Unit 1
A quote from the reading by Sassen (2021, p. 793):
"We have not globalized the world—we have globalized a broad range of conditions and possibilities that function inside countries, between countries, across countries. And it is the partial character of these conditions that have given them both their agility and their fragility."

Why I chose this quote:
I chose this quotation because it fundamentally changes our way of thinking about globalization, which captures that "globalization is a condition" and operates through "partial connectivity." Commonly, globalization is easily perceived as a single, massive force that uniformly connects everything and everyone across the globe. Sassen dismantles this myth and explains that globalization is incomplete and selective. Powerful actors, such as corporations and elites, spatially connect only to specific nodes that serve their own economic interests.

This idea is crucial for presenting the dialectic of global agility and fragility. Large corporations demonstrate agility by rapidly crossing borders using invisible networks of transversality. However, since they do not dominate or care for the entire territory, structural cracks appear in the network, leading to instability. Through this framework, we can understand that the globalization described above is not absolute and that local realities can limit or challenge it.

Question:
Since Sassen defines globalization as a "partial condition" rather than a worldwide integration, how does a transnational infrastructure project like an oil pipeline illustrate that global connectivity is always selective and incomplete?

Connection:
The real-world connection that is directly related to this framework is the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which transports crude oil from Alberta to the West Coast and supplies it to the global market.

This pipeline is a physical infrastructure that cuts across highly specific regions owned by various Indigenous peoples. According to the CBC report, the impact of this global project is highly uneven. While some Indigenous groups are demanding shared ownership to gain economic benefits, communities such as the Coldwater Indian Band are fighting to block construction, arguing that the pipeline directly threatens local water sources and ancestral lands.

I chose this connection because it illustrates Sassen's concept of "partial connectivity" and how globalization operates as a selective "condition." Global energy networks do not integrate entire territories but rather dominate specific pipeline corridors, creating a clear division where some regions are connected to global capital, while immobile "non-global populations" face ecological risks within their own territories. What this reality demonstrates is that globalization is by no means a seamless macro-force, but a fragmented system based on localized specificities.