technological advances. Many developing countries are falling behind those that are developed because they do not have the resources and knowledge and training to keep up with the developed countries. There needs to be a globally recognized set of information, communication tools and training processes in order to close this gap.
The theme of my second painting ties into that of my first. Again I continued with circles, but this time I chose only to do a half circle to represent a net or barrier. It is clear that the income gap between rich and poor countries has been widening for many decades. The international community needs to work on narrowing those gaps by providing international support systems and social safety nets. Those developing countries may feel discouraged and fearful of globalization and the international community needs to provide support of those countries and the proper knowledge, skills, technology and training necessary to lift that burden.
The last painting in my series, following with the circle theme, is of many circles, or countries or communities, if you will, to represent the need to come together and embrace globalization. Institutions and organizations around the world need to come together to develop an international standard for technology, communication and education. There is no benefit to larger, more developed countries setting the standards when those standards are useless to those countries that are struggling to keep up. That is the way to ensure all people in all countries have access to the benefits of globalization.